Preview: 2014 Honda Odyssey

Styling goes more up-level for 2014, thanks to deeper sculpting, a bolder grille, revised fascias and LED taillight bars. The look, especially from the front end, calls the new CR-V and Pilot to mind. New badging rounds out the package – which still instantly looks like an Odyssey but one that’s more alert and energetic. Interestingly, aluminum has been used for the hood and fenders, presumably to reduce vehicle weight and improve fuel mileage.

Inside the Odyssey, showgoers not busily vacuuming up bits of Styrofoam, lint and Froot Loops with the HondaVAC checked out a new, brighter interior color scheme and a brand new centre stack. That centre stack gets a new touchscreen for accessing the HondaLink cloud-based connectivity and entertainment system that’s bowing in the Odyssey after its debut in the all-new Accord last year. This smartphone-linked system can even pull in news feeds from podcasts, news sites, Facebook and Twitter, and ‘read’ them aloud on the move. Similar functionality is possible with incoming text messages.

Of course, the widescreen rear-seat entertainment console is still on board, allowing owners to set the kids up with video entertainment ahead of a trip, thus preventing their transformation into screaming little goblins. The entertainment console also features a household power outlet and auxiliary inputs, meaning older ‘kids’ can hook up the PS3 and p0wn some nEwbZ at Battlefield 2, if they prefer.

2014 Honda Odyssey. Click image to enlarge

And, of course, all of the flexible, splitting, folding, reconfigurable seating a family could possibly need is fitted – as well as easy access to said seating and cargo space through dual power sliding doors, a second-row seat that can tip forward and out of the way with child seat in place (a la Infiniti JX/Nissan Pathfinder) and a motorized tailgate.

No changes mentioned in the powertrain department, meaning the 2014 Odyssey will still haul you and yours along with 3.5L of VTEC V6 making 240 ponies.

Check for Honda’s updated four-wheeled, vacuum-equipped living room at dealers later this year.