I am a six time Odyssey owner. When I bought my '08, a couple of days later I noticed a $195 charge on my contract for a security system. It was never discussed in the finance office. Plus, I trust this dealer to a great extent so missed it at the signing. I made a phone call and it was explained to me. The finance lady without any hesitation said she'd send me a refund check but the system would remain activated. It's a system they put on all new inventory and try to sell to each buyer. I suspect that if the buyer refuses they don't have to pay Karr for the system. This time (I bought a new 2014 a month ago) the Karr system was discussed and I told the finance mgr I felt I had no need or use for it. No problem and it was not put on the contract. But whatever hardware is involved is still attached to the car. I guess some unscrupulous dealers sell the Karr system based on scare tactics and charge whatever they think the traffic will bear. My dealer, Maita Honda in Citrus Hts. CA sells it for $195 but does not try to manipulate the car buyer into taking it.

I believe the Karr system makes it easy for a dealer to recover cars stolen off his lot which is one incentive he has to put it on all new inventory. And I'm sure the cost to him is nothing or next to nothing.

 

From what I've found out it basically provides gap insurance in case of theft. I don't think it does anything for recovery since there isn't any type of locating device like LoJack inside.
On the plus side it does appear the Karr cheap trick is limited to the Southwest & California but the dealers here in SoCal are particularly fraudulent. The only reason I went for it on my 2011 Fit Sport is because the salesman and then the finance guy both said it didn't come with a factory alarm which turned out to be untrue. The stealer also charged me the higher LA county sales tax instead of the lower Orange county rate like they should have and it took me a while to recover the difference after I went through the paperwork and did the math. You have to watch them like a hawk and run the numbers yourself before signing anything.