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Comments
May I suggest these folks for oem parts and extended warranty as well
oem acura
And please get the acura body side molding, your MDX will thank you, its an easy DIY.
molding
instructions
Furthermore, I was told by one dealer to buy the additional side moldings for $300, is it really worth it? It looks like they are installed low on the door and really wont protect from another door opening against it. Any opinions?
I have a deal secured to get an MDX base model for $37,500 approx with a decent offer on my trade. I'm sure I could do about $500-$1000 better, but the color I want is tough to find and I'm willing to pay a little more and save the hassle of shopping any further. The first dealer I spoke to was Mile High Acura in Denver and they weren't willing to go below invoice+dealer fee and offered me $1500 less on my 2001 TL trade in than Courtesy Acura who is right in their back yard. I didn't even going back to see if they would beat the Courtesy offer because the initial talks were so insulting.
Only thing that could possibly keep me from closing on the deal would be some kind of major incentive developing on the Q7 in the next 2 weeks which seems pretty unlikely.
I still recommend everyone call other dealers even if they are out of state. I initially had to work with Acura of Omaha to get my current deal, and was going to close with them, but Courtesy Acura e-mailed me out of the blue so I decided to give them a call and listen to what they could offer. They ended up beating Omaha by $500 overall and saving me the drive and gas money. If you are in the Northeast and are willing to drive down to Delaware, I recommend giving Piazza Acura in Chadds Ford, PA (Right across the delaware border) a call and talking to them. I have heard very good things about their willingness to make a deal.
Does anyone think it pays to wait for the 2010 model? All I've heard so far is one person being skeptical about the new transmission, but I'm curious if others have seen one or know about the new features. No dealer even has an idea of the new MSRP or invoice price so any information would be great. Thanks.
did you get the car yet? i got a better deal in the area and was wondering if you are still interested to know.
Email me if you do.
Thanks.
Final price was $35811 (incl destination) not including tax, title, licensing. This deal was secured after reaching out to 6 different local dealers within a 40 mile radius. So yes, the NE has a lot of competition, as has been mentioned prior - and I'm certain this deal of $2250 below invoice was a direct result.
Inventory was scarce - of the 6 that were approached, 2 had no inventory of mdx bases while the remaining four had 2-3 base MDX's each. Prices ranged from our low up to $37110 (all incl destination).
Given the low inventory and demand - dealers are rightfully protecting their profit margins - why sell a vehicle for thousands less than invoice if no one else will...
In this case, we relied on competition - we advised each that we were willing to pay 38k flat OTD and the first dealer who got there would have a sale that day.... this was calculated as invoice plus destination ($38062) minus the $2k incentive (as this was before 9/8) minus the 2% holdback plus tax (6.25%) and $450 for all dealer/registry fees. That was IMO a starting pt for negotiations - as it was very close to a zero profit selling price.
At the end, our price was $511 more than my starting negotiation price. The next best price was $700 more - so I may have just reached a high volume dealer who was close to reaching one of the sales thresholds such that they were willing to make ~$500 on the sale.
Hope this helps - in the end, it helps to be upfront and not waste dealers time.. I've found there's a less likely chance of getting a good price if you take up too much of the dealer's time - ie in my case, i called all the dealers in one 2 hr period and once confident they had the vehicle - simply said "meet this OTD price or close enough and i'll be there today to buy it". They all knew i was calling other dealers but knew it would be a fast sale w/o a lot of hassle
Lastly, a significant thank you to all previous posters - the above approach was determined after reviewing dozens of other's experiences...
Good luck!
Could you please let me know the sales person you spoke/dealt with?
From all of my reading, It is pretty clear that until the current $2,000 dealer incentive expires in November, the dealer stands to make a profit of approximately anything over the Invoice price MINUS the $2k incentives MINUS the 3% of MSRP hold back. What this essentially means is the dealer is making money off any amount over the $3200 below the Invoice price which you can find here or at KBB.com. For a base model you are talking approximately $34,800...not entirely sure what this is for other models.
Invoice of tech entertainment $43321.
Approximate dealer holdback -$1400.
Dealer Incentive -$2000.
Guesstimated cost to dealer on Chrome Side steps installed +$500. (maybe less)
Grand Total $40421.
You know the dealer needs to make profit, but how much do you want to let the dealer profit and how little are they willing to accept is the key. I would say call a dealership that has the exact car you want (check cars.com first or the dealer website) and if you find the car you want close to you, ask to speak to the sales manager there and make them an offer of say $40700, if you want to tell them to take it or leave it, maybe go with $41,200. Right now this dealership is taking you for about $2,000 which seems more than you need to give them. Most dealerships will accept a take it or leave it offer for $1000-$1500 profit even if that includes some kind of dealer fee. You can do better, but not too much better. Just depends on how easily you can talk to them. Some people handle negotiations well, some don't.
While shopping for my new car, I went to a Jeep dealership where during my negotiations with a salesman for a 2009 Grand Jeep Cherokee Limited, I witnissed a young couple, probably around 30 years old get taken for a ride. The dealer was selling them a Jeep Patriot and was explaining to them that he was only making $500 because he was selling it to them for $500 above invoice. If you are an uneducated buyer, and this is explained to you, it almost leaves you 0 room for negotiation and leaves you satisfied. Naturally they jumped on it and I cringed. I wonder if it would be profitable to create a business in which you merely provide the service of buying new automobiles. I think after learnign what I have these past 2 weeks, I could sit on a car lot and save the consumers that purchase each day, easily $5000 in aggregate per day. Anyways, thats my two sense.
Negotiate a little tougher if you are comfortable calling them back and saying you aren't comfortable with the price. Try another dealership first though.
This year's end of year cars buying experience is totally different from other years to me. usually it should be good time to buy, but just not this year.
Do you know if the processing fee cannot exceed $45 in New York or has changed? This dealer charge me $75 and said it has changed from $45 max to $75. That is something i will go question them about.
Any suggest for 2009 mdx bumper gurad (metal)? just protect the car when park on the street from time to time.
Thanks much.
For any of you calling dealers...when you call, if you are dealing with a trade in/accessories situation, ask to speak to the GM and just say, here is my offer, can you do this deal. If you are just buying the new car with no trade in, you can do this with the sales manager. If you aren't getting GM approval and you are doing a trade in and accessories, you know you are getting a bad deal.
you were mentioning abt getting the roof racks as part of your accessory package...i was reading about the fuel economy hit, wind noise and such with the roof racks..I originally had ordered the roof racks and am rethinking...i am sure you would have researched it...so wanted to get your thoughts on whether it would be a significant aspect to be concerned about getting them installed. thanks in advance...
can you say please which dealer youy finally dealt with? Any recommendation about sales person there 9I am also in the Boston area)?
Thanks.
thanks,
rk
you are right, i say to the ones who can hold off buying a vehicle do so until at least january or february, let them starve for a few months of anemic sale and traditionally february and march are not good months leading up to april as tax season is in full swing and no one will want to or have the cash to spend during those times. go shop then and drive yourself a good bargain.
Learned a lot from this forum!!
The wealth of knowledge on this forum always overwhelms me...
Currently looking for a used 2006 MDX Touring with 25-35k miles. Thinking CPO.
Dealers here in Boston (there are 6 of them locally) seem to have a wide range of prices, from about $22k to 29k. Of course, mileage, amenities (NAV, RES) and color make it hard to compare apples-to-apples. (I actually just want the Touring without NAV or RES)
So here's my question: How do you effectively negotiate a pre-owned vehicle? Do you trust these Edmunds TMV numbers? Is the end of the month/quarter a better time to buy used? Can you hammer down the CPO cost (which looks to be about $2k)?
Thanks for your advice. I've never bought a CPO dealer car before, but for $25k I'm a little leery of buying from a private seller. Would like to get 2-3 of these dealers really competing, as it appears there is a TON of '06 MDX's coming off lease!
Thanks!
Dino
If this helps you, I am in the NY/NJ/CT region and have been looking in all 3 states for a good deal on that exact car, i.e. touring without NAV and RES. The asking prices were from 23-29K, and I opened my negotiation at 21.5k at 2 places, and both dealers refused to even make a counter offer. In the third place, I started from 22.5, and settled at 23,300 (The asking price was 24K, as the 'discounted internet price').
This is for a certified car with 38500 miles on it, excellent condition inside. Seats are not too worn out, and no scratches anywhere.
For some reason, the number of MDX's on the dealers lots reduced over the 3 week period that I was looking and there really wasn't much room for negotiation.
Hope this helps,
~ :shades:
What was the starting price for the car you bought? You said you paid $23.3k, but don't say where the asking was between 23 and 29k.
A big THANKS!
The car was initially priced at $26500, then it was advertised on the net for 24000. Since by this time I was in the second week of car hunting and 2 dealers had already refused to negotiate, and I was running out of time, I bought at the price, 23300. (This was in NY). You probably will be able to do better, if you have the time and the energy to go to multiple dealers.
I had found another similar touring edition with 39K miles in NJ, The advertised price was 23999, the dealer refused to go below 23799... go figure.
Which area are you looking in? If it is in the NY/NJ/CT region, I may be able to help you avoid some dealers that I dealt with. If you can wait for some time to buy, you will definitely get better deals as the year ends comes closer.
I took delivery of the car today. It handles beautifully. :-)
Have fun.
I was unable to find any private cars for sale during this 4 week period. I looked at classfieds and online sites. Zilch. Nothing.
Glad you like the car! I'm looking in the Boston area, and have 6 dealers to play with. I'm not in a huge rush as the weather is gorgeous and I have a BMW convertible to drive until the snow flies, but I just can't carry much in the meantime.
To answer your question, there are a ton of '05/'06 MDX listed for sale on Craigslist. Some have higher mileage ('05 Touring w/NAV and RES - $16.9k but 93k miles), some older - but they are out there. In general, however, I am a little uneasy about spending this much with an unknown private seller.
Another wrinkle emerged as there is a private guy who offers a "concierge auto buying service" - basically, he will go tot he Honda credit auction with me, pick out a car, and go bid on it. He claims he can get a vehicle in your price range, which is cheaper than the dealers here are advertising... No CPO, however. Anyone go this route? have any luck?
I think the thing to do is just light the fuse with 203 dealers and feel my way to the bottom of the price range. Hopefully the end of the month/end of the quarter may help...
For an '06 car, I would try to stay within 40K miles, just so you have some of the original factory warranty left on the car. Also carefully look at the carfax to see when the car was put on service. Some 06 cars we saw were from december 05, effectively meaning that their factory warranty was almost over.
About the car auctions: one friend of mine bought a Mercedes that way. It worked for him. Another went with a subaru dealer to the auction and got his car that way.
I would look at cars.com, autotrader.com and autos.yahoo.com for the deals. its easy to search on those sites, esp cars.com
I ended up buying from NY. The other car where the dealer came down to 23799 and would not budge is in Open Road Acura in NJ. It was a black on black and was in a great condition. but alas, the price....:-)
By the way, the auction price for this car is about 18-19K. If you go with the concierge service..
good luck with your search.
I got out the door at $35,000 even on my base model MDX Bali Blue with Taupe interior. The breakdown of this price is as follows:
Traded in 2001 Acura 3.2 TL with 60,000 miles on it (cracked front bumper, minor tear in passenger seat leather, lots of little dings all over the car like minor hail damage)
Tax was 7.72% for Colorado+Denver taxes.
Accessories included were chrome side steps, roof racks/cross bars, tow package, body side moldings. (Approximate price $2200)
KBB lists my cars trade in value at around $6300 so I feel I did fairly well overall on this bargain. With trade ins you never know and maybe I could have done better after market, but I think I did well considering the exterior shape my car was in.
Looking at invoice of the MDX at about 38100, accessories around 2100, you end up with 40200 and when you consider tax is 7.72% and was out the door at $35,000 all fees included, I essentially got the car at 32350, so approximately 1500 below invoice at the end of the day? Denver taxes suck......and the next best dealer was getting me out the door at $37000 all inclusive.
I dealt with 3 dealerships in the Colorado area to reach this price and two of them had great experiences.
The only bad experience came at Mile High Acura. I went there and got an appraisal, after a quick 10 minute inspection was told they could give me $4000 for my trade in and might be able to do $4200 or $4300. Was also told they would not sell the new MDX for less than $38100+dealer fee of approximately $400. Was told all of this by one of the worst sales managers I have ever seen. I am in sales myself and the internet sales manager Tom Easaw has no idea how to interact with an educated consumer. I can see his technique working on someone who is committed to buying a certain vehicle and commited to buying from the closest dealership possible, but that's it. His manner came off as demeaning and lacked respect. When presented with the apparent reality and the true market value he responded that his dealership didn't work like that. Looking back it was all so humourous how this guy could be a manager. His sales representative Randy was very pleasant though and I can only imagine if Randy was a manager and Tom was unemployed, they might have gotten my business.
The other dealership I dealt with but did not purchase from was Courtesy Acura in Littleton. I have nothing but good things to say about them including Jeff, their internet manager, and Pat, their salesman. They had be out the door at $37,000 (taxes, dealer fee, trade in factored in) which was partly my fault because I used Tom's information above as a starting point and had not done enough internet research when I went to them. I would have done the deal that day had they had the car I wanted on the lot, but was told I would need to wait up to 3 weeks for the vehicle. Anyway, as far as the Denver area dealers go, if you're looking to buy n Acura, head to Courtesy Acura in Littleton and talk to Pat...STAY AWAY FROM MILE HIGH UNTIL TOM EASAW IS GONE, MY EXPERIENCE WITH HIM WAS AWFUL!
While waiting for Courtesy to call me back with a date on my car, I decided to respond to an e-mail I got from Pikes Peak Acura down in Colorado Springs. I had a figure set in my head of $31500 difference+tax and after about 15 minutes of negotiating with their sales manager Leif, we agreed on $35,000 all inclusive out the door with $10,000 down on my credit card (which means $200 in my pocket with schwab credit card) and the remaining $25,000 financed at 1.9% for 36 months. The car I wanted wasn't on the lot at the time we agreed, but they told me it was in Michigan and on a train on its way down here. It arrived this morning and they had it all geared up with my options by 6pm and ready for me to pick up. The closing was pretty slow even though I had an appointment and I ended up waiting 30 minutes longer than I should have had to, but my experience was generally positive.
I'll probably have all my service done at Courtesy Acura due to my positive experience there and desire to prevent Mile High from getting any of my business and have told my friends who have Acuras to head there as well.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it
thanks
You can break it down however you like though.
I traded in my 2001 TL with 60,000 miles.
I had them put on chrome side steps, side molding, tow package, roof racks/crossbars.
My sales tax rate was 7.72%.
I financed $25,000 of the vehicle at 1.9% for 3 years.
There were a few other fees that were all wrapped into the price.
I paid $10,000 on my credit card so got $200 cash back there from Schwab.
End of the day, when all was said and done, I paid $35,000.56.