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Comments
One feature that I miss on my '01 HO,
that my '92 DGC had was the
"DTE"(Destination till Empty)
display for the gas tank.
That came in handy on more than
a few trips.
"Lexus" go hand-in-hand.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I still hear about that one.
the cool thing about my Honda is that it runs forever after the orange gas light comes on
Even the new RX330 won't be new with the new Lexus hybrid out. Then you will have hybrids with "better" hybrid mileage - more features, etc..There will always be something new making you feel your car is outdated. I think that perhaps mercedes or porsche are timeless classics where you can look cool even in a 15 year old beater.
My main point is that buying any new car is the biggest waste of money. But why do we do it? I do it because I want to treat myself to a fun experience and to satisfy my ego. Sure, new cars have all the safety features, but its not like 5 year old cars aren't safe as well.
The other important thing for me is space. Despite being able to buy a used Toyota Land Cruiser, Land Rover Discovery, or Lexus RX330 for the same price as a Honda EXL or Sienna XLE, we are tired of the lack of space and function in most SUVs. Call us Americans with too much stuff. Double stroller, diaper bags, toys, electronics, etc..- that doesn't include holidays, family functions, and church functions where we transport tons of stuff. Nothing smaller than a Tahoe comes close to space - and then its hard to access the back.
We have lots of friends with kids, family close by, and family who visit on extended stays, etc.. There is nothing more satisfying than being able to have dinner with friends with their kids and all drive in the same vehicle. Or to take my wife's mom and grandmother, two kids, wife and myself out shopping, to dinner, etc. without driving 2 cars. For my lifestyle with younger kids - a minivan is the absolute most logical choice over any vehicle if you want room for people and things. Oh yeah, lets throw in the two bassett hounds.
So for me, a minivan is more practical than any other vehicle. I guess I've been brainwashed by marketing and I want a new minivan. That being said, again I have to admit that buying a new minivan or car is mostly for entertainment and ego. The smartest way to buy a vehicle would be to buy a 5 to 8 year old van for $10k and try not to justify my purchase by saying "new vehicles are safer, we need a car that runs,..etc." If you spent $10k on a car and budget $5k for repairs - you are still $15 to $18k below a nice new minivan with leather and selling for over $30k. I also feel that its important to be vigilant when buying a car and trying to get a good deal. But ultimately, when you are making a bad investment to begin with, what difference does $2 or $3k make (say waiting to get a better deal on an 05 Odyssey in a few months) when you are financing over 4 or 5 years and will lose most of your money anyway on a new vehicle/toy?
My wife and I had fun last night and put a deposit on a new 2005 Ody, black. We think it will look great, be fun, and possibly give us the best return on a horrible investment. We could have bought the "close-out" 2004 hondas on the lot for $24k. We want the shiny new 2005. Before we bought it, we had to make sure we were still able to save for retirement and do other things. We know it will be nearly a complete loss. But that is one of the things we choose to spend our money on. The mother-in-law and grandmother will be here in 2 months and will spend a month with us. Then we will drive to Calilfornia with the kids. This van will get tons of full-load use.
BTW - as my kids get older and we have less things, we will probably consider whatever luxury SUVs or vans are on the market. Based purely on ego and fun-factor, I'd like to drop my kids off at school in a shiny new luxury vehicle.
Just a few thoughts.
"calming down" and waiting
until December!
Steve, Host
We will be sitting out of the buying market a few months to see how the pricing settles down after the initial hype and/or cross shopping the Sienna for reduced pricing. We prefer the OD, but can be swayed by a good deal on the Sienna.
IMO, parents are supposed to do the thinking and take a decision, not the kids. First thing, I hope, my kids won’t turn out to be would be show offs. But I guess, this subject deserves its own thread in the News and Views section.
I am pretty sure you must have noticed there were so many Accords, Civics and Elements sitting in the Honda dealership lot with lots of yellow and red tags on them when you go check out the 05 OD. And this could be why the dealerships try to cash in so much so fast when the demand is strong.
I couldn’t speak for the dealerships, but a Honda or a Toyota vehicle has among the quickest inventory turn around of about 40-50 days. In the last days, before the launch of new model, the production cannot have an abrupt, but a has to gradually shift to new model. So, the older versions are still being produced at a decent pace and they will stick around the lot for bargain hunters.
Thanks,
Chris"
No, the $39K Touring Ody and $39K Sienna Limited are NOT Bluetooth enabled, but perhaps the 2007 Hyundai minivan will be :-)***hee***hee***LOL.
I know that a Luxus may not be a "bargain" per se, but bargain does not have to be something cheap. To me, bargain is getting a good reasonable price whatever it may be even though I would have said the same thing a few years ago.
Of course, there are always more than one way to get some where, and each family has different needs. Point was to some of us considering to buy this 05 OD at the premium price, maybe we should re-think our motivations and needs again. And it very well depends on what the other car you have. In my case, drive a trunk, which can handle occasional heavy lifting. If you have a regular sedan, no doubt a minivan would be a big help time to time.
It IS a lot of money for a minivan as our host mentioned before. And, we all want best and safest thing for our kids, but I have seen many people talking about how safe their car was...bla bla, but they don't even put tethers on the child seats, which is much more safe thing to do in my opinion. Some of them drive the van like a sports car (when this guy vounteer to drive for a group lunch, I just say no thanks).
Sorry for a little skepticism, and this forum supposed to be a place for exchanging info on this still mysterious 05 OD, so no more of this..
What?
You seem to be saying (correct me if I'm wrong), that Honda is STILL producing the old models as they gradually shift to production of the new models? Uh, wouldn't that require two completely seperate and independant production lines in the same factory?
And I don’t work for them or affiliated with them, they’re just good business people FWIW.
Not necessarily. But, I don’t think automakers flip the switch between producing outgoing model one day and start producing the incoming model the other, across all production lines. A gradual shift makes more sense.
In case of Honda, its flexible production lineup is designed to handle, not only redesigns, but also sharing of production line between vehicles using completely different platforms (Accord, Civic and Element are sharing production line in East Liberty as of now).
As to teenager, they only care how cool it is, what special features it has not the brand. If they do, it's parents fault because they give them the impression. I never sam my kids so ecited about the power door, individual vent and disappear 3rd row seat (they play after folding out when parked of cause) and tail gate patty. They refuse to take the ride in my wife's new car last year because the space they can have in my more than 5 years old van. You figure.
As the price, you got what you pay for. More safety features, got to have it. Cool stuff like power lift hatch, Lazy Susan storage, why not make your lefe with it easier. I can keep going. I agree Honda pack some desired features only in higher trim but most of them you can live without them if you are tight on budget. Compare to SUV especially the luxury brands, you only can get similar equipe one at $45k+.
I have heard people complain about Toyota's option list are too long. Almost everything is extra but it provide flexibility. Now I read someone complain Honda pack almost everything (for better value) including some they don't want but left out something they want. See? Nothing is perfect and always being criticized when go either way.
I should note that the ride, feel and design of the OD is pretty nice. I'm really leaning toward buying either the EX-L or the Touring model.
Its also shameful that Honda is going the Toyota route by adding the Touring model. Its just another expensive package deal. The power liftgate should have been a standard accessory for the EX-L. Maybe they'll fox this in future. Its akin to buying a Seinna wherein you have 20 packages to choose from. So you get a vehicle with one power door instead of two for $30K.
But waht really irks me is that I can purchase an '05 Grand Caravan with power sunroof, GPS/NAV, Rear DVD, power liftgate, leather and other options for $26K but I'd rather pay an additional $12K for the OD. Oh well...
I'm probably wrong but I don't think the buzz on the new one will be close to the '99 when it came out. At first there will be but honestly it's not that big a difference from the Sienna. In '99 there was nothing like the Odyssey, the Sienna seemed way smaller and everyone knew that the Chrysler's weren't getting the best quality reviews.
It's going to be a great van but I don't think the Honda dealers are going to get away with gouging on price nearly as long as they did the first time around. Worst comes to worse, it'll help bring some of the prices of the Sienna's down
Thanks for the Costco advice. Cush Honda is the dealer I was referred to by Costco, and I had also been working with them on an '04 Sienna until I found out about the big changes in the '05 Odyssey. I understood them to say that they HAD received their Costco pricing and that Costco would not be able to offer a better price than the dealer was currently offering to everybody else. Hopefully that will change in the near future.
-- EVAN
Thanks very much for recommending Hoehn. I'll give them a call today.
-- EVAN
I just called the Internet Manager at Hoehn, and he said they are selling '05 Odysseys only with a dealer mark-up of $3,000. He justified it by saying he has heard of dealers marking it up as much as $7,000 (which is rather hard to believe). I asked him where that was, and he said Orange County.
-- EVAN
The midsize Accord will be built on the same assembly line that produces the compact Honda Civic and the Honda Element light truck, beginning in early 2005, Honda of America Mfg. Inc. announced today.
Try Penske Honda, in Ontario CA. It may be a little away from San Deigo (take I-15N) but they gave me an MSRP on the EX. You can go online and get a price. I am going to wait a little till this stuff stabilizes and try again.
Samy
I went to Penske's web site, but they don't yet list the '05 Odyssey on the page for requesting an Internet quote. (They don't specify the model year, but there is no Touring option, and so I assume they are '04). Same thing for Norm Reeves Honda in all three SoCal locations.
Maybe in a week or two they'll update their web site. I've sent them an e-mail, and I'll let you know what they say.
-- EVAN
As to teenager, they only care how cool it is, what special features it has not the brand. If they do, it's parents fault because they give them the impression. I never sam my kids so ecited about the power door, individual vent and disappear 3rd row seat (they play after folding out when parked of cause) and tail gate patty. They refuse to take the ride in my wife's new car last year because the space they can have in my more than 5 years old van. You figure.
As the price, you got what you pay for. More safety features, got to have it. Cool stuff like power lift hatch, Lazy Susan storage, why not make your lefe with it easier. I can keep going. I agree Honda pack some desired features only in higher trim but most of them you can live without them if you are tight on budget. Compare to SUV especially the luxury brands, you only can get similar equipe one at $45k+.
I have heard people complain about Toyota's option list are too long. Almost everything is extra but it provide flexibility. Now I read someone complain Honda pack almost everything (for better value) including some they don't want but left out something they want. See? Nothing is perfect and always being criticized when go either way.
Thanks for the Costco info. I've been a member for 11 years, and never knew they had any relationships with auto dealers.
Joy Elyse
Thanks :-)
I have 2005 Odyssey on order in the South Suburbs of Chicago. We know we are one of the first few people on their order list. We have been told to expect the car in the 1st 2 weeks of October. We have a 1999 Odyssey. We are getting straight MSRP on this one. I had debated for some time whether or not to order the Touring Edition but after a long discussion with my wife she settled on the Ex with Leather, RES and Navi. I really wanted the 360 watt stereo but do find it hard to justify the additional $4200 based on the stereo and the other added options. I have to admit that the pricing list confirms our decision to go with the Ex with Leather. Seems to be the "sweet spot" in pricing. Has anyone else noticed the difference in Nav/RES pricing between the Ex and Touring editions?
1. exl w/ RES to exl w/RES and Nav, where 2200 difference.
2. touring to touring w/RES and Nav, where 3800 difference.
The MSRP Honda set was way too high.
VCM is just a natural extension of VTEC to simply leave all valves closed, compare to what the VTEC currently is doing: leaving 50% of the valves closed at low RPM, that's why iVTEC, and shouldn't cost more than $100.
Sienna XLE w/ HU package will get you a lot more than Touring w/ Nav. w/ a lot bigger interior, and much better reliability.
To me, once you're talking 38K plus for a minivan, well...let's just say discussions of relative value are beside the point.
- Honda is evolving the Odyssey into an upscale brand, so there will likely be a lower-tier van coming to Honda buyers who balk at the 2005 Ody (we know they have smaller variants in Asia, so this looks likely)
- The value vs. price seems to be there with the 2005, but the dealer price gouging is absolutely ridiculous and a cheap shot. I walked away from the Pilot & MDX over this same greed, and will happily do so again if the Ody cannot be purchased at MSRP.
- Upscale buyers demand near perfection, so this Ody better not suffer from glitches from the Alabama production or design flaws like the transmission. It is unacceptable to me, given the price increase and Honda's engineering.
- Honda can easily screw this up, by letting their dealer's have their way with Honda customers (you are buying a Honda, not a dealer) - or by botching production.
- I have not owned a Honda since the first batch of Marysville production Accords in the 1980's. The car was far less well-built compared to the Japanese Accord that my dad owned (remember this happened to Mercedes with the ML SUV production in Alabama). Honda got it fixed, but lost some customer like me for 20 years.
In summary, let's demand value (pay MSRP max, walk away from dealer mark up and scam add ons) and quality (no defects, and the van cannot rattle apart in 5 years). This way is win-win for both of us.
Good luck fellow Ody buyers.
A Sienna will get you a lot more??? How can 25 horse power less and 15lb less torque is considered "more"??? Not too mention that the NAV in the Ody is years ahead of the Sienna. And where do you come up with $100 for the cost of VCM? If it's as easy as you said then why didn't Honda do it a lot sooner?? Your logic is... well illogical.