MME v. Honda Odyssey - whimsical thoughts

[Kachook]

In the last two months, we have taken the MME on two trips from Houston to Dallas and the Odyssey on one trip from Houston to New Orleans. Now, I know what you are thinking - what fool would compare the MME to a minivan? Well, me. I thought this may be useful for any new EV owners or those considering an EV and comparing it to their current stable of vehicles.

The reason we took the minivan on the trip to NOLA was simply - space. In the trips to Dallas, it was the wifey, two kids and me or my mom, the two kids and me. Either way, with us being helicopter-ish parents, we have some fairly large booster seats. Think if we got t-boned, mom and dad would likely perish, but the kids would be safe. Regardless, this renders the middle seat in the MME useless unless you are fitting a really thin child. On this most recent trip to NOLA, we brought grandma along making five of us taking this grand journey. With that as a background, here are my thoughts.

First, it really was nice that I did not have to consult ABRP, plug share and apple maps to figure out where I was going. I just put the directions in Google Maps and we went. I did not care about how fast I was driving and where I was going to get gas. Filled up a few nights before and figured we would get gas when we needed to stretch our legs. The Honda cruised at 80-85 and we only got gasoline once on the trip. More on that later. Plus, the space that we had for each other and useless crap was wonderful. One kid was in the back row. The other was in the second row on the opposite side. Thus, we avoided fighting. Plus, we could use the DVD player so our boys were watching old school Lion Voltron for the first 3 plus hours. Then, they played on their tablets. Lastly, the sliding doors - oh those lovely sliding doors. Enough said. Those doors make the soul crushing experience of being called a "soccer dad" worth it. Plus, it is a Honda and should last another 10 years (6 years old now with about 70k miles).

In comparison, my MME is just more fun to drive and enjoyable. The Blue Cruise when it worked and adaptive cruise control when it did not was much better than the Honda's standard cruise control. I also did not need to floor the MME to get around vehicles. With some planning, we made stops at different EA charging stations on the drive to and from Dallas. Stay away from the EA chargers in Ennis. On three stops now, most were either broken or not fully charging. We ended up charging twice on the way to Dallas each time and twice on the way back on one trip and once on the other. The tech is also significantly better in the MME so the kids' tablets could hook up to the MME's hotspot so they could stream Netflix and Disney+. Worrying and finding where to charge was a pain although I tried a 7-11 shop's charging station and it was fantastic. I have used up most of the free 250 kwh of free charging with EA that I got with the car. So, on the two Dallas trips, I spent a total of about $20 in charging. I charge at night for free so the car was at 100% before each trip. However, that may have been offset by the random stuff we bought at Wal Mart as the chargers in Madisonville, Huntsville and Ennis, TX are all in the Wal Mart parking lots. But, going forward, I am going to be spending a fair amount charging although much less than gas.

On the way back from NOLA, we stopped three times. That is when I thought well this trip would take just as long as if I had the MME. But, then I realized the stops would be different. For instance, we surely would not have been able to go to Costco which is about 20 minutes off of I-10 like we did with the minivan. I would have had to plan where I was stopping instead of deciding to go to Dunkin Donuts here and a Starbucks there.

In all of this, my thoughts are that until EVs get larger, I feel like I (and people like our family) am/are better off with our minivan for both longer trips and trips that involve kids/people totaling 5 people or more. Right now, only the Tesla MX may help with its 6-7 person configuration (I'm not really counting the 3rd row in the MY), but that is really out of most people's price range including ours. So, I will wait for the Rivian R1S or the Korean triplet's version of a three-row vehicle. Then, maybe I can compare it to a 7-8 year old Honda Odyssey by that time.

Sponsored

 

[Herbknowsit]

In the last two months, we have taken the MME on two trips from Houston to Dallas and the Odyssey on one trip from Houston to New Orleans. Now, I know what you are thinking - what fool would compare the MME to a minivan? Well, me. I thought this may be useful for any new EV owners or those considering an EV and comparing it to their current stable of vehicles.

The reason we took the minivan on the trip to NOLA was simply - space. In the trips to Dallas, it was the wifey, two kids and me or my mom, the two kids and me. Either way, with us being helicopter-ish parents, we have some fairly large booster seats. Think if we got t-boned, mom and dad would likely perish, but the kids would be safe. Regardless, this renders the middle seat in the MME useless unless you are fitting a really thin child. On this most recent trip to NOLA, we brought grandma along making five of us taking this grand journey. With that as a background, here are my thoughts.

First, it really was nice that I did not have to consult ABRP, plug share and apple maps to figure out where I was going. I just put the directions in Google Maps and we went. I did not care about how fast I was driving and where I was going to get gas. Filled up a few nights before and figured we would get gas when we needed to stretch our legs. The Honda cruised at 80-85 and we only got gasoline once on the trip. More on that later. Plus, the space that we had for each other and useless crap was wonderful. One kid was in the back row. The other was in the second row on the opposite side. Thus, we avoided fighting. Plus, we could use the DVD player so our boys were watching old school Lion Voltron for the first 3 plus hours. Then, they played on their tablets. Lastly, the sliding doors - oh those lovely sliding doors. Enough said. Those doors make the soul crushing experience of being called a "soccer dad" worth it. Plus, it is a Honda and should last another 10 years (6 years old now with about 70k miles).

In comparison, my MME is just more fun to drive and enjoyable. The Blue Cruise when it worked and adaptive cruise control when it did not was much better than the Honda's standard cruise control. I also did not need to floor the MME to get around vehicles. With some planning, we made stops at different EA charging stations on the drive to and from Dallas. Stay away from the EA chargers in Ennis. On three stops now, most were either broken or not fully charging. We ended up charging twice on the way to Dallas each time and twice on the way back on one trip and once on the other. The tech is also significantly better in the MME so the kids' tablets could hook up to the MME's hotspot so they could stream Netflix and Disney+. Worrying and finding where to charge was a pain although I tried a 7-11 shop's charging station and it was fantastic. I have used up most of the free 250 kwh of free charging with EA that I got with the car. So, on the two Dallas trips, I spent a total of about $20 in charging. I charge at night for free so the car was at 100% before each trip. However, that may have been offset by the random stuff we bought at Wal Mart as the chargers in Madisonville, Huntsville and Ennis, TX are all in the Wal Mart parking lots. But, going forward, I am going to be spending a fair amount charging although much less than gas.

On the way back from NOLA, we stopped three times. That is when I thought well this trip would take just as long as if I had the MME. But, then I realized the stops would be different. For instance, we surely would not have been able to go to Costco which is about 20 minutes off of I-10 like we did with the minivan. I would have had to plan where I was stopping instead of deciding to go to Dunkin Donuts here and a Starbucks there.

In all of this, my thoughts are that until EVs get larger, I feel like I (and people like our family) am/are better off with our minivan for both longer trips and trips that involve kids/people totaling 5 people or more. Right now, only the Tesla MX may help with its 6-7 person configuration (I'm not really counting the 3rd row in the MY), but that is really out of most people's price range including ours. So, I will wait for the Rivian R1S or the Korean triplet's version of a three-row vehicle. Then, maybe I can compare it to a 7-8 year old Honda Odyssey by that time.

This is an OLD thread but was an informative one since before I bought the MME, I drove both an Odyssey and a AWD turbo CRV. Which one to trade on the MME? Given the amount of gear I still use (boards, bikes, canoes) the Odyssey is still nestled in the garage with the 2024 MME. The perfect duo for us. Thought I would miss the CRV . Not.