We love our 2006 Honda Odyssey, most of time. What’s not to like? It seats 7 real humans, holds a ton of cargo, luxury car ride, silky smooth engine, a turning radius so tight it’s scary. So what’s the beef? Anyone with a 2006 Odyessy and at least one active child can probably tell you…the damm interior lights!
Let me explain. Honda installed a nice reading light/air conditioner vent combo above each of the passenger seat areas. Nice. The reading light is turned on and off by pushing the light housing (like a toggle), so there’s no dedicated on/off switch on the light. So annoyance comes in when you have a young kid who likes to touch things.
Here’s how it goes: Open the doors to get in the van. The interior lights go on. The Boy gets into the van and promptly starts repeatedly pushing the various light housings. But because the doors are open, all the lights remain on and you don’t know which lights are have been manually switched on or off. Doors close, the interior lights go off, EXCEPT for the lights that were manually switched on by The Boy. You drive to your destination with SOME of the interior lights on. You stop the car. You open the door so you can get The Boy out of the car seat, all the lights go on. The Boy gets out of car seat and again starts to push the light housings. But because the doors are open, all the lights stay lit. You close the doors AND lock the car (the lights are on a delayed timer, so unless you lock the car, the lights will stay on for a few minutes). The interior lights go off, EXCEPT for the lights manually turned on by The Boy. Looking into your locked car, study which lights are still on. Unlock the car and open the door. All the lights go on again. Remembering which lights were still on when the doors are closed, you push each of the “on” light housing one time each. Close the doors and lock the car. Check to see that you actually turned off all the lights. Repeat everytime you drive the car.
CRAZY. Honda, you need to come up with something better. Sure the driver has is a master switch that can control all the lights, on or off. But you can’t “reset” the lights so all are in the setting where they are activated by opening and closing the door (which is what most people want). Cutting off said Boy’s hand is NOT a solution. How about a manual switch on the light that says, “on”, “off” and “door” like in the good old days.
Is it just me?
I feel better now.
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I totally agree. Numerous times I’ve had to jump start our 2000 model because either the kids turned on the interior lights, or one of the sliding doors was not latched completely. At least they added a timer to the newer models. Guess what? If the battery dies you can’t get it out of park unless you know the secret trick. Poor design in my opinion.
Left by H. Fiedler on October 21st, 2007