What Does Snow Mode On Honda Odyssey Do? (Explained)

Winter can be an amazing season; at the same time, it can be a very tasking season to navigate through.

The steadily growing heaps of snow and slippery icy roads can make driving a huge challenge in certain areas.

Honda isn’t ignorant of this. They’ve equipped many of their vehicles with a feature called “snow mode” to help ease the stress of driving in winter.

One of these vehicles is the Honda Odyssey; what then does its snow mode do? Read more about whether Honda Fit & Honda HR-V can drive in snow?

The Honda Odyssey comes with an intelligent traction management system. This technology helps you set your Odyssey in the best conditions for whatever surface you’re driving on. Picking its snow mode will give your wheels more stability, hence reducing their ability to glide smoothly. With Odyssey’s snow mode, you get to trade some of your Honda’s torque for stability and safety.

What Is Honda Odyssey Snow Mode?

We all wish we could always drive in ideal road conditions. A smooth well-tarred road, areas with nothing obscuring the driver’s view like smoke or fog, and perhaps most importantly, few or no annoying co-road-users. 

Unfortunately, winter most times takes away two of these conditions; the last is rarely there, so we can’t blame winter for that one.

Honda Odyssey’s snow mode is designed to help us deal with the complications of driving while it snows.

What exactly is Honda Odyssey’s snow mode? It’s one of the four modes of Honda’s traction management system.

The four modes are:

• Snow mode
• Sand mode
• Mud mode
• Normal mode

Three of these modes are designed to assist your vehicle’s stability in extreme conditions, and they do so remarkably well.

For example, the Odyssey’s snow mode is so good that despite its wheel drive system not being four-wheel drive, it still moves with relative ease with its four-wheel drive.

The Honda Odyssey comes with many outstanding features, but the design and intelligence of its snow mode make it one of the best features it offers.

When Should I Use Honda Odyssey’s Snow Mode?

Well, that’s an obvious one. The snow mode ought to be used when you’re battling the problems of driving on snow-filled or icy surfaces.

Using it in any other situation apart from this will be pointless and defeats the whole idea of the technology.

 Not only will it be pointless, but you’ll get lose the numerous advantages driving with the normal mode on smooth tarred roads will give you.

So hold on till we get to see some snow in the winter. Then, you’ll have more than enough time to check out all the fantastic benefits of snow mode in your Honda Odyssey.

Another reason why you should save the Odyssey’s snow mode for the winter periods is that using it on clear roads can have slight damaging effects on your car.

That is because the technology usually expects the complications of driving on a road covered with snow or the slipperiness of an icy surface.

So yeah, no brainer, keep the snow mode for the snow, that makes sense.

How To Turn On Snow Mode On The Honda Odyssey

It’s a straightforward process. With just a few clicks here and there, you can have your vehicle set to handle a snow-filled road.

Here are some steps to help you turn on and enjoy snow mode on your Odyssey.

• The first step is to have your Honda Odyssey parked; never forget to do so.
  
• Now, you need to access your vehicle’s traction management system. To do this, press the button with “snow” on it.
  
  You’ll find it on your car’s gear selector; that’s if your Odyssey is a two-wheel-drive vehicle which it most likely is.
  
  If somehow it’s an all-wheel drive, you’ll need to click the button with a vehicle icon.
  
• The drive modes will pop up if you’ve successfully found and pressed any of those two buttons on your two-wheel or all-wheel drive.
  
  You’ll find them on the driver information system, which should be in front of you. It is also known as the dashboard, but look at that little screen in front; you should find all four modes displayed.
  
  It’ll be on the “normal” mode by default.
  
• The next step is your selection of the snow mode. When you’ve gotten the modes displayed on the driver information center, you’ll need to click that button again, whichever of the two controllers mentioned above is for your vehicle.
  
  Furthermore, you’ll need to press the button till the mode you want lights up. In this case, it’s the snow mode, and you usually will need to press the button once because it’s the mode that comes after the “normal” mode.
  
• When you’ve highlighted the mode, you want Honda operating system has to understand and accept it.
  
  To do this, just wait for some seconds after you’ve highlighted the mode you desire, which in this case is the snow mode.
  
  After you wait for some seconds, you should see that your car is running on snow mode in your driver’s information center. So now you’ve put your Honda odyssey in snow mode!

If you’re bothered about getting your vehicle out of snow mode, which you should be, there’s no need to stress.

Remember that your Honda Odyssey was in a mode already before you set it to snow mode, yes “normal” mode which is the default mode for your vehicle. 

To change it to normal mode, just repeat the practice, but you’ll keep pressing the “snow” or “vehicle” icon button until you’ve highlighted the “normal” mode.

And this should take you just three clicks once you’ve highlighted the “normal” mode—wait for a few seconds to have it selected.

That’s all, and your vehicle is back in “normal” mode.

Which Honda Odyssey Models Have Snow Mode?

I haven’t made mention of a release year or model throughout this article. That may make it seem like every Honda Odyssey model that has been released since Honda Odyssey became a thing comes equipped with snow mode.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Vehicle stability assists; the way I’ve explained it in this article is only a recent development. Well, not that recently.

Honda has equipped all their Odysseys from 2017 to 2022 with snow mode. Each of these models slightly varies in its manner of application.

Still, if you follow the process I gave above on how to turn on your Honda Odyssey, you should be able to get your vehicle running in snow mode.

How Much Snow Can The Honda Odyssey Handle On Snow Mode?

The snow mode feature on the Honda Odyssey is a beauty, it can make you handle the stresses of driving in winter and give you safety, but it still is an SUV and not a high-riding one.

Do not expect your vehicle to be able to glide over piles of snow. Recent Honda Odyssey models have a ground clearance of 4.5-5.0 inches; this isn’t high enough to handle huge amounts of snow.

Use the Honda Odyssey only on moderate snow, and your vehicle will perform well.

Honda Odyssey Snow Mode!

Conclusion

The snow mode is just one of the many amazing features of the Odyssey. When used correctly, you can drive during the winter in confidence. Never forget to switch modes as you change terrains.

I hope you keep having fantastic experiences with your car, in or out of snow mode.