2013 and earlier Honda Odyssey Prices Paid and Buying Experience

lapvn · April 2003

thanks to my Ody, I now have sleepless nights. just dreaming of our next road trip.

dyh555 · April 2003

tradein the ody for WS and you will sleep all day and night!

njswamplands · April 2003

because i dont have a nav an fear the passenger seat version

pmaggan · April 2003

We picked up our Midnight Blue Odyssey EX-L-RES last night from Don Jacobs Honda in Lexington. Out the door price was $30,294. In Kentucky, the sales tax amount is fixed as it is based on the MSRP of the vehicle, not the purchase price. In our case, the sales tax amount was $1934.44. We paid $1,000 over invoice for the Odyssey which is $28,360 + $1,934 tax = $30,294.

lapvn · April 2003

Congratulations on the purchase. I also have the midnight blue EXL RES. It is very cool that during the night it actually changes color. Hence the name Midnight Blue I guess, never had one like this before.

But I also have to say that kind of sucks that tax is base on MSRP and not on purchase price. Is there a logic to this that I don't understand?

harryfat · April 2003

Congrats to all new owners on the month end shopping spree.

pmaggan - you sure about the sales tax being tagged to the MSRP? That is the strangest thing I have ever heard. Can anybody else from KY confirm this? Did you call other dealerships and see if that's the local practice or call the KY Revenue Cabinet to get the info straight from the source?

pmaggan · April 2003

I am 100% sure that the tax is pegged to MSRP. I once bought a used BMW for $43,000, but got taxed on $55,000, since that was the book value. KY also charges an annual property tax that is based on the book value of the car. It really stinks and there is no getting around it. On your annual registration notice, they list the book value for your automobile and then calculate the property tax on that amount.

pmaggan · April 2003

Here is the link for the details on the ad valorem tax on KY autos:

http://kvis-kytc.state.ky.us/KyRenewWeb/faq.jsp#adv01

harryfat · April 2003

OK, learn something new every day. But at least you got a good deal on the Ody.

I also notice you guys didn't have other fees like they charge here in CA like tire fees or DMV license plate fees(over $200 for a $27K car)?

Just goes to show that you can't compare "out the door" cost outside of the county/state lines as every jurisdiction is different.

pmaggan · April 2003

Wow, $200 for license plate fees. I'd be really ticked about that, especially since KY seems to have the ugliest plates in the nation. Just when you think the plates can't get any uglier, they prove me wrong.

shifterkart · April 2003

>Wow, $200 for license plate fees

Well, that's just this year. For California, the yearly Vehicle license fee is always based on the sale price of the car pro-rated (100% 1st year, 90% second year). Previously, it was 2% of the selling price, but has been changed to 32.5% of the 2%. So for example, based on $25K.

Year 1 would be $162.5 (25,000*2%)*32.5%
Year 2 would be $146.25 (((25,000*90%)*2%)*32.5%)

This doesn't include all the local fees added.

pacinpelo · April 2003

Hello all,
I am new to this side of the Edmunds world having just taken possession of my new Sage EX-L.
I ran out at $28,600 (Out the door all inclusive price)...that included a 5yr 24 hr roadside asst plan and a 5yr/100,000mi powertrain plan. Although not thru Honda, but that doesnt matter. Good Deal ???? I feel good, but a bit apprehensive as the Odyseesy boards that seem popular are the PROBLEMS and TRANSMISSIONS board.
My reasons for Odyssey over T/C or Caravan:
Engine, 5 sp tranny, Honda reliability and resale and a good lease deal...

harryfat · April 2003

Congrats on the new van and welcome.

How you go from the Buick board (per your profile of previous 5 posts) to here? Big leap of faith in buying an Ody after reading all the problems everywhere...

As you are new here, let me state the guideline (what guideline?) in that when you quote OTD (out the door), nobody can tell you if that's a good deal as local sales tax are different in every state, we have no idea where you live, etc. so nobody will be able to comment. Besides, you already bought the van, what will you do if someone tells you it's a bad deal? Bring it back and negotiate some more? Just be happy with your new van and enjoy it as price now is irrelevant......

what? no Sienna on your van list? Them Sienna boys on the other forum will be outraged you didn't even think about their beloved holy grail..

pacinpelo · April 2003

Thanks for the welcome....Live in South Florida. Fought tooth and nail to beat up their advertised price and received an aggressive deal for a much in demand vehicle, walked out twice only to get lower. Do not want to tell you my horror story on the Regal....anyway no offense but I did not even look twice at the Sienna, the 2004 is an improvement over old though, IMHO. I think Honda will up the ante big on next run.

How is your '03 Ody

harryfat · April 2003

No offense taken on "this side of the fence" on anything you want to say on the Sienna as you're in friendly hands. If you go over to the Ody versus Sienna area, anything you say about anything other than "I am new here", someone will will comment on what you say is biased. But that's the fun part as wholigan just learned today after posting here yesterday and posting there today.

(Hey, Pat, different reception over there than this board on essentially the same post, huh?)

I believe another person in south FL is also looking to get an Ody, Cathleenm on post 3850 (I'm gonna need some help here soon to track all this), so you want to share where you bought your van from? Per Edmunds rules, just the name of the dealership and city, no links/phones/sales people etc...

I only had the Ody for 1 month, so I may not be the best person to ask in terms of the issues. I believe the only other "regular" person on this forum that has owned the van for "awhile" is njswampland at whopping 4 months. The more experienced Ody owners are residing at the other Honda Ody web sites that you are already famialr with. This site is for the "newbies" before they 'graduate' into those forums...

stever · April 2003

Honda Odyssey

Any in the Honda Odyssey Owners Club

and hopefully you won't need to visit the Honda Odyssey Problems board at all.

Steve, Host

glycinemax · April 2003

Lute-Riley Honda Internet has $1500.00 off MSRP on-line coupon on Odyssey today. Richardson(?), Texas.

ldxrunner · April 2003

How can I find out what dealers,the specifics of the ad as well as get a copy of the ad ? This might be worth my time and effort to get to that area, of which I can do. Since I am looking for a new 2003 Honda Odyssey EX with cloth. If you e--mail me I will not give out your e--mail address. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

harryfat · April 2003

I'm getting too old for this. Have to search way way back in the old memory bank to think of a PA deal.

Go look for post 3514, yeah, I know way, way back there. I'm pretty sure I pulled some brain muscles I didn't know I possess going that far back in going back the memory banks.

There's some dude there recommends one dealership in PA that he claims he got a good deal at that time was great price of $1900 off in PA. But the caveat is that we never heard from the dude after that one and only post, so it could be his brother in law who owns the joint and he's giving out freebie promos.

No idea if the deal is even legit. But that's only other PA deal I can recall...

lapvn · April 2003

I think I remember that one. Didn't it go something like Hershey pricing or in that area. Can't recall the whole story it was about where he went elsewhere because he was waiting for 2 months with no Ody in site. I think thats how it went.

idx, search for keyword hershey.

lapvn · April 2003

Again congratulations to all new owners. If you don't mind, please share the price you paid for the car. Not the out the door prices. And also your experiences.

And for the heck of it, color too. Thats just for me. hehehe

lapvn · April 2003

oh my gosh, 3 post in a row, I feel like Andrew....hahahaha

Here is the deal, I know some parents when they hand over the moms car to their kid, they "sell" the car to the kid for $1. This way at the DMV, the kid pays tax on $1. A big whopping 6 cents.

So the way I understand it is that, if my egra has a book value of $4k, but I give/sell it to my son for $1, and I live in KY, my son has to pay taxes on $4k.

lapvn · April 2003

Not sure about the logic in this of selling to the kid for $1. I believe it's something about you can't consider it a gift if you are giving it to your children. So what they do is sell it for $1 and claim it as a loss. I see some advantage to this, but I can also see the IRS knocking on the door.

Harry your the number crunching guru, is that legit?

alsmom · April 2003

I have a offer right now for $28,200 - has anyone seen or heard anything lower? It seems like there could even be some room to go lower. There hasn't been any hesitation in my negotiations when someone goes lower it seems they all want to beat it. Thanks for all of the help. Having all of you out there sure makes this a little easier. I am in North County San Diego. If anyone has gotten lower or heard of lower, please give dealership name if possible or the city. Thanks again!

njswamplands · May 2003

i searched the papers web site and they dont convert full page ads to be in with their classifieds. all i can say was it was advertised in The Record last sunday.

flacroupier1 · May 2003

Just took delivery of an ex-lres...27360...
the wife closed the deal last night 20 minutes after the dealership closed...i was shocked she got it for 1 dollar over invoive..but with holdback, they still make close to a grand on the deal...everyone was happy in the end...and after 8 months of lurking, the oddy is finally in the driveway!!!!

lapvn · May 2003

Congratulations. You have the deal to beat now at $1 over invoice. Can you tell us where you are from for the sake of others wanting the same deal as yours. Thanks. Realy though, that is a great deal. I'm jealous.

shifterkart · May 2003

$28,200 for an EX-L is high (at least by Northen California standards). I think it's time for you to get on a Southwest, Alaska Air, etc. flight for $60 and buy one up here. An EX can be had for $24,900, so an EX-L should be possible in the low $26's. And by the time you drive it back to San Diego, it will be all broken-in :-).

Checkout posts #3749 (pg.187),3864 (pg.194), 3887 (pg.195)

duoduo · May 2003

$200 over invoice in Cleveland, Ohio.

harryfat · May 2003

And the new king of the hill in pricing, by $1, is flacroupier1.

So if you guys stayed until midnight, maybe you could have asked for free accessories like mud guards, wheel locks, cargo trays, free donuts, etc...

Congrats on the new van...

harryfat · May 2003

The IRS will quickly slam the deal s a "sham transaction" as it lacks a "arms length" pricing consideration that 2 unrelated buyers would have entered into. You'll need at least a KBB valuation to support your numbers, if not an outright appraisal.

As for claiming a loss, unless that car is a business use vehicle, you can't claim a tax loss on your personal use auto.

On the gift tax front, you are now allowed to gift $11K per person per year. So if both parents own the car, you can gift away $22K value to the kid. Personally, I don't even have $22K to buy my self a new vehicle (not loaded like them Sienna boys that have the money growing trees in the back yard), let alone giving my kids that. My 2 year old son can have our Ody in 14 years and I doubt it'll be worth $22K, even with Honda's high "resale value"...

harryfat · May 2003

I just want to double check, you are quoting a EX-L with DVD, right? That's the one with the MSRP of $30,360. So if you got $2160 off MSRP, it's a decent price, but you might be able to do better. How many dealerships did you email? Most of people email 30 dealerships within a 120 mile radius (since you're in SD, going south and west is not a viable option). I was under the impression for the most part, LA has one of the lowest car prices in CA. But other people can tell you more.

Shifterkart gave you few good leads on what Bay Area dealerships you can look into for their prices.If you can get a lower price up here in the bay area, see if the local guys are willing to price match it if you present them with an email price quote. But you have to factor in the the time/gas involved to fly up here on early Saturday morning, get the van and drive all the way back down to SD the same day s worth the extra savings.

wholigan · May 2003

Well, I still think I did OK!

harryfat · May 2003

I think you did great. The other dude has to stay late into the night bargaining until the cows/pigs/goats/chickens came home. You just walked in from an ad in the paper and bought yours. That's worth more than a $1...

So you ready to go back into the other forum - Ody versus Sienna - and post more comments and have people tear it apart line by line? It's great...Go back and something provoking like "Sienna's front grill sucks" and see you will get 10 post replies in 20 minutes...

lapvn · May 2003

I think you are in the hole more than you know. You had to pay for the paper, and if that was a Sunday paper, then that set you back at least $5.00.

So your deal was actually $7 over invoice.

Just kidding, you did great, even at $7 over invoice, I could only wish I had your deal.

You reign wasn't long, but sooner or later someone will knock you off, even Steinbrenner knows that.

ldxrunner · May 2003

To duoduo. Would you please tell me where you saw, be more explicit, $200.00 over invoice ? Since you live in Al.

To njswamplands. Would please tell me how I can get a hold of the ad mentioning $1500 below MSRP ? If you would be so generous as to supply me some more information. I may have a deal.

Thank you both for your time and your consideration.

cathleenm · May 2003

purchased the ex-l with tape cassette they put in for 26,616. dont know what invoice is but that is 2244 below msrp. hope i did good

alsmom · May 2003

Yes, it is the EXL-RES (DVD). I only emailed about 8 dealers. The LA area didn't even reply back. But, I've called a couple up there. How do you go about getting the dealers email addresses? I just went through edmund's with my zip code and it pulled up 4. Thanks. I can even wait until the end of the month again if need be. I had an interent guy tell me that invoice for the internet dept. is less than the dealer invoice. That was interesting.

stever · May 2003

I think that salesperson was speaking "off the cuff", Alsmom :-) Interesting, but unlikely....

For other interesting things salespeople say, check out Car Lot Lingo: Talk the Talk.

Steve, Host

harryfat · May 2003

Hi,

Go to Honda's own web site:

http://www.hondacars.com

And from there, type in the zip code of the area you want to look at. If you don't know the zip code, open a second browser window and go to the USPS web site to find the zip code of the city you want to look up:

http://www.usps.com/zip4/citytown_zip.htm

Let's just do one example: Since you're closer to Orange County, try Anaheim area first. I go to the USPS web site above, type in the Anaheim and CA, and then it will give me like 10 choices. Matters not which one you pick, I will just pick the first one, 92801. Now go back to the Honda web site opened on the first browser and type in 92801. Click "go" and you will get like 5 Hondas dealerships within that area and each will have links to go to that dealerships web site and within that you can email each dealership.

After the first five, then go back to the original Honda web page and type in the zip code of the 5th Honda dealership, 90605, and it will parlay you into other Honda dealerships or you can go back to the USPS web site and find a specific city you prefer. With this method, you should find 25 dealerships in no time as you move across the county.

What you also should do is type up your little "request" letter on MS word or something else so you can cut and paste it on each dealership web site when you email for your quest quotes. Much faster than do a one by one quote. Saying you are looking for EX-L with DVD, etc etc and you want a price quote. You can also say "I'm looking for $2600 off MSRP as I have a $2300 off MSRP deal in SD and it's worth $300 of my time to drive out or whatever you like to say". Or you can just leave your price request out, depend on how you prefer to do your price negotiation, up front or later on.

As for "invoice" I was under the impression invoice is an invoice, but other people can correct me. But I also think with Internet sales, they have one less layer of a walk about sales people that sells you the car, so that "retail" commission is eliminated.

Good luck and let me know if you need more help.

blandfordm · May 2003

First, congratulations to flacroupier1 who got his Ody for $1 over invoice and wholigan who got it for $2 over invoice. Those are killer deals that I am impressed with.

So $1 and $2 over invoice were the selling prices of the vehicles. But I am just interested, not counting any state or county-imposed fees, taxes, title, etc., how much did you guys pay in any "doc fees" or "processing fees" or other dealer fees? If flacroupier1 paid more in dealer fees than wholigan, wholigan would still be "King of the Hill".

I only ask because I find it unreal that dealers constantly are so anxious to tell me how they're going to sell a vehicle to me for $_____ under MSRP or over invoice. But they don't mention they're going to charge me several hundred dollars in "doc fees", as if that were just a fact of life that buyers have to deal with like state taxes. To me, the doc fees are crap (hope I can say that Steve and that you don't banish me). It's just a way for the dealer to pay his bills at the buyer's expense and then make pure profit off of the cost of the vehicle. And then pretend as if he were selling the vehicle for less than he is- just telling you the "selling price" of the car, but not mentioning the "doc fees").

lapvn · May 2003

very good point. I know with my deal and most of the dealers I spoke to, we all spoke about the car of the price and destination and thats it. But apparently, in some states, or some dealers, they some HIDDEN charges.
What do you think, maybe those Chicago deals for $2k off at the time were getting charged a misc. fee for $400. Hey that means my deal of truely $1900 off was better then the people in Chicago or Ohio. I doubt it, but I can dream can't I.

Did anyone else pay any other type of fees, besides the usual TTL and destination?

shifterkart · May 2003

FYI, Looking at Today's S.F. Chronicle, Honda of El Cerrito has an ad for an EX for $24,988. So if you're looking at another dealership, you should at least be able to use that to bargain with.

flacroupier1 · May 2003

ah, yes....florida has a "doc fee" of 35 cents per hundred any time a promissary note is written....i could have driven to georgia, or sailed 3 miles off the coast....to avoid the 104 charge, also tag was "estimated" at 188 and i can't wait to see what the diff. is...i should get 38 bucks back...we'll see.....the dealership gives free tires for life....i don't know that i'll wear down to 2/32nds before i buy new ones....that is 3 years away ( i hope)...

still content with my wife's deal...(she did the dirty work)....i just gave her the numbers...

blandfordm · May 2003

flacroupier1, Yeah, but I'm not talking about State-imposed fees. That's law of the local land and a buyer can't do anything about that. What I'm talking about is fees the dealer slips in to suck more money out of you.

If you got an Ody for $1 over invoice and NO dealer fees, just State-imposed fees, then I don't think there is any other way to look at it, you really got it $1 over invoice. However, if you got it with a "selling price" of $1 over invoice, but paid a few hundred dollars in "doc fees", "processing fees", or whatever else dealers like to call the money they're slipping out of your pocket, then I believe the $1 + the dealer fees is what you really got it over invoice.

andrewtran71 · May 2003

Yeah, but it sure is nicer on the Odyssey only camp! I see adds in OKC for $2K off all Odyssey models. If I were buying one today, I would definitely demand around $2.5K off.

andrewtran71 · May 2003

I don't think it should matter where you live. The discount for the Odyssey is now at least $1,500, but if I were buying today, I would demand nothing less than $2.5K off MSRP. The Odyssey has aged very well and is better than before, but the price is dropping.

andrewtran71 · May 2003

Yeah, do you think those demos are a good bargain?
I saw an '03 Pilot (loaded) demo for $7K off MSRP in OKC. Man, if only they had the MDX w/NAV on demo for $7K off MSRP! Here in OKC, the Honda is next door to Acura. In fact, they even use the same building for the service department.

andrewtran71 · May 2003

Harry, I think bashing the Sienna is getting a little boring to me. I would get the Odyssey any day over the Sienna! It's nice not to have Socal4 & hansienna all over me for saying that:-)

andrewtran71 · May 2003

Harry, at this point, I would go for 2 dollars under invoice :-)

2013 and earlier Honda Odyssey Prices Paid and Buying Experience

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