Hey everyone! Me and my family are new to this forum and are really interested in buying a new Honda Odyssey sooner later and we aren't really sure if waiting is better so ill tell you our story!
Im going to college this fall (yes I am a college student here on a minivan forum) and ill be a communter student since I live so close to my university (Cleveland State in Ohio), only about 20 minutes on the freeway so ill save about 5-6 grand by living at home vs campus.
Anyway, the car ill be using for now until we get a new van is a 2004 Honda CR-V. Its a base LX with no 4WD so its nothing fancy (no keyless entry either) but its got 93K on it and my family got in Feb. 04 new and its been a reliable 7.5 years with it with the exception of a small pwr. steering leak that was covered under ext. warranty (its got warranty till 100K)
The reason for our interest in a 11 Odyssey is because we have a 2000 Dodge Caravan base that just had a engine failure at 113K. The Timing belt broke while doing 50 on route 20 so it caused the pistons to hit the valves. That van was new also bought new and was probably the worst investment made.
So to replace the 00 Caravan, we will get a Odyssey but we don't if its better to wait till 2013 or 2014 when a refresh comes. We will be able to live without a van till then if we just rent when we go on long trips but its nice to have something that will fit 7-8 people on short trips. Our family has 8 people, which includes my widowed grandma.
Because we do have 2 other cars, an 09 Toyota Yaris and a 2010 Honda insight EX. So if we need to haul anything we can just use the CR-V if we decide to wait on the 30-35K purchase. I think you can also agree that the CR-V has at least 3 years of good life left.
We will either buy a EX or EX-L model w/NAV if we buy now and what really is keeping us from buying now is the 1st model year bugs (seeing lots of issues with low battery on this forum) and the dreaded 5 speed.
Its not really urgent that we need a van NOW but the sooner we get it, the better? Is the refresh 2-3 years from now going to make a better van? Or should we just go ahead right now and plunk down the 35 grand for a EX-L? What do you think?
Im going to college this fall (yes I am a college student here on a minivan forum) and ill be a communter student since I live so close to my university (Cleveland State in Ohio), only about 20 minutes on the freeway so ill save about 5-6 grand by living at home vs campus.
Anyway, the car ill be using for now until we get a new van is a 2004 Honda CR-V. Its a base LX with no 4WD so its nothing fancy (no keyless entry either) but its got 93K on it and my family got in Feb. 04 new and its been a reliable 7.5 years with it with the exception of a small pwr. steering leak that was covered under ext. warranty (its got warranty till 100K)
The reason for our interest in a 11 Odyssey is because we have a 2000 Dodge Caravan base that just had a engine failure at 113K. The Timing belt broke while doing 50 on route 20 so it caused the pistons to hit the valves. That van was new also bought new and was probably the worst investment made.
So to replace the 00 Caravan, we will get a Odyssey but we don't if its better to wait till 2013 or 2014 when a refresh comes. We will be able to live without a van till then if we just rent when we go on long trips but its nice to have something that will fit 7-8 people on short trips. Our family has 8 people, which includes my widowed grandma.
Because we do have 2 other cars, an 09 Toyota Yaris and a 2010 Honda insight EX. So if we need to haul anything we can just use the CR-V if we decide to wait on the 30-35K purchase. I think you can also agree that the CR-V has at least 3 years of good life left.
We will either buy a EX or EX-L model w/NAV if we buy now and what really is keeping us from buying now is the 1st model year bugs (seeing lots of issues with low battery on this forum) and the dreaded 5 speed.
Its not really urgent that we need a van NOW but the sooner we get it, the better? Is the refresh 2-3 years from now going to make a better van? Or should we just go ahead right now and plunk down the 35 grand for a EX-L? What do you think?