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 1.44 for 2010 (255 complaints across 177 listings) to 13.59 for 2005 (829 across 61), against a generation median of 4.59. The highest year, 2005, is 3.0 times that median. Flagged by our rule: 2005. For 2005, NHTSA's three most frequent components are Structure (96), Steering (74), Power Train (74). We have not read the 2005 complaints one by one, so we do not say what failed. Clearing prices for this generation include a few wheelchair-accessible conversions (9 of 580 cleared sales by title keyword).
| Miles | Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 about $800 to $1,700 depending on what is bundled | Honda specifies the belt and water pump at 105,000 miles or 7 years, whichever comes first; the J35 V6 is an interference engine, so a broken belt can mean $2,500-$5,000+ or a replacement engine (Courtesy Automotive). Courtesy Automotive says most 2005-2010 Odysseys use a belt. Prices cover Odysseys in general, not this generation alone; the two owner posts are one 2024 report and one estimate on a 2016 car. |
| Oil consumption noticeable around 50,000-70,000 miles (one blog) | VCM oil consumption and failed active engine mounts | Engine mounts: $1,616-$1,735 (RepairPal estimate, search snippet, all Odyssey years); 'often exceed $2,000' with labor for the active mounts (CarTipsDaily, a blog); from $564 (YourMechanic, search snippet). One owner priced OEM parts at about $180 front and $112 side plus roughly 3.6 hours of labor | CarTipsDaily links VCM to oil burned in the deactivated cylinders (owners reporting a quart per 1,000-1,200 miles), fouled spark plugs and misfires, and to failing active mounts that show up as vibration or shudder at 20-45 mph. One 2006 EX-L owner on a forum says the VCM mounts were replaced three times. The mileage and the oil-use figure come from one blog and owner posts; we found no second source for the mileage, and we have not confirmed a failure rate. |
| any | Recalls on file (14 campaigns in our records): 04V536000 (2005), 05V039000 (2005), 05V132000 (2005), 05V344000 (2005), 06V270000 (2006), 07V097000 (2005), 09V057000 (2009), 10V055000 (2005), 10V098000 (2007-2008), 10V504000 (2005-2007), 12V062000 (2008-2009), 13V500000 (2007-2008), 14E049000 (2005-2010), 14V112000 (2005-2010) | Free at a Honda dealer when open | Includes 10V504000 (brake fluid containing polymer, 2005-2007), 14V112000 (fuel pump, 2005-2010) and 12V062000 (liftgate struts, 2008-2009), plus a 2005 steering column and 2005 air bag sensor campaign. Confirm by VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. |
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.
Complaints add up over a car's whole life, so older years in a generation can look worse here than they are. Read this flag next to the complaint details below.
| Year | Complaints | Top components | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 829 | Structure, Steering, Power Train | |
| 2006 | 703 | Steering, Structure, Power Train | |
| 2007 | 830 | Service Brakes, Hydraulic, Structure, Steering | |
| 2008 | 499 | Structure, Service Brakes, Hydraulic, Service Brakes | |
| 2009 | 198 | Structure, Engine, Service Brakes, Hydraulic | |
| 2010 | 255 | Structure, Engine, Service Brakes |
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.