Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Honda Odyssey Prices Paid and Buying Experience
20328 messages, Last post on Sep 04, 2008 at 9:23 PM
You are in the Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum. Your Hosts are car_man & kyfdx
|
First of all, I would like to thank all the forum posters here since you really educated me a lot on this buying process. This is my little pay-back. Please forgive me for the lengthiness of this message. Earlier this week, I requested quotes through honda.com for an '08 Ody EX-L silver from 10 local dealerships in the Boston area. I stated in all requests that I would pay by cash, no financing needed and I'd prefer to be contacted through emails. Within 2 days, I received 6 quotes in the emails (all quotes below include destination charge, which is clearly stated in each email): Cambridge Honda: $26,998.00 Atamian Honda: $26,999.00 Honda Gallery: $27,156.85 Kelly Honda: $27,200.00 Bernardi: $27,301.00 Herb Chambers: $27,801.05 The doc fee ranges from $264-299. Title, registration and inspection: $115 ($50+$36+$29: standard charges for new plate in MA) I also received emails from two dealership without stating clearly what exact price they would offer me, so I didn't put them into my consideration at all. I also received several phone calls from others even though I stated clearly that I prefered emails. I didn't take their phone offers seriously either. In fact, their offers weren't that good to begin with. At the end I decided to go with Cambridge Honda because of price plus they stated in their email that the quoted price includes an "industry exclusive 5 year/100,000 miles warranty at absolutely no additional cost". There is a catch to this and I'll describe more. Before I went to the dealership, I called them up to confirm the pricing, including doc fee, TTL, etc. I also asked her specifically whether there would be charges other than what we just discussed and she quickly responded "nope, that's it!". There is another catch to this and I'll describe more. Yesterday, I went to Cambridge Honda, hoping to get everything done within an hour or two. I walked out in almost exactly two hours, paid $1,000 deposit with a credit card. The two hours I spent at the dealership was pleasant but a little annoying. Here is what happened during the two hours I spent there: I was passed around to different people, first the service dept rep, next the accessories guy who tried to sell me wheel locks, mud guard, etc. then another person who tried to briefly go over the car with me, then another one to go over the details of pricing and at the end, the extended warranty guy trying to sell me the HondaCare warranty. Here are the two catches: 1. The "industry exclusive 5 year/100,000 miles warranty at absolutely no additional cost" to me it's a scam. You have to do all the maintenance work at Cambridge Honda in order to get the 5 year/100,000 miles warranty. It wasn't asterisked in the email and I didn't know it until I asked for more details. 2. I specifically asked to confirm there would be no other charges other than doc fee and TTL and I received a quick "nope, that's it!" on the phone. But when I looked at the pricing agreement, I noticed there was a 0.75% "commission charge" added to the total and I immediately asked to talk to the manager. The sales manager kept saying that the amount was what the sales people got paid, all dealership do the same, etc., which is total BS to me. At the dealership, I even called a friend who used to work at Bernardi and she never heard of such a charge. After some heated conversation, the sales manager agreed to remove the commission charge. So, don't budge on any add-on charges other than the regular doc fee and TTL. In fact, doc fee to me is also a scam and I really can't justify why they charge nearly $300 for documents that cost less than $1. But since all dealership in my area charge about the same, I didn't bother to haggle on that. Lastly, I was too naive to bring in my personal check book not knowing they needed a bank check or official check (This is my 3rd car purchase and my previous two purchases were used ones from friends). Now I understand why they didn't mention the fact that they needed a bank check or official check when I was confirming the pricing with them over the phone simply because they wanted to up-sell me with accessories, extended warranty, etc. This morning, I brought the bank check and spent another hour at the dealership for signing papers and going over the car features with the salesperson (I'm not 100% sure but I believe they are required by law to go over all the features before you drive the car off the lot) then I walked out the door with a free bottle of champagne and my brand new silver Ody with about 6 miles on it! My advice to new car buyers: Tell the dealership that you would need the exact amount for the bank to write up a bank check or official check before coming in, if you're not financing. Anything that sounds too good to be true, ask them whether there is any catch, like the "industry exclusive 5 year/100,000 miles warranty at absolutely no additional cost" I received in the email. Lastly, do not purchase HondaCare from the dealership. You can get it online for a lot less. I purchased my HondaCare warranty 8yr/100k $0 deductible for $1,120. Cambridge Honda offered me $1,495 which I quickly declined. I would still recommend Cambridge Honda since I never felt pushed to buy anything. Every time I said no, I wasn't given any hard sales pitch and all staff there are quite polite and friendly. However, I still don't like the fact they surprised me with the bogus "commission charge". I made two trips and spent a total of approximately 3 hours at the dealership. Hopefully, you'll spend less time than that after reading this message. I personally would like to walk in, pay it and drive it off the lot but I learned my lession. At the end, I paid $26,998 + 5% MA tax + $264 doc fee + $115 title, registration, and inspection, i.e. $28,726.90 OTD (MSRP $32,845 including destination) Good luck to you all!
|
|
|
Replying to: tobitt (Jun 19, 2008 4:25 pm) Wow, expensive accessories! This site has these three items for $139, but of course that's w/o installation --> LINK |
|
|
Howdy! I started to look for minivans and the Odyssey is on the shortlist (Sienna and Town&Country the other two) I am looking to buy in the DFW area, preferably in Richardson/Plano/Mckinney/Frisco locations - If you are looking for one, perhaps we can tag team (did that with a 2005 MDX purchase and that worked well) One dealer offered a costco discount of $1,100 on EX-L + Res Invoice - ie $30,182 (incl dest charge) but most cars on the lots here have almost $1900 adds ($599 for EPP and $1297 for HPP stripe tint - dealer offers 0.9% finance Request answers for a few questions - thanks in advance for answers 1. Does Honda not have a cash back at all instead of low apr ? (surprising when toyota and chrysler are offering) 2. Are the adds legit - whatever EPP means and $1300 for stripe/tint 3. Looking for recent OTD prices - this forum has deals in may that had the $2000 cash back regards
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: benf (Jun 19, 2008 3:18 pm) I like how you say, "by my definition" as if I were making it up. If you can get them to sell you a car at a true $600.00 loss or more (thats not factoring in any of the overhead and commissions), then you are indeed smarter then 99.9% of the shoppers out there.
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: benf (Jun 19, 2008 3:18 pm) |
|
|
Replying to: mplshondadlr (Jun 20, 2008 10:13 am) It still is not clear what you are saying about the damage disclosure. Is the definition of damage what the dealer was compensated by an insurance company or is the definition of damage how much the dealer spent (via PDR or other means) to repair the car?
|
|
|
Replying to: tobitt (Jun 19, 2008 4:25 pm) EX-L should go for around 27,000 easily. I'm getting offers for 28,300 for EX-L RES debating to hold out to see if there are sweeter deals in July. |
|
|
Replying to: benf (Jun 20, 2008 12:08 pm) Personally, I don't see the reason to buy an extended warranty on a new Honda. It doesn't seem to be a good investment i.e., price of it, considering the odds of needing the warranty. |
|
|
Replying to: mplshondadlr (Jun 19, 2008 10:38 am)  Honda 2% of the Base MSRP
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: gosox1 (Jun 20, 2008 2:38 pm) And it is called DEALER holdback, not consumer hold back. Dealers don't have to disclose or share if they dont want to. However, most dealers are willing to give up the 2% (on '08 pilots, odysseys and ridgelines) to make a fair deal for both the consumer and the dealer. But the 1% - thats how they pay commision and floorplan.
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Honda Odyssey Prices Paid and Buying Experience
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2009 Honda Odyssey
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
