Scotty:
I know you have recommended avoiding the Honda Odyssey in the past. A coworker just bought a new car and needs to sell his one-owner 2007 Honda Odyssey Touring (3.5 V6, auto) with 119, 000 miles. He's a fairly meticulous guy and I think fairly honest, and only has a one car garage and several vehicles. He said he'll take $3,500 for it. I need a daily driver as my Chevy Sonic has 182,000 miles and is nearly spent. Should I buy the Odyssey, assuming the test drive goes okay?
I wouldn't buy the Odyssey because of transmission problems obviously. My dad does have the same model year. It is a good price for what your coworker asked for, but I wouldn't buy it in general.
Okay, if I took a chance, and the transmission did go out (sooner than expected) what do you think a professional rebuild would cost?
Based on my research, it's around $3800 for the transmission rebuild without a professional.
There's usually not a lot of professionals who are going to rebuild the transmission.
Dang. Okay thanks for the advice.
You're welcome
I know there's a lot of advice given to avoid the Odysseys because of their transmissions. All I can tell you is my own personal experience with them. Years ago I bought a 2002 Odyssey (the worst year reported for the transmission failures). It had 45,000 miles on it when I bought it. These were the years when I was the typical lazy American and did not service the transmission. Ever. I got 325,000 trouble free miles on it before the transmission started to slip. Based on that experience, I replaced that Odyssey with a 2013 model. It had about 50,000 miles on it when I bought it, and it now has 180,000 miles. I've reformed my lazy ways, and do drain and fill transmission servicing with OEM fluid every 40,000 miles and intend to get every mile I can out of it.
I bought both of those vans before I started watching Scotty and was aware of the transmission problems. With what I know now, I probably would have looked for a Toyota instead. But so far, it has worked out for me. That price you quote is probably going to be hard to beat in this day and age (I spent WAY more on my vans when I bought them). At your price, I'd probably be willing to make that purchase. But as with everything YMMV.
For that price yes I would probably get it if it was in good shape and checked out. You may get over 200,000 with it you never know.
If they owner looks like he actually cared for the car and has some records, I would buy it!
