Just in case Honda reads this forum, here's the text from a message I just posted:

Our 2008 EX-L has had a spongy pedal since we bought it in April 2008. It nearly goes to the floor on heavy braking. In my opinion, it's very close to being a safety issue. Although I should have done it sooner, I just made an appointment with the dealer service department.

Another problem with the brakes is after only 3,000 miles, the steering wheel started shaking on heavy braking. Typically this means warped rotors, but who knows for sure?

Our Odyssey also has the dreaded buzzing/rattling noise at the rear of both front windows, which is especially bad in cross winds.

Our lease runs through April 2011, but there's no way I can live with these problems that long. I'll let you know what Honda says.

Prior to the Odyssey, our family has had one Civic and four Accords dating back to a 1983 Accord hatchback. However, I have to say this is probably our last Honda.

Honda is aware about this spongy brake issue on these vehicles however so far they are keeping this issue quiet, if you go into edmunds.com website under forum topic you'll see you are not alone, as for the shaking steering wheel under braking it is true that it can cause by warp rotors, but you may need to check to see if your tires are bad or may need re-balancing also when you remove the wheel there is a nut there ( can't remember what it's called but you'll see it) that needs to be tighten with a socket and NOT AN IMPACT GUN.

Good luck.

Just wanted to follow up on my original post.

I took the 2008 EXL to the dealer at around 10K miles. They replaced a braking component (the ABS modulator, as I recall), machined the rotors and replaced the pads at no charge. After the work, the pedal felt much firmer and the steering wheel shake went away.

The dealer also installed revised seals behind the vertical plastic trim piece on the rear of the front doors, which eliminated most of the buzzing noise. Turns out that trim piece was actually vibrating in the wind. Now it does it only on windy days, and even then doesn't make as much noise as before.

At 27K, we took it to a dealer for two recalls and complained about warped rotors (steering wheel shake) again. To my surprise they replaced the rotors at no charge. However, next time I will use aftermarket rotors.

One of the recalls dealt with a potential vacuum leak in the braking system, but I don't know if my car needed the fix. In any case, I didn't notice any difference and we have been happy with the brake pedal firmness since the earlier repair.

The other recall dealt with a software upgrade to eliminate part throttle surging (as the cylinders cut in and out, I think). I had always thought of it as a minor annoyance, but the software upgrade made it disappear completely.