The minivan is one of the great automotive innovations of the past 50 years.

It's been beloved, berated, embraced, and shunned since the Plymouth-Dodge-Chrysler version took the box-on-wheels design mainstream in the 1980s. And that's a good thing because the minivan takes a stand and makes a statement: "I can carry you and yours and your 'stuff' anyplace you want to go ... and do it in comfort." Now, as Honda introduces the fourth generation of Odyssey minivan, you can add "... and in style" to that statement.

Honda has identified three market segments when it comes to the minivan: the fans (adopters), foes (rejecters), and a gray-area segment (the hesitators), those who understand the utilitarian aspects of the minivan but are hesitant to drive one, perhaps perceiving a "soccer mom" stigma.

We recently drove the 2011 Odyssey along the parkways north of New York City and came to one main conclusion: If it looks like a minivan, drives like a minivan, and has a gazillion uses, it must be a minivan.

But what is a minivan owner? Even Honda is having trouble making that definition. Why else would the company offer the new Odyssey in eight trim levels, a something-for-everyone approach that will increase production costs and dealer floor planning?

Pricing runs from a nicely equipped base LX at $27,800 (plus $780 destination charge) to the $43,250 Touring Elite that's comparably equipped to a top-of-the-line Acura MDX SUV. If you want to go in near-luxury style, this is the one for you.

Honda used an all-United States team to design what the company is calling "An American Odyssey." Project leader Art St. Cyr says his group has owned 42 Odysseys among them.

They're also part of the present crop of American parents that are the first to have grown up in minivans.

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