Odyssey of an Odyssey: A tribute to the best damn van EVER

This is my family van, and it recently hit 100,000 miles! My parents bought it new at Koons Honda-GMC in Manassas, Virginia in May, 2004. It is a 2004 Honda Odyssey EX, silver with a gray cloth interior, and it is actually a unique vehicle. This is because, according to the 2004 sales brochure, this model does not exist. There were three variants of the Odyssey, the LX (base model; has power windows and locks, cruise control, front and rear A/C, AM/FM cassette, etc), EX (adds alloy wheels, digital automatic climate control, CD player w/steering wheel audio controls, power seat, etc), and EX-L (adds leather upholstery w/heated driver & front passenger seats, and the option of either a rear-seat DVD entertainment system or a GPS navigation system). We had the EX, and according to the brochure, the DVD entertainment system was only available on the EX-L. Our vehicle is not a special order, and we bought it right off the lot. My theory is that since it was nearing the time for the newly redesigned (at the time) 2005 Odysseys to arrive, they wanted to move the 2004s quicker, and equipped the cloth seat EXs with DVD players. Having the DVD player also has the added bonus of an AM/FM stereo with CD and cassette players! This was before iPod hookups were common in vehicles, and makes listening to my iPod in the van via a car-kit cassette adapter easy. The non-DVD player EX and EX-L models only came with a single CD player, no tape player, and no iPod hookup.

This van has never left the Northern East Coast, but it still has been many places in the nearly 7 years we have owned it, and it has been there with us for several important moments in our life. Some of those moments were very happy moments, and some, not so much.

For starters, I learned to drive in this van.

In 2007, when my late Grandfather lost his battle with cancer, the van took us out to New Jersey for the wake and funeral. The van was one of many vehicles in the procession, its headlights ablaze to honor Pop-pop's memory.

This van has shuttled us up to Maine for the last six years in a row without trouble, and since about 2006-2007, it has been towing our powerboat to the lake. My cousins and I have had a lot of fun in this van up in Maine and New Hampshire.

In December 2009, tragedy struck again when my Labrador Retriever, Molly's health started to decline sharply, and the tough decision was made to put her to sleep. The van was the vehicle that took Molly on her final ride to the vet, with me behind the wheel. While my parents were inside finalizing everything, I spent a few final moments with Molly in the back of the van out in the parking lot.

In addition to cargo of the human and canine variety, in the form of my family and friends, the van has hauled a lot of stuff of over the years, and is able to swallow massive amounts at one time. It has hauled furniture, cardboard boxes of our stuff, a refrigerator, crutches, lava lamps, television sets, dishwasher parts, and my friend's DJ equipment.

We love our van, and there are no plans to sell it anytime soon! It is practical, good on gas, fun to drive, very powerful, and as faithfully reliable as a Swiss watchmaker's Labrador Retriever! Or, my own late Labrador Retriever!

Respect the van!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• 2004
• Honda
• Odyssey
• EX
• minivan
• 100000
• miles
• 100K
• high
• mileage
• odometer
• milestone

[PeterGriffin4200]

This Odyssey will easily pass 200K miles with minimum problems