We have a 2000 Honda Odyssey that’s been absolutely awesome for us (many cross-country trips). However, it has 270,000 miles on it and my mechanic says the transmission needs to be replaced soon. Cost to replace transmission is about $3,000. Vehicle is worth $4,500 or so.
Do I replace the transmission in hopes that I can get a few more years out of the car, or do I consider this the beginning of the end, cut my losses, and move on?
That’s a tough one - do you really think you could get $4500 for one with 270k miles? 270k is about the life for most vehicles, something else big could give out.
I’d move on.
How are you going to use your Odyssey? If you are going to make cross country trips, then there are many other things besides the transmission that could leave you stranded, I think I would accept a resignation from the Odyssey and move on. If you are going to use the Odyssey strictly around down to shuttle the kids to activities and have another vehicle for a road car, it might be worth fixing the Odyssey and let is serve out its remaining years in semi-retirement.
Most of our vacations are the driving type, so we need a reliable vehicle to vacate happily.
I’m inclined to agree that it’s time to move on.
$4,500 is optimistic, to be sure.
I’m going to say no. Time to trade it. I had my trans overhauled at 300K just as a precaution and ran the car to a little over 500K but looking back over the mileage and expense information, I would have been better off dumping it at 300K. The next couple hundred thousand was when all the little hard to diagnose issues started to develop along with the frustration. You got your money out so let someone else deal with it.
I’d put that money towards a used Toyota Sienna or 2005+ Odyssey if you want another mini-van. 1999-2004 Odysseys are known for failing transmissions. This is coming from the owner of a 2002 Odyssey with no tranny problems yet.