I noticed that one of my tenants, a couple with a three-year old, was having a little mommies-and-kids party in their back yard. When I pulled out into the street, there were several cars parked across the street belonging to their guests. This three-some makes for a nice…Eugene three-some. Couldn’t be more so, and the lack of the inevitable Subaru is refreshing.
There’s still a fairly very healthy contingent of these gen1 Prii in town. The seem to wear just as well as a Corolla. The gen1 Honda Odyssey was a very popular car with younger families here, for obvious reasons. The numbers are dwindling though. And the Prius V became the hot family hauler in more recent years. Some folks are going to be sad to not be able to get a new one anymore.
I don’t have a picture, but the actual tenants have a Suzuki SX4. But they’re in the middle of replacing it with…a Subaru Outback. Just like the other tenants’ Outback that I dinged last week or so.
That little SX4 is fairly popular out here in CO as well, I always kind of liked it, it’s fairly well appointed, looks good, and has AWD. A great little all weather around town car, it somehow reminds me more of the Daihatsu Charade than any other little hatch.
I still go into a swoon whenever I see an early Odyssey. The 49 Plymouth of Hondas – zero sex appeal, very slow, but it will be slow and boring and drama-free in near perpetuity.
I had a ’98 Odyssey which came with a slightly larger 2.3 litre VTEC instead of the prior 2.2 litre non-VTEC. It made a significant difference in the pickup of the van. I loved the size and nimbleness of it, as well as its great build quality. I wish it was still available.
I recall word being that the 98 was a bit of a tradeoff, with more power but at a cost of added complexity from more advanced electronics.
On the weekend I stumbled across this 2nd generation JDM Odyssey in Cookstown, Ontario, north of Toronto. I didn’t think to look at it’s VIN, but it would be a ’99-03 Odyssey and is RHD.
The orange light on the roof at the front and the blue and red sign towards the rear indicates this Odyssey earns its living working for an independent contractor who delivers mail for Canada Post’s rural routes where having RHD is definitely an asset for allowing the driver to pull up to mailboxes. Lots of capacity for parcels and bags of mail in the back, and if it’s a 4-cylinder like my 1st gen, then the fuel economy is pretty good. Definitely a unicorn.