I drove my family around in the new Honda Odyssey and discovered why it's the greatest minivan ever made

Matthew DeBord/BI

The finest in all the land.

When it comes to minivans in the USA, it's often viewed as a two-horse race: You're either a Honda Odyssey family or a Toyota Sienna family.

The Odyssey, first rolled out in the mid-1990s, has a reputation for better engineering and superior driving dynamics, while the Sienna, arriving a little later, has a smushier ride and is perhaps made to last a bit longer.

You could think of the Odyssey as the BMW of minivans and the Sienna the Mercedes - and you are free to do so because the Germans don't sell a minivan in the US.

What about Dodge-Chrysler, you might ask? Didn't they invent the minivan? Yes, they did, and with the Chrysler Town and Country, discontinued in 2016 after 27 years, they had the Cadillac of minivans. They now sell the Pacifica, which has famously become a platform for Waymo's self-driving technology (minivans have been losing out to SUVs for a decade, but, funny enough, Silicon Valley might stage a renaissance). Thus far, the vehicle has been a big hit.

We're checking out the Sienna later this year, but we recently borrowed an all-new Odyssey and spent a week sampling one-half of the magnificent minivan duo.

Here's what we thought of our absolutely jammed-packed-with-features $47,610 Elite trim-level test car. (The base LX is about $30,000.)