2005 EXL RES 1st New Car Buying Experience

Well, this is my first review on this site and it is about the first new car I've ever purchased. Hopefully my experience will be helpful to others.

I am a high school business teacher and was highly opposed to buying a new car because of the immediate depreciation experienced after the purchase. Our first Honda Odyssey was a 2000 EX which we bought from a local dealer after it had been turned in after a lease. I felt like we got a pretty good deal and absolutely loved the van. It was easy to drive and I felt safe with my three children in it. We had less than 50,000 miles on it and I decided to poke around and see what I could find out about getting an 05 during the "Honda Clearance."

First of all, let me say that we payed $31,200 out-the-door. I felt like we got a very good price and absolutely love the car! I started by going back to the dealer we had bought the last Odyssey from. I told them that I wanted to spend $30000 out-the-door and if we could negotiate a deal I would sign papers that night. He would only go to $32,582.35. After leaving and contacting three other local dealers by email and a day of phone calls from one dealer after another they all got down to the $31,200 mark. The dealer that won was the one that promised the hard to come by Ocean Mist blue color.

Here's what I love about the car and what has changed from the 2000 model:

From the driver's perspective, heated leather seats and the lumbar support are great - it's too bad the passenger bucket doesn't have the lumbar support as well. The lighted dashboard is a nice touch and makes it very easy to read. I like how they changed the gear shift and placed it on the dash. I thought I would have trouble making that adjustment, but it seems even more natural to reach for it there. The "conversation mirror" on the sunglasses hideaway is a nice touch to see the kids in the back instead of having to buy and attach one to the bottom of the rear view mirror. The cupholders are really nice and accommodate all sizes of cups, mugs and water bottles. There is more storage available in the front now and the lazy suzan in the floor behind the driver's seat is nice - although still a little awkward to access from the front even with the smaller trap door.

Here's a little difference that I wonder if anyone picked up on. The placement of the power seat adjustment on the driver's seat has been changed just enough so that it isn't hit when the driver gets out of the van. My husband and I always complained about the fact that as you were getting out, the seat would compress and hit that little power lever making it necessary to change the seat adjustment every time you re-entered the van. It was nice to see that they made that adjustment on the new model. The steering wheel controls are easy to use and I like that they added the "mode" button to the steering wheel to make it easier to find multiple pre-programmed radio stations. They changed the wipers switch which took a little getting used to, but I like the new design. I also like that they changed the "high beam" light switch to give you an option of just flashing them or actually turning them on.

The heating and cooling controls are nice. I like having the different zones available so that everyone can control their own personal zone. I like the 6 CD changer, although I would really like to be able to play random songs from all six CDs rather than random from within just one CD. I like that they moved the car adapter plug up a little from the very bottom. It is easier to access to plug my cell phone in for charging. I have also found the seats to be much more comfortable than our previous van and I look forward to trying out the heated seats option this winter. I was worried about whether they would be "sweaty" when really hot this summer with shorts on, but so far I haven't noticed anything like that. We drove a four-hour trip two days after we picked up the van and were extremely happy with how comfortable the car is, how nice it rides, and we thought the road noise was a lot lower than our 2000 Odyssey. It is also nice to have two trip odometers and you can also push the button to see what the outside temperature is. We have not yet programmed the garage door opener buttons, but it sounds pretty easy and will be very convenient.

I was surprised that the economy fuel-saving feature (where it shuts down three cylinders when it's not accelerating) activates as much as it does. I thought it would mostly activate on the highway, but it comes on often around town as well. We drove the four hour trip and only used 1/2 a tank of gas!

The doors feel much more solid and smooth and the hidden trunk hatch is nice. I read a couple other reviews on here than mentioned the trunk hatch being hard to close and I did experience that at first. Now I know you just have to shut it a little harder and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I also read about the little noise it makes soon after you start moving forward. I was glad to read that because I thought there was something wrong with the car. I am still going to call the dealer and ask, but I feel a little better now that I have heard someone with a similar noise.

Now for the having three kids 6 and under point of view. I absolutely love the built-in side window shades. It is so nice not to have to fuss with attaching suction cups to the inside windows and then having them come crashing down when your little one grabs ahold of them and pulls them off. You just have to be careful not to have them pulled up if you want to put the sliding door window down.

The DVD system is awesome! I feel like I have a movie theater on wheels with the surround sound speakers. My kids love it and although the screen is small, the picture is crystal clear. It is pretty simple to access the slot to insert the DVD while driving. The "pop out" remote control is nice too. My son likes to be in charge in the back seat. :-) It's pretty impressive how all of that is in the ceiling, along with the moonroof (which is really nice to let a little sunshine in whether you open it or just slide the cover back). We tried the kids wearing headphones in the back and watching their movie while we listened to CDs in the front while on our trip. It was nice. Our only problem is that our youngest is 22 months and I don't know if she would wear the headphones. The van comes with two sets of headphones and we would have to purchase a third pair for about $60-70. We haven't decided what to do about that yet.

I like the option of the 8th seat because we often take my parents with us and seating has sometimes been an issue. Here's what we do (have done) with our van seating and is what works best for us. When we only had two kids, we put their car seats in the middle buckets and folded down the back bench for more "hauling of things" room. On trips we used to take the middle buckets out and have the kids on the back bench. That way I could get to them in the middle and we had more room. Now that we have our third child, we got in the habit of completely removing one of the middle bucket seats and putting the older two on the back bench. It is just a lot easier to get them in and out that way. Right now we have one of the middle buckets out and have left the 8th seat in - in the folded down "tray" position. We keep the seat cushion part of the seat in the back of the van in case we need it. If we take my parents along, we just put the extra bucket seat back in.

I like the option of the split back bench, although we haven't really used it separately because we have the older two kids back there now. Having the hooks on the back of the bench to hang shopping bags on in the trunk is a nice touch also.

We actually slept in the new van this past weekend and I am happy to report that our aero bed fits nicely in the back with all of the seats out or down. It is tradition to stay on the Hall of Fame parade route the night before and our 2000 van could not accommodate the air mattress so we had to use lots of blankets! We decided to try it with this one and it fit perfectly. It was also nice to be able to roll down sliding door windows for extra ventilation instead of the back window pop outs that the 2000 had.

Overall, I love my new van! It rides great. It is very comfortable and functional and I enjoyed the experience of buying and trying to get a good deal. I really like the blue color, although I think it shows dirt a little more than my gold one did. Even my dad (the pickiest car guy on the face of the earth!) keeps telling me how nice my van is. I'm still breaking it in and finding more things that I like. As you can tell by reading my review, I haven't found much that I don't like. This is my third van (2nd Honda and we had a Plymouth Voyager) and it's definitely a keeper!