Experience at Honda dealer

Wow, you had a $20,500 trade-in on a Civic? What was left to finance?

The loan was payed in full and the remaining was applied to the new
car.

 

Carmax is a joke. Their offer was only 50% of the kbb trade-in on my
parent's car. They ended up getting three times that amount in an
insurance settlement, after it was totalled in an accident.

 

My only experience with them was helping a friend car shop. They were
low pressure and friendly, but their prices (both buying and selling)
were not competitive. If their no-haggle price was just an asking
price they might be in the ball park. i guess they have a lot of
overhead to pay for.

Still I can see why they might appeal to someone who is used to
getting raped in the car buying process.

 

I was waiting in an office while they were appraising my vehicle, and
the Carmax salesguy kept badgering me about purchasing a car from them.
I remarked how expensive their cars were and he just simply said their
prices were competitive. Yeah, with new cars maybe. I swear, you can
get brand new cars for the prices they charge on most of their used
cars.

Which is why Saturn's still around. Morons keep paying full price for
inferior GM products, because they have phobias about negotiating.

 

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

If the numbers are good, it can be a good deal. A good dealer can take the
trade-in price off of the price of the new vehicle, thereby reducing sales
taxes, maybe to a point where you couldn't get a better deal selling to a
third party.

Btw, next time a car dealer tells you that you are taking away his kid's
next meal, ask to see where he lives. Chances are he has a nicer house than
you do...

 

a coworker got a C230 sedan with 8k miles for a shade under $30k. a
brand spanking new one would have been a little more. or even less, if
hed bought when MBUSA was giving incentives.

yeah- you only get raped a "little".

 

saturn knows their target market and prices (IMO) fairly and
accordingly. for the longest time my local dealer was giving 0% interest
for 60mos, so thats another draw.

toyotas scion division also doesnt haggle, and those cars are
exceptional values. an honest to god built in japan car with standard
air, power windows/locks and pioneer premium CD system for about $13k.

 

Plus Honda Finance may be willing to give you a good, i.e., low, rate to
help move cars - rather than posting absolutes, e.g., NEVER xxx, ALWAYS
zzz, I think it's generally a good idea to shop around and see what's
best when you're cutting your deal. I financed my '03 Accord at 3.64%
from Honda Finance, which was substantially lower than even the bank I
worked for (where I got a "deal").

 

Better yet, tell him to switch careers and point out that by extorting
more $$$ from you he's taking food from your kids & you care more about
them than you do his.

 

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.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, the "only way to" is seldom that. If the purchaser does his
homework (easy to do these days with the Internet) and behaves
rationally there's no reason the sales person should prevail. If he's
being a real PITA, just thank him/her for their time and walk out of the
dealership. I know this from experience as well as theory.

 

Then they would have called you back the next day groveling with a
better deal.

You sure put up with a bunch of crap!

-pete

 

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

When I was negotiating my '03 Accord the salesman asked me about the
monthly payment. I answered that I thought it was a function of the
amount financed and the interest rate - I think he wet his pants.

Money was much cheaper then, 06/03, and the dealer gave me a rate of
3.64% thru Honda Finance, noticeably cheaper than anywhere I checked
(including the bank where I used to work). At that rate Honda's paying
to finance my car - I could have bought the car outright but I'm making
far more than 3.64% by keeping the principal in my investment account.