Anyone recommend an Odyssey?

Hi, I'm looking at an '03 Odyssey with 130,000 km's on it for $12,900 and a '07 Uplander or Montana with 70,000 km's on it for $12,000ish. I would like to know from other's experience what would be the better buy? I have an '01 Venture right now, but it's on it's last legs and I'm hesistant to buy another GM van. It just seems like it's one problem after another. Just looking on this site, it looks like the Honda transmissions are a big problem, so that scares me off too. I've heard that Odyssey's are great vans also, so who knows? Anybody? I would really appreciate any advice, thanks!

Mike

my odyssey has 141K on it now. I got it with 87K for $11000 back in 2007. I put 1000 into it for timing belt service at 105K. According to the service records the tranny was replaced at 82K. I don't know if the replacement tranny is going to hold up, so I've always got that hanging over my head. In hindsight I wish I had bought the 99 venture we were considering at the time. I'd be a few thousand dollars ahead right now, but thats water under the bridge. Aside from the poor tranny, you can't beat the Honda reliability.

You are in the range of model years plagued with bad transmissions on the Odyssey. You are taking a big risk the transmission will go bad and maybe it already has. When the Odyssey transmission flares, that is, revs without engaging, the problem starts out very intermittent then gets worse with time. This symptom may be hard to recreate on a test drive. I would look elsewhere.