In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Odyssey are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Metris Passenger doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Honda Odyssey has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Metris Passenger doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the Odyssey deploy with different levels of force or don’t deploy at all to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The Odyssey’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The Metris Passenger’s side airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.
The Odyssey has a standard Whiplash Mitigation Front Seat Design, which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the Whiplash Mitigation Front Seat Design system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The Metris Passenger doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The Odyssey’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Metris Passenger.
The Odyssey has a standard blind spot warning system which uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. A system to reveal vehicles in the Metris Passenger’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Odyssey’s standard rear cross-path warning system uses sensors in the rear bumper to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. The Metris Passenger doesn’t offer a cross-path warning system.
Both the Odyssey and the Metris Passenger have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, collision warning systems, daytime running lights, rearview cameras and available rear parking sensors.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Acceptable” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Odyssey its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 80 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Metris Passenger has not been tested, yet.