2025 Honda Odyssey Interior Review: Practicality Limited Only By Your Imagination
There’s lots to love about the interior of Honda’s stalwart minivan, which has been updated for 2025.
Minivans sell on function above all else—how many people they can comfortably tote around, how well they swallow cargo, and their ability to deal with the unpredictability of life. A minivan that can’t do these things capably is really no better than the three-row car-based SUVs that have supplanted many of them on the marketplace. Two weeks spent with the updated-for-2025 Honda Odyssey served as a fitting reminder as to why the minivan is king when it comes to interior comfort, customizability, and pure interior goodness.
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Near Infinite Seating Customization
While many minivans offer up an interior party trick or two to boost flexibility, the 2025 Odyssey’s Magic Seats sit atop the heap (alongside Chrysler’s Stow ’n Go solution) as our favorite van seating solutions. Despite the fairly traditional three-row 2-3-3 seating for eight passengers, there’s near infinite flexibility offered by the second and third row seats. The 60/40 split third row flips forward and can tumble back into the floor of the cargo area, allowing you to reduce seating capacity by one, two, or three people in exchange for more cargo space.
The second row, split 40/20/40, is even more impressive. All three seats can fold forward, with the middle seat revealing cupholders when flipped forward. The magic really happens when you remove that middle seat, which is easy to do thanks to obvious latches and handles at the bottom of the seat’s frame. Once the seat is lifted up and out of the van, you retain room for seven people while also allowing for an aisle down the middle to access the third row. Or, if you desire, you can slide either outboard seat toward the other, allowing for even easier access to the back seats via one of the side doors. Those outboard seats also pop out of the van with ease, though they’re heavier than the center perch because the fore-aft slider mechanisms come with them (the side-to-side sliders stay in the Odyssey’s floor), allowing owners to get creative with their van’s seating layout.
Photos of nearly every interior configuration are available in the gallery, but we found ourselves keeping things simple while shuttling six adults around San Francisco’s highways and on its tight city streets, removing the second row’s middle seat and sliding the left side seat toward the center to make it easier for those in the third row to get in and out of the van. For maximum cargo-carrying capability, fold the third row flat and remove the second-row seats, leaving a mostly flat floor that slopes gently toward the front seats.
Creature Comforts
There’s plenty to keep people comfortable, happy, and entertained in each of the Odyssey’s three rows, too, when those seats are in place.
Starting up front, the driver and front passenger are treated to the best accommodations: comfy heated and cooled seats with individual inboard flip-down armrests, tri-zone air conditioning, plenty of places to stash your items, holders for cups and bottles, and ports to power your devices. There’s even covered storage in both the center console (deep enough for smaller purses or bags) and the center stack, where a slide-out drawer offers up enough space for keys and wallets.
Moving back, those in the second row have water bottle holders in the doors, access to two cupholders on the back of the center console, and additional cupholders in that aforementioned center seat section. Third-row passengers get four cupholders of their own molded into the armrests, plus a small cubby capable of holding a cellphone upright. Air-conditioner controls for the back of the cabin are located up on the roofline of the second row’s right side (the driver or front passenger can control this, too, if it’s out of reach of shorter occupants), with vents located in the B-pillar and just ahead of the third row’s cupholders. All windows also come standard with manual sunshades for additional UV protection.
Honda provides two USB-C ports each for the second and third rows to keep folks entertained, while Touring and Elite models go old school with a flip-down screen above the second row and an added HDMI input in the center console. For 2025, that screen looks a little more modern, with a thinner bezel and larger screen area than before.
Method to the Madness
Functionality beyond seating configurations wasn’t overlooked in the 2025 Odyssey, either. Although dizzying at first, much thought has clearly been put into organizing the scatter shot of buttons spread throughout, making the arrangement feel natural and easy to learn.
Ignoring the standard array of window switches and locks on the doors, below the wheel right above where the driver’s left knee naturally rests sits your first “zone.” Two rocker switches control the power sliding doors on either side of the van, while a third opens and closes the tailgate. These buttons are large and easy to locate by feel, making pickups and drop-offs a breeze. The wheel itself features controls for the instrument cluster and infotainment functions on the left side, while the right spoke contains controls for Honda’s adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist functions.
The Odyssey’s center stack is probably the most overwhelming at first glance, but there’s a method to the madness. Infotainment controls are to the left of the smallish 9.0-inch touchscreen (making them a reach for passengers), while the strip below the screen controls all HVAC functions for all three of the Honda’s zones. Below that, Honda’s push-button automatic transmission takes up much of the real estate, with small Skittles-sized buttons on either side for heating and cooling the front seats, plus switches on the left side for the stop-start system and both a snow and eco drive mode.
The final “zone” can be found in the infotainment screen itself. All Odyssey Touring and Elite models come standard with Honda’s Cabin Watch and Cabin Talk technology. The former uses a fisheye lens mounted above the second row to display the goings-on in back on the infotainment display. The latter was more useful for our particular use case, using microphones in the first row to amplify the voices of those up front to those in back. Lesser Odyssey EX-L and Sport-L models don’t have either of these features, but they do include a handy convex mirror in the headliner to allow those up front to keep an eye on passengers.
Overall Verdict?
Relied upon to comfortably shuttle five other adults, the 2025 Odyssey continues to be among the best minivans in the segment. Its relatively spacious, efficiently laid out cabin might not be as well-finished and tech-forward as the Chrysler Pacifica’s or as charming and buslike as the Volkswagen ID Buzz, but it’s supremely comfortable and versatile, making it an exceptional place to spend time. For 2025, it comes loaded with even more value, as last year’s lowest trim level has been dropped and the EX-L that now serves as the entry point to the lineup gets standard leather seating (heated up front), along with a wireless phone charger and a sunroof. Add the Odyssey’s exceptional ride quality, predictable steering manners, and smooth engine into mix, and although you might not have our pick for the best minivan in the segment, you’ve still got one of our favorites.
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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