Experience at Honda dealer

I went last week to a Honda dealer to trade in my car for a new Accord
Value Pack (VP, base model). I was surprised by all their tactics to
get the most out of my money. I don't blame the salesperson because he
was nice and helpful, but I think the sales manager went a little too
far in his methods. I also have to say that after the deal was done,
they were all nice guys and very helpful with all the process. I'm
going to enumerate the things I consider bad tactics because they were
just too many:

1) When I told them I wanted the Value Pack, the manager said that it
had no power windows. That I better choose the LX or EX. That's not
true.

2) When I came back next day he said that VP had no Cruise Control. I
checked the car I wanted to buy and I noticed the cruise control was
there.

3) When we were negotiating the price he showed me the invoice price, I
said the invoice price I saw at edmunds.com was lower. When he noticed
I was not accepting that price he showed me that there was about $200
marketing charge and accepted to remove it. Nothing bad about this part
because I think dealers usually try to add these hidden charges without
telling customers.

4) After negotiating the price for my trade in and the price of the
Accord VP, he came with a blank page (where all the totals are
calculated) for me to sign. I said I wanted to see the final numbers
before I sign the page. I said I cannot sign a blank sheet for them
later to add the totals. They accepted.

5) Then he came with the same sheet with a total amount higher than
what we negotiated. I told them that we had to subtract the amount I
get from my trade in. At this time the manager pretended to be
exasperated with me, like if I was asking for too much. He said that he
would do it later and refused to write it in the sheet. So I took the
pen and had to do the subtraction in front of him and underlined the
final amount. He accepted that amount.

6) At about 9:00 PM (they were already closed but there were still a
few customers finalizing their deals), I was tired but happy when the
manager brought the paper work describing my monthly payments. Let me
say that I have very good credit (over 700), and the manager told me he
was going to run my information with about 15 banks and get me the best
deal. Not true, he got me financing with Honda. How can he run my
information with 15 banks and come with a loan from honda financeing?
Maybe I'm missing something here. Anyway he got me 6.6% interest which
I consider too high but I still accepted. Maybe I should have got the
loan with my credit union.

7) He showed my monthly payments at about $35 over what I estimated,
and handed me a pen to sign. I asked me how can it be so high? Then he
said I was getting the 7 years/100K miles warranty. When I insisted in
how much it costed, he said $1600. He said if I don't take the warranty
I'm taking a big risk if the car breaks. I asked him how can he tell me
these are the best cars in the market and now he's telling me that I'm
taking a big risk because they can break. Finnally he accepted to
remove the warranty and I got the payment amount I wanted.

I remember at a Chevrolet dealer in 1998 I had a very good experience
buying my chevy Malibu, I still remember the name of the Chevy sales
person (Mike), I can't believe at Honda these guys gave me such a hard
time.

After the negotiation, the manager and sales person were very nice and
helpful.

 

This was a great history for the archives. Good for you for
taking hardly any junk off these losers. I /do/ begrudge
them saying one thing then doing another /several/ times in
the process you describe. It's some kind of harassment,
albeit I suppose mostly legal. Point being, it's aggravating
dealing with salespeople like this. Surely there are better.

 

Just remember that every car manufacturer has good and bad dealers. You
were unfortunate to have landed at a bad Honda dealer.

 

-------------------------------

Generally, this old joke is still true:

QUESTION: How can you tell if a car salesman is lying to you???

ANSWER: His lips are moving.

'Curly'

 

You should never, EVER buy the money from the same guy who's also
selling you the car.

Then you compounded your error by adding your trade to the deal. You
should never, EVER put the trade and the new car sale into one deal.

You have three transactions: new car sale, old car sale, and money
sale. Letting one guy quarterback all three of them is crazy.

 

You have three transactions: new car sale, old car sale, and money

Not always true. For example if he really needs the sale he may be
prepared to reduce the sales price a little IF he gets the finance as well.

As to the trade-in, you may get a few more dollars with a private sale,
but sell to the dealer and no haggling etc

 

"Bozo" wrote

I think what Elmo is referring to is the principle of first negotiating the
new car price (without telling the salesperson you have a trade-in), THEN
negotiate the price of the trade-in.

 

Then he said I was getting the 7 years/100K miles warranty. When I insisted

just FYI, if you ARE interested in that warranty, you can get it for about
HALF that price on either www.hondacarewarranty.com or
www.curryhondacare.com . in my accord I'm getting the 8 year 120k warranty
and its under 1,000 (I believe like 970 or something) this can be bought
anytime up to 6,000 miles on the car. (please note I"m not in any way
affiliated with honda or honda care or either of these 2 sites, just trying
to save someone some money) enjoy your car!

 

Not always true. For example if he really needs the sale he may be
prepared to reduce the sales price a little IF he gets the finance as well.[/QUOTE]

The point is, the car salesman is in charge of too many things. His job
is to find the buyer's hot button (low finance rate, good trade value,
whatever) and play to that while jacking the other items around--all
toward the end of making the sucker pay the same amount in the end.

The car salesman does this several times a day. The buyer does it once
every few years. Who do you think wins?

The only way to prevent this from happening is to separate the deals, so
that no one person has any more affect than any other on the entire
deal--no matter what the buyer's hot button.

 

I think what Elmo is referring to is the principle of first negotiating the
new car price (without telling the salesperson you have a trade-in), THEN
negotiate the price of the trade-in.[/QUOTE]

That's perfectly legitimate. Get the numbers in stone one at a time,
independent of one another.

 

You are right, this is way too many things. At least they backed down
relatively easy.

RE #6. I don't think you got too bad a deal on the financing. 30
year mortgages are about 6% now so 6.6% on a car loan doesn't sound
too bad. You might have saved a few tenths from your credit union -
it would have been good to have gotten a rate quote from them before
you ventured into a dealership.

Others mentioned keeping the new car and trade-in deals separate.
Part of that is knowing not only what is a good price on new car
(which you seem to have done) but also knowing what is a fair price on
the trade-in, what Car Max would pay you for it, and what is a fair
private party sale price. Even if you aren't willing to sell it
yourself, you can use these facts in your negotiations.

Lying is bad.

Lying is bad.

Burglars usually try to break into your house, but that doesn't mean
it's not bad. Marketing (i.e. advertising) is part of their overhead,
and a discretionary part at that. Why should you be paying them to
advertise to you? It would be slightly more reasonable for them to
charge you a heating charge to keep the dealership building warm.

Tell them you will do that if they are willing to sign a blank check
on the dealership account for you to fill in later to

It would have been so much easier if you had just signed the blank
one.

I think you got lucky on this. Then again you probably would have
walked if it was 8%.

They think you will let down your guard when you think the deal is
almost complete. Many buyers can't really figure out what a loan
payment should be, so it is an good chance to cheat them one last
time. These guys are sleaze balls.

I have dealt with several Honda dealers who were totally straight and
honest in their dealings. It is not impossible,

Just be glad you aren't his dog on a night like that.

 

Hello,
Thanks for your excellent post. If you ever buy another car, get the best
deal that you can get at two or more Honda dealerships. Don't ever sign
any papers until you think about it for at least one or two days. The
salesman will try to make you believe that they will sell that car you
wanted during the next two days--therefore, just say, "Go ahead and sell
it since I am sure that is not the only new Honda that is in this city."
In most cases, that car you wanted will still be unsold for at least two
days. Even if it is sold, buy another one from that dealer or another one.
Jason

 

I think you got reamed on the interest rate. 2 weeks ago I got 5.74%
after the rate was increased through my credit union. Honda financing
could not come close to that rate

--Nicholas

 

I got 5.1% in October. When I still complained about the monthly
payment, they increased the loan from 60 months to 72 without
increasing the rate, which should have been at least a point higher.
Of course, my credit score was 808, so your mileage may vary.

 

My current credit union is from 5.35% for 48months. I picked up my Accord
about 3 1/2 months ago for 4.74% w/Honda financing. I walked in there with
a pre-approved loan from my credit union, and they beat their best offer by
a quarter point. It really pays to walk in there with a pre-approved check
and see what they are willling to do.

-Dave

 

Yes, the business mgr offered to increase the months to reduce my payments
too, but that would mean extending the length of the loan and increasing the
amount of interest I'd have to pay. He tried doing this so I would go for
one of the extra packages they try to sell. I wanted to the the lowest
bottom line cost, so declined the offer.

Here are a couple of good sites for auto and other finance calculators:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/calc_home.asp

Or you could go here for the auto payment calculator and fill in your
numbers:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/auto-loan-calculator.asp

It really helps with figuring out what you need to pay ahead of time so if
they do the financing for you, you'll know if they added other things to the
final cost.

Hope it helps!
-Dave

 

Well, It wasn't so much that I couldn't afford it, but that I wanted
the lowest possible obligation in case anything happened. I have
and intend to continue paying significantly more than the payment
amount, and few lenders are actually set up that way. That's why I
like the Honda finance. That extra year doesn't amount to a hill of
beans in the scheme of things.

 

big mistake. sell your car private party first. unless its some piece of
crap you wanna unload quickly.

all salesmen are out to get as much money as possible. ive only met ONE
honest one, who was truthful and straightforward. he probably no longer
works there

half the time the salesmen dont know shit about the cars they sell. they
arent enthusiasts.

and prices DO change. what edmunds says and what the dealer says may
both be right, or wrong. "invoice" doesnt mean much anyway- its just a
number to make you feel better than if you paid full MSRP. which a lot
of people do.

smart guy. personally, at that point i mighta walked. theyre sleazy for
handing you a blank document to sign.

yup- theyre assholes

because they make more money when they sell you a loan through honda.

yes- ALWAYS have cash down instead of a tradein, and always have
financing lined up.

jesus mary and joseph- these guys are MAJOR assholes.

good for you! i like running that line by em, myself... since hondas and
toyotas are so "good"

what dealership was this, anyway?

 

id only trade in something i wanted to unload quickly, like if the car
had a knocking rod, or a failing tranny.

 

i thought carmax bought strictly at low blue book tradein value.