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Touring vs EX-L is it worth the extra money?
craigontheboat
Member Posts: 5
I am looking at purchasing a new Honda Odyssey. Have been looking at the Touring with Nav and the EX-L with Nav and DVD. I can get an EX-L for about 4 grand cheaper than the Touring. Can anyone tell me before I go out and test drive them, how good is the 6 speaker system in the EX-L. Also does the EX-L ride any different, maybe better with the higher profile tires??? Is it worth the extra costs going to the Touring...
See Also:
Honda Odyssey Consumer Reviews
See Also:
Honda Odyssey Consumer Reviews
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This has been a repeated topic on the Odyssey club website so you might look there for more opinions.
I like some of the other features as well. In the end, the difference is actually less than $4k and you get half that back at trade in time. Either way, it's still the best minivan out there.
http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/2008-honda-odyssey-2.htm
However, with the deals on the 07's right now, there is a lot to be had for your extra ~$3,000.00 on the touring - depending on what is important to you.
You get the front- and rear-obstacle-detection system. You also get the memory system (driver seat, mirrors) which is very handy since my wife drives most of the time, but I drive it too.
The touring also comes with the power-adjustable pedals. Again, this is important to my wife, as she was able to get the pedals and the steering wheel adjusted to her comfort with the touring edition.
Touring also has the outside mirror tilt-down back-up aid which I don't even know what it is yet.
More important to me is the upgraded sound system with trip computer and compass.
The power liftgate is also important to me.
The automatic headlights are a nice feature as well.
Fog lights are a personal thing, and you also (on the 07) get the PAX runflat tires.
That's a lot of goodies. I understand if they don't float your boat, then an EX-L with RES NAVI is the way to go - but to write off the touring as added cost without added benefit isn't accurate.
Also, you aren't really paying $3k more because come trade-in time, the touring is going to be worth more. So the net cost may be closer to $1.5k or so...
The invoice on a "base" Touring is 34035. Assuming invoice - holdback - rebate, you're at $31014.
The invoice on an EX-L with RES is 30239. Same deal and you're at 27332, a difference of $3682.
If you're looking at EX-L without RES, like I am, then you're at 28794..same deal and your final is 25931, a difference of $5083.
So, basically, if you don't want NAV, than you're looking at a $5k difference. To me, that's pretty hard to justify.
Oh yeah...and don't forget those $1200 worth of tires you're going to need in 3 years or so.
Even if you do, that's still a pretty hefty price difference. If you have the case, that's awesome, but...$3500 seems like a lot to pay for a relatively little.
I purchased my 2007 Odyssey Touring w/RES for $29,999.00 before TTL, Doc and transportation.
I believe that the small difference of $2699 was totally worth it. I have loads of features on my Touring edition than she does on her EX-L edition.
I would do it all over again!
I would advise you tto find any 2007 Odyssey Touring that the dealer has been paying floor plan cost for too many months as far as the dealer is concerned. Doing this I was able to purchase my Touring model for over $4,000 UNDER invoice.
I e-mailed the dealership and they quoted me 29,727 for an '07 EX-L R+N, but they only had the Deep Blue exterior color which my wife didn't particularly like (and she will be the primary driver, and she runs the household...don't mess with mama).
They also quoted 34,245 for an '08 EX-L R+N over the internet.
I struggled with the '07 vs '08 decision (color was NOT the determining factor, and that's for a different thread), and then I struggled with the EX-L vs Touring decision particularly since you could get the '08 Touring without the PAX (for the number of flats that I've had in 20 years of driving cars...the rougher ride and additional expense just don't make sense to me...for '07, if you bought the Touring, you bought the PAX.)
The only features that I really regret losing by sticking with the EX-L R+N is the Bluetooth phone link and the upgraded audio. And here's how my reasoning went...(we all have to justify our decisions and feel good about them...please let me share...'Hi...I'm Dave and I have a problem...')
We had fog lights on our RX300...never used them.
Enjoyed the AUTO headlights on feature on the RX300, but not too difficult to use the stalk switch and the EX-L still has the timed auto-off feature when you remove your keys which is what my wife REALLY needed.
Power liftgate is nice (I would imagine...never had one), and I understand the logic of the push button when carrying a 3-month old and shepherding a 4-year old with groceries, BUT the non-power lift gate has a very light touch for both opening and closing...we'll see how that holds out over the years...those hydraulic assists tend to degrade...
Our RX300 had 2-position memory for the driver's seat, and we actually programmed the seat for me and my wife (I'm 6'6" and she's 5'9"), but I rarely used the memory buttons...I always forgot about them...I would just go full back (easy to remember that one when you're 6'6"...go until it won't go), and tilt the wheel up and adjust the rear view mirror...I imagine this feature was useful for my wife in getting it back to her position...and would be useful for those who are not full-to-the-front or full-to-the-back...and the side mirrors adjusting would be helpful also (I forget to adjust those until I finally need them about 30 miles down the road)...
Not having Bluetooth really hurt me particularly since a Sienna XLE similarly equipped had Bluetooth...the microphone, steering wheel mounted talk button, and crossover into the audio system are all there when you get the NAV package for the EX-L...it should be so easy (I would think) to include that feature...in fact, I'll probably look into seeing how difficult it would be to upgrade aftermarket (with or without help from Honda)...software for the NAV would have to change a bit to include the phone options and then the actual Bluetooth hardware...maybe impossible...
The other one that hurt was a 120-W 6-speaker audio in the EX-L vs the Touring's 360-W 6-speaker and a sub audio...my Civic has a factory 160-W 6-speaker system and the cabin is much smaller...and then you compare the EX-L to the Sienna XLE with its Infinity 10-speaker and giga-watts system...I finally decided that I would take my $4000 saved by purchasing the EX-L and upgrade the audio later...and to answer someone's question...on the way home, we had the volume at approx. 18 (goes to 40) and it was sufficiently loud...we're not teenagers looking to shake everyone's car around us at the stoplight...but the sound just isn't as full as it could be...but I just couldn't justify the extra expense of the Touring for the price of an amp, a sub and a couple of speakers plus installation...Best Buy can almost do a factory quality job these days...
That was my reasoning for the EX-L over the Touring...essentially, I would have been paying $4000 for Bluetooth and better audio...for other people, the $4000 might include the memory function or the fog lights...or just getting rid of a few of the extra plastic inserts where functional Touring feature buttons would go...
PS. I got out the door for just a hair under $37,000 for the '08 EX-L R+N which included taxes, title, the dealer's $500 prep charge (I'll be swearing about that charge as I'm being buried cold and dead in the ground...the salesperson told me that if it would help me feel better, he could write it off, and just give me $500 less for my trade) and a dealer installed tow package and some dealer accessories (big Rubber-maid rear storage area floor cover, wheel locks, and some other thing that I can't remember and that I'll never use). If I got suckered, please be polite, and never say a word to me. Now, it's off to find out how to get Bluetooth on that thing. Thanks for listening...
The multi-information display, which is only available on the Touring, is a very nice step up...very customizable with lots of good info...works with the memory seats, windshield wipers, door lock program, interior lights, etc.
This feature appears to tie together a lot of the other step-up features and makes the Touring whole greater than the sum of its part...
Maybe when I have an extra couple thousand dollars, we'll upgrade...
Note: I do not have this feature so don't know how well it works, but about 50 pages of the 500 page manual are devoted to customizing it...
These are a system. In other words, the tire and the wheel assembly cannot be separated out and needs specialized equipment, only available at select Michelin dealers, to replace.
While on a cross-country trip, if there is a tire failure, you simply cannot pop into your nearby Goodyear or Dunlop or Bridgestone store to get a replacement tire in the same size, since now you are not replacing a tire but a tire+wheel SYSTEM. Even many Michelin shops don't have the specialized PAX equipment to do the replacement.
I would have considered the Touring, if it was a regular runflat scenario, where you can replace the worn or failed tire, with several options in the marketplace, as long as the tire size matches the original equipment from the manufacturer. You can even replace such run-flats with non-run-flats, if that is what you want. In case of the "PAX system" of the Touring, you simply don't have such an option and only highly specialized Michelin shops that have the required PAX equipment can do the replacement.
The PAX as a concept is a great one but until it is adopted across the tire manufacturers and become more commonplace, I personally will stay away from it, which means I will go down a notch and stick to the EX-L variants in case of the Odyssey, even if it is missing a few bells and whistles that only come on the Touring.
Once again, since this bears repeating: The Odyssey Touring tires are NOT regular run-flats and replacing a PAX-tire should not be considered like a regular tire replacement. They are part of a "system" that requires specialized equipment, only available at ***select*** Michelin dealers to do a replacement.
Touring models are now available with or without PAX so there's no longer any need to, as you say, "go down a notch."