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And this is advice from a car salesman. That's honest, clear advice!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
MODERATOR /ADMINISTRATOR
Find me at kirstie_h@edmunds.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
Review your vehicle
So why not leave them here as well?
They were good, factual posts that would be questions one might have for a car dealer. Sure, move totally unrelated posts, but when they also make sense could they be copied rather than deleting them from where they originated and can be read in context?
I can understand copying some of them to that discussion, but they fit here as well, and I think you are doing a disservice to those who have been following gkbenji's story on this discussion.
Any suggestions on how to and who to use to ship a car from Washington, DC to FL? What am I looking at for cost - around $600 or so?
After all my Sienna travails, I am going to buy new from Fitz Auto Mall in MD. They are offering a 2005 Sienna XLE Limited (exact one I wanted - color, options, etc.) for under invoice - something I can't pass up. And coincidentally I am going to be in Washington, DC for Thanksgiving, so I figured it was good karma meant for me to purchase this car.
Now I need to get it back home. I can drive it, take the auto train, or ship it. But I have never shipped a car, so I am looking for some assistance here.
Even if I need to pay for shipping, I am saving a significant amount of money by buying the car here vs. locally.
Thanks for your help.
I would much rather do that, than have my car shipped...
Just my $0.02.. I'm sure others can help with auto shippers.
regards,
kyfdx
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I am from NJ - longest 'trips' I ever took as a kid was from my home town in Wayne (north east NJ) to the Jersey Shore. 70 mile drive. My dad would bring the car into the shop for a tune-up ahead of time, took two stops on the way down, etc. That was considered a very far trip!
So for me 14 hours may as well be 3 days - seems impossible. I guess it is all perspective and experiences.
Damon
I've done 11 or 12 hours straight through (Denver to Las Vegas) -- wife did a 2 hour stretch, I did the rest. Not nearly as many places to stop and rest along the way as you will have along the east coast.
Enjoy your new vehicle!
kcram
Host - Wagons
the reason is..
I went to the honda potamkin dealer on 11th avenue on last friday, and paid in full with a certified check. the salesman who called me to tell me TODAY that they did not have the car that i specified. and he said to me that it would be a back order, and take one or two months or more to get it. he was trying to persuade me to change the color WITHOUT Offering Anything. I ordered the sandy color. it was unexpected. But I did not give in.
I haven't called the sales manager or the customer service.
it may be shortage Honda CR-V in the US?. I got a message from the forum. Now I can have a little to believe the salesman at Honda on 11th Avenue at 50th street in Manhattanl. He told me that he looked around 500 dealers in 7 states in the US for my CR-V. and told me that He could not find it. so that He had to do a back order.
But, It is some mystery to me that He could have checked it before he accepted my payment. He quickly suggested me to change a color without offering anything. . Is there any trick? or they want to get rid of the color the have right now. that is what I feel.
I remembered what he said to me at the end of meeting? He asked me to tell Honda survey customer servise that he was a rate 5 highest rate when the customer representive called me. that is a nonsense!
I feel now disgusted with him.
This car does have a salvage title.
Can I get some advice on whether one can donate a salvaged vehicle to a charity without having a special evaluator look over the car?
Here's another idea, and one people rarely think of - search dealers out of your area (PA, OH, VA, etc), find your color - get a one-way plane ticket, fly out, drive back - problem solved.
You might also post in the Rebates, Incentives, APRs - Questions & Comments discussion.
MODERATOR /ADMINISTRATOR
Find me at kirstie_h@edmunds.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
Review your vehicle
Terry.
How do I say this in a nice way.?
Are you NUT's ........?!?
You don't pay for houses, boats, boat docks, jewelery, Russian wives, landscapers or Girl Scout cookies upfront ... a nice deposit-fine.! .. ALL the money upfront.? you must live in Disney World ...............
PS: I'm the Prince of Uganda, and if you send me a check for $2,500 I will send you the balance of the estate of $5 million dollars ...... yatti yatti yatti .......... ;^}
Terry.
Let's focus on a solution only - driftracer is spot on. You may get some slick talking from the dealership, trying to get you to wait for the vehicle and allow them to keep the money, but legally, they can't.
MODERATOR /ADMINISTRATOR
Find me at kirstie_h@edmunds.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
Review your vehicle
Call the dealer, speak with the General Manager and see how fast they can "cut" the check - and I don't mean next week.! .. they don't have the vehicle and it doesn't look like they have made any attempt to find your color, so they have -0-, na da, Zip, no vehicle, no vin# ...
The funny part is, if it was me, from a 1,000 miles away, I would have had that dude dropped in your driveway so fast you would have thought is was the second coming of Jesus .l.o.l... they just ain't that hard to find, believe me ...... all that nonsense aside, just make sure you do this in a very "calm" "cool" and professional manor ...........
Terry.
If you have your heart set on a certain color then don't let the dealer talk you into switching. If I were you I would tell them that I want to cancel the deal if they can't produce the car I want in a reasonable amount of time. If they give you a hard time about it then tell them you are going to file a complaint with the New York Attorney General. Consumer Protection laws are designed to protect against deceptive business practices. http://www.oag.state.ny.us/consumer/consumer_issues.html
I recently canceled a deal and kept asking for my $1,000 deposit back that I paid for with a credit card, but I never got a response. Finally, I sent an email to the salesman telling the him that I wanted my $1,000 put back into my account by the end of the following week or I would file a complaint with the attorney general. He ended up leaving me a phone message and sending an email to tell me that he would credit it back to my account that day.
You'll eventually find the CR-V you want. There are a lot of all of the dealerships in the New York area http://www.domesticsale.com/auto dealers/NY/
Good Luck!
Also, cancelling a deal after leaving a deposit, unless you have a death in the family or some other major emergency, is not very considerate at all.
Personally, when I was a SM/F&I guy, I made sure documents were signed that indicated a deposit was non-refundable - prior to that, we were left holding the bag after incurring dealer trade expenses, and that stuff adds up quickly.
As I understand it, here in MI, if you don't drive off, there's no deal, and you get all your money back. But never mind the law... I don't understand why a lot of this has to get so painful.
Some of it is brought on by the dealers... I went to buy a half dozen oil filters on sale at the Toyota dealership (flimsy excuse, but hey..) and stopped in the showroom to look at the new Tacoma. Checked out the e-cab, decided that its not worth the extra money except for resale considerations... I enquired casually after the availabilaen pea from running to the manager seeing if they "could get" such a truck.
Good grief, by that time I'd told him I was a return customer, a *happy* customer, a customer who remembered his previous salesman, who no longer worked there ... you'd think he'd tried to establish a relationship first and gone after the truck second.
But that's who a lot of customers meet at the dealership, and papers are signed and checks written before there is a car... not a good thing.
-Mathias
True, a vehicle should never be picked up (located, I'm talking about) until you know you have a deal, but you have to have at least the availability of a vehicle to have a deal to begin with!!
I finally got a CR-V just recently and I actually paid about $200 more than the first one I was going to get. I bought it from a really nice dealership that is a little less than two hours away and in another state. The CR-V I did get costs a little more, was a little more trouble to go sign for and pick up, and is a little more trouble to register, which I still have to do, but I had such a good experience and the people at the dealership were so friendly that I don't mind a bit.
Long story short is I bought a new 2005 Sienna XLE Limited from FitzMall in Maryland and drove it back home to Florida over Sunday/Monday. Price I paid is same as dealers are asking for low miles 2004 models, so I feel like I did well.
Drive home was very easy in this car - laser cruise control worked very well. Only problems were I put on 1000 miles(!), and I got one paint chip on the hood. I will try to get some touch-up paint to repair.
Once again, thanks for all your comments over my purchase decision.
Damon
As it stands in all the other States ... no ticky.! no washy.!
Terry.
Terry.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Unfortunately, you have to go over $60,000 to get it in a Caddy
Contract law has been discussed to death a few times in town hall over the years, but there are very specific rules about what you can do. I forget the terms, but you can't always put conditions in a sales contract if they violate the law. I think the issue with keeping deposits is proving that all conditions were met by the selling party, and if they didn't deliver the car, they weren't.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Someone in this DG quoted Al Capone - "You get more done with a gun and a smile than you do with just a smile" - or something to that effect.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I tried to be nice about it, but when he didn't respond at all after I tried contacting him two or three times I didn't care who I had to tick off to get my money back. As hard as money is to come by these days, getting your money back is worth a whole lot more than worrying about rocking the boat and making a bunch of strangers mad or worrying about who is going to do your next oil change.
Ask specifically and I'll be glad to answer - ask generally and you'll get a decent overview, but I'm sure I won't cover what you're looking for.
___A quick question that some here might be able to answer?
___I have followed the Accord groups pretty closely for the last year or so. I am seeing many below invoice deals being concluded on brand new 05’s let alone what has become a std. for 04’s over the last 6 months or so with well below invoice deals even after the past and present factory to dealership rebate(s) applied. How can Honda dealerships from around the country do this without losing their @$$? Holdback does not appear to cut it by all the discussion in this group? Do all dealerships receive special un-announced factory to dealership incentives for selling an allotment of vehicles without Edmunds, Carpoint, KBB, Joe’s WunderKind car data, whoever knowing anything about it?
___Here is just one dealership in my locale (Chicagoland area) that offers these types of Accord deals week after week, month after month Sometimes it’s an LX V6 4-Door, sometimes an EX-L I4 Coupe w/ Auto and NAVI, sometimes the EX V6 4-Door w/ Auto and NAVI or like this week, the LX I4 4-Door w/ Auto, EX-L I4 Coupe w/ Auto, and the EX V6 4-Door w/ Auto
http://grandhonda.com/images/weekly_specials.jpg
Invoice w/ Dest.: 05 Accord LX I4 4-Door w/ Auto per Edmunds: $18,945
Deal: $18,333 including Dest. + $53.52 doc. and TTL.
Invoice w/ Dest.: 05 Accord EX I4 Coupe w/ Auto per Edmunds: $22,650
Deal: $21,888 including Dest. + $53.52 doc. and TTL.
Invoice w/ Dest.: 05 Accord EX V6 4-Door w/ Auto per Edmunds: $24,539
Deal: $23,998 including Dest. + $53.52 doc. and TTL.
___The only incentive for the 05 Accord’s is the 1.9% for 24 or 60 months for the few souls that might qualify? This dealership located fat dab in the middle of the Chicagoland area as well as those larger dealerships on East and West Coasts have been doing this on Accord’s for over 6 months now and I just don’t understand how its possible for them to sell their highest total sales automobile at a loss for months on end?
___Thanks in advance.
___Wayne R. Gerdes
All dealerships .. Honda, Chevy, Mitsu, Yota, Lexus, Chrysler etc etc.com, have to make "X" amount of dollars and "X" amount of profit, so knowing the invoice is convenient, but that doesn't mean the dealer will, or even "can" sell the vast bulk of their inventory for a loss, it just doesn't happen ...
As far as Edmunds, Carpoint, KBB, Joe’s WunderKind car data, whoever .. they offer some great idea's and some wonderful information, but they don't pay the bills and sometimes misinform, or at least, give the consumer a false sense of comfort, until the consumer hits the street and "most" find out their figures just don't play in the "real world" .... can a dealer sell a few here and a few there at a loss, of course, it's a lost leader, it's nothing more or nothing less than what Best Buys, Sears, Dilliards and Toys R' US does on a daily basis ....
I think what ends up happening in this world of instant news, instant dinners and instant gratification is the consumer gets lost in the fantail of it all .....
Also the size of the store has alot to do with it, a Honda store that sells 80/120 units a month isn't going to sell 60 units at invoice or less, they can't and they don't - and why should they.? ... dealerships watch their "daily" inventory sales veery closely and they stay on a "rolling average" - as an example, this unit made $1,181.02, the next one made $253.67, this one for $1,945.78 and the one that sold 2 nights ago for a $854 profit ..... then the dealer principle and/or the GSM makes a decision during the week to only except "X" amount of dollars per sale for the rest of the week, or the rest of the month and then do a pass/accept on all the other offers - and that depends on all sorts of things ..........
All that being said, right now is the "tumbleweed" time of the year, it lasts until "around" the first of January .. most dealers will sell vehicles for a figure that would normally never happen, because of property tax, year end incentives, rolling incentives, floorplan, auctions, CSI, stuff like that ..............
Terry.
It's also common accepted that new cars are one of the least profitable aspects of a car dealership. F&I, service and used cars are all supposed to add more to the bottom line.
In some cases (the domestics come to mind) it almost seems that they only keep the new cars around to justify being there, and to get people in the door.
FWIW, invoice +/- on Accords has been the norm in my area (outside Philadelphia) for a few years now, at least at the volume dealerships. But, since they all are in the process of moving to bigger pieces of land and putting up huge new buildings, they most be making some money.
I would guess that honda probably has a pretty high average gross per unit, and certainly is one of the higher brands for $$ sales per store.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
We may buy one in the near future, and I could let you know how we plan to do it.
Just for variety of course, or he can stick with the Bobst(r) method (copyright pend.)
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
The big dealer group around here in Boston is Herb Chambers - 27 locations with 18 brands. Everything from Kia to Mercedes and even Vespa. He's building a new luxury store in my town but hasn't released the brand yet.
here's the question. is there a lot of turnover when a group buys a dealer?
also, when u worked for lithia, did they change your operations at all?