Best Tires for the Honda Odyssey in 2023 - Car Talk (2024)

• Chris Teague
• 4/20/2023

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When Honda designed the Odyssey, they tried to balance a number of factors when deciding on the factory tires, mainly safety, durability and cost. Honda had to choose an option that would satisfy the largest group of people without breaking the bank or causing a major class-action lawsuit. Car Talk experts selected the highest-rated replacement tires for your Odyssey in several budget ranges. Let’s get started.

Have an older Honda Odyssey? See tire sizes for previous years.

Best Tires for the Honda Odyssey LX, EX, and EX-L:

General Grabber HTS 60 - Best budget tire

Vredestein Quatrac Pro - Best mid-priced tire

Michelin Primacy MXM4 - Best superior tire

Best Tires for the Honda Odyssey Elite:

Kumho Crugen HP71 - Best budget tire

Pirelli Scorpion Verde All season Plus II - Best mid-priced tire

Michelin Latitude Sport 3 - Best superior tire

Original Equipment Odyssey Tires

Though the Odyssey is sold in several trims, there are only two wheel sizes to worry about:

• The LX, EX, EX-L, and Touring trims come with 18-inch wheels with tires size 235/60R18. The OE tire for these vehicles is the Toyo Open Country A/T III.
• The Honda Odyssey Elite comes with 19-inch wheels and tires size 235/55R19 101H. The OE tire for these vehicles is the Bridgestone Turanza EL440.

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Top Replacement Tire Brands for Honda Odyssey

We’ve recommended three replacement tires in 18-, and 19-inch sizes, in budget, moderately priced and cost-no-object varieties. No matter your budget, these tires will be solid replacements for the original equipment tires that came on your minivan.

18-inch Tires for Honda Odyssey

• Budget: General Grabber HTS 60 - The General Grabber is one of the best rated tires you can buy at any price, and features great customer reviews, as well as excellent treadwear.
• Moderately Priced: Vredestein Quatrac Pro - Vredestein is brand-new on the U.S. Market, but has already made a name for itself with great quality tires at a reasonable price.
• Cost-No-Object: Michelin Primacy MXM4 - When all else fails, spring for the Michelins. There’s hardly a better tire anywhere on the market.

19-inch Tires for Honda Odyssey

• Budget: Kumho Crugen HP71 - We frequently recommend Kumho tires, because of their excellent prices, solid customer reviews, and wonderful treadlife ratings.
• Moderately Priced: Pirelli Scorpion Verde All season Plus II - Pirelli makes a great performance-oriented all season tire, and the Verde All Season Plus is no exception.
• Cost-No-Object: Michelin Latitude Sport 3 - You’ll be hard pressed to find another 19-inch tire with better ratings. The Latitude Sport 3 is rated well for year-round service in most parts of the country, and has an excellent treadlife rating.

When Should You Replace Tires?

There are two regular milestones that will suggest that it’s time to replace the tires, not only on your Odyssey, but any vehicle in your driveway: Time and mileage.

Considering most drivers cover between 12,000 and 15,000 miles per year, the vast majority of Odyssey owners are going to be past the mileage that their original equipment tires were intended to cover before they’ll go past the tire’s usable age.

The life of your tire can be somewhat predicted by its UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grade) rating. Tire manufacturers apply their own grades to tires for treadwear, traction and temperature. When you’re researching tires online, a UTQG will come up next to the tire name in three digits and a number (ex. 500 A A).

You can glean a bit of info from the tires by reading this rating:

• 500 - The durability rating of a tire, compared to a control tire with a treadlife of 100. To obtain a grade, tires run on a 640 kilometer course for 11,520 km. Every 1,280 km, the tread depth is measured, to provide a projected tread life. The higher the number, the longer the predicted treadlife.
• A - This is the Traction rating of a tire, which indicates how well a tire stops in wet conditions. The highest letter grade is AA, followed by A, B and C.
• A - The second letter in the UTQG is the Temperature rating, which indicates how well a tire holds up to extreme heat. A is the highest, followed by B and C.

Original equipment Bridgestone Turanza EL440 tires on the Odyssey earn a middling 480 AA UTGQ rating. Unless they are damaged, these tires could last as long as 48,000 miles before you need to replace them.

The other consideration is time. Each tire has a raised date code on the sidewall. The number begins with the letters “DOT” followed by 12 digits in three four-digit groups. The date code is the third group of four digits. To decipher the date of your tires, the first two digits represent the WEEK the tire was produced, and the second two digits represent the YEAR.

For example, if your tire’s date code is 3217, that indicates the tire was manufactured in the 37th week of 2017, or some time between September 11 and 17th that year.

Once tires go beyond five years old, it’s time to consider replacing them. Tires are made up not just of rubber and steel or kevlar belts, but chemicals that help the tires resist UV rays, temperature changes and a lot of other environmental hazards. Those chemicals start to break down after five years or so, and the tires aren’t doing the job that they need to do.

Why Not Replace with Original Equipment Tires?

There’s no harm in replacing your tires with the shoes it came with from the factory. However, depending on what kind of driver you are, there are significant reasons to purchase something different.

You only need to purchase ONE set of tires for your car every four years or so, depending on how much you drive. When an auto manufacturer purchases tires, they buy them by the hundreds of thousands. For the manufacturer, the decision to choose a supplier one brand or another comes down to a price point.

For you, your consideration may be completely different. If you could get a tire that stopped 20 feet shorter for an additional $10 per tire over the original equipment, you’d probably do it. Similarly, if there was a tire that made less road noise for a minimal investment over stock, you’d probably decide on the slightly more expensive tire (that is, unless you’re trying to drown out the conversation of your back-seat-driving spouse.)

Changing Honda Odyssey Tire Sizes

Depending on the year and model, you may be shopping tires to fit anything between 15-inch for older models to 18-inch wheels with various widths and sidewall sizes along the way. It is possible to change the wheel and tire sizes, but a general rule of thumb is to keep the total diameter of wheel and tire the same. So, that means that downsizing an 18-inch wheel to a 17-inch wheel would include a proportionate upsizing of the tire sidewall to compensate.

Downsizing wheels has its advantages. Benefits include:

• Better ride quality – More rubber means more cushion for poor road conditions.
• Cost reduction – Big tires are expensive, so moving to a smaller wheel size will mean less costly tire purchases.
• Seasonal changes – Winter and snow tires are available for a larger selection of smaller wheel sizes and the narrower footprint will provide better traction.
• Off-road – Many people choose to downsize wheels for off-road use to increase the vehicle’s shock absorption capabilities and bump traction on loose surfaces.

On the other side of the coin, going up in wheel size has its benefits:

• Better handling – Slimmer profile tires makes for less rubber to move around .
• Better looks – This one’s subjective, but many people feel that larger wheels look better than smaller wheels with more rubber.
• Better braking – Larger, wider wheels provide a bigger patch of rubber on the ground to slow the vehicle, reducing braking distance.

See our recommendations for the Best Extended Warranty for your Honda Odyssey

How to Read Tire Sizes

When reading tire sizes, it’s important to understand what the numbers mean. The Honda Odyssey’s 18-inch wheels come with P25/60R18 107T all-season tires:

• 235 - indicates the width of the tire from one sidewall to the other in millimeters. This tire is 265 millimeters wide
• 60 - indicates the aspect ratio, or sidewall height, as a percentage of the tire’s width. In this case, it’s 60 percent or of the tire’s width.
• R - means radial tires. Radials are the most common type of automotive tire and have fabric woven in at various angles with tread that is strengthened with additional layers of rubber
• 18 - indicates the wheel diameter
• 107 - is the tire’s load rating
• T - is the tire’s speed rating. H-rated tires have a maximum top speed of 118 mph

You may have noticed that the Honda Odyssey’s three tire sizes have different diameters and also different aspect ratios. Generally, automakers choose tires that have the same outer diameter. This allows them to have only one speedometer setting.

Now that you know what comes on a new Odyssey and how to read the size numbers, let’s look at the different types of tires available to you. Depending on the type of driving you’re doing, where you live, and the weather, you have a variety of choices for tire types:

• Touring and All-season tires - provide a smooth ride, good wet and dry traction, decent winter traction, and longer tread life. These tires are acceptable for winter use but can’t be expected to provide the traction and stopping power that a dedicated winter tire can.
• Performance tires - are focused on providing confident handling, better wet and dry traction, and a sporty feel. Their higher grip and speed ratings come with a tradeoff of shortened tread life and reduced ride quality.
• All-terrain tires - are built to maximize off-road traction and provide good durability overall. Their construction means more noise and less comfort on the road, but winter traction and tread wear is acceptable.
• Winter and snow tires - are made with special rubber compounds that maintain grip and pliability when temperatures drop. They are also built with special tread patterns to maximize the vehicle’s ability to start and stop on very slippery roads.

Tires Sizes By Year

Read more on the Best Tire Deals available here

See our overall recommendations for Best Tires

See our recommendations for the 10 Best Tire Brands for 2023

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