And yet even more on the legendary Honda failing transmissions--Honda won't let you buy a new one on your own

Some of you know about my 2002 Odyssey with 73K miles and its failed
transmission, and American Honda's "generous" offer to pay 50% toward
the cost of replacing it.

And, of course, you know my feelings on the subject.

Anyway, I dropped the van off yesterday. In talking with the service
writer, he indicated that as of about six months ago, if you need to
replace the transmission in your 02 or 03 V6 Honda, and you come in to
ask that the dealership do this, American Honda will not sell you a
replacement unit of any kind under any circumstances.

Please allow me to repeat this: American Honda will not sell you a
working transmission to replace the self-destructing one they sold you 8
or 9 years ago when you bought the car new.

The ONLY way to get an American Honda transmission, he said, is if you
are under some sort of warranty or goodwill accommodation with American
Honda.

????

So the natural question is, how do you handle customers who for whatever
reason are not under such an arrangement?

This particular dealership has an arrangement with a junkyard to get
units from them. The junkyard "warrants" them for life (or, as we all
know, just keeps throwing units at the customer as the old ones die--but
no doubt the customer ends up paying labor, right?).

I didn't pursue this with the service writer. I'll talk with the
service manager this week to clarify. I mean, this sounds low rent
sleazy.

Interesting side note: The transmission I'm getting as part of my
goodwill arrangement is sufficiently different from the grenaded factory
unit that it needs a different control program. Since my control module
can't be flashed, Honda requires that I get a new computer with this new
transmission--hence the high cost of the overall job. Honda's TSBs
flesh this out; this is so important to Honda that years ago, after they
had already replaced a bunch of transmissions and later discovered the
need for the new control program, they went back and GAVE the
already-repaired customers brand new computers for free.

Of course, now I have to PAY for the computer...

Anyway, this puts the idea of taking it to AAMCO into a whole new light.
I don't know the TRUE importance of the new control program; would a
third-party-rebuilt unit similarly self-destruct a few years down the
road because neither the inherent design nor the control computer was
taken care of?

Inquiring minds and all that.

For reference, Honda's 50% accommodation leaves me holding the bag for
$2218 plus tax.

In my mind, that's just retroactively raising the price of the van
$2218. And to think that when I bought it, it was the most expensive
car this dealership had ever sold. Apparently, that wasn't good enough.