Complaints halve and the engine recalls fall away — but this is the year the camera bill arrives, and one owner puts it at $2,400.

New as a major pattern on the 2020. Auto idle-stop is the fuel-saving feature that switches the engine off when you come to a halt and restarts it when you lift off the brake. Owners report that the restart does not happen: the van sits dead at a green light, sometimes for fifteen to thirty seconds, sometimes needing to be shifted to Park and started again with the button. Several describe every electrical system dropping out at the same time. Owners' workaround is to switch idle-stop off at every start, since it re-enables itself each time. Honda has acknowledged the same condition on later vans — it issued dealer messages asking to inspect and collect parts from 2023 to 2025 Odysseys with 'a no auto re-start condition after going into an auto idle stop' — but that is an open investigation, not a programme, and it does not name the 2020. There is no recall for it on this year. Ask the seller whether they leave idle-stop switched off, which is a tell, and sit through several stop-and-go cycles on the test drive.

A quieter pattern but a serious one. Owners report the rear coil spring failing outright — one describes it breaking at around 45 mph on a city street, another a loud bang from a parking lot followed by noise over every bump. The same failure appears on the 2022. There is no recall covering it. A broken rear spring changes how the van sits and handles and can damage the tyre. It is cheap to look for: check that the van sits level at the back, look at both rear springs with a torch, and listen for a metallic clunk over bumps on the test drive.

A stack of free campaigns, most of them about water or software. Recall 20V-437 covers water getting into the sliding doors' outer handle cables, which can freeze in cold weather and stop the doors latching securely — the sliding-door recall that matters on this year. Four campaigns address the rearview camera and instrument panel going blank: 20V-438 (water in the camera mounting holes distorting or losing the image), 20V-439 (instrument-panel software hiding oil pressure, speed and gear position), 20V-440 (central-network software delaying the camera image) and 23V-431 (a faulty connector on the MOST network, the fibre-optic link between the audio and display systems). A fifth, 26V-423, was added in 2026 and expands the camera water-intrusion fix with a free camera replacement; owner letters are expected in August 2026. Honda also ran a warranty extension for 2018 to 2020 vans covering MOST-network faults that cause popping and crackling from the speakers. Separately, Honda's own bulletin for 2018 to 2022 vans admits an unfixed problem: the sliding-door windows stop and roll back down on one-touch Auto-Up, and 'there is currently no recommended repair'.

The remainder of the 2020 recall sheet. Two airbag campaigns are open and they describe opposite failures: 26V-227 covers software that can deploy the side and curtain airbags unexpectedly, and 24V-064 (expanded by 26V-332) covers a front-passenger seat-weight sensor that can crack and short, causing an airbag to deploy when it shouldn't. Owners of this year report exactly that — side-curtain airbags going off after a pothole with no crash damage, and SRS warning lights coming on with no accident, one explicitly naming recall 26V-227. Recall 23V-174 covers side-view mirror heating pads that weren't bonded properly, so the mirror glass can detach; dealers replace both mirrors free. Recall 23V-158 covers front seat-belt buckles that may not latch. Recall 20V-066 covers a third-row power-outlet harness that can be pinched and short out, a fire risk. Recall 23V-858 is the large in-tank fuel-pump campaign. One further campaign, 21V-010, applies only to vans converted by Braun Corporation for wheelchair access and cannot apply to a standard van.

Worth stating plainly, because it is the real argument for this year over a 2018 or 2019. The connecting-rod-bearing recall 23V-751, which covers an engine failure serious enough that dealers replace the whole motor, stops at 2019. So does the timing-belt recall 19V-298. So does the sliding-door latch recall 18V-795, the one where a door can open while you're driving. The nine-speed transmission gives way to a ten-speed on this year, and a dealership technician who services these vans reports few failures on either. The 2020's problems are real but they are electrical and suspension problems, not engine-out problems — a meaningfully different risk profile from the two years before it.