Sunday Night new member!

first off, congrats to the admin group: this is one well organized site!

Just bought a 9.5 yr old 2002, 120K. Rather a base model (EX?) This is as close to MINT as I have ever seen a used car.
At first I panicked about the Defective Honda transmission site, but over here things look much better.
(mine shifts just fine, albeit in a decidedly complex manner -I am hitherto a standard shift guy.)
I will begin the 3x trans oilchange routine tomorrow, as the weather is holding pretty warm.

I propose to use Valv. maxlife, and in a short while will shift over to Z-1.
in my area (Cambridge) there are about a zillion Odyssey's per Sq. mi, so things cannot be as grim as the unlucky ones are saying they are.

I did a T-belt inspection this afternoon--(not difficult; not totally easy). What showed up was the finest of new, soft rubber,
and not too much tension on it, either. With an engine this quiet, I would hear a bad tensioner, too. One plug checked out mint.
So my received line-- that this boat received super careful maintenance-- appears to be holding up.

I am guessing that the previous owner(s) Got panicky about the rather loud bearing whine the car exhibited--
I can suppose that they were told that this was a leading sign of a bad transmission!
however, the noise had a distinct relationship to corner-thrust loading, AND WAS COMING FROM THE REAR!
Whew!..After reminding myself that this was not an all-wheel drive, I realized I had an easy, (and not time-critical) fix.

Regards the transmission, I am convinced that the gentlest of acceleration is the ONLY way to drive these ( I am not in a hurry)
and that trailer towing is just not the right idea. I don't want to shell out excess for gasoline either.
It is not that these units are precisely defective, they are just way (criminally) under-speced for
the weight of the vehicle, and its passenger load, Too much power out of that v6, too.
I'll drive mine as if it had a 1600 cc four in it!

Time will tell if my happy optimism holds up. I could equally well be driving a 0-dollar paperweight in 2000 miles.