Well, for starters, the 2009 Honda Odyssey drives more like a luxury sedan than a big van. It's quiet and rides as smoothly as a limo. After driving an SUV, you simply won't believe how much road feel the Odyssey has on-center. Because it's front-wheel drive, the van does suffer from a bit of torque steer, but less than the Pilot SUV that's based on the same chassis.
The 2009 Odyssey won't outaccelerate a sports car, but its 3.5-liter V-6 generates 244 horsepower and never any vibrations. Journalists endlessly praise Nissan's VQ-series V-6, but every time I get into a Honda, I'm reminded that it is, in fact, Honda that makes the world's best V-6 engines. The top-of-the-line Limited and second-to-the-top EX-L models can run on either three or four cylinders in addition to all six. In three-cylinder mode, the V-6 runs on one bank of cylinders; in four-cylinder, it runs in an offset V-4 mode. Those modes create strange vibrations and sounds, so Honda uses active engine mounts and active noise cancellation (via a subwoofer in the passenger compartment) to eliminate them. The change boosts fuel economy from 16/23 mpg city/highway to 17/25 mpg, and both 2009 Honda Odyssey engines run on regular-grade gasoline.