If you ask what the biggest obstacle is for just about any Mom, keeping the car clean will be near the top of her list. We’ve sent people to the moon, can photograph a cheque to deposit it into a bank account and yet no car company had ever made a vehicle with a built-in vacuum.  Until now.  I have been test driving the Touring version of the 2014 Honda Odyssey and quite possibly may never give it back. I shoved a Christmas Tree in a Honda Odyssey and vacuumed up all the needles.

Roomy and luxurious, the favourite feature of the minivan is a vacuum that extends right from the rear all the way to the front windshield.  With a cord that won’t tangle. To truly test the functionality, I got permission from Honda to use the vehicle to carry not one, but two Christmas trees from the lot to my home. Pulling a cord and flipping the seats down was easy, and the 11-foot tree slid into the car with ease.  The 12-footer was strapped to the roof with twine.  After removing and decorating the stunners, the car was pine scented and fresh, but there were needles everywhere.

The Honda Odyssey Vacuum

I pressed the start button on the vehicle once to put the Odyssey into accessory mode. Pupping the trunk using the smart key, I only had to touch the ‘on’ button and grab the hose from the stowage area.  There are 2 attachments and it will run for 8 minutes before it shuts off on its own.  Not to worry if your car looks like mine – shutting car off and turning cit back on gives you another eight minutes of Cheerio-sucking bliss. 

The Odyssey Cool box

Cool box as in ‘keeps drinks, leftovers or pumped breastmilk nice and chilly. You just press a button to put air conditioning in the box.  The great thisg is that unlike other auto manufacturers, Honda does not simply use the vents to cool the box but has a seperate A/C cooling system.  So you can be warm while the juiceboxes stay cold.

The Odyssey Back Seat

You know when you try to squeeze three carseats across a back seat and the kids can’t access the seatbelt buckles so you have to get out of the car and buckle everyone in yourself? That doesn’t happen here.  You can move the back seats wider apart to make more carseat room.  There are window shutters that slide up and down that proved very durable as my kids played with them. ‘Daytime. Nighttime. Daytime. Nighttime.’ What a fun game.

The Miraculous Odyssey A/V System

Have you ever had a toddler and a teen fight over tv selection? Dora or Twilight and NO compromise.  This vehicle solve the issue. (Yes, you may want to move into it).  The wider drop-down video screen can split into two sides so each can watch their preferred programming. Switch seats after a rest stop? No worries.  The flick of a button on the remote will allow you to swap the screen. Cordless headphones can be assigned to either side, and the third row seating boasts hdmi or rca jacks for your secondary source dvd.  Or maybe an ipod. Or the Xbox or ps3.  Guitar hero anyone?

Odyssey Tech

The touchscreen is new to this Odyssey and when used with the Aha system, makes your life easy. Hondalink is a free app from iTunes or google play. It allows you to stream internet radio. You can pick any station in North America, type of music using hardly any data. You could, for instance, use it two hours per day for a month and use only 1 gig of data on your smartphone. Swipe to play the next song if you don’t like the current one, and set up to 16 stations as favourites..

Voice command functionality allows you to talk to the car.  With 2 presses of the voice command button you can say things like:
‘Find nearest gas station’, ‘Passenger temperature 25’, ‘Fan speed 5’ or ‘Rear defrost on’ and the car will do your bidding. No you cannot marry your car.

The clock is set via satellite so you never have to change the time again (or remember to add an hour).

Curious about the Christmas Tree test? Check out my video.  Spoiler alert: It will make you want a 2014 Honda Odyssey.

This article was generously sponsored by Honda Canada. All opinions, images and ideas are my own.  For more information, visit honda.ca/odyssey.