New Honda Odyssey

Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
1,838
Location
Germantown, MD
I mentioned in the couple years old thread about my Accord getting wrecked and replacing it with a Civic that my wife recently crashed our 2015 (long paid off 😭) Odyssey and so we just got a new one. I did the send an email to the nearest dealers (about 10 here in the DC area) telling them what we wanted (an EX-L with no extras other than the roof rack) and asking for their best price. Told them all up front that we were buying that week and would be visiting our nearest dealer (who didn't get this email) to look at the van and test drive it and if they had the best price we'd come buy it from them. Got replies from most of them with a range of proposed prices but one in particular beat the rest by nearly 2k.

So with that info we went to the dealer, talked to the salesman, drove one around and picked the one we wanted. Told him we wanted to buy it today if they met our desired price. Gave that to him, $42k out the door including all taxes/title/tags/etc along with the note that we didn't want any extras other than the roof rails. He went and talked with the manager, came back with a price nearly $3k higher. I said look I've got the number of the salesman at the other dealer who gave me the price I asked you to meet, we'll drive down there right now if you can't match it.

So he goes back to the manager who comes back and says oh that van they're trying to sell you doesn't have roof rails it only has the "utility package". I say yes and that's what they call the factory installed roof rails. This one doesn't so I've discounted the price accordingly. Go back to the manager and tell him I know all of this and he's got one more chance. He comes back and says well we can meet the price but to put the roof rack on is another $1,000.

I said I know it doesn't have the roof rack so I'll tell you what, give me the roof rack to install myself at that price and you have a deal. And don't come back and tell me the roof rack is $1,000 again because I know exactly how much it would cost to have it delivered to my house from another dealer and have taken that into account with the price I've asked for.

He goes off for the 4th time, comes back and says the manager has agreed. So it only took 4 cycles to get them to agree to my terms lol.

The new vans are nice, the base model is now the EX-L with the leather seats, sunroof, phone connection and driver assistance features, powered rear hatch, etc but they've done away with the "lane watch" feature that showed a rearward view from the right side mirror in the center display and replaced it with a lame blind spot warning system. Oh well everything else is better.

jeff
 
Congrats. The last two non-Tesla vehicles we’ve bought (Yukon and Bronco) were both purchased from out of state (OK and AR) dealers over the phone. They had what I wanted, at the price I wanted without gimmicks or extras. I didn’t have to go to the dealer and they even delivered them to my house for no charge.

Enjoy the van.
 
Congrats! Base model has leather? What about for us who prefer cloth?

What color? Pics?

I saw one the other day that looked new in a very pleasant color blue.
 
1) I'm surprised you got a majority of dealers to respond to you offer
2) I am not surprised by the silly games dealerships still feel like they need to play with their customers
 
$42k out the door including all taxes/title/tags/etc along with the note that we didn't want any extras other than the roof rails. He went and talked with the manager, came back with a price nearly $3k higher.
jeff
Seems that you probably did about as well as possible considering today's car market. I looked online locally it was tough to find anything under $45K total. You probably had them down to about the lowest price possible where their low profit included their corporate incentives, etc.. You did well but still had to do the in-person dance - it's a pain, but kind of fun also to be in control and watch them struggle with an informed purchaser.

Our current car was purchased new 14 years ago and I am preparing for the shock of new car shopping. I have yet to pay over $20K for a new car.........yikes I'm getting very old! That basic base models mostly don't exist is depressing. Sigh.

Enjoy your new ride.
 
Congrats! Hope you enjoy the new van. Been kicking tires on vans myself lately. For reference, our 2006 Odyssey EX-L (RES/NAV equipped) was $32,650 new. I understand that the current crop of EX-L’s are even better equipped and are, of course, more refined than our 20 year old version. Yet, when accounting for inflation and other taxes, the new vans are ā€œcheaperā€. Google says that $32K 20 years ago equates to about $53K today!
 
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