NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Minivans don't usually get to preen on the red carpet at awards time. But if practical families were doing the judging, the new Odyssey would trump anything else we drove this year.

Tested against a toughened league of rivals -- from Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan and Ford -- the new Honda squeaked past the formidable Toyota Sienna to re-establish itself as the benchmark for businesslike hauling of people and their stuff.

Parents tend to test minivans from the inside out, and the Honda will wow them with its interior comfort, faultless controls and upscale feel. It adds a split-folding third-row seat that takes much less effort to tuck away than it did in the last model. Windows roll down in back, and for the first time, there's an eight-passenger version.

Test drive the Odyssey against its competitors, and you'll notice its handling edge -- the way it carves flat through turns, and telegraphs the road through the steering wheel. Plenty of sedans don't handle this well. Add to that class-leading power and acceleration, which come from a 3.5-liter, 255-horsepower V-6.

In the higher-priced Touring and EX-with-leather models, that engine seamlessly shuts down three cylinders while cruising, boosting economy to a top-ranked 20 mpg city/28 highway. Safety, as you'd expect, is off the charts: standard side air bags and head curtain bags with rollover sensors, anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control, perfect government crash scores.

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Honda's new Advanced Compatibility Engineering structure is designed to protect people -- not only those in the Odyssey, but also occupants of other cars and even pedestrians. Throw in every optional amenity -- from an industry-best voice-controlled navigation system to a sharp-screen DVD player -- and it's clear that Honda has left nothing to chance. The Odyssey quietly but convincingly reasserts itself as the nation's best minivan.