Had the Odyssey appraised yesterday for some body work. The van will be 10 y.o. next month; I was planning to keep it 8 years, but wife wanted to keep it longer. We've had it since new, it only has 80,000 km and is super-clean, but our pavers don't allow for yearly oil showers so now rust is showing its ugly head. The bottom lead corner of the left rear fender has already been touched-up by the dealer's bodyshop, but rust is out again and brought friends in the bottom of both left doors. Plus, rust also showed up in the right rear fender.
The indie shop gave me two quotes: $2,700 for sandblast, fiberglass filler and partial repaint, or $3,600 for a full-metal job. Seems par for the course, any opinions guys?
The shop recommends ... the cheaper option, especially if we intend to trade in the van sooner than later. Indeed, wife FINALLY saw the light and agreed to consider some form of PHEV SUV (kids are 18, 20 and 24, all still living at home - we still need a 5-seater, but no stroller room required
).
Resale value at the moment is $16k according to Trader's tool, and that appears right, for an "excellent" vehicle. "Fair" is $14k, so I guess we make up for the repair at resale. In any case, with inventories being what they are, the van needs to get through at least one other winter without the rust getting worse, and the job is guaranteed.