2013 and earlier-Honda CR-V Prices Paid and Buying Experience

ggoom · May 2004

Hi all,
This is my first message here, and I would like to first thank everyone for the great info. Based on all the info I collected, I decided to purchase CR-V. I would like to purchase one soon, but I wonder when should be a good time to do because I can wait for the better price/model.
If you can help me a little, it would be great. Thanks. BTW, I am in Missouri.

............. 1. Is it typical to have rebate/Honda promotions during the summer? If yes, how much was it last year? Anyone knows?

............. 2. When would I begin to see a 2005 model? I read several possible upgrades for the CR-V. I guess it is reasonable to expect $1000-2000 price increase for the new model. Am I roughly right?

kyfdx · May 2004

Any price increase would be minimal.. They usually keep about the same price, even though the content may go up slightly, assuming its the same model.

New ones start showing up in late October, usually.

There haven't been any significant incentives on CRVs in the past, even late in the model year, except maybe low APRs.

I think the '04 is only about $350 more than the '02 was.

regards,
kyfdx

derkommissar73 · May 2004

I e-mailed the dealer, hoping that by mentoning I would lower his ratings he would do something to rectify the situation, but instead he defended himself by that explaining the extra time it took to get the car transfered to his dealership justified the cost. The silly thing is that he transfered the car from a dealer that was closer to me! I was trying to give him business because he had been really cool up until that point, but he totally pulled a trick on me. I'm not going to post the name of the dealer because this is a relativly minor and small buyer beware issue, but if you are buying a honda in the St. Louis area, be careful.

jamesz · May 2004

I paid 22000 for an EX and got 9000 on my trade, a 1997 CR-V with 44k miles. Wish I'd seen this board before I bought last Friday.

shooterd · May 2004

*rolls eyes*
Now why doesn't this surprise me?

Hi derkommisar, from someone on the St. Louis metro east side. :-)
Gee, it wasn't the one over here on this side, was it?

derkommissar73 · May 2004

No, actually, though I live on that side of the river. Meyer never responded to my internet request for a price quote. The car I got was transfered in from them, though, so they may have had something to do with it. I had a quote from a St. Louis dealer, and then tried to get others in St. L. to beat it. Have you had any problems with the M. East dealer? I was expecting to use them for service.

shooterd · May 2004

Only experience I have is that I bought my current car from them preowned about 2 years ago. They were rather aloof in their dealings. I took an internet quote from another dealership that had the same car with the same equipment on their preowned lot for a fair amount less, so the guy plopped a phone down in front of me and told me to call them. I was more than happy to oblige, but it soured on me when I found out that the second dealership had grossly misprinted the actual mileage on the car they had. I even tried the walk out the door and wait for them to call you back routine, but the guy didn't even want to take my phone number. I ended up getting a few hundred off of it, a pretty fair ream job on my trade, but I needed a family car quickly as my wife was pregnant and all I had was a regular cab truck and a camaro. I was just by there last weekend and their CR-V and Pilot stocks have been pretty well picked through. Hope they're a bit more personable in their service dept for you.

isellhondas · May 2004

Don't feel bad and don't believe everything you read in forums like this.

I have to bite my tongue until it bleeds sometimes.

stever · May 2004

Yeah, we all just show up here to lie about our deals. Right....

Steve, Host

tidester · May 2004

LoL! Actually, there may be some skewing of the posts - IMO many who may have gotten somewhat less than great deals might not be so inclined to post their details. I encourage them to do so in order that we can all get a better picture of what's going on and what's realistic.

tidester, host

parkesy · May 2004

All:

I'm seeking an automatic, silver, 2004 Honda CR-
V, AWD EX. I have been corresponding with a
number of dealers in the DFW area and submitting
my all inclusive, "out the door" number [which
includes TT&L, Destination and two trunk options
- canopy and netting] of $20,800.

Saturday May 8th is when I will buy a vehicle
and will drive all over the Metroplex to get
the deal I want. The question I have, however,
is whether my OTD number of $20,800 is too
high, low or about right? What should it be
for the DFW market?

Finally any recommendations as to dealers and/or
salesmen who I should gravitate to and those
which I should avoid.?

Many thanks,
Parkesy

tidester · May 2004

Finally any recommendations as to dealers and/or salesmen who I should gravitate to and those which I should avoid.?

The name of the dealership will be fine but not the name of a salesperson per the introduction at the top of this page.

Good luck!

tidester, host

kyfdx · May 2004

I'm not sure what tax and licensing runs in Texas, but I would be surprised if you can get the car for $20,800 PLUS tax. WITHOUT tax, $20,800 is $500 UNDER invoice.

Good luck to you, but I think you will be disappointed.

regards,
kyfdx

drj · May 2004

This is the second below invoice Honda we've bought from Grand Honda in a Chicago suburb. No gimmicks. No add-ons. I got the color I wanted (silver). 20,600 including destination of 490. They even lowered the financing rate from 4.8 to 3.9 because I said I could do better through Capitol One. I actually felt guilty as I sat there waiting for the second wave of paperwork. I got chatty with the salesman and asked how they do it. I called all Chicago dealers and a few in Boston where we are moving and none could come close to Grand's price.
So how can they sell for so little? Volume. I expected to hear that. But he also said they don't have demos and that saves them lots of money. So I assume the sales staff is getting stiffed with low wages. Nope. And the guy said everyone is happy there most of the time because there is no haggling which adds stress to everyone's lives on both sides. I ask him why more dealerships don't use their approach. He said "They don't have to. People are willing to pay thousands more than they have to."
The new CRV is great. The only thing that sucked was paying Chicago tax of 8.7% over Boston's 5%. I still came out ahead, though, and Chicago gets another $900 to finish the big Millennium Park (you should see it when its done!.

derkommissar73 · May 2004

I think I was pretty honest in my post. To make it all make more sense, the salesperson originally offered me $6500 for my trade, which was a fair offer, but about $500 below bluebook. I asked for $7000, he tried to get that, then came back at $6750, which I took because it seemed like a fair compromise. So, in my opinion, when he came up with a price for the dealer installed equipment, he was trying to get most of that $250 difference back. I don't think any dealer could possibly tell me that front mud flaps, cargo tray, and wheel locks cost $299. I was simply giddy about the purchase and was not thinking everything through at that point- I had already bargoned, and I thought I did a good job, and was unprepared. Further- he TOLD me that he was selling them to me at COST. I believed him. That was my fault, I guess.

tidester · May 2004

I think I was pretty honest in my post.

Oh, no, I wasn't suggesting that you or anyone is being dishonest! All I am saying is that others who are NOT posting might be reluctant to do so if they haven't gotten really great deals. I'm interested in hearing from them too in order to get a more accurate picture of the kinds deals ALL people are getting!

tidester, host

llofgren · May 2004

I got this deal about 2 weeks ago. I went to Real World Trade in Values here on Town Hall and got a value for trade for my '02 Toyota Highlander (mega-miles) of $18,500 from Terry there.
Shopped it around a bit and found a dealer to give me $20,000 for it but then charged MSRP for the CRV. Net cost to me was $690 + TTL. If I use the $18,500 number for my trade in (which also corresponds to kbb and Edmunds TMV), I got the V for $19,190 which is about $35 over invoice.
BTW, mileage thus far is awesome (and part of the reason I traded in for the Honda): 25.4 mpg (overall) after about 1050 miles.

isellhondas · May 2004

"Some skewing of the posts"

LOL...I like that!

bshel · May 2004

parkesy,
It is a good idea to wait until later in the month if there are no takers at this pt.

kyfdx · May 2004

I think he is right on the money... You will only hear about the average to killer deals here.

Two reasons: The uninformed probably aren't on Edmunds, or haven't been on for long... And also, after reading post after post of below invoice to $500 over invoice deals, they aren't going to post that they paid MSRP.

Also, I immediately disregard any post where a trade is involved. It doesn't mean they didn't get a great deal, but too many variables are involved to put a solid number on it.

regards,
kyfdx

french · May 2004

I'll bite, though I do agree with kyfdx that the uninformed probably aren't here or haven't been here long so you won't see a lot of posters paying MSRP.

As it turns out, even though I thought I had done all my homework, I still could have done better. I posted about my "deal" back in early April but I'll put it up again.

I paid $22,000 for a silver EX with door edge guards, mud guards, roof rack, wheel locks and fog lights. That was at Jim Coleman Honda in Clarksville, Maryland. I thought I was getting a real good deal until I started reading about taking away dealer holdback and offering a starting point from there.

While it seems I could have gotten a better deal then I did, I'm still happy with my purchase and it was haggle free and I really like the dealership. I also like their service department (had to take it in for the fog light install).

isellhondas · May 2004

French, you did just fine. If you bought an automatic, with the cost of those parts and labot to install them, you did, as far as I can tell, a near invoice deal. That's fantastic on a short supply high demand CRV.

You could have, I suppose tried to buy it for less and had your offer refused.

There is only a 1700.00 spread between invoice and MSRP in the first place. Forget holdback since it isn't profit.

Let's just say I read about several kinds of deals here...

1. The usual "good" deal.

2. The deals that are possible but leave me wondering why in the world a dealer would cheap sell a hot seller for that price.

3. The "deals" I know didn't happen as posted.

On the "impossible" deals, something has to be amiss. Perhaps a trade was underallowed on, maybe an outrageous "doc" fees, I don't know.

I see people coming to these "What did you pay" forums and thinking they overpaid when they actually got a great deal. French is a good example of that.

We all need to filter what we read on the internet.

kyfdx · May 2004

Good point.. I had to look up at the top to see what board I was on.. The MSRPs are so similar for the CRV-EX and the Accord EX that I forget where I am.

Like Isell says, the spread on the CRVs is not nearly as large as the Accord. $22K with the foglights and other "garbage" is a very good deal. In my area, $1K off MSRP is about all of it on a CRV.

I take everything with a grain of salt, but below invoice deals seem much more possible on Accords, where they have 150 of them on the lot, than on CRVs, where most dealers are lucky to have ten.

If it makes you feel better, I paid $21,740 for my '02 about two years ago.. and the MSRP was $22,740. No dealer accessories or added fees either.. At that time, I felt like I "stole" it. As most deals were at MSRP or a few hundred under.

I think you got a very good deal.

regards,
kyfdx

derkommissar73 · May 2004

Sorry! You're totally right- the web is always a biased sample. People who are really happy and people who are really angry are more motovated to post. And even those groups are drawn from a small sample of people who are aware of the web and Edmunds. To get an accurate picture of the mean price, we really need to hear the hits and the misses. Plus people have a tendency to cognitivly edit things that they find incongruent with their positions, which biases reporting further.

parkesy · May 2004

All:

Determined that today was the day I walked away
with my CRV, I checked the inventories of
several of the dealers in DFW and headed out
this morning. By 1:00pm, I had myself a new
car and a very happy spouse.

I bought a CR-V EX AWD, metallic silver in
color. The invoice on this car is $21,320
and my "out the door" price [exclusive of an
an alarm, trunk netting and trunk canopy -
total about $600] was $22,650.

Could I have done better? Your thoughts? Me?
I'm reasonably happy but if I dropped the ball
anywhere, I'd like to know rather than lie
awake at right wondering about what I should
have done.

Cheers,
Parkesy

derkommissar73 · May 2004

The story continues...I need to know whether you all think my salesperson made an honest mistake or was trying to trick me again. This is the same guy that charged me $299 for about $150 worth of dealer installed stuff. Anyway, checked the invoice yesterday and noticed that he had not given me credit on the final price for the $500 deposit I put on the car! I called him, nicely, I might ad, to inform him of that fact. He said he was very sorry and would be mailing check out for the deposit as soon as possible. Is this a mistake or a ploy to pad the sale? How in heck could someone who does this for a living "forget" a $500 check for which I had a recipt?

isellhondas · May 2004

It's a lot better to simply state what you actually paid for the actual car instead of stating out the door pricing.

Sales tax and license fees can vary greatly between states and counties. Also, doc fees.

stever · May 2004

If it were me I'd fax the dealer and put my understanding that a $500 refund check is due in writing.

Then if I didn't get the check in ~10 days or so, I'd write them again, and cc my state's attorney general's office or consumer protection agency.

There's a bunch of freight audit companies out there making sure that companies aren't overcharged for shipping. They earn good money keeping a percentage of what they recover for the client. This could be a good idea for someone to audit companies selling big ticket items like cars, since consumers don't trade cars very often and it seems rather easy to bury dubious charges in invoices.

Don't steal my idea until I pitch it to Edmunds :-)

Steve, Host

isellhondas · May 2004

Somehow, I doubt if that was intentional. sounds like sloppy paperwork and people not paying attention.

Dumb mistakes like this make us look dishonest.

stever · May 2004

I agree it was probably just a clerical error, but since the poster was wondering if the dealer was trying to trick me again it wouldn't hurt to put them on written notice.

Just my opinion of course :-)

Steve, Host

tcasboy · May 2004

Personally I think the bait and switch on the wheel locks and stuff was a ripoff, but you evidently agreed to the deal. Its your money, you have to be willing to walk if the deal is changed midstream.

Perhaps it was an honest mistake (the $500 deposit being left off) but I doubt it. I also have to wonder why you would sign a deal that didn't reflect the numbers you had agreed to verbally and included that big of a deposit. If it were my 500 bucks you can bet I would have realized the mistake. There has to be some responsibility on the part of the buyer to only sign what they have agreed to, after actually reading the documents.

Another reason to take your time in the deal and not get too worked up over the joy of a new car.

Luckily you re-grouped and reviewed the paperwork after the fact and discovered the error. Thank goodness, but you are partially to blame for not catching it sooner.

derkommissar73 · May 2004

True- my guard was down at that point and I was simply exicited to be getting the car. Maybe this excuse sounds silly on a board where there are so many experts, but there are a lot of numbers on a bill of sale- lots of places where someone could take advantage of you if they tried. Plus, I had taken my time- I had done the negogiating a week ago, which I think was part of the problem. I had decided the deal was done, and ownership was confered before it actually was. Research shows that once people think they own something, they value it more, and are willing to pay a higher price for it. So it's a very effective ploy for a salesman, to get the buyer to assume ownership as soon as possible.

None of this, however, is an excuse for any of the tactics employed by the salesperson. You can't blame the victim- I mean, does he deserve that deposit because I missed it? No. Does he deserve the money for the extra equipment? Well, I agreed to it, so yes, but that does not make it any less sneaky and underhanded. I really don't care about looking a bit silly, because I expect this kind of thing happens a lot. I would rather share my story as someone who thougt they were good at this kind of thing in order to help others realize that they've got to keep their guard up the whole time.

icvci · May 2004

This seems like it could be a very helpful resource:

www.mydealerreport.com

fso · May 2004

Hey Prince, which dealer did you go to get the 20,100 price? I assume that's an automatic EX? I went to Landmark Honda trying to match a College Park Honda price of 20,800+ 490 freight, but if I can get your price, I would run in a heartbeat to purchase. Let me know- really interested in your purchase. Thanks.

jsmith1 · May 2004

The College Park price you got (20,800 + 490) is the invoice price - that looks good to me. Did you have to negotiate much to get this price?

The Landmark Honda guys were adding up dealer prep and some other stuff when I went there for a test drive a week ago. Interested to hear about your experience.

fso · May 2004

I got a quote from Bijam (sp?) from College Park Honda, MD for 21000 + 490 freight. But he said if I bought last Saturday, he would sell it to me for 20800+480. I said not ready to do so. Plus I can get X-plan pricing on a fully loaded Escape XLT 4x4 with leather, and full option for 22000. If I added step bar for 350, roof rack for 170, and fogs for 240, to the CR-V, it would be almost the same price as an Escape- with v-6, leather, power seat, etc.. I know it' s a Ford but still...

Went to LandMark Honda in Alexandria, Va on Sunday. The silver satin one had a dealer mark up of $1995 for adjusted market value, 490 for pin striping and appearance package (front mud guards) which had not been installed yet. Told them about College Park Honda and they said they would match or beat College Park HOnda if I bought then and there, since it was a Sunday and no cars were sold yet.

I said no, but they kept on pushing. I guess I can only recommend you don't fall for the appearance and the market adjustment crap that's on the window.

stever · May 2004

No names of individual salespeople please. Thanks!

Steve, Host

princeofpunjab · May 2004

Hey, I got this price from Criswell Honda, but the price was including frieght so it was 20,100 + tax and tags. Secondly, I was getting 20,800 from Hersons honda and 20, 721 at Sport Honda. I went the last day of the month. All prices I have listed include frieght so dont let them add another 490 on your deals. Start bargining at 19,800 or 20k and you should end up near those numbers. Good luck

fso · May 2004

Hey Prince! Thanks for the info. I'll get in touch with them. Will post how things go. Wish me luck!

fso · May 2004

Hey Prince, can you contact me through my e-mail address to discuss your purchase? Thanks so much.

cautiousbuyer · May 2004

20,106 on a CR-V EX Automatic plus tax, title, and license...

There is definitely something to be said about getting multiple offers to get the best price. I will say it amazes me to this day that some dealerships don't really follow up when they receive emails requesting a quote - and those were submitted directly through the Honda web site.

I must admit i do feel a little bad that I didn't get it from one dealer as I work on their web site for them. The promised to take good care of me, and then offered me the FULL price with their dealer options on an automatic when I wanted a manual... refused to negotiate.. so I walked and then after almost three days (and the last day of the month) suddenly they could talk better numbers... by that time I was on the way to the dealership where I ended up buying... told them what the other dealership was pulling, told them what I was willing to pay... and now I have monthly car payments

Woo Hoo..

now, i have to call my client again... that will be awkward

brownbarbie · May 2004

I'm having some difficulty negotiating a good price for the 2004 cr-v. Will buy desi dinner in exchange for good tips. Send me an email. Thanks prince!

printedwords · May 2004

i've been shopping in delaware for a 2004 honda cr-v ex 5-speed manual with the following options: running boards ($639.00), moonroof visor ($103.00), front splashguards ($54.00), cargo cover ($329.00), cargo net ($55.00), hard spare tire cover ($135.00), and security system ($399.00.) the total price quote i received excluding tax & tags was $22,946.00. the total cost (with tax & tags) would be about $23,737.00. is this a good deal or could i do better. the quoted selling price of the vehicle without any options is $21,232.00. thanks in advance for any help.

fso · May 2004

Hey Barbie- I think if you go into the dealer knowing the invoice price on the vehicle, you should be able to get down to at least 20,700. I've seen a few dealers willing to sell the vehicle at that price. Good luck!

prince2100 · May 2004

fso,

you can't compare a Ford escape to a Crv. Ford has pathetic reliability and engineering compared to the Honda. It's like saying you're going on a vacation trip to Iraq vs. Spain. Sure u get more for your money and the 4 star hotel is much cheaper but in the end u'll likely pay more dearly.

my .03 cents

prince2100 · May 2004

hey brownbarbie,

i'm a prince too, do i get a desi dinner?

princeofpunjab · May 2004

Barbie,

Check my previous posts for how I got the price of 20,100 for a CRV EX that price includes freight. Your email is private so youll have to have the disscussion here. Good Luck

Prince

hd28_player · May 2004

Prince - looks to me like dealer invoice is $20,830 (less 3% hold back) would be @ $20,205 + destination chg $490 = so dealer net cost @ $20,695. Let's assume it costs the dealer something to be in business (rent, utilities, benefits, wages, profit)

You must be a heck of a negotiator to buy for $20,100.

Unless they just sold a deal above list, before you walked in...I don't get it. Am I missing something here?

dondada · May 2004

I think that you could definitely do better, not only on the price but also on the accessories. You're looking @ spending roughly $1700 for DIO's when you could with a little elbow grease do it for about $800.Fire up the grill, get some beer and with that comes cheap labor. Check out www.hondacuraworld.com and you'll see what I'm speaking of.

isellhondas · May 2004

" Let's assume it costs the dealer something to be in business"

***Continuing to bite on my tongue***

2013 and earlier-Honda CR-V Prices Paid and Buying Experience

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