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Comments
why not offer 18000 on a new 2004 LX auto-- the previous post got one for 17999, allegedly.
or offer... 16500 on the 2003.
am i nuts?
Thx for all the info in previous posts, it really helped me in shopping for MY ACCORD.
Does the Honda Certified/Extended Warranty make any difference in the equation? Seems to me that long term you would be better off with what amounts to a free warranty. But, I know its not really free, it's built in the price of the car.
So, $300 over invoice is too much for an LX?
MSRP: $26990
Paid: $23634
Doc: $ 45
Tax: $ 1835.12 (7.75%)
Licence:$ 210
Tire fee: $5
Out the door: $25729.12
I got 4 year finance at 2.9%, the monthly payment is $491.63.
The car I got had 13 miles when delivery.
I vote new, and don't worry about the warranty for now. Drive the car for a couple of years and you will learn if it is trouble-prone. You can buy the factory warranty three years from now for not much more than you'll pay now.
I had a 01 Echo. They initially gave me 6000 for it. I asked for 6400. They did not hesitate and paid me 6400.
It was the most painless car buying experience. The whole dealer was awesome. Friendly and helpful. There was virtually no haggle whatsoever involved. I knew I could get the car a little cheaper but the dealer was just too nice
Plus, they took one straight from their warehouse with all the plastics and adhesives on. Only 2 miles on the car.
-as big a scam as there is out there
someone said it's worth maybe $50-100
try .50 - $1.00 (serious!)
save your $$ and have the thing detailed a few years from now when it's in need of some TLC
thanks
Perhaps things like holdbacks/incentives/etc. aren't secret, but I have to wonder since it used to be that buying a car at invoice was considered a good deal...nowadays it seems to be a given you will get a car at invoice and the goal is below invoice.
End of the month incentives, so-called "turn and earn" incentives, and other dealer cash type deals that can only be revealed through a fax or email type attack. Sometimes a dealer will sell a car at or below invoice simply to insure that he'll get another in return from the factory, possibly banking on the fact that not all consumers are as well-informed as the one who is getting the good deal, and he'll make up the money at a later date.
Fax attacks are the best way to ferret out these deals, because it pits dealerships against each other in a bidding war for your services.
As for Honda, dealer holdback is always 3% of MSRP excluding destination charge, so that doesn't change regardless of the actual sales price.
The above is simply how I understand it, and certainly not gospel truth.
Johnny
under invoice.
It was rather an excruciating negotiation.
GL
After reading a number of posts, how did you come up with such a low price? I used an email to about 15 local dealers and asked for their best price on an Accord V6 EX in desert mist. I really did not negotiate, just took the lowest price I got back -- however I knew this was a good price -- Vehicle + destination $23,181.00, or a little more than $1000 under invoice $24,244. They made some of the money back with fees so they didn't loose money after adding in the hold back. The only catch was I was told I had to buy by Feb 29. What can I say, spoke with the wife and she said get the car. I must say being the end of the month did help, as johnny420 pointed out above, there were probably other factors involved that still made it a reasonable sale for the dealership.
As chris_w above talks about the Malibu -- we were seriously considering getting a Maxx loaded. However even with a $1,000 GM rebate and a second $1,000 coupon for a test drive, the best the Malibu was still about $400 over this deal and you don't loose $8,000 in value the first year as with the Chevy. The Maxx does have some nice features not found in the Accord, however you look inside the Accord EX you experience a very nice vehicle -- take a look in the Malibu and tell me what you see. But hey - we purchased the Accord so we're biased.
The dealer doesn't care if you pay cash, or finance through your own sources. He gets cash either way. If you finance through the dealer, he makes a bit more money, as he gets a piece of the action from the financing company.
kbb /edmunds
MSRP :::::::::::::::::$28,890
Invoice:::::::::::::::$26,041(incl.destination for zipcode 94555)
PRICE PAID::::::::::::$25,163
We got our 04 EX V6 with Nav in December 03, which included mud guards and wheel locks, OTD was around 27,900.00, so does that mean we got hosed also? Well, I would disagree. In the NYC area try getting one in Red and close to what we paid, very difficult. The silver, white and common colors are very easy to sell. In the entire NYS area we tracked a couple down with the red color. Many of them had over 100 miles on them already and I wasn't about to buy a vehicle that had that high of a mileage. We found one that had 3 miles on it and yes we could of negotiated a slightly better pricing, but everyone deserves a profit and besides that, we were not hassled, anything forced upon us and most of all the customer service that we received from our HONDA dealership was better than we received when we got our Lexus. But feeling hosed, I wouldn't call it hosed, I would call it fair, being hosed is paying MSRP.
thanks
MSRP: $26,890
Invoice: $24,244
Paid: $24,750 (including mud guards, wheel locks and trunk liner)
Added lifetime tint: $210
Financing is 60 mos. @ 3.84% (or 3.87%)...some oddball interest rate right under 3.9%...heh heh.
Definitely didn't do as well as most others on this board when many appear to be paying below, at, or maybe pocket change above invoice this time of year. I'll be doing internet bids next time for sure!
Buying experience at David McDavid Honda in Irving, TX: We got a serious salesman who had a lot of patience to the many changes of mind my wife went through on what color she wanted, etc. Their after-market saleswoman was professional and courteous. She didn't pressure us, nor act upset on virtually everything (except tint) we turned down. Sales managers were friendly enough. The financing guy tried to play us for stupid at first on the interest rate and warranty (that we were trying to refuse)...used "payments" to rationalize everything. After we got him under 3.9% on 60 months, though, he was still the same friendly, folksy guy. No attitude from him. I was impressed that they still had a woman up there well after close (like after midnight) going over things about the car after we finished financing. I've heard David McDavid Honda's "after the sales" service is great, and that they've really straightened up their act both on the sales and service sides since an ownership change. I'd definitely recommend them from what I've seen and heard.
Damn nice car for the money! I've had an '81 Accord, a '95 Civic, and my Mother had an '87 Accord and a '98 Accord. They've come a long, long way. I can't get over the styling/finish inside. (fyi- My wife and I test drove a Cadillac CTS and were so sorely unimpressed with its interior. For months, it was at the top of our list of cars to look at. We wrote it off after looking at it for 45 minutes to an hour. Its VERY cheap looking inside. Think Chevrolet Cavalier).
Don't believe everything you read on the internet or you may get very frustrated trying to match some of these prices.
I believe many of the figures on this board, but if the deal involves a trade, then the numbers are useless.
regards,
kyfdx
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My wife's '98 Malibu, on the other hand, wasn't going to be an easy sell, so we opted to trade it in. We did bring them up $500 from their initial trade offer, but we still got about $700 below what the trade value is supposed to be. Because we could have easily put several hundred into it had we kept it, because we got a tax break ($125) for trading it, and knowing that this car wasn't going to be as easy as the Civic, it was a no brainer. It really boils down to whether your car can sell itself, or if just makes more sense to take a loss and have it be someone else's problem.
Then they will want to grind you down on the price, they may need to arrange financing etc.
You will have strangers on your doorstep who may decide to sue you (and win!) when the transmission fails three months later.
But, yes, you can get a higher price...maybe.
In states like ours with a sales tax credit, it may REALLY not be worth the headaches. Here in Washington State, we have a whopping 9.1% sales tax on cars.
You want 10,000 for the trade we offred you 9000.00 for?
Do the math.
Now, on older cars that aren't worth much, yes, you can usually do better selling these yourself.
Ouch! about the 9.1% in Washington.
Thanx for ur post........Taxes etc. are not negotiable..there fore the base price should be the best measure of a good deal..i.e. price before taxes,registration licence etc. BTW BD21, do u think 25400 was a good deal for my 2004 EXV6 WITH NAVI 4-DR( 2 MILES OLD WHEN BOUGHT)...Appreciate ur answer!! (I am in california..Sales tax 8.5%)this cost includes splash guards,wheel locks and trunk tray.Also is a tire & rim protection worth 150 bucks for 6 yrs??pls advise.
There were several dealers, you just need to know how to talk to them so they understand that this is going to be a internet deal. Also, you only talk with the internet sales managers. Here are some that quoted me $25541. Open Road Honda, Edison (ask for Johnny Van-Huy, he will definitely give you that price, you might have to reject his first offer and have him call you back). Planet Honda & Autosport Honda. I bought from Madison Honda, madison, NJ b/c they were willing to give me the most for my trade in. However they told me they normally do not give that price. This deal was done b/c it was month-end and they must of had a special incentive to do this.
Your best bet will probably be Open Road & Planet. Open road is a large volumn dealer so they are always eager to negotiate and will definitely go under invoice on any accords or civics. Hope this helps!
:-)
CASH PURCHASE
1) Know what price you'll settle for if selling to a private buyer. Deduct about 5% max to arrive at your "preferred / target trade-in value."
2) Determine target price for new car using Edmunds new car prices. Refine with actual buyer's prices in Edmunds townhall. Generally, unless it's a hot seller, target invoice.
3) Deduct target trade-in value from target new car price for net purchase price. Get payoff if applicable, and additionally deduct this. Resulting amount is net purchase price.
4) Add applicable Tax, Tag and Title. Exclude profit enhancers like doc fees and other non-mandatory (meaning, other than local / state taxes) fees.
5) Shop month-end, closing hours, and / or thru dealer's internet salesperson
FINANCED
Referencing above formula, add 3) and 4) to determine net amount financed, and - using online calculator, choose APR which you can get from local bank and/or any promotional APR of carmaker (1.9%, 2.9%, etc.) - arrive at monthly payment.
Negotiating at the dealership, hold ground on the monthly payment and no. of months parameters.
Buying my wife's car, I knew what my target monthly payment was using the above formula (I had a trade with pay-off, too) and successfully staved off dealer's gouging attempt.
Unbelievable, but dealer's first monthly payment offer amounted to what would have been a $9k profit on the car (in effect, an 03 EX-L for US$30,500 !!!).
Proving that a car dealer can brazenly take advantage of the unprepared buyer. And sadly, why they have that kind of reputation.
Have you conceeded this strategy is a good one? or just tired of beating a dead horse?
I ask only because I am trying to decide if I should start asking for quotes a little earlier than I plan to buy, to allow time for not only the right deal, but for the actual car to be in stock...
Last thought / question: how long do dealers typically honor their quotes? In other words, suppose I was to obtain an internet quote today that I was happy with but wanted to actually buy in 1-2 months. Or maybe I have to wait 1-2 months for the car to be in stock. Do they usually honor a quote for this long? Thanks!
Navigation models sticker-price for a couple of thousand dollars more than non-navigation models, therefore the demand is lower. The dealers need to move stock so they don't order as many, and you may have to wait a week or two, or shop elsewhere. It's definitely worth the wait though.
As far as going through the internet when buying a car, this subject has literally been beat to death. There is no "best" way to buy a car. Just because someone happens to come through the internet it doesn't catagorize them as a "special" customer in any way.
In fact, an in person customer who is ready to buy a car will get our attention a lot more than a faceless internet shopper.
Still, some people just feel more comfortable behind a keyboard and that's O.K. too.
I went to see if I fit comfortably in the '04 Accord with the moonroof--had to take that on an EX to get side curtain airbags which I wanted. The car had enough headroom, so I indicated that I'd consider buying the EX-L Accord.
The dealer insisted on making an offering price which, of course, was initially much too high. I still preferred to buy from that dealer who is only a half hour walk from my home. So I just told the manager that I had been on the internet and knew approximately what I should pay--that is, cut the cr*p and maybe I'll buy.
Their next offering price was what I actually expected to pay at the time, so now I have the car which has been excellent (my first Honda).
Maybe an all-internet purchase works well, but doing homework on the internet before visiting a dealer is DEFINITELY a smart move IMO.....Richard
You can always start the process over or try to start where you left off, but if the quote truely is aggressive they'll usually tell you how long it's good for.
also, it's best to get a vin# with a quote if you're looking for a certain color and equipment.