Honda Accord LX 1.5 L 2019 model price paid and financing
Hi All,
Bought Honda Accord LX 1.5 L (Base Model, Crystal Black exterior and Black interior) with financing on 2/25 with trade-in at Pennsylvania. Here are the details:
The dealer did not want to break out the discount and trade in, they wanted to give a final price:
Sale Price (including ~$900 destination fees): $24,305
Trade In: ($5,500)
Doc Fee: $144
Sales & Local Tax: $1,128
License and Fees: $172
TOTAL Out the Door (that I would pay): ~$20,250
Now my Toyota Camry LE was a 2012, with 110k miles on it. Edmunds showed trade in value of $3,500 and private sale value of $5,500. I had an accident on the Carfax report and had scraped paint off by using a showel to clean snow and the steel screws had scraped paint. But it had a new torque convertor, new rear brake pads and rotors, remote starter, 10k old Michelin tires and most maintenance done at Toyota dealers. So I was thinking that $3,000 would be a fair trade in value. So below is MY INTERPRETATION of the deal.
MSRP (NOT including ~$900 destination fees - from various websites): $23,720
Discount: ($2,550)
Invoice (NOT including ~$900 destination fees - from various websites): $21,170
Destination Fees: $900
Doc Fee: $144
Sales & Local Tax: $1,128
License and Fees: $172
TOTAL : ~$23,514
Trade in (my assessment): ($3,000)
TOTAL OUT THE DOOR: $20,514
But I negotiated to $20,250 with mud flaps. So I think I did fine. I do hear people mention that the deal should be $1k below invoice with that logic I should have paid around $19,750 but that's ok. I am happy with the car!!
Finally, financed it with $5k down payment and received a 1.9% APR loan from Honda Finance.
Some things that I think helped with my negotiations:
1. Tried to close the deal after 2/22 or so (so that dealers and salesmen are in a rush to meet quotas).
2. Visited a dealership in Massachusetts to get a sense of if I like the car and what were they willing to come down to (later realized most including my area in MA have "Excise Tax" for keeping the car which would be ~$1,200 in five years! So knew I wanted to do the deal in PA (I have two residences - MA and PA). I understood that $19,500 to $20,000 would be a good deal for me (including the trade-in). And I would like a standard Crystal Black exterior with Black interior (easily available in stock at any normal dealer - since it is a standard car).
3. Assessed my Camry from Edmunds and KBB and jotted down all the positives as mentioned above on a piece of paper and when they took the keys to assess, mentioned the positives all at one place.
4. I told them that am looking for a great deal will close as soon as I find one but am in no hurry either. This was indeed true, my Camry is 7 years old but it is not falling apart, so I could easily wait two or more months.
5. I knew that the Honda Accord 2019 have come out in September beginning 2018, so they have been on the market for 6 months and I should be able to get some deals on them.
6. When I walked into the dealership, I had the title, registration etc. all ready for my Camry and poking out of the folder. So the dealers knew I was serious.
7. I understood that the dealers know that I will be visiting another dealership after theirs, so they want to close the deal when I am there right there and then. My job was to show them that I am serious I will close the deal on the spot.
8. Order of dealer visits in PA - I had shortlisted three dealers in a 25 - 30 mile radius from me. I rated them in my mind (and also used google review ratings, I know it is not accurate but a start). Then I went to the 3rd dealer (the one with least ratings as per my calculations) and got the best quote from them. Then, my plan was to go to the 2nd and then 1st on my list and close the deal with the 1st.
9. But I was flexible, the 2nd dealer gave me a deal of $20,250 which sort of looked fine to me so I did it.
10. In the negotiations, I showed I was ready to walkaway from the deal. The dealer quoted $20,250 and then said just before we were to initiate paperwork "Oh well, we can't give this $500 discount because we just read the rules and Honda does not offer this." I did not get agitated or mad, just responded "All right guys, at $20,750 I would need to think about it and mull it over and I will come back." And got up and started collecting the paperwork (I would have left), they asked me to wait and came back to the original $20,250.
11. Another thing you want to do is, they will make you wait after each step like 15 - 20 mins uselessly while they "discuss" with their manager. I was never fazed, I would go get water, had a lot of my own work so kept working on my smartphone. So never, once showed anxiety about the deal. (My only "deer in headlights" moment was when the manager says ok, what would you close the deal at today? If we give you this we are signing today? Now, I knew my numbers but when I get in such moments, I kind of am afraid to pull the trigger. SO he asked me a couple of times, I thought what the heck let's quote $20k and see what happens. They were saying $21k at that time).
12. Realize that they are also trying to make a buck, if you have some number you are comfortable with and the car is good. It's just my view that they should also make some money else how will they keep the lights on etc...
Overall, it was a good experience. They were nice salesmen (I was involved with one salesman and one manager in the deal) - I mean they have to do their tricks but that's part of the game, but we enjoyed interacting with each other. I entered the dealership at 5:30 PM (after visiting another dealership at 2:30 PM) and walked out with a new Honda Accord at 8 PM.
On the paper work front. The deal is not done till the financing and insurance is not done. So I was like guys run the credit check and give me the deal, they told me get insurance meanwhile. Once they confirmed that I had 1.9% financing, I first got the new car insurance. I canceled the Camry insurance after I reached home the same day at 9 PM in the night. Finally, since earlier both my cars were registered in MA, I was getting a multi car discount. But now that was taken away so they were increasing my rates by $1200!! for six months. So I had to cancel my MA insurance and do some jiggling with the PA insurance on the new car to have an increase of $400 or so. SO now I am all set!
As always, Edmunds and the community of posters has been a great resource for me right from 2012 when I used it to get guidance on how to buy my Camry in 2012!
Thanks all and hope this post was useful!
Bought Honda Accord LX 1.5 L (Base Model, Crystal Black exterior and Black interior) with financing on 2/25 with trade-in at Pennsylvania. Here are the details:
The dealer did not want to break out the discount and trade in, they wanted to give a final price:
Sale Price (including ~$900 destination fees): $24,305
Trade In: ($5,500)
Doc Fee: $144
Sales & Local Tax: $1,128
License and Fees: $172
TOTAL Out the Door (that I would pay): ~$20,250
Now my Toyota Camry LE was a 2012, with 110k miles on it. Edmunds showed trade in value of $3,500 and private sale value of $5,500. I had an accident on the Carfax report and had scraped paint off by using a showel to clean snow and the steel screws had scraped paint. But it had a new torque convertor, new rear brake pads and rotors, remote starter, 10k old Michelin tires and most maintenance done at Toyota dealers. So I was thinking that $3,000 would be a fair trade in value. So below is MY INTERPRETATION of the deal.
MSRP (NOT including ~$900 destination fees - from various websites): $23,720
Discount: ($2,550)
Invoice (NOT including ~$900 destination fees - from various websites): $21,170
Destination Fees: $900
Doc Fee: $144
Sales & Local Tax: $1,128
License and Fees: $172
TOTAL : ~$23,514
Trade in (my assessment): ($3,000)
TOTAL OUT THE DOOR: $20,514
But I negotiated to $20,250 with mud flaps. So I think I did fine. I do hear people mention that the deal should be $1k below invoice with that logic I should have paid around $19,750 but that's ok. I am happy with the car!!
Finally, financed it with $5k down payment and received a 1.9% APR loan from Honda Finance.
Some things that I think helped with my negotiations:
1. Tried to close the deal after 2/22 or so (so that dealers and salesmen are in a rush to meet quotas).
2. Visited a dealership in Massachusetts to get a sense of if I like the car and what were they willing to come down to (later realized most including my area in MA have "Excise Tax" for keeping the car which would be ~$1,200 in five years! So knew I wanted to do the deal in PA (I have two residences - MA and PA). I understood that $19,500 to $20,000 would be a good deal for me (including the trade-in). And I would like a standard Crystal Black exterior with Black interior (easily available in stock at any normal dealer - since it is a standard car).
3. Assessed my Camry from Edmunds and KBB and jotted down all the positives as mentioned above on a piece of paper and when they took the keys to assess, mentioned the positives all at one place.
4. I told them that am looking for a great deal will close as soon as I find one but am in no hurry either. This was indeed true, my Camry is 7 years old but it is not falling apart, so I could easily wait two or more months.
5. I knew that the Honda Accord 2019 have come out in September beginning 2018, so they have been on the market for 6 months and I should be able to get some deals on them.
6. When I walked into the dealership, I had the title, registration etc. all ready for my Camry and poking out of the folder. So the dealers knew I was serious.
7. I understood that the dealers know that I will be visiting another dealership after theirs, so they want to close the deal when I am there right there and then. My job was to show them that I am serious I will close the deal on the spot.
8. Order of dealer visits in PA - I had shortlisted three dealers in a 25 - 30 mile radius from me. I rated them in my mind (and also used google review ratings, I know it is not accurate but a start). Then I went to the 3rd dealer (the one with least ratings as per my calculations) and got the best quote from them. Then, my plan was to go to the 2nd and then 1st on my list and close the deal with the 1st.
9. But I was flexible, the 2nd dealer gave me a deal of $20,250 which sort of looked fine to me so I did it.
10. In the negotiations, I showed I was ready to walkaway from the deal. The dealer quoted $20,250 and then said just before we were to initiate paperwork "Oh well, we can't give this $500 discount because we just read the rules and Honda does not offer this." I did not get agitated or mad, just responded "All right guys, at $20,750 I would need to think about it and mull it over and I will come back." And got up and started collecting the paperwork (I would have left), they asked me to wait and came back to the original $20,250.
11. Another thing you want to do is, they will make you wait after each step like 15 - 20 mins uselessly while they "discuss" with their manager. I was never fazed, I would go get water, had a lot of my own work so kept working on my smartphone. So never, once showed anxiety about the deal. (My only "deer in headlights" moment was when the manager says ok, what would you close the deal at today? If we give you this we are signing today? Now, I knew my numbers but when I get in such moments, I kind of am afraid to pull the trigger. SO he asked me a couple of times, I thought what the heck let's quote $20k and see what happens. They were saying $21k at that time).
12. Realize that they are also trying to make a buck, if you have some number you are comfortable with and the car is good. It's just my view that they should also make some money else how will they keep the lights on etc...
Overall, it was a good experience. They were nice salesmen (I was involved with one salesman and one manager in the deal) - I mean they have to do their tricks but that's part of the game, but we enjoyed interacting with each other. I entered the dealership at 5:30 PM (after visiting another dealership at 2:30 PM) and walked out with a new Honda Accord at 8 PM.
On the paper work front. The deal is not done till the financing and insurance is not done. So I was like guys run the credit check and give me the deal, they told me get insurance meanwhile. Once they confirmed that I had 1.9% financing, I first got the new car insurance. I canceled the Camry insurance after I reached home the same day at 9 PM in the night. Finally, since earlier both my cars were registered in MA, I was getting a multi car discount. But now that was taken away so they were increasing my rates by $1200!! for six months. So I had to cancel my MA insurance and do some jiggling with the PA insurance on the new car to have an increase of $400 or so. SO now I am all set!
As always, Edmunds and the community of posters has been a great resource for me right from 2012 when I used it to get guidance on how to buy my Camry in 2012!
Thanks all and hope this post was useful!
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