Different minivan people chew through tires. I have not had that problem on our odyssey. We’ve gotten 60k out of the first set, 65k out of the second set, and are 20k into the third set and they hardly show any wear yet. That said, more Sienna owners tend to complain about chewing through tires than odyssey owners.


The Odyssey burns up its transmission fluid. It just does, and that’s a design flaw, IMO. In fact, I know it’s a design flaw because I’ve fixed that issue on our van. After 60k miles I was having to drain and fill the transmission fluid at no more than 20k intervals in order to keep the tranny shifting right. At about 100k I installed a trailer hitch and, knowing the tranny issues, a transmission cooler. Since doing that, I no longer burn up transmission fluid. Still the original transmission now at 145k and the transmission is shifting perfectly.

We plan to have this van until we don’t need a minivan anymore (just a couple more years), so we don’t plan to buy another minivan. But if we did, the very first thing I would do would be to install a transmission cooler. That goes for any minivan. They stick car transmissions on these things and the weight is just too much for them without the cooler.


That’s my two cents. I don’t think you can go wrong with either one.