Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Also Dennis or anyone could u comment on Gap Insurance? Is this something that everyone should have? Is their a precentage of much one fiances where it becomes an absolute no brainer?
cusafr
Also I am debating about jumping up to the EX-L I4 only because of the driver's power seat. I have a back that tends to cramp up and find the power seat a blessing in my current vehicle. I don't want leather but could learn to live with it (have it, it's nice but sometimes it's not) to get the power seat. I guess that's a decision I have to make between now and then.
Also isn't there already a power seat on the EX without leather, but it just isn't 8-way power like the EX-L?
You can still manually adjust the seat of the EX and it has some power adjustment too.
If you don't want leather and all the other extra stuff that comes on the EX-L, it is a lot of money just to get the power seat.
The EX has a power HEIGHT adjustment, that's it. As someone else said, it also has the lumbar adjustment that the other models lack.
The I4 EX-L has the 8-way power seat on the driver's side only. The leather seats are also heated. Of course, the EX-L does have a few more upgrades than just the seats. Check out the Honda Fact Sheet for more.
Do you know how to tell when many car dealers are lying to you? Their lips are moving
Dennis
First off, you should do what you are comfortable with. You are the only one that knows the state of your finances, insurance coverage, and such.
GAP coverage pays off your loan even if the amount is in excess of the retail value of your car. If you total your car of it is stolen, the insurance will want to pay off the retail value of the car. My insurance uses NADA "clean retail value" for the payoff. If the loss is your fault, they take off the deductible and write you a check for the balance. If a theft, you would likely get the whole amount. If the accident is someone else's fault, you are a lot more likely to be able to push for more money on the car and again would have no deductible.
The key (to me) for deciding if I needed GAP or not is getting a great deal on the car and on the financing. If you are upside down on your trade, need a long (60-72 month) loan payoff, or did not get a good deal on the car - then you likely need GAP. If you don't have a trade or do not owe more than you get trade-in, don't finance 72 months, maybe pay some money down, and get a super low price on the new car - then you may not.
For example, if I check an 06 LX V-6 Accord sedan (they did not have an SE V-6 last year) with 15k on it via the NADA price guide - it shows up as $21,225 clean retail. Invoice on a new SE V-6 is $21,754 then less $750 or maybe $1,200 incentive + TTL. Even with sales tax and nothing down, you would not be much over "clean retail" for a 1yr old LX.
You have to look at the rate you pay off the car VS retail value. As you pay down the loan, the car is worth less retail so insurance would pay off less. Using the LX V-6 as an example, the NADA clean retail for an 05 with 30k is $18,325. So your 2 yr old SE V-6 should be worth more, but after 2 years of payments how much would you still owe?
I would talk to your insurance agent about how they pay off and what number they use, look at your deductible, your financing, and your finances and decide for yourself. Also the cost of the GAP can be really high when purchased "under pressure" in the F&I office - so decide up front if you need it or not, and do not overpay.
Dennis
As a percentage of FULL MSRP the V-6 does not hold value as well, but that should not bother you as you would be paying $300 more and not $1,700 more. Also the V-6 should always be worth more than the I4 retail of trade in - maybe not as much as the MSRP difference, but should be more than the $300 you have to pay.
The EPA ratings for the V-6 are 20/29 VS 24/34 for the I4.
With the V-6 you get: Vehicle Stability Assist, traction control, Brake Assist, 17" Alloy Wheels (16" on the I4). ON a FWD car VSA is not a must have, but it could be nice to have on a winter day - ditto traction control. Brake assist is not something high on my list, but again may come in handy. And the larger wheel would look better, but may cost more in replacement rubber.
Long-term reliability of the I4 may be better.
If you run the gas numbers - say you drove 15k per year and averaged 24 mpg in the V-6 and 28 mpg in the I4. At $3.25 per gallon that would be $2,031.25 and $1741.07 - a difference of $290.18 per year.
Depending on your miles driven per year, commuting drive (bumper to bumper of freeway cruise), and driving style - I would say it would be a no-brainer to take the V-6 for $300 more money. They only way I would pass is if I drove a lot of crawling miles every year which would make the I-4 a LOT cheaper to operate. Otherwise, sign up for the V-6. At the end of 3 yrs with either car, the v-6 might return enough more on trade/sale to negate the extra you spent to buy and run it for those 3 years. If gas his $5 per gallon, hop in your time machine and go back and get the I4
Dennis
Dealer 1: 20,000
Dealer 2: 20,420
Dealer 3: 19,790
I'm still waiting on about 3 more dealers to respond. Is it unrealistic to ask for 19,200 - 19,500 with destination? My brother thinks so, especially with it being so close to the end of the month.
Over the last 4 years, gas prices have climbed higher than anyone thought they would.
5 years ago, most people assumed that gas would not be over $2 per gallon in 5 years.
Imagine if gas prices where to climb much higher than most people assume they will today.
$3 a gallon is not enough to stop people from buying the V6 models, but some dollar amount will be, especially for people trying to save money by shopping for used cars instead of new cars.
Will it be worth the wait?
Does anyone have any insight on new model year incentives with Honda?
How accurate are those spy pictures?
Thanks for any advice.
Base: 22, 522.85
Destination: 598.00
State Tire Fee: 5.00
State Battery Fee: 1.50
State Sales Tax: 1387.65
County Sales Tax: 25.00
Title: 120.00
Tag Transfer: 40.00
Total Out The Door: 24,700
Thanks so much for sharing all of your advice and prices. We calculated the Triple Net on this model. Asked for quotes from at least 15 Florida dealers. Then had dealerships decide whether to beat the best price quotes.
If you're in Florida definitely look at Honda of Ocala, Maroone Honda of Hollywood, Rick Case Honda and Ed Morse Honda. They gave us the really competitive quotes. Ocala's was the lowest.
If you're in Tampa, we couldn't get any of the area dealerships to come near our OTD price. They all wanted in the 26K range. High dealer fees. They "couldn't believe" that we were getting 22.5 base price. They lost our potential business and we bought 90 miles north of Tampa.
Also, in our experience, we regret giving our phone number to some of the dealers. They wouldn't quote via email once they had a phone number. They wanted to "talk" to us and "check" to make sure that they had our car information correct. They really wanted to haggle with us. Leaving off the phone number got us much better and lower quotes.
Also, in our experience, when I put down my whole first name in the emails (my name is obviously that of a female) I got very high quotes. I shortened my name, dropping off a few letters on the end, in emails to other dealerships making it sound like a male name and prices dropped dramatically. Have no idea if these two are linked or not. Just thought I'd put it out there.
Thanks again posters.
As was mentioned, get pre-approved for the car at your bank, credit union, or CapitalOne online. They you know your rate and can figure out what you can and can't afford based on buying the car at invoice (for example) and what it would be at $1,200 under (for example). Then you start at that low number, not at MSRP. Be sure the dealers includes the dealer fee and destination in the quotes. Once you have a number you can live with, price-wise, you double check you can live with the payment based on your pre-approved rate and term. If so, you go get the car. In the F&I office when they ask about financing tell them you are already approved - and tell them if they can offer you a lower rate on the same term, simple internest, no setup fees, no pre-pay penalty loan you will let them do the financing. If they can, double check the payment with their rate and sign. If they can't, use your pre-approved financing.
Dennis
Even Honda less reliability the first year of a re-do than the later years of the design. And that is not just the first year you have - it is worse throughout the entire life of the vehicle. Add in that right now Accord incentives are about as good as they ever have been - and that st(d)ealers will be gouging early birds on the new 08s and you would be "nuts" to wait for an 08. Unless you can wait months and months for sales to slow and inventories to build up to the point Honda puts dealer money on them again.
So you have a proven design with maybe "historically" high incentives or a new, non-proven design that will cost you MSRP or more. Pretty easy choice for me.
If you have to have a sedan now, either get a Civic with cheap financing (pretty roomy inside now) or get the 07 Accord with a big incentive. Then you can sell it or trade it down the road once the new design is proven and Honda has incentives on them.
Dennis
There is a regional 2.9% - 4.9% deal on Civics right now.
If they had a deal, it is unlikely to be less than 4.9% on a term of 48 months or more, which would barely beat your CU rate. If they did have a cheap rate, it would likely cancel out the $750 or $1,200 incentives anyway and you would be better off with your CU rate.
You are doing the right thing, get your own money fixed before car shopping. If the dealer can beat it, fine, if not you have that to fall back on.
Dennis
quote 1: 23351
quote 2: 23503
Third dealership said let them know my lowest quote and they would be surprised if they could not give me a better deal.
all include dealer fees and destination but not taxes, tags and registration. How does that that seem? And we are pursuing getting our financing from our credit union first.
I just read a posting that Honda is doing away with some incentives this upcoming month. Although there was no mention of doing away with the dealer incentive on the Accord, Honda is "definitely" discontinuing the dealer incentive on the Ridgeline & Pilot as well as the low APR on the Civic.
was told by local dealer that 4.9% for 60 mos. was available through Honda. not sure whether to believe this guy or not.
Obviously TTL will effect OTD .. Im in WV and 5% sales tax is in effect. Title and License i think are around 300 (rough very rough guess).
I was also told by the same local guy that the incentive money would be gone July 1. He also tried to play some "The financing won't be here after Wed. July 27th garbage.
I love a car dealer....
Invoice on the I4 EX-L with NAV is $25,098 and this model for sure (for me) has the $1,200 incentive on it, so $23,898 after taking off the incentive. There may also be a $750 additional incentive on this model (hard to tell the way Edmunds shows them) and there is also just over $550 in holdback. So if you told them $23,148 and they do get both incentives, you could get the car for $1,950 under invoice and the dealer would still make 100% of his holdback. That sounds fair to me.
One thing I would recommend is NOT getting the Nav system at all. Even at invoice, that is a ridiculously high priced option at $1,807 dealer cost. You are very unlikely to ever get much of your money back at sale or trade time, and you can buy a portable Garmin for a fraction of the cost. Heck, I just picked up the little i3 on clearance for $106 delivered! Yes the Honda system is integrated and does voice recognition, but you could get a top of the line Garmin for tons less money and it will likely do a better job of mapping than an OEM system - and the maps can be updated for just $75 per year. Every OEM system I have ever used has been inferior to all but the cheapest Garmins I have used. And you could move a portable from car to car to even motorcycle. Heck, if I add up every Garmin I own and GPS units I have purchased for my wife and kids it would not equal the invoice cost of a single OEM Honda Nav system - and that is a bunch of GPS units in a bunch of cars and bikes.
Dennis
"The Following will be over on the 5th of July:
Accord Lease Specials and Dealer Incentives .as well
as Finance Cash."
Anything can be negotiated, but if they think the cars are so hard to get/so valuable they are jacking the price up over MSRP then getting a sweet deal there is practically hopeless. Use the dealer locator on the Honda web page to expand your search to a place where they are want to deal and move cars. Going from $1,800 over MSRP to $750 or $1,200 under MSRP would pay for a LOT of flying/driving/car hauling to find a better deal.
When *I* see these side stickers I usually just walk (run) away. That kind of dealer probably also has a huge doc fee for extra profit. Rather than pound a square peg into a round hole, I just seek out someone more agreeable. Less trouble and stress on all involved.
Dennis
The current Pilot deal, for example, is just like that. You can do about invoice and get 4.9% of pay 6.35% (or whatever) and get the truck for $2k under invoice. Running the numbers shows taking the $2k under is cheaper.
Dennis
What began as a search for an SE 5MT ended with a EX-L AT. My wife didn't care for the cloth material and the incentives made the move up practical. Worked with two dealerships - the first being a waste of my time, the second offered a fair internet quote that I accepted. Money may have been left on the table, but I'm happy.
EX-L AT: 21,498.00
6.25 tax: 1,343.63
title/fees: 230.45
OTD: 23,072.08
Cash deal, no trade. Dealer add-ons - mud flaps, edge guards, wheel locks, trunk matt, tinted windows were all included in price.
Between now and July 4th may be the best time to get a deal on an 07 Accord.....Good Luck with your purchase.