2018 Honda Odyssey launched in UAE & GCC

The all-new 2018 Honda Odyssey has been launched in the GCC, at an event in Dubai yesterday. It comes with several innovations and, if you squint, a sports-car-like front-end.

Highlights include a completely re-designed exterior with two new colour options, three trim levels — LX, EX-L and Touring, new interior (with a bit more hard plastics than we’d like), second-row seats that slide front/back and even sideways when the middle-seat is removed, a third row and folds in two ways, and tons of high-tech new features, such as a new 8-inch touchscreen, CabinWatch and CabinTalk to watch your children, Garmin navigation and a rear entertainment system with child-friendly apps.

New standard features include a 10-speed automatic transmission mated to a 280 hp 3.5-litre direct-injected i-VTEC V6 engine with variable cylinder management.

Also standard across all grades are 8 airbags including knee airbags, ESP, ABS and tyre-pressure monitor. The Touring gets the Honda Sensing suite of safety and driver-assistive technologies such as collision mitigation braking, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, road departure mitigation, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, pedestrian detection, lane keeping assist, head-on collision warning and adaptive cruise control.

It is good to see Honda finally starting to offer almost every option in its arsenal for GCC-spec models. The Odyssey Touring is probably the most advanced Honda sold here (although you still don’t get the vacuum cleaner option found in the States).

Pricing is expected to start at around the Dhs 130,000 mark to a bit more than Dhs 170,000.