Chalk Another WINNER Up For Honda As 2018 Odyssey Earns Another IIHS Top Safety Pick+ Accolade

I wonder how much Honda paid the insurance industry's puppet?

Matt, boy isn't that the truth. I still scratch my head at the fact that anyone gives credence to this shill.

Vehicles are safer because of the IIHS. But believe what you like. You only have to look at old small offset tests and even full frontal tests to see how bad cars, pick up trucks and SUV's used to be. Car manufacturers (perhaps aside from Volvo and Mercedes) need to be pushed to do the right thing when it comes to consumer safety. Shareholders always will come first auto mfg's without a gun (sales hurt due to poor crash test performance) put to their heads.

Let's assume that the IIHS made vehicles safer. That is merely a side effect to their mission. Their mission is to create tests that cars will fail so that their owners--the insurance industry--can charge higher rates. The IIHS is not impartial or unbiased and they certainly are NOT on the side of consumers. The fact of the matter is that insurance costs have gone up despite cars getting safer, thus the IIHS is a money-making scheme that idiot snowflakes swallow as a benevolent enterprise.

I look at it differently but the end goal (insurance profits) is also the same. If cars are safer, there are fewer payouts for deaths, long term disability and serious injuries related to car accidents. This will lead to higher profits for the insurance firms. It will also mean your family is safer. Fine by me. Key also is if I lived 20 minutes north, my present insurance would be $1000 cheaper per year with the same driving record. Location location location... Perhaps some reform in that aspect of insurance could be looked at....

Sorry - but just as fuel mileage tests in a controlled lab do not reflect the actual mileage that you can get in real conditions - the LAB tests ONLY mean that in accidents that happen in the real world that are IDENTICAL to the ones mimicked by the test - ie - controlled acceleration and braking - controlled temperature - etc - do the tests have any indication of being worthwhile.

Since it is highly unlikely that anyone will encounter a situation in the real world that is identical to the test conditions - and since no one has actually proven that success in these tests translates to better performance in real accidents in the real world - this is simply a marketing tool NOTHING more.

Since the differences in results between cars are often very small - (Yes - there are times when they are not - but they don't sell Yugos here anymore) - I would bet that the Kia would be just as good in the real world when real accident statistics are studied.

Asian brands have lead ratings most of 25 years. Big3 were slow to the party and still trail. I won't pass up on free life insurance.

It's still too ugly to drive.

It looks like it got hit front and rear at the same time and crumpled in the middle.

Although I never got married, I would always have followed the old adage, "Happy Wife, Happy Life.." I don't need to be right about some things. Most things in fact. They just are not that important in the big scheme of things. If I had a wife that wanted the family vehicle to haul around our brood of 4 to be an Odyssey, fine by me. In return I think I would be smiling more than most... :-)

I have a happy wife, thus a happy life. We both come from large families. Her's is a very Italian-Catholic heritage of big family = abundance. Mine is ignominious. She wanted a brood of kids and an Escalade and that's what I made happen. The Escalade is the family beast. It's not her daily driver.

Thanks Matt for your comment about my daughter in another post. She's doing fine now.

When it comes to family and happiness, I think the key is compromise. And the Honda Odyssey is the compromise many men are happy to take. Despite its many flaws from a car enthusiast's perspective, it's a perfect family hauler.

As for safety, I have entrusted my family with it for more than 8 years now. I have no doubt the new one is even safer regardless of how it was tested.

My brother and his wife got a Ford Flex for their brood. My wife liked it, so we had one for a while until we learned that another set of twins was coming. It was a great vehicle. I really would have no problem driving a van, but my wife will not do the soccer-mom thing.

The Portuguese Princess (think lean and hard like Gal Godot at 5'5") that I should have married had a thing for black, like a lot of ethnic traditional women. She drove a black VW Golf with a black interior. Always black pants or a black dress. Minivan or not I would have been happy. The black exterior or interior she would have wanted would have bugged me until it was traded in. My vision of a happy family singing along to Ob-La-Di-Ob-Bla-Da (or Barney) on the way home from Grandma's house does not include a big black car or van. Must be the #Avenger in me.

My wife likes black interior and exterior with bright chrome accents so she loves the Escalade. She also adores my Continental loaner.

Why the brotherly love all of a sudden ? Aren't we supposed to be at each other's throat as usual ?

I turned 50 last week. It mellows you out.... :)

@CANADIANCOMMENTS: welcome to the AARP - you are eligible now. And enjoy the next 10-15 years with your inner peace.

As is often shown on this site, as well as on popular media today (lead by the current POTUS, or more accurately POS), once you get over 65, senility sets in and turns you into your own self again.