Honda · Odyssey

Honda Odyssey 1st generation (RA1/2/3/4/5)

Years: 1994–1999
Chassis: RA1/2/3/4/5
Drivetrain: FF / 4WD

Story

Using the platform of the fifth-generation Accord, its body size was kept within the limit that could run on the same production line as the Accord. Its overall height, low for a minivan of the time, and the driving performance from four-wheel double-wishbone suspension were highly rated, and it became an unexpected big hit.

Stories

30,000 dollars a car

Odagaki was asked to build a large minivan for America, and with Yasuaki Asaki and others studied how minivans were used in the US. Building it with the Legend's V6 at a new plant would cost no less than 30,000 dollars a car, which would not sell in a market averaging about 20,000 dollars. He had also prepared an alternative using the four-cylinder Accord, but had no chance to present it, and development for North America was cancelled after just four months. Even so, Odagaki argued that the study of a compact minivan should continue.

Kunimichi Odagaki

The Chariot from Lost in Space

Watching his children fight on a long drive home for the holidays, Odagaki pictured a car with three rows of individual seats you could walk through, like the Chariot exploration vehicle in Lost in Space, which he had been crazy about as a child. Designers objected that three rows of seats would never look good, so he came up with stowing the third row under the floor when not in use, and that third-row seat that flips over and folds away was born.

Kunimichi Odagaki

Just the sliding doors

Domestic sales were slow to come around, and at one point he was asked to compromise and adopt sliding doors, just that. Odagaki was tempted, thinking that accepting this would make the car happen. Then Yasuaki Asaki came over and pressed him: after coming this far, are you going to compromise? Four doors that make getting in and out smart are exactly what defines our car. Odagaki snapped out of it and kept persuading each department without giving up.

Kunimichi Odagaki

Chassis

Front

Double wishbone

Rear

Double wishbone

Curb weight: 1,470-1,610kg

US import eligibility

Earliest cars: Eligible since October 201925 years after sales began in October 1994
Last cars: Eligible since 202425 years after sales ended in 1999 (month not recorded)

Eligibility depends on each car's month of manufacture on its build plate, not on the sale dates shown here (NHTSA).

Japanese cars by US import year →

Engineers

Kunimichi Odagaki

Hometown: Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture

Development leader (LPL) of the first-generation Odyssey. Former executive vice president of Honda R&D Co., Ltd.

Yasuaki Asaki

Hometown: Hiroshima Prefecture

He joined Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and the following year moved to the F1 engine development team, taking part in the early activities of Honda's second F1 era. He returned to production car development and worked on engine development for the Legend, the first-generation Odyssey and other models. He went on to develop the V6 engine with Variable Cylinder Management (VCM), the J30 series, which was used in the fourth-generation Inspire, the Elysion and other models. He later served as LPL (large project leader, the development leader) of a new kei car (later the N-BOX), and then as LPL of Honda F1.

Shinya Iwakura

Hometown: Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture

A car designer who designed many Honda cars at Honda Motor Co. His representative works include the first- and second-generation Prelude, the first- and third-generation Civic, the first-generation CR-X and the first-generation Odyssey. He served as a managing director (in charge of products) of the company.