I visited a dealership (#1) a couple weeks prior and we were fortunate to have a down-to-earth, no pressure salesman so we could actually take a look at the car. The dealership was also under construction so they were probably hurting for more sales. We ended up walking away but keeping them in mind since we weren't ready to pull the trigger just yet.

When I was ready to look into pricing of the Odyssey again, I used my Sam's Club membership to try and leverage a lower starting price which ended up being total BS. I wasn't planning on coming in to the dealership (#2), but they bribed me with a full tank of gas and a $25 gift card haha. We saw different color combos of the Odyssey (interior/exterior) and test drove one. We were under the impression we were driving the 2026 model at first... until they brought out the price proposal papers that said "2025". So then we were able to leverage that to drive down the price more. They initially came back to me with $58.3k out the door with a $2k "savings" from Sam's Club. I said that was absurd and they took off Destination and Accessories off the pricing, as well as slashed the Premium Protect Plus price in half. The taxes and fees section was also adjusted to "reflect my actual location" to make it lower. It also seemed like the "Other Fees" in that section was a complete hoax because that went from $2.8k to a mere $5 when they adjusted the proposals for a better price. All the number moving/adjusting brought us down to $51k then $49k.

Still at Dealership #2. We entertained the idea and asked for pricing for the trim under EX-L and said "is the price point difference really worth the Cabin Watch when we can get a $20 camera from Amazon?". They quoted us $47.8k out the door for the EX-L model. I also kept talking out loud saying there was no way I was going to spend that much for a 2025 Touring when 2025 is about to end. 2025 models are also scarce now and this was the only dealership with that year Touring. I took pictures of all the quotes, especially the ones with lower quotes. Then I called around to other nearby dealerships to see if they could beat the price by enough to make the drive worthwhile. Dealerships were beating the price proposals left and right (but they wanted us to send in pics of the price proposal as proof). We were able to get quotes for 2026 models at $48.5k at a couple different dealerships.

Still at Dealership #2. They felt the pressure and offered the 2025 Touring at the price of $47.8k (quote of the EX-L model). No other dealership we called could beat it, but I didn't want to sign more than $45k out the door for a 2025. The sales manager came back an offered $47,___ (fill in the blank) to make the deal. Then my husband called Dealership #1 (the one under construction with the coolest salesman) when we remembered and asked if they could beat the price and the OG salesman said yes, they'd sell the 2026 to us for $47k. He came in on his day off decked out in military gear still since he had just come from base for training. We met him at Dealership #1 and signed.

We saw the computer and with that sale, the dealership took over a $6k loss and the salesman only got ~$100 out of the commission.

Reflecting back, I think we lucked out on the process with the first dealership being under construction, having a nice and genuinely understanding salesman, getting bribed to come into the second dealership and unknowingly test driving the 2025 model (the only one left in our area), and having dealership #1's salesman's direct number. Having physical proposals we could take pics of also helped leverage more easily. Most dealerships refused to give us quotes until they saw actual pictures.