See post 7462, we just made a deal on a similar car...
It was an EX V6 Coupe, MSRP is $26,950 + $515 destination, without our 3 dealer installed accessories, mentioned below.
We got it for $25,300 out the door, including all taxes, fees, destination, & the following 3 Honda OEM accessories installed: Wing Spoiler, Fog Lights, and Interior Auto Day/Night Mirror - Honda packages these 3 on their web site as the "Sport Package", I guess because the wing and fogs give it a sportier look...
$23,356 for the car, including all 3 acc. & destination charge. -This is well below Invoice - $809 Holdback - $750 April Incentive when you consider the accessories, they were almost "free"... $1401 Tax $242 DMV $198 Doc Fee (somehwat B.S., although they all do it to show lower price on car) $54 Credit Check Fee (B.S. I know) $54 Co-applicant Credit Check Fee (more B.S.)
Total = $25,300 "Out-the-Door", no trade-in was involved.
Consumer activism at its finest hjc, I’m all for it. We’re close to O’Hare but I don’t have a problem venturing out since my daughter will be relocating so service convenience is not a major consideration. Based on preliminary quotes I’ve gotten thus far, dealers seem to readily give up on the $750 dealer incentive without much fanfare but unwilling to dip into their 3% holdback. Dwynne, you cautioned against exorbitant doc fees, for the benefit of car buyers in IL, for 2005, the maximum dealers here can charge is $55.39, an increase of $1.84 over 2004.
IMO you did very well just before the trade-in. This would have meant the dealer made $265 on the sale (probably fair, at least from a buyer's perspective) . But you would have been better off selling your old car yourself. You could have gotten an extra $2-$3k (perhaps more) than what the dealer paid you by selling to a private party. There is a tool in Edmunds.com that prices a used car taking into account location, mileage and condition in three different ways: trade-in price, private sale, dealer selling price. You will see that there is a material difference between "trade-in price" and "private sale price". This would seem to apply even more here, since you decided to add the trade in AFTER you negotiated the price on the new car, which means you could have pocketed the difference yourself by selling your old car to a private party instead of to the dealer. I guess the downside would have been that you would have to advertise and let people test drive, etc. Most people don't enjoy that. Also, some people may need to monetize their old cars (sell it) before being able to buy a new one. Finally, there are some tax benefits to trading in versus selling.
I know we shouldn't really care about how much the dealer makes (as long as we think we paid a fair price), but incidentally, the dealer will probably make even more than what what I mentioned above, since they will sell your old car for the "dealer selling price" instead of "private sale price".
But overall you should be very happy as the EX V6 is a great car (or so I hear). I'm shopping for one myself and hope to get it in the next few weeks.
We met with two dealers, walked away from one. One would not go below dealer invoice. Both said the "incentive" was out of reach for their dealerships. I have no idea if that is actually the case. The dealer we bought from said even if they met the sales requirement, the incentive would not be passed on to the buyer. We offered $500 above the consumer reports "wholesale price". If there are better deals to be made in the twin cities, I would like to know about them! At 1.9%, we decided to finance part. Again, Hopkins Honda was very good to work with. I would drive out of my way to buy from them again. Of course, assuming they give me the best deal which they did on this purchase. Good luck, we hope you can do better. By the way, we just picked the car up last night, we are very happy with how everything was handled and ...it is a very nice car.
Well, just because they owed $11k on it does not mean they would have made more selling it to a private party The car may have been worth just slightly more than the trade allowance and they were upside down on the loan. They did mention they are in a tax credit for trade state, so getting an extra 5-8% credit for the trade means an extra $400-800 off the tax on the new car.
Not enough info to know for sure - we would have to know the make, model, condition, and miles to evaluate how bad (if at all) the deal was.
My comment that he (or she) would probably get more money by selling the old car to a private party instead of trading it in was not related to the amount of money he owes or that he is upside down on the loan. It was purely based on the fact that the "trade in" price is usually the lowest, followed by "private sale" price and finally "dealer price". This would make sense since there are no middle man in a private sale and usually the dealer would try to minimize the trade-in price to maximize his profit. But you're right, we don't have enough details (model, location, condition, mileage) on his old car to know what each of these prices would be. Finally, there is some "non-quantifiable value" in trading it in, since he is avoiding all the hassles related to having to sell the car himself. That value will be different for each individual.
benm, for 25000 OTD on an invoice of 24000, I'd be willing to drive anywhere in Illinois. Think we can pull it off with two cars on the line? I understand the tax in Chicago is a bit higher at 7%, since it's 6.25 in central Illinois.
dshmel2: Check out Jordan Motors in Des Moines. I purchased my '03 EX V6 Navi Coupe there two years ago. I went to Holmes first, and ended up getting a $3,000 better deal (there was a trade involved) with Jordan Motors. They were awesome. They found the car that I wanted at another dealership, trucked it in at no charge, found a home for my trade, and got me a great rate on me loan. All at no added cost. On top of all that, I didn't even have to go to Ames. I did this all from their Des Moines Acura/Nissan location. Honestly, I don't know how Holmes sell ANY cars!
The prices here in IL seem to be a bit higher than NJ and CA. I contemplated buying in NJ (i'm from an area near there), but for the hassle I just did it here. Grand seems to have lower prices but they are known for being, well -cheap and sneaky (i'm being nice about it). I got a quote from them and worked it from there. Honda of Lisle was real quick to match but wanted a credit card to hold the car (yeah right). I did hear from a former collegue who did an awesome deal through the online sales department with Jacobs Twin (it's on the edge of the city). He somehow ended up getting a CR-V for $1500 under invoice in December. I got mine at Schaumburg, and they were good to deal with. Ideally I could have messed with Grand and saved another $4-500 or about $1K by going to NJ, but like I said the hassel was the offset for me.
IL sales tax at Schaumburg was 7%, and I had a trade as well. I could have done better on the trade by selling it outright, but it's just a thought for next time.
Package deal may go to your benefit. Never hurts to just call somewhere and get an idea. I called McGrath in Elgin, O'hare and Motorwerks in Barrington but never went. Just wanted an idea of who had lower prices and were easier to deal with.
just my 2 cents
Best advice is to reasearch and print out anything you find and take it with you. Schaumburg tried to stick KBB invoice price on me when Intellichoice was about $1K less.
hjc, you’re right. The nearer you get to Chicago, the higher the taxes are. City dwellers pay as much as 8.75% - one reason some car buyers flee to dealers in the collar counties to save a little bit. Your target price of $25,000 out the door is not unreasonable but I think $25,500 is more doable based on another quote I got the other day. In addition to the $750 dealer incentive, they’re cracking open the holdback by shaving another $200. Come Saturday, if that’s the best deal on the table, I’ll most likely go for it. I’ll shoot him an email and see how close he can get to your bottom line.
lilduke99, I also emailed Schaumburg initially but they kept calling instead and seemed to want to talk about almost everything under the sun but a quote. The same is true with Barrington. Muller, O’Hare, Pauly and Continental were more upfront with aggressive quotes.
Begining stages of working with dealer and wanted to get opinion of folks on this forum about May incentives - any thoughts on if the 1.9% goes away?
Dennis - Any input? How are you doing with your search in GA? Anyone you rec? Also any answers why Carsdirect has a $1k ~ $1.7k lower price for same car in NJ?
I already got a car for my wife - last month a local (TN) dealer got close enough to the GA and KY prices for me to do the deal. We didn't know if the incentive would be continued or not - in fact it went up from $600 to $750. "Who knows" what it will do in May - may go away, be the same, be more, be less. They had 2.9% for up to 60 months in March, but dropped that in April. They could drop or extend the 1.9% - just don't know.
I just kept up the contacts and got current prices from them, so I can post them and steer folks that way. Someone from here just got a car from the dealer in KY I was working with (from a recommendation from yet another forum member).
If you e-mail me via my profile I can send you the contact info for the Atlanta area dealer that will give you a nice price. They are not going to give as low as some NJ prices, however. If I were you and you are ready to buy - I would do it by Saturday. Dealers will be highly motivated on the last day of the month.
Some dealers don't seem to discount certain Accord models as much as others, I have noticed. Strange how that is. The loaded up car you want has a TON of hold back in it and would SEEM to be a slower seller (not that many folks want a really expensive Accord) so it would SEEM you could get well under invoice on this car.
If there are better deals to be made in the twin cities, I would like to know about them! At 1.9%, we decided to finance part. Again, Hopkins Honda was very good to work with. I would drive out of my way to buy from them again. Of course, assuming they give me the best deal which they did on this purchase. Good luck, we hope you can do better. By the way, we just picked the car up last night, we are very happy with how everything was handled and ...it is a very nice car
Hopkins did accept my e-mail offer of $25,900 for the EX V6 with Navi. I have been driving it for 12 days now and have no regrets. I just got a call from Bloomington/Richfield Honda today and the saleswoman asked me if I was still interested (I took my first test drive at B-R). I told her I bought the car at Hopkins and she was dissapointed that I didn't give her a chance to match the deal. I told her she acted disinterested and seemed unwilling to give me a good price. I told her I came up with 25,900 as a price I thought was good for me and offered the dealer a fair margin. She then told me she had a customer picking up an EX V6 with Navi today for 25,400. Whatever. I personally don't like the dynamics of playing on dealer off another in a bidding war. I may have left some extra money on the table, but I am happy with the entire transaction and wanted to buy from a local dealer, one with extended service hours, etc.
I think it just depends on who you deal with at each dealership. To be honest, the guy I dealt with at Schaumburg was real laid-back and not into pressuring me the first time I test drove there. A week later after the guy from Grand had called me over 15 times (no exaggeration) and still wouldn't answer any of my questions I figured I'd try calling the guy at Schaumburg. He said he was more than willing to work a deal with me around Grand's inital quote. It wasn't the easiest negotiation but a lot better than it would have been at Grand. I was ready to stuff a sock in the guy's mouth at Grand. Interesting enough I have head of people having bad experiences at Schaumburg, but hey it happens everywhere. I'd be more than happy to share my salesman's name and his manager whom I dealt with via e-mail.
Honda of Lisle was just a little too pushy about "holding the car" for an hour or so until I could get there. Barrington was real snooty over the phone and quoted me $26K for my EX-V-6 w.o navi. HAHA :surprise: I did hear continetal had pretty good deal, but they are kinda far from me.
I saw it while I was getting my '02 Civic Si serviced. (After various bouts of vandalism and theft -- including the front seats -- I was about ready to unload the Si.) It was on the back lot, unlocked with the keys in it!
They started out out wanting $12,8xx difference, which I thought was ridiculous. We then got to $9500 difference, but that was still more than I wanted to pay, because I live in Jersey City, near NYC, and don't see the need to spend a whole lot on a car. So I said $450 for four years and I'll take it, knowing that meant they would have to come down another $2K or so. After a little back and forth between the salesman and manager, they took it! It ended up as $76xx difference +TTL, structured as giving me $11,180 for the Si (what I owed on it, and at least $2k more than its real trade-in value) and me paying $18,8xx for the LX. I added a 7/75 warranty for $985, so I'm financing $20,7xx at 4.59%, resulting in a payment of $476.
I'm pretty happy with the deal. Keep your eyes open; there are still a few '04s out there!
so benm, are you up for tomorrow? I need to know if it's going to be worth the 2 hour drive up there Which dealers are you talking with? (I just called Decatur this morning, and they gave me a IMO nonsensical price of 25.1 before taxes. They said I had the wrong information, so naturally I asked their invoice. They promptly told me back that I "don't even need to know" their invoice, because they aren't in the business to sell cars at invoice. lol)
I just picked up the EX-L 4 cyl, with prot. package and XM for 21,800. OTD was 23,4XX, since I wasn't offering a trade to offset taxes. Hope this helps. It worked out something like this:
I've been looking around for the past few weeks, reading posts and getting names of dealers. I asked for quotes for all costs except tax and license. My best quote was from AutoWest Fremont, $21,140. Just fill in the quick quote space on their website http://www.autonation.com/dealers/autowest/autowest-fremont/default.asp
I couldn't take the time to drive from San Diego to Fremont so I looked elsewhere. I went to Spirit Honda's website and filled in their contact page. They gave me a quote of $21,451. We bought the car today. There was no haggle on the price, they didn't try to sell me anything, although the warranty was mentioned. We did a test drive and they showed me how everything worked. Very friendly and professional. We were there an hour and a half. While we were paying for the car, it was washed and filled with gas.
Another Southern California place to get a quote from is Kobe Honda in Reseda. They gave me a quote of $21,486 and said they would beat the price of anyone in Southern Cal. Email them at info@kolbehonda.com
I like this way of buying cars. All three of these dealers gave me these quotes to start, I didn't have to pit them against each other or argue about dealer holdback.
hjc, I've narrowed it down to Continental in Countryside. If you haven't talked to them yet I emphatically urge you to. Email me in case you need a contact name. Earlier I was leaning towards O'Hare where I also sent your offer. They couldn't swing it but didn't make a counter offer either. Sounds like Decatur has outgrown their down home midwestern charm.
nedpep, congrats and thanks for the info. I'm also curious, what's included in the protection package?
Congratulations on your new car. I'm also located in SD. I have a couple of questions for you: 1) Did you try anybody else in San Diego? 2) Did Spirit Honda they have a good selection to choose from? 3) What color did you end up getting? I'm leaning towards the EX 4cyl AT (no leather) with dark graphite color.
I visited Cush, Pacific and Tipton and spoke on the phone with Poway. The closest anyone could quote me was $1,000 more than Spirit Honda. Spirit has a huge inventory and can get whatever you want. My car is Graphite Pearl with gray leather. Good luck!
Anyone knows what happened to Wayne R. Gerdes (screen name xcel)? "Long time no see" or in this case "no response" from one of the active users on this forum.
Dennis is doing a fine job with his insight on all things Honda .
We could have probably offered less but decided to go with $500 over wholesale and hopefully be done with it. I would not go to one dealer, only to go to another then back to the first. That is a game I won't play. I learned alot from this site-mostly that many of the deals are not available in every part of the country. We bought previously from dealers outside of the twin cities and also wanted to buy from a dealer in the area this time. I would have liked to do the offer through email but wasn't sure if that would have been taken seriously although people on this site do it all the time. Maybe we'll go that route next time.
Just bought a 2005 Honda Accord Ex V-6 with Navigation for $23, 889 plus ttl. It literally just rolled off the truck with 1 mile on the odometer. We were able to pick our accessories instead of what the dealer would have put on. They ended up giving us a rear spoiler for free. I pick it up tomorrow. I am really happy about it!
That price is even better that the quote we got from Open Road in NJ ($ 24,995 +TTL) for the 05 Accord EX V6 with NAVI. Could this be a sign that the 06 Accord is getting close ? Maybe Honda wants something "new" to compete with the new Sonata so they're releasing the 06 earlier than usual. We're in the market and are curious about the new features that the 06 Accord will get. We'll see what happens.
Anyway, congratulations atlgirl1 on your new Accord.
That's a pretty amazing price. Makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong. I can't get $24,200 +TTL here in Utah and that's for an EX V6 w.out NAVI. I haven't given up yet though. The V6 EXs are all leather so I know we're not talking about different cars. Maybe if I hold out until June.
correction - The final quote from Open Road was $ 24,495 for a 05 Accord EX V6 with NAVI but even $ 24,995 would be a good price (I think) which was the price another dealer in NJ wanted.
$23,889 is almost too good to be true. Usually you only get a deal like that when dealers are trying to push a vehicle to make room for next year's model (or the new models have already arrived).
So far I've read that these features/changes are coming to the 06 Accord: changed front/rear, VSA (stability control), 10 hp increase for both engines, LED taillights. Nothing confirmed of course.
Went to Pat Peck Honda in Gulfport, MS to buy an EX-V6 6sp coupe no Nav. Had talked with a salesman a few times, he threw some numbers out. After punching "end of the month" pricing into a few calculators I knew how much I would like my payment to be and I stated that number clearly. The numbers he gave me didn't add up and I told him "what's the deal with your numbers? They don't get me to where I want to be for FINANCING." He said, "Look, it's the end of the month, we need to sell a few more cars to reach our goal. That is a lot of money for our dealership. Your 75 mile drive will be worth it and we won't send you home unhappy." I was like alright! Drove an hour and when I got there, after driving it, we sat down and he brought back some numbers and I was like, "you know those numbers are not gonna get me to my monthly payment by a long shot." He said, "Oh, wait, yeah for a LEASE you will be fine. That's what you wanted right, that's what you told me, right?" I was so p.o.'d. I basically asked for the keys to my car and walked outside. After a minute he invited me back inside to meet with the Sales Manager. After, BSing about golf for a sec he cut to the chase and told me blah blah blah the dealership has to make money, whatever...bottom line was that we did not reach a deal and I left. They definitely low-balled the trade even after the manager saying that my trade-in is currently selling at a few hundred under retail at the auction. Of course, I caught him in that statement and said "there you go, that's the difference I need to get my payment!" He replied that the market was so up and down it's hard to predict, yeah whatever. So I left. Drove back an hour with nothing. Learned a few lessons. Can't trust a darn person. Hope this story helps someone out there.
I just bought a 05 Accord 4door EX, 4 cylinder automatic from Zimbrick Honda in Madison, Wisconsin. The purchase was smooth and easy, and I couldn't have been happier with it.
I do know a salesperson there (we know each other from church) so that may have something to do with it. I've been looking at cars for about a year now and finally decided on the Accord. I knew there may have been incentives in April, and they were running good financing deals. On about the 25th I sent her an email saying basically, I'd like to shoot for invoice but I'd be willing to go up to the KBB new car blue book price (about $400 over invoice). I left her my cell number because I'd be away from my computer the next day.
She called me back and said we have a deal. She got me the car at invoice but I paid about $200 for the wheel locks & splash guards that were already on the car (and which I would probably have bought anyway). Put a bunch down and financed the rest at 1.9% for 36 months.
So far I love the car. The sound system is great, I'm loving having an automatic, and the kids and I really like the sunroof.
IN West Covina , Ca. Honda dealer quoted me 27, thousand and change w/o the Nav. A friend refered me to a broker who will get me the car for thousands less. I have had a LE camry for 10 years and loved it. But I saw the new Camry XLE and the Honda Accord EX, and I liked the Honda better. Perhaps variety is the spice of life.
Some questions. I understand the new 2006 are coming out this summer, has anyone heard of what changes the 06 will make? I understand the whole body will change? I am not in any great hurry.
I have read the forums and many are getting online deals, what precautions are you taking to protect yourself?
What the difference from a coupe to a sedan? Besides the coupe being a little more sporty. I didnt get a chance to see the Coupe.
What is the average price for the best deals for a EX-Honda Accord sedan V6 with Nav ? You think my broker can beat it?
ATLGIRL - Guess you are picking up your new car today - congrats! What color did you end up with? Live in the ATL and looking at the EX v-6 with Navi - curious about what dealership you worked with? - Did it take lots of haggling to get at the $23.9? Did you pursue any financing? Drove to a few dealers this weekend - Honda folks seemed busy, Nissan guys were wheeling and dealing - placed was PACKED and the Volvo folks were fairly quiet - Audi guys actually closed early! Curious about your whole experience! Thanks for the info
ronmexico- We ended up with a black EX V-6. I started off emailing dealerships in the area for the quotes. Gwinnett Place Honda came back with the $23.9 quote immediately. I called to confirm that the price was accurate--I thought it was way too low or he quoted me for the wrong car. He double checked and said it was for the EX V-6 with Navi. I kept in touch with him for a week and we set up an appointment to meet with him Saturday. And believe me--the appointment was worth it. I have never seen so many people in a dealership in my life. He did admit those with appointments definitely get helped first. At first I thought he was going to back off of the price but he didn't. (I took all of the emails we had exchanged with me to the dealership just in case) Since the car just rolled off the truck we got to pick the accessories we wanted so it added a little to the price(we got mud flaps, a rear spoiler which when you look at the paperwork--they never added in so it was a freebie) and the finish which we were told we had to get. We had a trade-in. They gave us a good deal on it - above Edmunds quote for trade in by $600 but we still owed quite a bit so it did not completely pay it off. And once you add the destination charge, all the taxes, title and fees it was still an affordable car for us. But just to make clear--the $23.9 was before any other taxes, tags ,fees or destination charges. We liked our experience. It was the smoothest we have had. I think it was mostly because we did our research, knew what we wanted and had a price when we walked in. We did finance at 3.9%, 60 months no deals there. Hope that helps!
Sounds like a great deal, but not including the destination in your price explains why it sounded so SUPER cheap. If you post a price you should include the destination at least - since we all have to pay it and it is a hefty $515 on the Accord. A lot of difference between saying "I paid $23,900" and "I paid $24,415".
Also what does Gwinnett charge for a dealer or doc fee? Another Atlanta area dealer charges $398 for a doc fee - so not showing that in the price again makes the $23,900 very misleading. Saying "I paid $24,813" with a doc fee does not sound nearly as good as $23,900 either
Normally you would post the price for the car including destination and any dealer/doc fees. This is what anyone else would have to pay MINIMUM to get the car at the same dealership. My taxes and reg fees are different than yours, so those would not be included in your post and each of us could figure those for ourselves.
Finally, when you got the quote did you tell them you had a trade and what it was? If not at what point in the negotiations did they find out you had a trade? Often dealers will give out low-ball quotes (and leave out destination and doc fees) to get traffic into the store then make up the difference on the trade. If they will do $23,900 + dest + dealer fees without a trade and their dealer fees are "reasonable" then that is indeed a nice price for that car.
My apologies for any confusion that I may have caused and I appreciate the information for future reference. I think it would be best if I return to simply a reader of the forums--think I am still new to them to know all the rules. Again--sorry for any confusion
You did get a good price, but when you posted $23,900 everyone got out their calculators and tried to figure out how the dealer could do that and lose so much money. Adding in the dest fee explains some of it - but it is STILL a great price.
How much was the doc fee? Educate us. Hennessy always gives nice quotes, but you have to make sure they include their nearly $400 doc fee in the price they give you - for example. Heck, even if your dealer charged a $500 doc fee then you still got a good price!
ATLGIRL1 Thanks for the details - much appreciated - off to contact Gwinnett and hopefully have a similar experience! By the way - went to Curry on Saturday and salesman mentioned that they had received a huge shipment that morning too. Coincidence?!
Thank you. Like I said-- I'm new--or maybe it was the excitement of a new car. If I recall correctly, the doc fee was $389. I haven't gotten the car yet and all the paperwork is with it. Once I get it I will verify the doc fee. As for the trade-in--they knew about it up front. The dealer did say he took a loss on the car but because they were a high volume dealer and wanted to maintain that status they would occassionally take losses on some deals. Like I said--once i see the paperwork again I'll verify it for certain. I do know that it wasn't something that was astronomical -to me at least. Apparently it was a big push for this weekend through today. Again, thanks for the info.
The price paid for a new car if a trade was involved will be misleading. The only accurate way to list a price paid is to include everything except for SALES tax and with NO trade involved also AFTER the car has been delivered.
Atlgirl1 - I think there are more than a few of us still interested in the outcome once you get the paperwork back....we all recognize that your particular experience might not be the exact we could expect BUT it is still very valuable information to have regardless.
Please let me know the response you get from Gwinnett. I always viewed the forums as a place to get ideas, like you said not everyone will get the same deal. There are too many variables that are different for each deal--trade-in, location, taxes and others. I also realize in all the excitement as JB stated, I should have waited until after I had all the info in front me. Nonetheless, I certainly have benefited from everyone's input.
We are at the start of a new month now too. The finance options may change and the dealer incentives may change as well. With a whole month ahead to sell cars, I could call your same salesman and get a LOT worse price than you got
We got my wife's Accord on the last day or March to take advantage of the $600 incentive. We didn't know that April would bring $750 or we could have waited
Since we don't know what the deals may be this month, nothing wrong with going ahead and getting a good deal when you can get it. Folks that did not may be sorry if Honda drops the incentives this month. Or those of us that already pulled the trigger may be sorry we didn't wait if Honda bumps it up to $1,000 per Accord this month
The incentives for May will be determined in part by how many cars they sold in April. Last month Honda was very prompt in releasing the numbers (early April 1 they were out), but I just checked and they still have not posted the April numbers and it is late in the afternoon of the 2nd.
Comments
It was an EX V6 Coupe, MSRP is $26,950 + $515 destination, without our 3 dealer installed accessories, mentioned below.
We got it for $25,300 out the door, including all taxes, fees, destination, & the following 3 Honda OEM accessories installed: Wing Spoiler, Fog Lights, and Interior Auto Day/Night Mirror - Honda packages these 3 on their web site as the "Sport Package", I guess because the wing and fogs give it a sportier look...
$23,356 for the car, including all 3 acc. & destination charge.
-This is well below Invoice - $809 Holdback - $750 April Incentive when you consider the accessories, they were almost "free"...
$1401 Tax
$242 DMV
$198 Doc Fee (somehwat B.S., although they all do it to show lower price on car)
$54 Credit Check Fee (B.S. I know)
$54 Co-applicant Credit Check Fee (more B.S.)
Total = $25,300 "Out-the-Door", no trade-in was involved.
My current pricing for the LX Accord Sedan with Automatic is $17,633 plus $384 and $42 for registration.
I assume an out of state buyer would not pay the $42 so the car would be $18,107 + you pay the tax and whatever your reg is.
They also remarked they didn't think a dealer could be doing $17,000 on the same car.
Dennis
You asked for feedback, so here it is:
IMO you did very well just before the trade-in. This would have meant the dealer made $265 on the sale (probably fair, at least from a buyer's perspective)
I know we shouldn't really care about how much the dealer makes (as long as we think we paid a fair price), but incidentally, the dealer will probably make even more than what what I mentioned above, since they will sell your old car for the "dealer selling price" instead of "private sale price".
But overall you should be very happy as the EX V6 is a great car (or so I hear). I'm shopping for one myself and hope to get it in the next few weeks.
Just my 2 cents.
Not enough info to know for sure - we would have to know the make, model, condition, and miles to evaluate how bad (if at all) the deal was.
Dennis
The prices here in IL seem to be a bit higher than NJ and CA. I contemplated buying in NJ (i'm from an area near there), but for the hassle I just did it here. Grand seems to have lower prices but they are known for being, well -cheap and sneaky (i'm being nice about it). I got a quote from them and worked it from there. Honda of Lisle was real quick to match but wanted a credit card to hold the car (yeah right). I did hear from a former collegue who did an awesome deal through the online sales department with Jacobs Twin (it's on the edge of the city). He somehow ended up getting a CR-V for $1500 under invoice in December. I got mine at Schaumburg, and they were good to deal with. Ideally I could have messed with Grand and saved another $4-500 or about $1K by going to NJ, but like I said the hassel was the offset for me.
IL sales tax at Schaumburg was 7%, and I had a trade as well. I could have done better on the trade by selling it outright, but it's just a thought for next time.
Package deal may go to your benefit. Never hurts to just call somewhere and get an idea. I called McGrath in Elgin, O'hare and Motorwerks in Barrington but never went. Just wanted an idea of who had lower prices and were easier to deal with.
just my 2 cents
Best advice is to reasearch and print out anything you find and take it with you. Schaumburg tried to stick KBB invoice price on me when Intellichoice was about $1K less.
lilduke99, I also emailed Schaumburg initially but they kept calling instead and seemed to want to talk about almost everything under the sun but a quote. The same is true with Barrington. Muller, O’Hare, Pauly and Continental were more upfront with aggressive quotes.
Dennis - Any input? How are you doing with your search in GA? Anyone you rec? Also any answers why Carsdirect has a $1k ~ $1.7k lower price for same car in NJ?
Thanks all!
I just kept up the contacts and got current prices from them, so I can post them and steer folks that way. Someone from here just got a car from the dealer in KY I was working with (from a recommendation from yet another forum member).
If you e-mail me via my profile I can send you the contact info for the Atlanta area dealer that will give you a nice price. They are not going to give as low as some NJ prices, however. If I were you and you are ready to buy - I would do it by Saturday. Dealers will be highly motivated on the last day of the month.
Some dealers don't seem to discount certain Accord models as much as others, I have noticed. Strange how that is. The loaded up car you want has a TON of hold back in it and would SEEM to be a slower seller (not that many folks want a really expensive Accord) so it would SEEM you could get well under invoice on this car.
Dennis
Hopkins did accept my e-mail offer of $25,900 for the EX V6 with Navi. I have been driving it for 12 days now and have no regrets. I just got a call from Bloomington/Richfield Honda today and the saleswoman asked me if I was still interested (I took my first test drive at B-R). I told her I bought the car at Hopkins and she was dissapointed that I didn't give her a chance to match the deal. I told her she acted disinterested and seemed unwilling to give me a good price. I told her I came up with 25,900 as a price I thought was good for me and offered the dealer a fair margin. She then told me she had a customer picking up an EX V6 with Navi today for 25,400. Whatever. I personally don't like the dynamics of playing on dealer off another in a bidding war. I may have left some extra money on the table, but I am happy with the entire transaction and wanted to buy from a local dealer, one with extended service hours, etc.
Honda of Lisle was just a little too pushy about "holding the car" for an hour or so until I could get there. Barrington was real snooty over the phone and quoted me $26K for my EX-V-6 w.o navi. HAHA :surprise: I did hear continetal had pretty good deal, but they are kinda far from me.
They started out out wanting $12,8xx difference, which I thought was ridiculous. We then got to $9500 difference, but that was still more than I wanted to pay, because I live in Jersey City, near NYC, and don't see the need to spend a whole lot on a car. So I said $450 for four years and I'll take it, knowing that meant they would have to come down another $2K or so. After a little back and forth between the salesman and manager, they took it! It ended up as $76xx difference +TTL, structured as giving me $11,180 for the Si (what I owed on it, and at least $2k more than its real trade-in value) and me paying $18,8xx for the LX. I added a 7/75 warranty for $985, so I'm financing $20,7xx at 4.59%, resulting in a payment of $476.
I'm pretty happy with the deal. Keep your eyes open; there are still a few '04s out there!
I just picked up the EX-L 4 cyl, with prot. package and XM for 21,800. OTD was 23,4XX, since I wasn't offering a trade to offset taxes. Hope this helps. It worked out something like this:
21,800 -- Selling price
55 -- Doc fee
1441 -- Tax
143 -- Plates (new)
-----------
23,439 -- OTD
Hope this helps.
thanks,
cusafr
http://www.autonation.com/dealers/autowest/autowest-fremont/default.asp
I couldn't take the time to drive from San Diego to Fremont so I looked elsewhere. I went to Spirit Honda's website and filled in their contact page. They gave me a quote of $21,451. We bought the car today. There was no haggle on the price, they didn't try to sell me anything, although the warranty was mentioned. We did a test drive and they showed me how everything worked. Very friendly and professional. We were there an hour and a half. While we were paying for the car, it was washed and filled with gas.
https://secure.webmakerx.net/Quick-Quote.aspx?hostname=spirithonda.com
Another Southern California place to get a quote from is Kobe Honda in Reseda. They gave me a quote of $21,486 and said they would beat the price of anyone in Southern Cal. Email them at info@kolbehonda.com
I like this way of buying cars. All three of these dealers gave me these quotes to start, I didn't have to pit them against each other or argue about dealer holdback.
nedpep, congrats and thanks for the info. I'm also curious, what's included in the protection package?
Congratulations on your new car. I'm also located in SD. I have a couple of questions for you: 1) Did you try anybody else in San Diego? 2) Did Spirit Honda they have a good selection to choose from? 3) What color did you end up getting? I'm leaning towards the EX 4cyl AT (no leather) with dark graphite color.
Thanks.
I visited Cush, Pacific and Tipton and spoke on the phone with Poway. The closest anyone could quote me was $1,000 more than Spirit Honda. Spirit has a huge inventory and can get whatever you want. My car is Graphite Pearl with gray leather. Good luck!
Louise
Dennis is doing a fine job with his insight on all things Honda
Anyway, congratulations atlgirl1 on your new Accord.
We also got a quote from another dealer here in the area for the $24, 995 plus TTL. The dealer we went to was the only one to offer the $23,889.
$23,889 is almost too good to be true. Usually you only get a deal like that when dealers are trying to push a vehicle to make room for next year's model (or the new models have already arrived).
So far I've read that these features/changes are coming to the 06 Accord: changed front/rear, VSA (stability control), 10 hp increase for both engines, LED taillights. Nothing confirmed of course.
Went to Pat Peck Honda in Gulfport, MS to buy an EX-V6 6sp coupe no Nav. Had talked with a salesman a few times, he threw some numbers out. After punching "end of the month" pricing into a few calculators I knew how much I would like my payment to be and I stated that number clearly. The numbers he gave me didn't add up and I told him "what's the deal with your numbers? They don't get me to where I want to be for FINANCING." He said, "Look, it's the end of the month, we need to sell a few more cars to reach our goal. That is a lot of money for our dealership. Your 75 mile drive will be worth it and we won't send you home unhappy." I was like alright! Drove an hour and when I got there, after driving it, we sat down and he brought back some numbers and I was like, "you know those numbers are not gonna get me to my monthly payment by a long shot." He said, "Oh, wait, yeah for a LEASE you will be fine. That's what you wanted right, that's what you told me, right?" I was so p.o.'d. I basically asked for the keys to my car and walked outside. After a minute he invited me back inside to meet with the Sales Manager. After, BSing about golf for a sec he cut to the chase and told me blah blah blah the dealership has to make money, whatever...bottom line was that we did not reach a deal and I left. They definitely low-balled the trade even after the manager saying that my trade-in is currently selling at a few hundred under retail at the auction. Of course, I caught him in that statement and said "there you go, that's the difference I need to get my payment!" He replied that the market was so up and down it's hard to predict, yeah whatever. So I left. Drove back an hour with nothing. Learned a few lessons. Can't trust a darn person. Hope this story helps someone out there.
mister22
I do know a salesperson there (we know each other from church) so that may have something to do with it. I've been looking at cars for about a year now and finally decided on the Accord. I knew there may have been incentives in April, and they were running good financing deals. On about the 25th I sent her an email saying basically, I'd like to shoot for invoice but I'd be willing to go up to the KBB new car blue book price (about $400 over invoice). I left her my cell number because I'd be away from my computer the next day.
She called me back and said we have a deal. She got me the car at invoice but I paid about $200 for the wheel locks & splash guards that were already on the car (and which I would probably have bought anyway). Put a bunch down and financed the rest at 1.9% for 36 months.
So far I love the car. The sound system is great, I'm loving having an automatic, and the kids and I really like the sunroof.
Dave
I have had a LE camry for 10 years and loved it. But I saw the new Camry XLE and the Honda Accord EX, and I liked the Honda better. Perhaps variety is the spice of life.
Some questions.
I understand the new 2006 are coming out this summer, has anyone heard of what changes the 06 will make? I understand the whole body will change? I am not in any great hurry.
I have read the forums and many are getting online deals, what precautions are you taking to protect yourself?
What the difference from a coupe to a sedan? Besides the coupe being a little more sporty. I didnt get a chance to see the Coupe.
What is the average price for the best deals for a EX-Honda Accord sedan V6 with
Nav ? You think my broker can beat it?
thanks in advance.
We ended up with a black EX V-6. I started off emailing dealerships in the area for the quotes. Gwinnett Place Honda came back with the $23.9 quote immediately. I called to confirm that the price was accurate--I thought it was way too low or he quoted me for the wrong car. He double checked and said it was for the EX V-6 with Navi. I kept in touch with him for a week and we set up an appointment to meet with him Saturday. And believe me--the appointment was worth it. I have never seen so many people in a dealership in my life. He did admit those with appointments definitely get helped first. At first I thought he was going to back off of the price but he didn't. (I took all of the emails we had exchanged with me to the dealership just in case) Since the car just rolled off the truck we got to pick the accessories we wanted so it added a little to the price(we got mud flaps, a rear spoiler which when you look at the paperwork--they never added in so it was a freebie) and the finish which we were told we had to get. We had a trade-in. They gave us a good deal on it - above Edmunds quote for trade in by $600 but we still owed quite a bit so it did not completely pay it off. And once you add the destination charge, all the taxes, title and fees it was still an affordable car for us. But just to make clear--the $23.9 was before any other taxes, tags ,fees or destination charges. We liked our experience. It was the smoothest we have had. I think it was mostly because we did our research, knew what we wanted and had a price when we walked in. We did finance at 3.9%, 60 months no deals there. Hope that helps!
Also what does Gwinnett charge for a dealer or doc fee? Another Atlanta area dealer charges $398 for a doc fee - so not showing that in the price again makes the $23,900 very misleading. Saying "I paid $24,813" with a doc fee does not sound nearly as good as $23,900 either
Normally you would post the price for the car including destination and any dealer/doc fees. This is what anyone else would have to pay MINIMUM to get the car at the same dealership. My taxes and reg fees are different than yours, so those would not be included in your post and each of us could figure those for ourselves.
Finally, when you got the quote did you tell them you had a trade and what it was? If not at what point in the negotiations did they find out you had a trade? Often dealers will give out low-ball quotes (and leave out destination and doc fees) to get traffic into the store then make up the difference on the trade. If they will do $23,900 + dest + dealer fees without a trade and their dealer fees are "reasonable" then that is indeed a nice price for that car.
Dennis
Edmunds Price Checker
Edmunds Lease Calculator
Did you get a good deal? Be sure to come back and share!
Edmunds Moderator
You did get a good price, but when you posted $23,900 everyone got out their calculators and tried to figure out how the dealer could do that and lose so much money. Adding in the dest fee explains some of it - but it is STILL a great price.
How much was the doc fee? Educate us. Hennessy always gives nice quotes, but you have to make sure they include their nearly $400 doc fee in the price they give you - for example. Heck, even if your dealer charged a $500 doc fee then you still got a good price!
Thanks!
Dennis
(Hopefully the only thing "I" will be guilty of this year)
Thanks for the details - much appreciated - off to contact Gwinnett and hopefully have a similar experience! By the way - went to Curry on Saturday and salesman mentioned that they had received a huge shipment that morning too. Coincidence?!
Thank you. Like I said-- I'm new--or maybe it was the excitement of a new car. If I recall correctly, the doc fee was $389. I haven't gotten the car yet and all the paperwork is with it. Once I get it I will verify the doc fee. As for the trade-in--they knew about it up front. The dealer did say he took a loss on the car but because they were a high volume dealer and wanted to maintain that status they would occassionally take losses on some deals. Like I said--once i see the paperwork again I'll verify it for certain. I do know that it wasn't something that was astronomical -to me at least. Apparently it was a big push for this weekend through today. Again, thanks for the info.
Atlgirl1 - I think there are more than a few of us still interested in the outcome once you get the paperwork back....we all recognize that your particular experience might not be the exact we could expect BUT it is still very valuable information to have regardless.
Please let me know the response you get from Gwinnett. I always viewed the forums as a place to get ideas, like you said not everyone will get the same deal. There are too many variables that are different for each deal--trade-in, location, taxes and others. I also realize in all the excitement as JB stated, I should have waited until after I had all the info in front me. Nonetheless, I certainly have benefited from everyone's input.
We got my wife's Accord on the last day or March to take advantage of the $600 incentive. We didn't know that April would bring $750 or we could have waited
Since we don't know what the deals may be this month, nothing wrong with going ahead and getting a good deal when you can get it. Folks that did not may be sorry if Honda drops the incentives this month. Or those of us that already pulled the trigger may be sorry we didn't wait if Honda bumps it up to $1,000 per Accord this month
The incentives for May will be determined in part by how many cars they sold in April. Last month Honda was very prompt in releasing the numbers (early April 1 they were out), but I just checked and they still have not posted the April numbers and it is late in the afternoon of the 2nd.
Dennis