Early on a Friday morning, barely 12 hours after taking delivery of my new Honda Odyssey, it was packed with two adults, four kids and luggage for a week. Our destination was Penang, non-stop except to refuel.
That was just the first of many more road trips to come in the life of my 2.4-litre Japanese people-mover. It would eventually make seven similar journeys, the most memorable of which was a run up to Lake Kenyir in the heart of the Malaysian forest reserve.
Fully laden, the Odyssey was supremely comfortable on the highways and made mincemeat of the country roads on the east coast. What it lacked in acceleration, it more than made up with its handling.
Back in Singapore, most of its journeys were, naturally, short runs. But every one was hectic and hurried, and always driven with the sequential gearshift mode in order to squeeze every bit out of its engine performance.
Getting the children to school in the morning was its first daily task. And for some strange reason, no matter what time we left home, the kids always made it to school on time!
In 47 months and 150,000 kilometres, my Odyssey needed four sets of tyres, three pairs of front brake discs, four sets of brake pads, one air-con compressor, three batteries and roughly 20,000 litres of 98-octane petrol.
