07 odessey ex-l

We're possibly buying one with 60,000 miles for 19,000 on Saturday. The dealership is holding it for us since in is about 2.5 hours away. I've never even driven one. I've driven an 05 Quest,, an 07 Sedona, and an 08 Sienna, but DH read that the Ody is the best minivan of the ones we're looking at.

I just want a vehicle that MIL can get into so that I'm never in the position of knocking on neighbor's doors to take her to the hospital. I'll deal if I hate it.

Am I going to hate it?

I have a 09 Odyssey and love it! We test drove the EX-L as well but we purchased a touring (they handle the same)

I'm pretty sure the 07 is the same. I didn't like the way the Sienna handled because I prefer a stiffer suspension. The Quest has never gotten good reviews from what I have read. The odyssey was the top safety pick in 2009 and that was a big reason we got it as well.

Gosh, no, why would you hate it?

We test drove Sedonas, Siennas, and Odys in 07. The Ody was by far our favorite drive. We would have bought it if we could.

acoro said:

I have a 09 Odyssey and love it! We test drove the EX-L as well but we purchased a touring (they handle the same)

I'm pretty sure the 07 is the same. I didn't like the way the Sienna handled because I prefer a stiffer suspension. The Quest has never gotten good reviews from what I have read. The odyssey was the top safety pick in 2009 and that was a big reason we got it as well.

Click to expand...

.

I used to have a quest and I never got why it got such bad reviews. The had amazing handling and tons of room. It was in a severe crash and held up amazingly.

LISmama810 said:

Gosh, no, why would you hate it?

Click to expand...

IDK. I never looked at Oddys before because they were not anywhere near my price range. The only reason I was able to afford the Quest was because I searched the lot for the one loss leader vin until I found it and got it for less than a Sedona.

I'm afraid it will be no fun to drive like a Sedina or have a crappy turn radius like a Sienna. Considering this vehicle is about 8 grand more than *I* wanted to invest in a vehicle I want to really enjoy driving it. ( DH and I are in disagreement here, he wants to finance a small part of the vehicle because it will help our credit, I want to pay cash and not have to worry about a payment. I'm letting him win because he's letting me win by buying this weekend instead of procrastinating another 6 months.)

teekadog said:

We test drove Sedonas, Siennas, and Odys in 07. The Ody was by far our favorite drive. We would have bought it if we could.

Click to expand...

Tell me what you liked better please. Get me excited so that I'm not looking for problems when we go drive it.

That generation Ody is supposed to be the best handling of all the minivans. Supposedly it is a more fun to drive minivan than the current iteration. I drove it before I bought my GL450 and thought it was nice. I didn't buy it b/c I knew the 2011 was coming out soon and I really wanted the GL. I now have the 2011 and really like it. I wouldn't say it handles like a sports car but it handles much better than I thought it would. Do I love it when I go home to my parent's house and they need me to leave my van for my kids and they tell me to drive their sportier cars.. sure... But to me, the Ody is pretty close to a perfect family car. I hope you like it.

ETA... Just make sure the 07 didn't have tranny issues. There were a few model years that have tranny issues. I think the 07 was okay... But I'm not totally sure.

I LOVE my Ody. I've got an 05 Touring.
I traded in my Expedition for it when my mother was sick and in a wheelchair. She could get in and out of the van easily. WAY more room inside than in my Expedition, could put suitcases, and her wheelchair/walker in the "trunk" and still see out the window.

Great ride, have to be careful because I tend to speed in it

I grew up riding in "nice" cars, my dad's a car freak, and my parents are always commenting how much they like the Ody!

I my '06 Ody. It's an EX-L too, but it has wayyyyyy more miles LOL. No issues. I was just waiting for my last van to die. I don't know why, it never really had any issues besides needing new breaks, but it just felt like it was going to fall apart. Ody is fun to drive. I like driving a minivan, some of my friends think I'm weird, but whatever. With kids, there is nothing better than power sliding doors.

safeinthecar said:

. Tell me what you liked better please. Get me excited so that I'm not looking for problems when we go drive it.

Click to expand...

The Sedona (okay, it was actually the Hyundai twin they've discontinued, the Entourage) felt cheap. I blush to say that, but it did. When test driving over bumpy roads the 3rd row seats would rattle. I had fit and finish issues with it. I've since borrowed my ils' a couple times and YAWN- it's just a boring people mover.

The Sienna was way too "floaty" for me. The suspension was sooooo soft IMO. Hated it, and that broke my heart because the LATCH was superior. Seriously, it made my Camry feel like a race car.

The Ody was solid and tight and fun to drive. If we could have coughed up $7,000 more, we would have bought it. I mean, it's still a minivan, but Honda seemed to keep in mind that people would be DRIVING it, not just MOVING it from place to place.

We didn't bother test driving the Quest because we couldn't afford it. We didn't bother test driving the Dodge/Chrysler vans because the safety features that year were a joke. We ended up buying the Mazda5 for two reasons: price, and the drive was most similar to the Odyssey.

Happy car hunting!

I've yet to meet any Ody owner who didn't love their van.

I'm a Honda girl. I am really really really hating my car right now - man, but few things handle like a Honda. OK, Acura. lol Can not beat Honda power steering and just fun to drive. The reliability and resale factor are also great, too.

Please report back. I'd love to know what you think!

I might be the only one in this thread that is going to post how much I hate my Ody. I've had it for just over a year and in September it's getting traded in for a Sienna.
I know that it's possible for any type of vehicle but I just lucked out and getting a really crappy honda. It's turned me off so much that I will never own another honda again.
Its a 2007 LX model and only had 29000 miles when I bought it last April, and since then we've had to replace the CV axles, the A/C has gone twice now and at this point I'm driving without a/c, the rear windows are fickle and sometimes when I put them down I can't get them to go back up again. It does this weird shifting thing sometimes that my dad says feels like the transmission. I change oil every time it says to and I keep up on all regular maintenance and I've had it, we're saving up for a big downpayment right now for hopefully an 8-pass Toyota Sienna.
Before this I had never owned a Honda and was so excited because I had read so many wonderful things about them but in all of the cars I've owned over the years I've never had this many problems.

We have an '07 EX and we love it (and yes, it's quite fun to drive). Our biggest complaint is the road noise, but from what I've read/heard that's pretty much to be expected with a Honda.

At the time we bought it, we were actually planning to buy an '08 Sienna because we could get the features we wanted within the price range we were looking at. We had test driven an '07 Odyssey LX (the only one in our price range) but hated how cheap the interior finishes looked and had pretty much crossed it off our list when my husband just happened to call the Honda dealer looking to see if they had any '07's left that they were willing to deal on. They did and the rest is history.

We bought it. I love it, but I don't L.O.V.E. it. It's not a truck and I guess I only get hot and heavy about a vehicle that can drive over random objects and climb mountains that shouldn't be climbed. I'll miss being the girl that no road can scare. I guess I'll settle for being the mean old mom that no kid can out-stubborn.

It handles well and doesn't kill my ears with road and wind noise, although it's not the quietest minivan I've ever driven. The sunroof is great and is the source of what road noise I do get, so I was prepared for it to be a little noisier than my old Quest. Overall, I like the sunroof more than dislike the noise, so it's all good. The Corolla has a sun roof that makes so much noise that I can hardly hear my DH talking to me from the other seat, but the Odyssey sunroof is well designed enough that I can use my bluetooth with it most of the way open. There is a severe buffeting effect at highway speeds with the second row windows open that goes away if you open the sunroof some. Open the sunroof all the way with them down and you get a realistically awesome ghostly howl. I can't help but picture driving down the road, car howling and Thriller blasting out of the speakers. Halloween shall be fun.

I like the versatility of seating. Dd2 is ticked that she can't 5 step in the captain's chairs , which amuses me. There are 4 other seating positions she does fit in, but she insisted on putting in a booster so she could be directly behind the DVD player, which also amused me because I have the covers on them because they are only for long trips.

Which brings me to my one problem. The original head restraints were replaced with the DVD player head rests and they sit back from the plane of the seat by about an inch. Front seat head protection looks like it would be greatly reduced because it sits so far away. I thought I could just swap out the DVD head restraints for the original ones when we weren't using them, but they were not installed with a junction on the wires so I'd have to uninstall/reinstall all the wiring every time. Really, this isn't a problem with the Honda, but rather with the DVD player manufacturer. The covers that come with the DVD players are actually quite a bit too big so I think I'll solve the problem by modifying the covers with EPS foam to fill the gap between the back of the head and the restraint.

Overall I think it is a great vehicle and I'm very happy with it.

It is definitely not the quietest car I have ever driven. That was far and away my Rendezvous. Miss you, Rhonda! It's loads quieter than my Mercury van, which pretty sounded as though it might just fall apart at 75mph freeway speeds and combine it with a stiff ND wind, and you were driving your own personal wind tunnel. It was SO LOUD!

My grandpa's Sienna is so so quiet. I personally prefer his Sienna, although he doesn't have an 8 seater which I do like having the option with my Ody. DH claims he does not "fit" in a Sienna, so I guess we will never be getting one of those. He hates driving the Odyssey too, but he does that like 5x a year.

Dood - what happened to the rest of your post?

And CONGRATS on your new wheels!

If the only hangup is the wiring on the DVD player, you can always put in the junctions yourself.

Pixels said:

If the only hangup is the wiring on the DVD player, you can always put in the junctions yourself.

Click to expand...

I've already discussed this with DH, and he says he will (electrical stuff is his department. I *can* do it, but he makes me mental with the hovering and the are you sure yous so I leave it to him).

This still leaves me with using the crappy ones when we use the DVDs though, so I still think I will modify the covers.

Congrats!