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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Honda Civic Prices Paid and Buying Experience
7375 messages, Last post on Aug 20, 2008 at 7:50 AM
You are in the Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum. Your Hosts are car_man & kyfdx
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Hello all - I just purchased my new 2007 Honda Civic LX Galaxy Gray. Here is my sales report. Because different numbers mean different things to people here, I'll try to list everything. ACCORDING TO EDMUNDS MSRP: $16,960 INVOICE: $15,616 DESTINATION: $595 What I paid O'Donnell Honda, Ellicott City, MD Car: $15,302 Destination: $595 Subtotal: $15,897 Doc: $99 (not required in MD, but apparently tough to drop) Sales Tax: $799.80 Subtotal: $16,795.80 I transferred the plates, so - Registration: $30 Title: $43 MD Tire fee: $4 TOTAL: $16,872.80 Method used: Email blind bids A little more detail: I knew I was going to buy at the end of this month. I did not want to wait any longer because of the car I was driving (97 Nissan Sentra with 147,500 on it) and I wanted to take advantage of the financing deal in the region (I was fairly certain I would qualify). On Sunday, April 22, I emailed every dealer that appeared on the Honda search engine when I punched in my zip code. I did an additional search for dealers in Frederick, MD, and added Criswell in Germantown because of discussions on this board. For every dealer site where I could find direct emails, I emaled directly to a person. On the sites I could not, I requested a quote. Here's how I emailed I BCCed all the dealers. I told them specifically what I was looking for (LX, no options) preferably in one of 3 colors, and I told them about the 2 colors I would NOT drive. I asked for their best quote up front. I told them I would be financing, but ONLY if their rate beat my pre-approved rate through my credit union. I did NOT disclose that I MIGHT trade in my current car. I asked all the dealers to give me the base price of the car and itemize all the other charges. I told them if they had something close, but not exactly fitting my request, that I would like to see the quote, but to itemize the difference. I included my phone number to help prove that I was a serious buyer, and told them they could call, but that I would NOT call back unless there was also a detailed quote in my email box. I had a number in mind from a soft quote in March about $15,200. I was willing to go with a bid of $15,400, because I felt conditions had worsened for BUYERS; namely, gas prices have increased, and so have sales of Civics after a BRUTAL February and March for them. The response was sudden and VERY interesting. I received LOTS of emails (some very entertaining), and I only received about 5 or 6 calls, but some have called twice now. Some quotes were well above STICKER. Some were close, but admitted to having appearance packages. There were a couple $15,400's. The only quote that came close to O'Donnell's was from Norris Honda, also in Ellicott City. They quoted me an OUT-THE-DOOR price of slightly more than $17,000. Since O'Donnell itemized the deal, and showed me the out-the-door price below $17,000, the winner was clear. I might have done better had I engaged in an email bidding war as some here might suggest, but I did want to reward the dealer with the best quote if it was close to what I thought I could get, and make the process easier for me. $100 was close enough. I was not sure any dealer could drop the price seriously enough to make a difference. Perhaps I should have asked, but I felt $300 below invoice was good enough. Once at O'Donnell, the process was very smooth. Everyone was friendly. The test drive went very smoothly. They did ask me about buying an extended warranty (declined), and about purchasing LoJac (apparently, a requirement in Maryland also declined). In F&I, they did NOT ask me to buy ANYTHING it was also very late in the day. The whole process, including the test drive, took about 2 hours, but that's because of me (I was checking EVERYTHING) and because they were closing 2 deals ahead of me. My suggestions for others - Get direct email addresses of the internet people at the dealerships. Those responses were definitely better. Email everyone you can. My employer allegedly has a relationship with Mile One, but it didn't pay off. Their quote was about $400 too high. For people who have been following my postings, I decided to trade-in my Sentra. I was interested in selling it myself, but the driver-side window failed to function. I felt it would have been much more difficult to sell it myself in that condition, or too costly and time consuming to repair it myself and then sell it. The dealer gave me $500 for it. Honestly, I hope they make an extra buck on that it was a good car.  Thanks to everyone on this board. I am a novice car buyer to be sure, and these boards contain all the information you would need to buy a car. A special thanks to GGG5. I loved his advice about what to do on the delivery drive/inspection. But (if you are reading this), I used it as more of a guide I left my tape measure at home.  BTW, I did my initial email from Seattle I was on vacation at the time. Gotta love the internet! I think I've answered just about every question I would have, but feel free to reply. I'm curious what everyone thinks. ...and it's been driving great for the first 50 miles. Loki |
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Replying to: loki74 (Apr 25, 2007 12:31 am) Loki |
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"I MIGHT trade in my car" = I'm going to spring it on you after the deal is struck.
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Replying to: isellhondas (Apr 25, 2007 6:14 am) I did the same thing -- didn't discuss trade-in until on the way to the dealer with price set on the new car (I didn't hide it; they didn't ask). It was up to the dealer whether they wanted my 95 Neon or not; if not (i.e. they offered $100 or to charge me to tow it away ) I would have kept it and sold it myself. They obviously thought they could get more than the $500 they offered me on the wholesae market, and I decided the hassle of selling it myself wasn't worth a few hundred dollars, so I took the offer. I'm not sure how they would have appraised my old car by email anyway. Obviously if negotiating some complex financing/payoff deal where the tradein is a key component to making it happen or not, it should be discussed early in the process, but in my (and the original poster's) case, we were definitely buying one car and possibly selling another. If you think it's "springing" something to mention a trade after the new car is negotiated, then the dealer is free to refuse to even look at the old car; in my case I would still have bought the new one; others may look for a more accomodating dealer (which they may or may not find). I would think that most car dealers will see an opportunity to make a few $$ on the old car also and make a "take it or leave it" offer that they can break even or make money on, but that's just me. Josh
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Replying to: jmastron (Apr 25, 2007 8:56 am) Anyone who has been in the business awhile can smell these "hidden trades". "Will you be trading in your Neon?" " Ah...I think I'm going to sell it myself" or... " I haven't decided"...or... " "Let's keep that seperate" We know. And, it really doesn't matter. The trade is worth what it is worth. This just causes us extra trouble and paperwork. When it becomes a problem is when the trade ends up being a dealbreaker. You think your Neon is worth 1500.00 and we know it's car nobody wants. We know our wholesalers will MAYBE give us 500.00 for it. It's a Neon with 120,000 miles and it's saleproof. In your case, it wouldn't have killed the car deal but often it can.
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I want an ACV offer on my car.. separate from the new car deal.. So, I can decide whether to trade or sell it myself? Not some fake "over-allowance" to make me feel better...
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Replying to: isellhondas (Apr 25, 2007 9:06 am) Just to be clear, I made no mention about my current ride in my initial email, and the quote from O'Donnell came without me saying anything, and they didn't ask about it until WELL into the sale process. The price of the new car and how I was paying for it had already been clearly established. Yeah, from a dealer standpoint, it would probably help if consumers were more informed about their trade-in values. I knew mine, and had it "appraised" here on the boards... and also did some reading about trade-ins. I was prepared for the "low" offer, and knew it would be going straight to auction. $500 was what I was expecting and wanted, and it's what I got. If I had the time and motivation, I would have put the work into it to sell it myself, and probably get more money... but the dealer hit my number. Had they not, the deal would have still happened, I would just have kept the Nissan. I knew what I was driving, and had a good idea of what to expect. Loki |
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Replying to: kyfdx (Apr 25, 2007 9:25 am) Just don't sit there and try to pretend you don't have a trade in. |
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what should i expect in return for my trade of a 2004 accord lx coupe automatic with 40K miles and no cosmetic or mechanical defects? in real life that is.
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Do you guys think this a good offer? I contacted several daelers. This was one of the promptest and best quotes I've gotten from two offerings so far. Price - $18,600 + 599 Dealer Fee + 6% state tax + 50 county tax + about 278 tag and title fee = Out the Door Price - $20,678 I am still waiting for other quotes, but I just wanted to gauge this one with you guys. Thanks in advance! |
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