What ownership is like, what breaks at what mileage, what the repairs cost, and what to check before you buy one.
← All Honda Odyssey generations
NHTSA complaints per catalog listing run from 10.09 for 2004 (585 complaints across 58 listings) to 518.00 for 1999 (518 across 1), against a generation median of 29.29. The highest year, 1999, is 17.7 times that median. No year reaches the 2.0x our rule needs together with an above-median ad share and 30 or more listings, so nothing is flagged. 1999 has the top rate only because we track one 1999 listing against 518 complaints; it is not a meaningful rate. For 2002, NHTSA's three most frequent components are Power Train (555), Air Bags (77), Structure (36). Power train is the top component in every year of this generation, but we have not read the complaints one by one.
| Miles | Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-reported: many by 90,000 miles, one in five before 70,000 (2001-2003 Accord/Civic/Odyssey); individual owners report 140,000-218,000 | Automatic transmission failure (1999-2004) | $2,000-$4,000 (Transmission Repair Cost Guide, for owners outside the extended coverage); $3,470 average repair at 98,450 miles (CarComplaints, search-result summary); one owner reports a $3,000 refurbished unit from a dealer | Honda issued recall 04V176000 in April 2004 for second-gear heat build-up on 2002-2004 Odysseys. A 2006 class action extended 1999-2001 Odyssey transmission coverage to 93 months/109,000 miles, which has long expired. The mileage window is owner-reported: a CarComplaints owner quoted in the New York Times says almost half of failures on 2001-2003 Accord, Civic and Odyssey transmissions come under 90,000 miles and one in five before 70,000. On the 2002 CarComplaints page, the owner comments we read were at 140,191, 159,119 and 218,000 miles. These are blog, owner and press figures, not a price list, and not a failure rate. |
| Every 105,000 miles or 7 years, per the sources | Timing belt and water pump service (V6) | $600-$900 at a shop (Courtesy Automotive); $1,076-$1,522 (RepairPal estimate, search snippet); owners report $800 to $1,700 depending on what is bundled | Honda specifies a timing belt interval; the J35 V6 is an interference engine, so a broken belt can mean $2,500-$5,000+ or a replacement engine (Courtesy Automotive). Recall 02V226000 on file for this generation covers a misaligned tensioner pulley on the water pump. Prices are for Odysseys in general, not this generation specifically. |
| any | Recalls on file (28 campaigns in our records): 00V030000 (1999-2000), 00V119000 (1999-2000), 00V183000 (1999-2000), 02V120000 (1999), 02V226000 (2002), 03V014000 (2003), 03V423000 (1999), 04V176000 (2002-2004), 04V420000 (2004), 12V573000 (2003-2004), 13V412000 (2003-2004), 14V353000 (2003-2004), 14V700000 (2002-2004), 15V045000 (2003-2004), 15V320000 (2002-2004), 15V370000 (2002-2003), 15V563000 (2003), 16V344000 (2002-2004), 18V268000 (2002-2004), 19V182000 (2002-2004), 19V499000 (2002-2004), 19V501000 (2002-2004), 20V026000 (1999-2000), 20V027000 (2000-2001), 99V157000 (1999), 99V158000 (1999), 99V159000 (1999), 99V339000 (2000) | Free at a Honda dealer when open | Includes 04V176000 (heat build-up between second gears in the automatic transmission, April 2004) and 02V226000 (water pump tensioner pulley misaligned on V6 engines, 2002), plus air bag campaigns. Confirm by VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. |
No year in this generation was flagged. A year is flagged by our rule only when all three hold: (1) its NHTSA complaints per catalog listing is at least 2.0x the median for its generation, (2) the share of ads that mention a problem is above the generation median, and (3) we track at least 30 listings for that year. The cutoff was fixed before we looked. Ad mentions are not failures, and a flag is a reason to inspect harder, not a verdict on any one car. We also re-ran the ad test with the 'rust' flaw left out, because the ad reader counts phrases like 'no rust' as mentions, and publish a flag only if it passes both ways.
| Year | Complaints | Top components | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 518 | Power Train, Electrical System, Structure | |
| 2000 | 675 | Power Train, Structure, Latches/locks/linkages | |
| 2001 | 619 | Power Train, Structure, Suspension | |
| 2002 | 960 | Power Train, Air Bags, Structure | |
| 2003 | 914 | Power Train, Air Bags, Electrical System | |
| 2004 | 585 | Power Train, Air Bags, Structure |
source: NHTSA complaints database (api.nhtsa.gov). Complaints are owner reports, not confirmed failures.
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We don't tell you to skip a year; we flag by a fixed rule, and it flags 2005 (829 complaints across 61 listings, 13.59 per listing against a 2005-2010 median of 4.59). Third-party lists name the second generation (1999-2004) for its transmissions, and some posters name 2018 onward. In our data the second generation flags nothing, but its years rest on small listing counts, and 2018 and 2019 run 7.02 and 7.12 per listing, under our cutoff.
For the 1999-2004 automatics, one fetched repair guide says owners outside the extended coverage paid $2,000-$4,000; CarComplaints' own summary lists a $3,470 average repair at 98,450 miles, and one forum owner was quoted $3,000 for a refurbished unit. These are blog, owner and press figures for the early years, not a price list. We found no repair cost for the 2018-2019 9-speed.
For 1999-2001 Odysseys, yes. A fetched repair guide says a 2006 class action extended transmission coverage to 93 months/109,000 miles, and search snippets say it had earlier been extended to 7 years/100,000 miles. Those limits have long passed for every car on the road. Honda also recalled 2002-2004 Odysseys under 04V176000 for second-gear heat build-up. We did not find a Honda document for the extension itself.
Honda specifies the timing belt and water pump at 105,000 miles or 7 years, whichever comes first, per a fetched shop page and a Go-Parts snippet; Samarins says about every 100,000 miles. A shop job is listed at $600-$900 on the fetched page, $1,076-$1,522 in a RepairPal estimate, and owners report about $800 to $1,700. The V6 is an interference engine, so a broken belt can cost $2,500-$5,000+ or an engine.
Cylinder deactivation (VCM) arrived on the Odyssey V6 in 2005. One fetched blog links it to oil consumption of about a quart per 1,000-1,200 miles, misfires and failing active engine mounts, with mount repairs listed from about $564 to $1,735 and 'often over $2,000' with labor. That mileage and oil figure rest on one blog and owner posts, and we have no failure rate for them.
A class action over the ZF 9-speed in the 2018-2019 Odyssey and other Hondas was allowed in part to proceed by a California federal court in October 2022, and a later filing in 2024 alleges software updates masked the defect. These are allegations, not findings, and an earlier Odyssey transmission suit was dismissed in 2021.
We don't rank generations. Our own numbers: the median NHTSA complaints per catalog listing is 1.17 for 2011-2017, 4.59 for 2005-2010, 4.90 for 2018-present, 29.29 for 1999-2004 and 23.58 for 1995-1998. Those rates are not directly comparable across generations, because older cars have had more years to collect complaints and our listing counts for the oldest years are small.