| We decided on the EX-L, which is the second to highest-level van from Honda. It is really nice, very comfortable, and the dealer actually gave us a great price. We had purchased from him in the past, and he remembered that I had sent him about 15 sales over the years. Our salesman is now one of the dealership managers so we really came out well.
From the time we arrived at the dealership, until the time we pulled out of the parking lot was about 2 hours! We knew what we wanted in either Nissan or Honda (he sells both) and we told him what we were willing to spend. We picked a van on his lot that had everything we wanted (from Honda you choose vehicle packages), gave him a price we were willing to pay including our trade-in, and he actually beat the price we gave him by about $300. The entire deal was done in a very professional manner!
Just as a final note, those who say there is no difference between dealers are foolish. The difference between 3 Honda Dealers, on an EX-L, all equipped the exact same way (with one very small additional feature on the van we bought) was over $5000 from the most expensive to the van we bought. Comparing it to a comparably equipped Nissan the difference was over $7000 from the most expensive to the van we bought. The strange thing is that I bet we could have gone to a Nissan dealer in another part of the country and found a Nissan Van at the same price we paid for the Honda. The difference between the Nissan and Honda at the dealership this afternoon was less than $1000.
Thanks to those of you who gave me advice throughout this process. Just as an aside, I titled the van in my wife's name due to my health problems. I also had the title of my truck changed over to her name. I'm hoping that this will help her in the event that my upcoming surgery does not go well. We have been married for 27-years so I have no fear of her running off with the postman, but I did have fears of her being in an older vehicle if something should happen to me.
As we get older, and the reality of our fate sets in, isn't it amazing how much we grow up and want things to be nice for those people we love!?! I also find it amazing how often we are willing to take time to offer advice and encouragement to people we don't even know, just as many of you offered up your knowledge about this car, when I had very little knowledge about it when I started looking for a new van.
Thanks to you all for being nice people. Sometimes people here can get a little testy at times, but 99.9% of the time this is a great place with great friendship and comradeship!
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