2014 Honda Odyssey debuts with built-in vacuum cleaner

This year at the New York Auto Show, Honda debuted the Touring Elite variant of their popular MPV, the 2014 Honda Odyssey. Besides some safety and aesthetic enhancements, it also comes with world’s first in-car vacuum cleaner.

Aesthetic enhancements in the 2014 Odyssey include dark-finish projector-beam headlight housings, a sculpted aluminium hood and front fenders, a new bolder twin-bar grille, a revised lower front fascia with integrated chrome-trimmed fog lights, two-tone mirror housings, LED taillight bars and new badging. And from the looks of it there are new wheel designs too.

The cabin insides get new finishes, an all-new centre stack and a host of technologies such as keyless Smart Entry with Push Button Start, HD Radio, an SMS text messaging function, and HondaLink featuring the “Aha” Mobile interface. The free HondaLink smartphone app personalises radio stations, delivers news feeds from Facebook and Twitter, help locate and bring to the user reviews of restaurants and cafes.

The Touring Elite will also feature the all-new HondaVAC, an in-car vacuum system, co-developed by Shop-Vac. It consists of a powerful vacuum cleaner with integrated hose, replaceable filter, canister bag and nozzle accessories, all neatly integrated into a dedicated space on the driver’s side bulkhead of the rear cargo area. HondaVAC does not require a power outlet or recharging; it can operate continuously when the engine is running, and will continue to operate for up to eight minutes after the vehicle is switched off.

The people-hauler also gets structural reinforcements that help it achieve the highest rating in the small-overlap frontal crash test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). It also receives Honda safety technologies such as an Expanded View Driver’s Mirror, Forward Collision Warning and Lane Departure Warning. The current 2013 Odyssey has earned the IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK and NHTSA 5-Star crash safety ratings, so expect the 2014 to keep with tradition.

The segment’s benchmark minivan will go on sale at Honda dealerships in the U.S. this summer. GCC customers can expect it arrive in showrooms by the later half of 2013, priced a little above the Dhs 119,000 price-tag for the 2013 model.