Honda Civic Hybrid Prices Paid and Buying Experience

motherweary

Thanks! Lots of good info there.

court

I have spoken to a number of dealers in the Ventura Co./Santa Barbara Co. area (north of L.A.). Their asking price is uniformly $3000 above the MSRP! (The exception is Valencia CA which is $5000 above MSRP!!) I expect that I can bargain them down a bit, but I am not sure how much. Also, I keep getting the "we expect them soon" story. Any ideas on *when* I can actually have this car? And how much will it cost me?

Thanks!

sandibeach

Thats really expensive. If you dont mind going a little further to get our car, Spokane Valley Honda through the internet only will be able to get one December for about MSRP. Good luck to you. Internet guy is really nice, I am very happy with them. Mine comes in December 10th, I can hardly wait!!!!

waffle

I talked with the fleet manager at South Bay Honda in Los Gatos, Ca (silicon valley) yesterday and they told me upfront that they charge $3500 over MSRP and that if I want one it would be likely end of Jan - Feb 2006... They might have one to test drive in a few weeks... he is going to call me when he gets one so I can decide if I am even interested.

I also asked him why they don't have options like bluetooth, and he said that Honda doesn't want to take sales away from the Acura line. Ha! - They are not competing with Acura, they are competing with Toyota and the Prius HAS options like that...

At that price, it makes me want to go back and look at the prius sad as I am to admit that.

theking

I would get the price in writing because for about MSRP with MSRP for a non-nav model being $22,400 can become $24,000 which is "about" MSRP. The word "about" can be interpreted in many ways. Your nice internet guy turns out to be a regular floor salesperson who looks like he belongs in the movie "Goodfellows'. The added costs will be stated as "market adjustment fees".(It is funny how car dealers can explain ADMU; they sound like PHD's in economics from MIT") I would have a signed agreement with the dealer right now at a set price so there will be no "You should realize that the Honda Hybrid Civic is the hottest car in the market" B.S. :surprise:

motherweary

When we bought ours in '03, I had an email quote from the salesman (who, I think, thought he was selling a plain old Civic, even though the email plainly stated that it was about a Hybrid). The dealership told me that the printed email constituted an offer to sell and they had to sell me the car for the stated amount. We drove the 50 miles that very evening to test drive, buy, and take it home.

miniok

If you are able or willing to make a trip to Oklahoma, you can buy a HCH w/nav ($23,900 MSRP) for $22,401 for January or February delivery.

sandibeach

My price is in writing. MSRP is the same everywhere, unless our talking second sticker, I am NOT. Valley Honda in Spokane Wa has been great to me, this will be my 3rd car bought from them. All have been purchased through their internet guy. He is not a regular salesperson, he is a MGR. Try it out, he will sell a new 2006 Hybrid Civic for real MSRP of $22,400 (non-nav) no extra accessories, no extra fee's. Not all car salespeople are bad.

rajd1974

Yesterday a dealership sales person called me and offered a 2006 Civic Hybrid at MSRP. $23900 or so EX/Nav model.
I am still unsure if I should buy this or just get an LX.
Reason is the advantage of mileage and economy is coming at a serious drop in horse power.. 110HP vs 140HP for the non hybrid models and this is making me reconsider.

larsb

If you care only about what you pay for the car, and want the lowest price, buy the LX.

If you are going to drive the doors off the car and USE that 140 HP engine to it's fullest, buy the LX.

If you want:

a car which can give you (with practice) up to 60-65 MPG
a car which will give you a tax deduction
a car which will be as clean as any gasoline burner on the road
a car which will insulate you from worries about gas prices going up

then get the Hybrid.

rest

I cant figure with all the avetising on the civic hybrid why is there such a delay. It seems to me there is something wrong, you cant get anwser any where?

miket5

Gas prices are coming down from now until into January. Should lessen demand for the HCH and be good for getting a better deal from the dealers. What do you think?

ahujasu

I've been to three Honda dealers in the Silicon Valley. All say their cars are sold and are going for 4500 to 5000 over msrp. One internet manager actually had one that I could get next week. It was granite pearl, I beleieve, with nav. I don't want to pay a premium and I really don't want it until January when I can hopefully qualify for the tax credit so I passed. I'm going to wait a bit and see if prices and demand drop a little.

The local Toyota dealer is willing to sell me a Prius at MSRP with a 6 to 8 week wait. I may go that route.

spidey

I asked to be put on a Los Angeles dealer's list for a Magnetic Pearl Civic Hybrid with Navigation back in mid-September. At that time, the fleet manager and I agreed on paying sticker price.

The car came in this week, and I did pay sticker price, $23,900. The whole transaction took 30 minutes. It would have taken less time if I didn't take a quick spin around the block.

leokadia1

I ordered the same car it will be built on 11/22/05 . What do think of the Magnetic Pearl color? I got my car for invoice on the East Coast. I will not take del till after Jan 1 for the Tax Credit.

Good Luck with you new Civic Hybrid!!

messageforkate

I'm waiting for a magnetic pearl from NH dealer. Questions:
1. is the color almost black
2. any complaints yet
3. have you heard of better prices than sticker since you bought yours
Thanks

eramey212

I want to test drive a Civic Hybrid before I decide if I am going to buy one, do any of you know of any dealerships in the San Francisco Bay Area that have Hybrids to test drive? Preferably South Bay (San Jose area).

psy

Thats a for real price including dest. on that car. They will be pricing there HCH's like that at Mark Roberts in Bartlesville. Great dealer! Blows me away that folks would pay msrp to a thug dealer or gasp, over msrp. If Honda had seen fit to put a 5MT and rear disc brakes on a HCH I would have been the first to put money down on one at Mark Roberts.

mwong

I ordered one from a Bay Area dealer with an 11/17/05 build date. I was quoted MSRP. I'm expecting it the week of Christmas.

For those that have taken delivery of their 06 HCH, do you have a timeline on time from "build date" to delivery date?

vicd

Agree; at Fremont, Los Gatos, San Jose Hondas, people paid 3-5k over MSRP, no problem. At Salinas, San Leandro and Tracy Hondas, they offered written firm quotes for MSRP.

Or so I thought. I bought from Tracy Honda BUT in the middle of doing the paperwork, their GM stopped the process, pulled my wife and myself to a different room and said he now could not honor the written price?! This GM said he did not know of the deal, didn't approve it and would now have to go a thousand over?! I had been in contact with my sales guy for 4-5 days beforehand!! He then offered $800 over after some "silence".

After a brief blowup, I realized it was still a good deal (well, my wife did) and that there were others literally ready to pay much more! I knew if I walked from this and waited I probably wouldn't get the car until well into next year and getting the right price would be much more challenging, esp. since this model was voted the car of the year from Motor Trend. I figured the additional 2006 tax benefit was a wash since I get a nice cash incentive from work and that I wasn't going to pay way over MSRP.

I think this GM was hoping I would walk away, but in his reneged promised price, his shortsightedness neglected to realize I WAS planning on getting a couple of dealer add-on features and extended warranty, which I'm sure is DECENT margin for them. This guy trying to gouge further probably also caused more damage just by this explanation!

I've filed a couple of complaints outside of this dealership, but just beware the overzealous greed on selling this remarkable car. I mean, what more than getting something in writing and confirming with the sales guy before you drive out over an hour can you do??

JBaumgart

Of course the decision was entirely yours to make, but I would have tried harder to make them stick to the deal that they made, and if they refused to honor it, I would have walked right out the door.

P.S. Usually during the negotiations the salesperson will at least jot down the agreed-upon price on a piece of paper, and then you shake hands. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm wondering if that doesn't make it a legal contract. However if it's all just verbal at that point, then I guess they are not legally bound to honor anything they might have told you. Still, it would have been a clear sign to me that those are not the kind of people that I would want to do business with.

moolman

Not wanting to start an arguement but people like you encourage dealers to pull crap like that because they know it will work. The tactic of stopping a deal in mid paper work after it was negotiated in good faith and your drove all the way to Tracy for it. Then telling you that it's more, you should of raised hell and then some in the middle of the dealership and if you didn't get a that price not buy it.

Scams will stop once people stop falling for them.

Once you had it in writing you got them for the price so I don't know why you paid more, I believe in California it's a legally binding, even if was jotted down on an regular piece of paper.

Well, it's your money but I implore people to not let dealers pull that crap.

Alex

theking

:mad: My dealer in Massachusetts has told me that he would have his first hybrid in stock by the middle of November. Today the salesman told me the car would not be in until mid or end of December. Has anyone heard of production problems in Japan that is holding back hybrids from being delivered ?

miket5

I'm frustrated with the high demand for the '06 redesign, although an excellent car. Is commanding top doallar--a bad position for us consumers to be in. Looking forward to there being more competition in the marketplace for hybrids. For now, seems the best playing field is against the previous '05 model. The way I figure it we can knock the price down as follows:
1. Starting price is MSRP for '06 HCH w/o navi = 22400
2. '05 HCH with automatic (still an excellent car) Knock off 1,500 for not being the new model = 20,900
3. One year old with say, 20,000 miles on it. Knock off another 1,500 = 19,400
4. The impending tax credit on new '06 models should be kicking in some back pressure on the market for '05 models. Knock off another 1,500 = 17,900

Besides that, I'm cheap and don't believe in paying full retail for anything. Doing the same kind of thinking as above yields the following result:
--Wholesale/Invoice: 16,017
--Private Party Price: 16,960
--Retail/MSRP: 17,900

I might go to a private party and go for 16,400 for a starting offer. Maybe go up a few hundred (am I too idealistic? The market forces will reveal the answer). For an alomst new HCH that is a far cry from paying 22,400 on up. What could you do with an extra 6,000? Well, don't all you go out and flood the used car market now, making it difficult on me. (And I won't have to wait over a year for my tax rebate either!)

ahujasu

Sorry they did that. I guess they'll try anything to increase the bottom line. In any case I probably would have made a bigger scene as you did have a written quote for msrp.

I hope you mentioned that you will get your warranty and other parts on-line so they can't get the profit.

Goodluck with the vehicle.

isellhondas

Except...

Where do you expect to find any leftover 2005 Hybrids?

We sold our last one months ago.

anyonebut_24

I put down a $500 deposit 6 weeks ago on my new 2006 HCH without Nav at Penske Honda in Ontario, CA. Going to pick it up in a couple hours. According to my salesman, Penske for some reason cannot mark up their cars over MSRP as some other dealers do, so the deal will be at MSRP, $22,400. We'll see if that's the case, I will post results following the deal.

fri8080

i ordered my 06 civic hybrid september 27, 05. from a dealership in iowa. it arived november 4th. i agreed to pay the dealer retail price... $23,900 w/ nav system.

btw, the wait is worth it! i am really impressed with this car. am averaging high 40's mpg in town without trying. highway driving (at 58 - 62 mph) i'm averaging 53 without trying.

I have put about 700 miles on it and have not had any problems or glitches showing up, thus far.

will keep you posted.

miket5

I'm suggesting one with about 20,000 miles on it. So it wouldn't be brand new. They are out there--a bit hard to find. I'm not sure if my theory will hold true, though. I think just the word "hybrid" on a car will cause it to attract attention on a car lot and command a higher resale than I am hoping for. I think I'll end up buying an '06 if I can't find a really good deal on an '05

eric29

Perhaps you should consider filing an action in small claims court for breach of contract. You could argue that the salesman bound the dealership since he was their representative. The fact that the dealership has some sort of contract approval process that was allegedly not honored does not concern you. That is an internal matter for the dealership to deal with through discipline or however. The salesman was on their staff and represented the dealership. End of discussion.

You could say that you did not waive the original contract by accepting the final contract since you wanted the car.

This happens in business contracts all the time. A factory contracts to buy steel at a certain price. The price gets raised. They have to buy the steel so they pay a higher price, either to the original manufacturer or to another source. They sue for damages arguing that the measure of damages is the difference between the original contract that was not honored and the final price. The lawsuits succeed. They are entitled to the "benefit of their bargain."

Here, the value you lost is probably too low to get an attorney involved, but it is your choice. Small claims court is made for this.

vicd

Thanks. I am going after Tracy Honda in a couple of ways and I guess this discussion thread can also help others be aware. This tactic was a first for me I must admit; considering my other Honda buying experience was great (close to invoice). The lack of integrity was surprising for Honda, but this is probably just my naivety.

I am very very happy with the HCH, esp. with some nice add-ons I had done at another dealership. The $800 isn't a big deal to me vs. the broken principle (plus my work incentive and ridding myself of a lousy expensive 2002 Audi A6 today really helps). I know it sounds a bit pathetic fighting this after the sale, but as some consolation, I have a relative and colleague now shopping for this car and they definitely will not look at Tracy Honda.

spidey

Hi, and sorry for the late reply. I need to come here more often. Let me answer your questions.

1. is the color almost black - it's graphite with a blue tint to it, definitely you can tell it's not black most of the time, even at night where it still looks like a dark grey
2. any complaints yet - none, it's been great getting back into a Honda. the glovebox seems to rattle a bit, but that may be due to what's inside.
3. have you heard of better prices than sticker since you bought yours - Around here, no. In Los Angeles, dealers have the audacity to markup the regular Civics. I have no idea how much they are going to markup the Hybrids. I truly lucked out.

sactoroy

Picked up a 2006 Galaxy Gray HCH last Wednesday. They even matched internet prices on accessories (fog lights, splash guards) and HondaCare. Never heard back from the dozen or so other dealers I sent emails to inquiring about this car. None even asked for a deposit, except for SSH. Their next delivery is at the end of the year. I couldn't wait as I didn't want to risk missing out on the HOV sticker. I assume my purchase will qualify for the $2,000 deduction from taxable income.

motherweary

I have a blue/silver HCH. It's just on the border between the colors: in sunny weather it's a nice, silvery blue, and in overcast weather it's more silver.

love2scuba

I had the same problem with Dublin Honda. My wife and I went in on September 1st and put down $1k on a 2006 HCH got a written contract stating MSRP (did not even know what the price would be yet at that time). Even had a car from their computer that was being built and sent to them asigned to me. Never got it. Then they had us go back in and the salesman told us that since they have 20 people asking for every car they were getting in that they would no longer give us a car at MSRP and wanted an extra $3k, unless we give them our trade in at $4k under trade in value. Or we could also give them a "bid" on another HCH. I told them that this wasn't ebay, that we had already negotiated a deal and that what they were doing was wrong. They did not care, so we just walked out. :mad:

JBaumgart

I'm all for dealers making as much as they can, but not after they agree to a deal, especially one that's in writing. What happened to you and your wife is very unfortunate, and is an example of why car dealers generally are held in such low esteem with the general public.

vicd

wow..really sorry to hear that. I hope at least these discussions bring further awareness and some retribution. I've since filed a complaint against Tracy Honda with the Better Business Bureau (in central CA) and with American Honda of which they acknowledged my experience, along with this discussion thread and others.

I know people say 'just walk away' and don't encourage these tactics which most people would do in most cases. In this case, the HCH hits a perfect sweet spot for many of us and the only major drawback are these mgmt. sales tactics. Thus the surprise that at a higher level in Honda they might be condoning this. Honda did a great job not succumbing to the 'employee discount' campaign and continues to hold value all around and knows they have a major hit here to leverage. I could hope these are only isolated incidences...unless you're paying way over MSRP. In that case, obviously high market demand also brings out the worst in sleeze tactics

vicd

an interesting response from a colleague of mine that could be useful and very interesting to do:

Excuse yourself from the 're-negotiation', call the police(311 non-emergency in San Jose), calmly/firmly explain the heightened situation and bring unwanted police attention into the dealership...basically cause a strategic stink.

At the least, it could be very entertaining, esp. with cameras rolling and maybe effective...who knows..

love2scuba

Thanks for making us laugh, this forum is a good stress reliever! Calling the police would be an interesting choice, but I think I will send a letter to the BBB as well as corporate Honda and maybe even the local paper. Also, I did find another dealer willing to give us the car at MSRP...just a hassle to have to drive two hours instead of 5 minutes to the dealer. At least I knew not to go to Tracy Honda . My wife is going to put the deposit on the new car tomorrow and hopefully we will be driving it soon after New Years.

motherweary

love2scuba, what dealership are you ending up at? When we bought our '03 (in October of 2002) we drove from Petaluma to Dublin Honda for a good deal, so I'd be willing to put in some miles this time, too.

love2scuba

We ended up at Lodi Honda. Checked at Stockton and they were willing to drop their add-on but didn't have any with Nav coming in for awhile. I also liked the fact the Lodi didn't have a markup to begin with.

razorx

I just heard this today and that this type of car will not be available till end of January/February. Per one dealer, all of this type have been cancelled in the US till then. Another dealer I am working with did not mention this, though delivery timeframe is expected to be in January.

Anyone else heard this?

moparbad

What is name of the dealer in OK that will sell at $1500 under MSRP? Edmunds allows the dealer name to be posted, just do not post the salesperson name.

miniok

It's Mark Roberts.

mitch11

Hi, I'm also looking in L.A. Everybody wants a lot over sticker. How did you purchase from Iowa - you felt confident that you weren't going to get scammed?

mwong

I ordered in mid Oct for MSRP from a Bay Area dealer. Build date was 11/17. Got word today that ship date was 12/2. Not sure if it will make it to the dealer this year, I hope it does. My salesmen told me that they are now asking $3000.00 over msrp for the 2006 HCH but will honor my msrp deal.

ykosasih

how much did you pay for your car?
can break down everything like price, interest, what did you get from them? how much your down payment and how much did you pay every month and for how many month?
thank you.

vicd

Apparently more and more Honda dealers are doing this. I suggest you file complaints with your BBB, American Honda (in Torrance), etc.

Luckily or unluckily, the same thing happened to me, but the HCH was available. Deal was almost to the last stage of paperwork when Tracy Honda pulled the rug out. Still got the car, but a bit higher than MSRP.

Search 'vicd' in the discussion thread to see more detail and browse earlier threads here that speak of the same situation. Or hybridcars.com too

It sucks, I know, but hopefully you can get some retribution and while you're at it..the car itself!! Just don't go to Tracy Honda! :mad:

razorx

Purchased at Spreen Honda - Redlands, CA (Recommended since they sold the car for what we had agreed to via email)

Painless experience. It took 6 weeks for a car to be delivered from the time I placed the $200 deposit. It arrived at the dealer Dec. 16th and I picked it up on the 17th. Finance person was very thorough in going over all of the value-add options though I just opted to pay for the alarm separately.

Other dealers were vague about even committing to $1500 over invoice.

Uh, only thing which I did not know is the extra cost to enable XM radio. Apparently, Honda charges an outrageous price for that "box" of $799...

HOV bound!

rebma

I highly recommend using Manly Honda in Santa Rosa CA to purchase your new HCH. I got mine in two weeks, with no MSRP mark-up, and in my choice of color. The whole deal was very sweet. And the car is fantastic.