Road Test: Honda Odyssey vs Mitsubishi Grandis

By Feann Torr & Peter Maniatis - 17/02/05

As performance car fans, we often look at people movers with derision. Seven seats? That's five too many, mate.

But for families of all sizes right across the world - including ours - the people mover or MPV is a vital tool for getting the groceries done, getting the kids to school, taking the troops out for a meal or just visiting friends and family.

Having never driven these people movers before, we were a little unsure of what to expect. And how would they go around corners? Not that most buyers would need or want to know this, but hey, it's what we do.

After punting two of the newest and shiniest MPVs about the streets of Melbourne for a week, it becomes clear that these family-friendly vehicles do an impressive job of transporting bodies to and fro.

And now more than ever, you can own one of these minivan-like vehicles and not feel like a complete tool when it's just you and the Missus/Mister out for a leisurely drive down to the art-house cinemaplex. If it's one thing that both Mitsubishi and Honda have done with their respective people movers, it's to make them appeal to the eye, and not just to necessity. Let's take a look.

Drive

The Mitsubishi Grandis (top) and Honda Odyssey have sedan-like ride and handling, but the Honda takes the cake as the more rewarding drive

To see where this type of people mover vehicle really comes into its own is to visit a local school and see how the mums and dads are coping.

The new school year brings with it new school uniforms, new school bags and a stream of new school cars (or taxis as we've been informed) with mums and dads exchanging holiday banter and the pros and cons of their outdated station wagon or the new 4-wheel drive.

Mums and dads seem to find themselves in a quandary of whether to buy style and be hip (like a crossover 4WD) or get something that is more functional but doesn't look like it is going to take out the neighbours front fence.

The 4WD choice usually comes with a swag of justifications that include strength, height, and that "we may take it out on a dirt road someday".

Most offer a 6th and 7th seat as an afterthought, however, making it a long winded way of getting a 3rd row for most buyers.

The Grandis and Odyssey offer buyers a genuine 3rd row configuration to take the kids to school and pick up their mates at sports on the weekend, but without the higher running costs associated with a 4WD alternative thanks to their smaller 4-cylinder engines and car-like tyres.

Entry and exit in both vehicles is fairly straightforward, but the Honda is lower with 119mm of ground clearance, compared to the Mitsubishi's 155mm, making it a little easier to clamber in and out of (and especially for little whipper snappers).

It's also interesting to note that both Australian-spec people movers forego sliding rear doors in favour of a car-like 4-door configuration.

We tested the only model Mitsubishi offers in Australia, the $43,990 Grandis, and the upmarket Honda model, the $45,290 Odyssey Luxury (a cheaper $38,790 Odyssey is also offered).

For the driver, the seating position is slightly higher in the Grandis, but both offer remarkably comfy and pleasant interiors, with ample seat adjustments and leather bound steering wheels. Replacing the Nimbus and Starwagon, Mitsubishi's new Grandis looks great, but also proves its worth on the blacktop, completing day-to-day duties with ease, the supple suspension working well on shoddy roads.

At full tilt (and with no kids to weigh things down) the Grandis offers up respectable handling, and the brakes do well at slowing the 1660kg Mitsu down. But this isn't a sports car, and doesn't like things too fast and furious.

Both vehicles sit on 16-inch alloy wheels and are shod with 215/60 R16 tyres, so when the Honda proved its worth in the out-and-out driving stakes, we knew it wasn't due to more grip from wider tyres. Both vehicles handle and ride more akin to a sedan than a van, and can be quite enjoyable to steer when given a nice stretch of black top.

The Odyssey is 5mm wider than the Grandis, but the Mitsubishi has a more intuitive interior layout

Their sedan-like behaviour is the result of both Honda and Mitsubishi using independent suspension to connect all four wheels to the subframe.

The Odyssey's double wishbone suspension is more advanced than the struts/trailing arms in the Grandis, and it's ever-so-slightly tighter and a bit stiffer, and the engine proved to be more willing too.

On the downside, pot holes and craters in the road were more acutely felt through the suspension in the Odyssey.

Despite this, the Honda is a more rewarding drive, its lower, sleeker exterior image suggestive of its more responsive handling, while in reality the lower ride and roof height helps keep the CoG down.

It also uses less fuel than its Japanese rival, 9.4 compared to the Gradis's 10.4 litres of fuel per 100km/h on the combined city/highway cycle.

Brakes? Well, they've both got four of them, and they're both up to the job of washing off speed quick smart. Neither model excels over the other, and this makes sense when you see how similar in size the brakes discs are: 300mm front and 305mm rear for the Honda Odyssey 294mm front and 302mm rear for the Mitsubishi Grandis.

Anchoring child seats in the Grandis was much easier than in the Odyssey, as the Honda's anchorage points aren't what you'd call 'perfectly positioned' and though the Honda has a slightly nicer interior and is a more involving drive, the Grandis wins when it comes to interior practicality, with a user friendly and more spacious cabin.

Engine

Both the Odyssey and Grandis are a little underpowered for our liking (what happened to Honda's torque-laden V6 Odyssey?), but they held their own in most driving conditions with an average load.

They'll pull up hills when needed thanks to their variable valve timing equipped 4-cylinder engines and return impressive fuel economy to boot. The Odyssey certainly felt a little torquier and refined engine wise, but as far as transmission shift quality goes, both cars offered similarly smooth gear changes.

Both MPVs are kitted out with 2.4-litre petrol engines, and Mitsubishi's Grandis gets a 4-speed auto, the Honda Odyssey equipped with a 5-speed automatic gearbox, both transferring their engine power to the ground via the front wheels. Here's the vitals:

Mitsubishi's 2378cc engine is slightly larger than than Honda's, has only a single overhead cam and generates 3 more kilowatts, but has to rev harder to do so. The Honda Odyssey's engine is more advanced in almost every respect, and feels more powerful on the road, but at the end of the day both engines are smooth enough and quiet enough to please even the most picky of new car buyers.

When it comes to fuel economy, both vehicles performed well considering their 1600+ kilogram weights, but it was the Honda that came out on top thanks to its lighter twin cam engine. The Odyssey sipped 9.4 litres of petrol for every 100km/h travelled (highway and city cycles combined), while the Grandis with its cast-iron engine block managed 10.4 litres per 100km/h on the combined cycle.

Exterior

Looking at the figures, the Mitsubishi Grandis stands 1655mm tall, while the Odyssey measures 1550mm, the latter being more than 10cm shorter than its rival and this gives the two people movers quite different visual profiles.

The Odyssey is a more futuristic design. It's long and low, has stylised blue headlights and a steeply angled front windscreen that gives it an athletic appeal. There's also plenty of chrome on the grille and other shiny highlights that will appeal to those who are after something a little more showy, and the 16-inch wheels integrate well with the overall look.

Mitsubishi's Grandis is styled more in the vein of a traditional people mover, but it still looks immeasurably better than many other models on the market at present.

It's got a good mixture of curves and angles, has solid overall proportions and its front end looks quite aggressive too. It isn't as uniformly flat and straight as the Odyssey, and together with the vertically-stacked brake lights at the rear of the vehicle, we reckon the Mitsubishi is more visually pleasing of two.

Interior

The Honda Odyssey interior (top) and Mitsubishi Grandis have different colour schemes but similar door-to-door, all encompassing dashboards

Both vehicles are deceptively roomy inside and provide plenty of glass, which helps the driver see more of the road when head checking and what not.

The Grandis sits a little higher than the Odyssey, but not too high so that you feel like you're driving a van.

We drove the 'Luxury' Odyssey variant, and must admit that the Honda designers have done a really good job of appointing the interior - there's leather everywhere, and it's very comfy.

The instrumentation dials on the Odyssey look a bit "techy" for our liking but provided a refreshing alternative to the norm, but everything felt solid and refined and well-put-together in the Odyssey.

The Grandis doesn't quite have the same level of luxury as the Odyssey, but it's not quite as expensive so it's not a critical criterion.

It does have more room however, and it's easier to modify the seating in the Mitsubishi, and as mentioned earlier anchoring the child seats in the Grandis was less of a task.

Like the Honda Odyssey, the Grandis has a 'Star ship Command' style of dashboard that stretches from one side of the car to the other and makes you feel well and truly in command of your troops.

Both vehicles have their gear shifters mounted on the centre console as well, and they both work just as seamlessly as floor-mounted shifters.

Safety wise, both minivans do very well, offering almost identical safety packages. The Odyssey Luxury model gets six airbags - curtain airbags covering all three rows plus front and side airbags for the driver and front passenger. ABS with Electronic Brake force Distribution (EBD) also make the Honda grade.

The Grandis also gets six airbags (with curtain airbags covering all three rows) and ABS, and both models also come equipped with sunroofs, 60/40 split second-row seating and 50/50 split third-row seating with adjustable head rests. Finally, both models have a number of clever (or annoying when things get lost) storage ideas, from cup holders to CD holders.

Overall:

Mitsubishi Grandis 4/5
Honda Odyssey 4.25/5

The Wombat Motoring crew explored the Honda Odyssey and Mitsubishi Grandis for a taste of what can be achieved with a well-priced, functional people mover, and both managed to dispel our preconceived notions of what these MPVs would be like.

Far from sluggish, utilitarian vehicles bound to mediocrity by their practical approach, these two people movers are freshly styled, innovatively equipped and rather nice to drive.

The more expensive Chrysler Voyager remains in a different class to the Odyssey and Grandis, fetching $55,990, but with the value for money comparison with a 4WD alternative, you can't go past either one of these vehicles if it's multiple bodies that you're wanting to shift.

Both the Honda and the Mitsubishi could have used another 10 or 15 kilowatts of power to deal with a full load of seven occupants and their gear, but as it stands both are very capable, very practical four wheelers.

In conclusion, the Mitsubishi holds its own against the Honda, especially with regards to value for money and interior space. But the Odyssey has a little more refinement than the Grandis in more than one area, and so we reckon the Odyssey edges a Wombat nose in front.