[Z32]

I brought my 02 ody in for service (rattle) this morning at the Anderson Honda in Palo Alto in CA. As I was waiting for the shuttle to take me back to work, I hang around in the sales floor. There, they have a 02 Silver Ody w/ EXTRAS!!!! It's a 02 EX model and the dealer added the following items... Complete DVD Entertainment system (Alpine 1006 + Alpine in dash DVD player up front, 2 Audiovox mounted in the head rests.)..THE BIG THING IS: THE DEALER HAD SOMEONE INSTALLED A MOONROOF TO THE ODY!!!!!! Looks really really nice and so 'factory look'!!! AWESOME!!!!! I love that... but with all these options plus the cost of the car, and 2500 mark up, it's selling for 43000 bucks!!!! TOo much.

 

[dsgp]

Did a double take to see if you were from Canada. Price is high even by our standards.

2002 RRP EX

 

[cmt4]

43K??!! To the person who would walk in there and pay that... I've got a bridge I want to sell you.

 

[pearsonrj]

Definitely for the buyer with more money than sense. It seems to me that dealers take quite a risk investing that much money into a vehicle on the lot, not knowing if anybody really wants it. Of course the way they offset that risk is by applying a handsome markup, so that when they do eventually sell the vehicle, all is right in the world for them.

It reminds me of the tactic the new house builders use - have some showhomes with 10s of thousands of $$ of furniture and other things in it to wow your potential customers, then sell them a house with nothing but carpet and lightbulbs... and sell the showhome at a markup for those who can't be bothered to decorate their own house.

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Richard
2002 Granite Green EX-L
Splash Guards, Cargo Tray, Weathertech Mats

 

[pummal]

When I sold my 2001 Ody to a car customizing company, they told me that they were buying it so that they could experiment with it and take pictures for brochures and such.

The man explained to me that normally, they will receive a car on loan from a dealer. They add leather, sunroof, chrome, etc, and then use that car to make brochures to sell those upgrades to others who own that car.

After about a week, the dealer gets the car back with all those goodies in it, and sells it to someone as if they spent good $ installing all that stuff.

So, the car customizer gets their sample car and the dealer gets $$$. The dealer's investment in the car is just not having it for a week or two.

When you see just ONE vehicle at a dealer that is decked out this way, you can bet this is what is going on. However, if they have several, they might actually be installing the stuff.

FYI - the company could not get a dealer to "lend" them an Ody, and so they bought mine from me -- that's how badly they needed a guinea pig.

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2002 Mesa Beige EX-L-RES w/ misaligned, hard to close driver door

 

[robr2]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by cmt4:
43K??!! To the person who would walk in there and pay that... I've got a bridge I want to sell you.</font>

They was a dealer near me who was tarting up LX's to the tune of $34K.

Leather, aftermarket entertainment, wood steering wheel, lojack, alloys, wood dash trim, mud flaps ($150!!!), cargo tray, roof rack, gold package.

They sold plenty of them.

 

[pearsonrj]

LXs are easier to find, so it makes sense for dealer to tart them up to give the customer a range of options. Personally I would be very wary of buying a new vehicle that had been extensively accessorized. Warranty issues, quality issues, reliability issues etc.

------------------
Richard
2002 Granite Green EX-L
Splash Guards, Cargo Tray, Weathertech Mats

 

[MileHighODY]

My oldest son actually worked for the aftermarket company that installs sunroofs, leather kits, entertainment centers, and so forth for the local Honda (and other) dealers. While the quality of the products and the workmanship is generally excellent, there are downsides. Moonroofs especially have an sizable effect on the integrity of the unit-body construction. Although additional braces and supports are welded in to regain the weakened structure that results from cutting a BIG hole in the roof, the stresses on the body are changed from the factory specs somewhat. It is rare that a moonroof can be installed without some structure bracing. The ODY is one vehicle that requires quite a bit. My son suggested that I didn't really want a moonroof when I bought the ODY. Nothing really wrong with the quality or product, just quite a bit of trauma to the structure.