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I'm in love.

3K views 8 replies 9 participants last post by  Contemplative 
#1 ·
I randomly looked for cars under two grand on my local CL. I don't know why but I stumbled upon a nice looking '95 that is local and seems to be super clean. I love quirky, cheap, unique cars. Anyway, I'm pretty mechanically inclined but I wanted to make sure that there wasn't much to go wrong with these vans. I see that the 97 and older transmissions are better as far as reliability and that the van is basically an Accord. Both of those are awesome to me. The van in question is a 1995 with a little under 200k miles on the clock. Anything I should look for? The asking price is 1400. Is that reasonable? Thanks in advance.

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#2 ·
Looks like it should be in your possession already.
hellva lot cleaner than mine is.
When you get do the timing belt and water pump, unless they have record of it being done already.
Adjust the valves, drain and fill the tranny. Replace the shocks, make sure it's got good tires on it and drive with a smile on your face.
 
#5 ·
I just wonder, what did you decide and what is your opinion by now if you bought the van? IMHO the Honda Odyssey is not a good choice. During my lifetime I have had more than 10 cars; two of them were Honda Odyssey 1998 and in my opinion, besides a Citroen XM, the Odysseys were the worst car among them. Low quality, weak materials, terrible design. Well, the shape of the van is not too bad and fortunately still quite easy to get cheap parts. If you can fix it yourself, you can have a 6 seater with relatively cheap but continuous maintenance. It can drag itself through city but forget about sudden sprint or acceleration or keeping 75 mph comfortably. The Odyssey 1998 is especially a bad design with undocumented changes, it is a mixture of the old 97 and later implemented changes. If you know how to rebuild it from changing piston rings to changing transmission filter and axle bearings, then go for it. But you should not have high expectations and forget about your clean and oil free spotless driveway. IMHO
 
#7 · (Edited)
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with your Ody. I count myself among the hundreds of other forum members with positive experiences. We bought our Ody with 120k on the clock more than 6 years ago. Our maintenance experience has been normal for a front drive 4-cylinder car... shocks, struts, timing belt, spark plugs, radiator, etc. V-TEC engine runs great, transmission still shifts great, etc.

I can't agree about with you about design flaws or inability to keep up with traffic on the highway. Our van pulls strong away from stop lights, and easily cruises at 75.

I've owned to many cars since I was 16. Before and during the Ody's tenure with us, I drove a full size '95 Chevy with an LT1 V8. We bought the Chevy with 59k, and sold it with almost 330k. It still ran well, but the A/C compressor was out and I was ready to move on. The big rear drive Chevy didn't take a lot of maintenance, but with so many miles, a lot of repairs had to be done multiple times. For example, I went through a few starters, alternators, and radiators. On the plus side, there was no timing belt maintenance to worry about, and no front struts to wear out.

Before the Ody we bought a 1993 Mercury Sable with 100k. The transmission lasted about 10k miles before it left us stranded. I got rid of the Sable... I didn't like it that much, and I didn't like my chances with it. This isn't the only car I didn't have good luck with, so it's not like I have a Midas touch or anything.

Everybody's experience will be different, I wish you luck with your next car.

Long live the Ody!
 
#6 · (Edited)
I bought my 96 Odyssey two months ago and fixed it up for the enjoyment of working on Hondas. I've had 3 other CB (90-93 Accords) so when I saw this was available, I figured I would give it a shot since its basically a 5th gen Accord. Super easy to work on and parts were very plentiful at salvage yards and even aftermarket ones were very reasonable. PM me if you're interested in it. I've recently put it up for sale. I have two other cars, an LS400 and an H22 swapped 93 Accord Coupe, so this really is too much for a single guy like me haha. Its also got the Honda Accessory wheels on it. Cool quirky van with plenty of tuner potential and you can easily convert it to a 5spd and toss an H22a JDM VTEC motor in and make it a quick sleeper of a van.

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/5965561078.html
 
#8 ·
Mine has close to 235k on odo & I still love it. Had 65k on it when purchased. My kid is driving it now & is in love with it and already talking about another engine if it ever needs one because my kid likes the van so much. Easy to drive, comfortable, blind spots are minimal if any, and maintenance wise, I'm real happy. I bought another for future, a 1995 with approx 110k on odo, stored in garage for now. An old lady had it with all the documentation from dealer servicing. It came thru an estate sale because she died. Maybe I'll be the next person to die before it does. hehehe
 
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