I bought a '98 Ody this weekend. It was a matter of fate as I was
probably only an hour or so away from buying a new Mazda MPV.

I stopped by the dealership to check out a new Ody. They (Grand Honda
of Elmhurst, IL) were advertising '04 EXs for $24,774 - only the
second or third time I had seen any price for them in a Chicago ad.)
Alas, a tape measure confirmed that it was just too big. We were down
to just a few candidates to replace the '92 Volvo Wagon - vehicles at
least as big inside as the Volvo and small enough outside to fit in
our 1926 Model T-size garage. These were:

2004- Mazda MPV
2002- Sienna
1998- Odyssey

I had an ad for a 2004 MPV for $17K and that was looking like the next
stop, but I asked the sales man if he had any '98 Ody. Turned out
they had just taken one as a trade-in on a new Ody. (Note the first
element of fate.) Turns out it was an EX with only 50K miles. Very
clean inside, outside had a few dings but I'm not fussy about that.
The first price they threw out was $12.9K, which was about in line
with the asking prices for others I had seen. I told the salesman we
were off to buy a Mazda, but if he wanted to give us a "whadda ya
take" price we would consider it. (At this point the wife was already
in the car waiting to leave.) He said $10.2K. Back in the car we
discussed it for, oh, thirty seconds. It just didn't make sense to
pay an extra $7K for a new Mazda, but the truth is I'd rather have a
six-year-old Honda than a new Mazda.

When I checked my journal that night, I noted that it was exactly two
years earlier that I had swapped cars with a co-worker so I could see
if his '98 Ody fit in my garage. (Note second element of fate.)

We have put about 300 miles on it so far and we like it a lot. If it
had tighter handling and a V6 and a 6-speed manual it would be nearly
perfect. I expect that I will do a plus-one tire conversion on it
next summer.