By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
"The MD dealer will handle the tag work for you. You will have to pay $15 for the VA safety inspection in VA after you get your tags though."
So you can't pay for this VA safety inspection fee at the MD dealer when you get your car? Can you pay it at a VA dealer if you get your car in VA?
What exactly is this safety inspection fee, and where do I pay it?
(Pardon my ignorance, I haven't moved down to the area yet.)
Thanks!
jrock65> send out one email (so that the dealers
jrock65> could see which other dealers you sent
jrock65> the email to) or did you send out the
jrock65> email to each dealer individually?
In my initial email, I sent the New Car Bid Request Form to one dealerships Internet
salesperson and CC: (carbon copied) it to all the other dealerships Internet sales persons. That way they would all see that I was sending this request out to a large number of other bidders.
I think that they could probably infer that this was the case by just reading the bid request but by listing the area competition indirectly (via the carbon copy) I believed that this would reinforce that so that they would be extra competitive in their initial bid.
jrock65> inspection fee at the MD dealer when
jrock65> you get your car? Can you pay it at a
jrock65> VA dealer if you get your car in VA?
It is only required if you are domiciled in the State of Virginia. If you are a VA resident and purchase a car from a dealership in VA then it will probably come already inspected.
jrock65> What exactly is this safety inspection
jrock65> fee, and where do I pay it?
If you are a VA resident and purchase from a MD dealership then you will have to take your car to a VA inspection station (they are located at nearly every local repair facility)and pay the $15 fee for the safety inspection.
It is a yearly inspection. For more information about the VA Car Safety Inspection program check out the following link:
http://www.vsp.state.va.us/safety.htm#Virginia%20Motor%20Vehicle%- 20Safety%20Inspection%20Program
There is also an emmissions inspection that you may have to contend with but since we are already off topic regarding Prices Paid and Buying Experience I suggest you email me for further info. Just click on my name and it is in my profile.
Also offered on eBay at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item- =2472251123&category=6254
Check it out!
I'm in the Chicago area and looking for the same vehicle, what dealership did you go?
He is quoting 24541 (including dest charge) for EX V6 auto, leather, & navigation + taxes&licenses. That's 1500 below invoice.
Both these prices are below invoice. The question is: how much can I expect additional fees to be? What are the legit fees that I should pay for, and roughly how much? Taxes, tags & license? Anything besides those? I don't see why I have to pay for any doc or contract fees.
Thanks for any insights,
-sk
He is quoting 24541 (including dest charge) for EX V6 auto, leather, & navigation + taxes&licenses. That's 1500 below invoice.
Both these prices are below invoice. The question is: how much can I expect additional fees to be? What are the legit fees that I should pay for, and roughly how much? Taxes, tags & license? Anything besides those? I don't see why I have to pay for any doc or contract fees.
Thanks for any insights,
-sk
I'd be interested to know which dealer is quoting you these prices? Did you approach them with a price in mind, or did they quote that out of the blue?
thanks
This is the quote I have so far:
EX-V6 with leather + nav:
Price: 24541 (including destination, this is 1500 below invoice)
Doc fee: 45
Tire fee: 5
DMV fees: 220
Taxes: 2028.35 (at 8.25%)
OOTD price: 26839.35
For some odd reason, the dealer is not convinced that the base invoice for a 4 cylinder is 24154 (incl invoice) and not 24288 (which is what he is working off for the 4-cylinder), even though I have sent him links from carpoint.com and edmunds.com which clearly show what the invoice on the car is. He is clearly adding about 140$ markup on those. Irrespective, I have been leaning towards the V6.
-sk
I think the toughest part for Honda, or any "Japanese" manufacturer these day is weakness in the dollar. The US dollar continues to weaken against the yen - it means Janpanese dealers have less room to provide incentives as do the big three.
But seeing the prices on this board of $1,000+ under invoice, I think you can't go wrong with the Accord.
Basically, I was told that this is a non-negotiable standard Georgia Dealer fee. Anyone else in Georgia know if this is true? If it is, I presume this is different than other states where people negotiate far lower fees.
Thanks in advance!
I received an email quote for an OTD price of $23.85K including 6% tax, destination, and all fees. Which works out to roughly $21.9K before destination, processing and DMV fees.
From what I can tell, this is a pretty great price ($1800 less than invoice!) -- I think I've been careful to make sure the dealer includes all fees in his quote, and that he clearly states that it's the true out-the-door price. Is there any other scam this guy can play here, that I should be aware of? I'm just a little bit wary that I've made all this effort to negotiate effectively (thanks to folks on this board for some tips I picked up), and then the dealer pulls something once I show up to do the deal. Any thoughts here?
Thanks for any insight/suggestions.
Car: $19,598 (including destination)
Tax: 8.25%
Doc Fee: $45
Tire Fee: $5
DMV: $178
Trade: None
That's all I needed to pay and took the Honda financing at 2.9% for 60 months.
Originally did not want to buy the Honda Care, but the finance guy came down to 7 year/100,000 miles with 0 deductable for $898 (refundable at term end if not used), so I took the offer since I keep cars for long (currently have a 96 Accord coupe at 100,000 miles with only routine maintenance. Knock wood!).
I took the internet buying route and on 04/08 night started emailing upto 10 SF Bay area dealers, as well as carsdirect.com for the specific car that I eventually bought. I did not play the dealer and simply asked the dealers for their best quotes and was expecting to pay the $20,100 Carsdirect price. One dealer gave me a quote of $19,648 plus TTL, without verbal or email confirmation of the VIN or Stock number. Anyhow, two other dealers called this morning and offered to beat that price. So, I took the first comfirmed offer, went to the dealer, test drove the car, and started filling out the paperwork without any hassle. This has been a very pleasant experience.
I am very happy with my purchase. I believe this car, EX Cloth with Curtain Airbags, is hard to find, but not much in demand either, so the low price (the car I bought had been at the dealer for 4 months, with a build date of Oct/03). I did not need to negotiate at all.
I have been reading this board for a long time and learnt a lot and thank the contributors for the great information. This is my turn to contribute.
I just signed on the dotted line for an "04 EX V6. The Deal was as follows:
price: $23,200
VPS: $299 (basically vin etching, I know this is high, but I knew they had to make a profit on the deal.
Total: $23,499
Tax: $1469...%6.25
Title/licence: $192
Documentation fee: $50
Out the door : $25,210
I'm pretty happy with this deal.
I negotiated with every dealer in town except the one I ended up buying from.
Probably could have gotten out with out the documentation fees or maybe a little off the VPS fees, but it felt good.
Best of all. We went in with pre approval for
%3.75 from a credit union and ended up having Honda beat it..%3.44.
I can't say enough good things about our salesman and the dealer: Henri Gibson at Goodson Honda in west Houston.
If you have any questions or comments I'll check back soon.
Anyway- just wanted to say thanks for all the information that you guys have given over the past few months- it was a HUGE help!
did you go the 'email blast' route, or was this a basic 'stop at the dealer and get as good a deal as i can in person' operation?
I called every dealer within a 30 mile radius and asked them for their best price, letting them know that the lowest bid would get my business. Of course, I used this web site to see what deals others were getting, rebates, hold backs etc. and went from there. When it came time to buy, I called the dealer, told them the price I'd accept and left it to them to figure out how they could do it. I ended up about $1100 below invoice I think.
I just purchased a 2004 black EX-V6 AT coupe in the Chicago area for $23,353 including destination charges. Tax and title are of course extra. Documentation fee is limited by law in Illinois to about $53.
Grand Honda in Elmhurst, Il (a Chicago suburb) advertised this price on Saturday. I went to my local dealer and after some haggling, they agreed to match the price. The major sticking point was that my dealer claimed the ad was for 4-door models, but I had already confirmed with the salesperson at Grand that the coupe I wanted was also available at this price.
In other circumstances I would have sent e-mails to a number of dealers to obtain the best price, but this was the easiest way for me to get the car that I wanted quickly, at a good price.
whats a $5 tire fee? i've never heard of this fee.
thanks
as for tire fee -- this is something all dealers (even non-hondas) charge here in the bay area. I am not sure about other states.
-sk
I'm in the market for an Accord EX sedan, and wanted to ask if anybody could recommend me reputable dealers in the NJ area to speak to first. In particular I'm considering Planet Honda in Union, Open Road in Edison, and Honda of Princeton. Any comments/experience with these dealers in particular??? But of course I'm open to any others people say are respectable and fair to customers.
Thanks very much.
I'm looking for a 2004 EX-L 4cyl 4dr auto, and am trying to decide if I want to tackle the job via internet directly with the dealer sites, or going into the dealerships and try to get the best deal in person. Any recent experience would be appreciated.
Thx
i really like the center armrest being adjustable-- can move it forward....
off topic? perhaps.
If everything holds, the price would be about $1100 below invoice price and about $275 below the Consumer Reports Wholesale Price. Obviously SOME kind of incentive is going on, or else 3 dealers wouldn't be offering to sell the car for less than what they paid for it.
I'll document the details and process once I have the car. But until then, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend taking the time to e-mail all the dealers in your area for price quotes, rather than going in person from place-to-place. Then go back to the ones who sent you quotes telling them what the lowest price you've been offered was. Many will try to match or beat it.
I asked for an e quote last night from a local dealership and received $22,709. OTD... for both the sedan and coupe EX-L This includes Va state taxes ( at 3.5%) t and l. Destination as well because the internet man said "drive away price". I do not like the "seller/manager/buyer dealership dance" so this may very well be the way to buy. I don't like to spend time at dealerships.
I am torn between the sedan for ease of getting everyone in and the coupe for looks as my teenaged daughters really like the coupe. I need to get them to climb in both before the final deal........ I am posting this simply for affirmation that this is a good price? and maybe even a hint as to the practicality/good looks issue.
The car is for me, we are keeping "the van" (which I am over) for trips, the dog, and their first years of driving.
Hope this wasn't too long winded. edit: 4cyl EX-L
You should try to compare vehicle prices without getting the other odds and ends such as taxes, fees, licensing, insurance, etc. mixed up in the deal.
I've got the Coupe and love it. However, I've occasionally had to use our other vehicle (a sedan) when wishing to carry certain passengers in the rear seat. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of room back there. It's just a bit awkward for some people to enter and exit.
I purchased the set of four mudguards for $66 online and screwed them on in about 25 minutes. The set of wheel locks would cost $25 online.
My question is how would you handle getting the best deal in this situation? Should I just walk into the closest dealer and make a reasonable offer(say invoice plus 3%), should I e-mail all the dealers I know about and ask for quotes, or is it better to make an offer in the e-mail? To complicate the issue further, I have a trade-in, an '01 Maxima GLE(41,000 miles and truly immaculate condition). Should I mention the trade-in, tell them I don't plan to trade(even though I do) or what?
More than anything I wonder what a reasonable price for the new car should be considering my location and limited access to dealers? I'm reading many people buying for well under invoice. What would you do in my situation? I've done many car trades in the past but have never been able to deal with Honda. Any response to any of my questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
#2 Look at your Maxima as an asset. Too many folks get the great price and then give their car away. Stick to a value that is near its book value on trade in. Only take more or less if the rest of the deal is adjusted so that you don't pay more going out the door.
#3 If you love the car that you want to buy too much you are had!! Before you go in be sure to know that you won't be rushed and that you will walk if they cannot meet your bottom line (don't share your bottom line unless they offer the deal that meets it. Understand that there is not a dealer out there who is going to willfully lose money on the transaction. You will not drive them out of business!! If you are not comfortable with negotiating, go in with the best offer that you receive from all of the others that you contacted and a fair value (edmunds does a good job here) on your Maxima. Either they match or you don't do the deal. Be firm but do not budge. Also, be patient. They may try to wait you out. Within 2 hours, they will either meet it or not. If they don't get the deal and you buy elsewhere they will still be obligated to work on the vehicle if you bring it to them.
Bottom line to do a good deal you have to be in the drivers seat (bad pun, sorry)
The coupe looks great and does fit four ... just not for a long time.
Go with what YOU want ... this is your car.
Good luck on your decision.
That's a pretty good deal, a few hundred bucks under invoice. What dealer may I ask?
Thanks.
Another related concern- in my area (Lafayette Indiana) the TMV on EX V6 6MT is $26840 while the TMV on the AT is $25105. Should I even worry about TMV?
Any suggestions/comments are appreciated.
bad news/good news:
bad news: dealers will give you VERY low trade in value for it...
good news: if you sell privately, many dealers will do an IN AND OUT deal-- where you bring the buyer in with you when you buy your next car, and thus save on sales tax (assuming your State just taxes the difference between the car you're buying and the trade in)...
i did this with a 99 solara 5 speed in 2001 when i bought an accord coupe automatic--- dealers wouldn't give me anything for solara.. so i sold it privately, but the honda dealer did all the paperwork with the solara, so i still saved on sales tax.
nothing to it, assuming you can sell it privately.
Also, are finance offers usually better around August? I'm looking at financing over three years & right now it looks like I can get 3.9% APR for recent college grad. This is decent, but nothing spectacular.
After agreeing to a deal on a Honda a couple years ago, I asked if I could use my credit card as well - so I could take advantage of frequent flier miles.
They let me put down 20%, or $6,000. I think I used a Visa which charges a merchant 3%. Bottom line is it costs the dealer to let you use a credit card. If the deal is skinny, you will have to factor the dealers cost in accepting this form of payment. Then again, everything is negotiable.
iteach> the sedan and coupe [4cyl, 5AT] EX-L.
iteach> This includes Va state taxes (at 3.5%)
iteach> t and l. Destination as well because the iteach> internet man said "drive away price".
iteach> I am posting this simply for affirmation
iteach> that this is a good price?
Let's calculate the True Dealer Cost on the the sedan version of your vehicle and include the VA Taxes, Tags & Title and then you can judge for yourself how good a deal you have.
CM56844JNW EX I4 4Dr Sedan Automatic Leather w/o Navigation
The numbers you need to know for your model are:
MSRP: $24,300 INVOICE: $21,866.81
DEST: $ 490 DEST: $ 490
TOTAL: $24,790 TOTAL: $22,356.81
The dealer hold back on that car is $729.00. Subtracting that from the Invoice total means that the true dealer cost (the amount that the dealer paid the manufacturer) is $21,628.81. Tax, Title and Tags would be extra. In VA that would be (3% tax which is $648.83) plus $10 title fee (probable $10 DMV online registration fee)and $29.50 for one years tags. That total would be: $22,326.14. At the most I would probably pay only $200 to $300 over that amount.
Now if you are lucky and you email some other dealers and find some that are desperate to move some cars you may even pay below true dealer cost. That is what happened to me. After I got the lowest bid via email/fax attack, I called and/or emailed the other dealers that had bid and told them that their bid was too high. Most of them wanted to know the lowest bid and said that they would beat it. I had three dealers who really wanted to sell me the car below their cost. One dealer said they would beat the lowest bid by $200 and I ended up with $317 under true dealer cost plus it included pinstripes, mud guards and wheel locks.
iteach> the dealer is West Broad Honda here in
iteach> the capital city of VA
I received a quote from West Broad Honda during my recent car purchase quest. Their initial price wasn't bad but when I emailed them about color choices available it turned out that TH, the Internet guy said he hadn't completely understood my initial request for a price quote and that he didn't actually have any of the cars in stock that I wanted much less color choices. Hopefully, nothing like this will be the case for you.
If you want to really wring out the rock bottom deal on your new car then I would contact, if you haven't already done so, other dealers in the Richmond, VA area for an e-quote (let them know they are bidding for your business against each other):
Richmond Honda
Mechanicsville Honda
Colonial Honda - Petersburg
There is Pohanka Honda in Fredericksburg about 50 miles in one direction as well as Williamsburg Honda about 50 miles in the other direction from Richmond to consider as well.
If you are willing to consider an hour and a half drive to Northern Virginia you might want to get a quote from Hendricks Honda in Woodbridge. I received a very agressive quote from them when I was shopping in January.
Ultimately I purchased from a MD dealer that had the best price and was only a 35 minute drive from my VA home
Other dealers can be located at Honda's website at www.Hondacars.com
gregoryvw> getting the best deal in this
gregoryvw> situation?
I think that in your situation I would still gather all the Honda dealer Internet departments email address's within any kind of reasonable driving distance (which might be up to a day or two.)
I would then email/fax blast/attack them requesting that they bid for your business. Carbon copy the email to the competing dealers in your main email so that they can see the other dealers they are in competition with.
Now the local dealer who you would actually prefer to deal with doesn't know that you aren't really going to consider driving 2 days to get the best deal but they will feel the pressure to give you a good initial price if they know they are competing.
In the event that their price is still high you can use the results from the emails you receive from the other dealers to get an idea of what kind of range to negotiate in. You can always make an offer to your Internet salesperson to meet "your" price at a later stage. Don't end up negotiating against yourself by offering some figure over or under the Invoice price. Let them go first.
And by broadening your horizons with these other dealers you may actually get an unbelievable deal that even you consider is worth driving for. Take a couple of days off and consider it a mini-vacation.
gregoryvw> would like to have warranty work done
gregoryvw> where I bought the car. May be an old-
gregoryvw> fashioned notion, but that's how I'm
gregoryvw> thinking.
I understand the feeling, however in the highly mobile society in which we live folks are moving all the time. If you were to purchse from a "long-distance" dealer and then had it serviced at the near-by (45 miles away) dealer how are they gonna know when you moved into the area? They aren't and you'll be treated like any other Honda owner in need of warranty service.
If you want a steady relationship with that local dealer I think that can be established by having all your maintence done there as well as your warranty repair.
Something also to keep in mind about trying to get a buyer's advantage; sometimes timing is everything.
Back in 1986 when Accords were generally selling for a $2,000 premium over MSRP in my home area, I drove 4 and 1/2 hours and I bought my new Accord for the MSRP. This was in a major College town in June after school had adjourned for the summer. With no one in town they were glad to sell me the vehicle at that price. (There was no Internet at that time, I had to do it the old fashioned way by using the telephone and calling them.) I know I saved $2000 in 1986 dollars and was thrilled to have my Accord.
gregoryvw> I have a trade-in
I think the advise that fja2004 gave you was good. Just keep the negotiations separate. Don't lose on your trade-in what you gained in your new car deal. The same is true for financing.