What Honda’s Most Reliable Used Odyssey Minivan Costs To Own

It’s pretty much never a bad time to buy a used Honda. While Lexus usually tops the annual J.D. Power dependability survey, and Toyota is never far behind, Honda comes in at just above average for reliability this year, and the brand has a long history of producing simple, dependable vehicles.

When buying a used family car, you can usually rest easy knowing that nobody was doing burnouts and power-sliding in this car, but you can be just as sure that the car has a lot of miles on its ticker, from grocery trips to driving the kids to school to family vacations. So, if we’re talking about a used Honda Odyssey, reliability is priority number one. Here’s what we turned up in our search for the most reliable version of this iconic minivan.

Honda Odyssey Reliability By Generation

In order to find the most dependable generation for the Honda Odyssey, we’re breaking it down by model year and tallying up averages across each generation. A few notes on how we arrived at the numbers in the table below:

• Average complaints are per model year, based on an average from all models listed on CarComplaints.
• Average J.D. Power Q&R Rating refers to the average Quality & Reliability rating across a given generation according to J.D. Power.
• J.D. Power‘s ratings only go as far back as the 2007 model year, so we don’t have anything for the first or second generation from this source.
• J.D. Power ratings are based on the frequency of mechanical issues, not severity.
• CarComplaints reports will tend to skew around the middle of the pack, as newer cars haven’t had as much time to develop major mechanical issues, and the website itself only dates back to 2006, meaning that available data before that year will be limited.

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Fourth-Gen Models Tend To Be The Most Reliable Honda Odysseys On The Road

At a glance, our sources point to the fourth-gen Honda Odyssey being the most reliable outside the current generation. Here’s what a closer look at the data shows us:

• The 2014 Odyssey is the model year most guilty of driving the average number of complaints up per model year, with 141 reports on file.
• 2014 was the first model year of the minivan’s fourth-gen facelift. The 2011-2013 model years average 95.3 complaints, while the 2015-2017 models average just 44 complaints per model year.
• The 2017 Honda Odyssey has only three complaints on file, which is remarkable for a car nearing the end of its first decade on the road.
• While the 2005 has the most complaints on file (347), the most troubled model year, according to CarComplaints, is the 2002 Odyssey, owing to some pretty severe transmission problems.

Our Take On The Data

It’s hard to go wrong with a fourth-gen Honda Odyssey, but, you might want to stay away from the 2014 model year in particular, and try to find something from the 2015 to 2017 model years if possible. The fourth-gen models are the most reliable Odysseys overall, and post-facelift models are generally the most reliable fourth-gens, but only if we’re not counting those first-year hiccups.

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What’s A Fourth-Gen Honda Odyssey Gonna Cost Us?

The following price ranges are based on national averages, with the lower estimates being for an entry-level model, while the higher estimates are for the top-of-the-line Odysseys.

Now, remember that our ideal model year range for buying a used Honda Odyssey was 2015-2017. If we’re just tallying up those models, our average price comes to $14,245. These are slightly newer models, so the average price skews a little higher than the 4th-gen overall average, but an extra thousand bucks spent upfront could save you quite a bit of money in the long run, so we think it’s a fair trade-off.

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What Does It Cost To Keep A Fourth-Gen Honda Odyssey Running?

Using RepairPal for annual maintenance estimates and averaging the 2011-2017 model years, and relying on CarEdge for ten-year costs, here’s what a typical Honda Odyssey should cost to keep on the road.

RepairPal lists the following as the most expensive common repairs for the Odyssey from the 2011-2017 model years.

• CV joint replacement (2012): $1,504 – $1,543
• Engine mount replacement (2015): $1,428 – $1,476
• Exhaust muffler replacement (2014): $1,224 – $1,243
• Exhaust pipe replacement (2011): $1,223 – $1,243
• Power sliding door motor replacement (2011, 2014): $1,221 – $1,252
• Heater core replacement (2012, 2013): $1,060 – $1,384
• Fuel pump replacement (2013): $905 – $1,068
• Suspension shock or strut replacement (2016): $894 – $1,084
• Radiator replacement (2013, 2015): $883 – $1,028
• Timing belt replacement (2014): $802 – $1,062

The worst problem with the 2017 model Honda Odyssey is a high-pitched whining noise occurring at 3,000 miles with one report on CarComplaints which failed to turn up a diagnosis. This could point to more severe issues but could be low transmission or steering fluid, worn brake pads, or any number of things. It’s impossible to say specifically what’s wrong with this driver’s car without some additional information. It could also have been a completely isolated incident, pointing to how generally trouble-free this model year was.

Insuring A Honda Odyssey Is Pretty Affordable

CarEdge estimates that a Honda Odyssey should cost around $2,202 annually to keep insured, based on typical rates for a forty-year-old driver with a decent record, full coverage, good credit, and expected mileage of around 13,000 miles a year.

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Finally, Honda Odysseys tend to depreciate at about the pace you’d expect any car to. The minivan will lose 44% of its value in the first five years, according to CarEdge, and it should be worth around 33% of its initial value after a decade on the road. If you’re buying a seven-, eight-, or nine-year-old car, this might not be much of a concern, but you can rest easy knowing that the value has basically plateaued by the time you buy a fourth-gen Honda Odyssey.

Sources: J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, RepairPal, CarComplaints, Car EdgeCarComplaints