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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Honda Accord Prices Paid and Buying Experience
22151 messages, Last post on Oct 12, 2008 at 9:02 AM
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It all about substitutes. I can easily shift from the overpriced 2003 Honda Accord EX V6, coupe to the Toyota Camry Solara SE Coupe or the 2003 Nissan Altima SL 4-door sedan. *** These two models got equal rating from the annual Consumer Reports car review!*** Shoot, right now, I can get myself a 2001 Acura CL 3.2 Type-S with a new transmission - to boot - for the same darn price as a pre-owned certified 2003 Honda Accord EX V6 coupe. These Honda dealers can continue to ask these ridiculous prices hopefully with the understanding that the customer has many comparable options out there in this "depressed" auto market. EACH UNTO THEIR OWN. Finally, I don't by this "logic" that the Honda Accord retains its value forever. Therefore, the customer must bend over and grab the ankles when buying a Honda! Give me a break! |
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The deals I've seen recently posted here at or slightly below invoice are very good deals on superb cars. Please bear in mind, however, that the 2004 model year is just about half over. If you'd expect a year-end discount of about 10%, then a $24K Accord should be about $1,200 cheaper now than it was 6 months ago when the model year started. Maybe Accords won't be discounted quite that much during their August clearance sale, but prices should be moving lower now. The relationship between time of year and price will be affected by many things--dealer inventories (supply), demand for new cars in Spring weather after a severe winter, etc. But all else equal, the deals should be getting better. Those of you asking if your deal is good can be confident that if your pre-tax/license price is at invoice, or any amount below invoice, your deal is quite good IMO.........Richard |
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You don't have to be vulgar to express yourself. Please understand something...cars that are "overpriced" won't sell. What you do not consider to be a good value will be appealing to someone else. You are probably correct. that Acura TL is probably worth around the same thing as a two year newer certified V-6 Accord. this really doesn't mean anything. Since you feel so strongly about this, you should probably buy something other than a Honda anyway. Like you said...to each his own. |
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| Yes, My price included destination charges. | |
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Well, after a harrowing week, of haggling and dealer shopping, I finally got my dream car! Based on my previous posts, I had 2 very miserable experiences at Ourisman and College Park Honda. I went to Bill Page, they tried to talk me into a 4-cyl, in Silver, every dealer pushed silver on me. When I asked for the white or red. I was getting frustrated, and had been doing the emailing to dealers. Which yielded several offers. I received one from Hendrick Honda for $27,300. After coming back to them with the others I had up to that point $25,500 out the door, w/ rear wing spoiler/moon visor/door guards/splash guards/wheel locks. They came back with $25,299. And had red. Well that interested me, I really just wanted to see the red. I went there, Richard Takahashi. He was a true gentleman and professional. He did not pressure me in anyway. He brought out the car, which was still in all the plastic, with 4 miles on it. He pulled it into the service station so I could look at the car up close (it was night). We took it for a test drive. I just love the V6 -- just seemed a little smoother and obviously more powerful than the four cylinder. I also immediately noticed, they do use TRUE Geniune Honda Factory parts, the pin stipes had the H logo -- which I find classy! He knew I liked the car, however my husband is in Afghanistan right now and I wanted to double check with him. He said that was a good idea, it was the only car they had in stock. He said he would park it back in a spot where others wouldn't see it, because the manager wouldn't take a deposit on a car in stock...only incoming cars. Well, less than 24 hours later, I just decided this was an awesome deal....the exact car I wanted (the only one I probably will ever buy...brand new) so I decided I didnt want to compromise. I emailed him, it was his day off but he came later in the evening and within an hour 1/2 the car was mine. He was honest with me, said the guest services would be speaking with me (but dont' feel pressured to by the warranties and extras) he was quite the character. He showed me how their prices compare to from internet sales versus retail customers. For your informaiton, you can get the EX V6 Coupe, for 24,500, and there the cars come with the pinstripes/wheellock/splashguards/door guards standard, in that price. The spoiler and moon visor drove my cost up. But it is still hundreds under invoice. Another woman told me they don't give these prices to anyone but internet customers. But the salesman was telling me why the sell them at least Accords like this, becaue the more they sell, the more HOnda will send them the big ticket items, Pilot/Odessy etc. The financing was a snap, I came in with a pre-approved loan already for 3.9% from USAA, and put 4200 down. The finance lady, Dia just processed my paperwork, not pressured into anything else, she even helped me. She told me to call USAA and tell them that she offered the HOnda financing at 3.75%, which she said she would, and I ending up doing that and USAA did lower it to 3.75%. I asked her if she thought I got a good deal, and she flipped open the folder with my info and said look at this and it had <1069> in brackets...she she said. They took a 1000 loss to sell you this car. Is that the truth, I don't know, but invoice is $23,844 and if you factored in fees/ttl/ w/o any extras that is already over $25K so I believe it was pretty good. Overall a great experience. I have learned so much. Ourisman sent me a quote a little lower than this, but these guys were horrible and I told them I didn' appreciate the way they treated me, so they kept bugging me, wanting to EARN my business. Here is the offer from Ourisman, 2004 Honda Accord EX V6 automatic coupe Wheel locks Mud guards Fender trim Sun visor Door edge Floor mats Pin stripes Honda spoiler $25,200 Total delivered price But I know for fact the pinstripes there are not Honda factory. Beware they will steal your keys and try to make you initial a price to show your "commitment" before talking to the manager. Based on this site, I was well informed, stood my ground and I feel walked a way with a beautiful car. I don't have it yet, I left it to get the spoiler/moon visor mounted. The dealership even offered to come pick me up in Pentagon City and take me to Woodbridge to get the car, now that is service! So if I could offer this to anyone, do your homework --- these prices are a good baseline for you to begin with, you know that dealers are willing to go this low. I think it is also very advantageous to have the finacing going in, definately less hassle. When I am finally cruising in my new ride, I will keep everyone posted. Thanks again to everyone for their sharing this is a great resource, with a wealth of knoweldge. |
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I just purchased my new Accord on Jan 30, 2004. I live in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. I wanted to share my buying experience and results with this community since I used much of the information found here to help me make my purchase. First, I decided that I wanted to buy the 2004 Accord LX 4 DR Sedan 4 cyl 5 spd AT with Dual Side Airbags (CM5644EW). I then began to prepare an email/Fax attack to the dealers. First I put together a list (Yellow Pages, Honda.com, etc.) of about 25 Washington, DC area (within 50 miles) Honda dealerships in both Maryland and Virginia. I spent an hour or so calling the dealerships one afternoon and asked for two things: 1) the dealership FAX number and 2) to speak with the Internet department. I then asked the person that answered for an email address of a person in that department to send a request for a price bid on a new car. I then created a letter titled "Request For New Car Bid" and emailed it to the dealer Internet department email addresses. I said in the letter that I wanted to buy a 2004 Accord LX 4 DR Sedan 4 cyl 5 spd AT with Dual Side Airbags (CM5644EW) preferably in Graphite with Eternal Blue and Silver being second and third choices. I stipulated that I would accept no demonstrator vehicles and only ones with less than 30 miles on it. I asked them to provide me with an itemized list of costs and fees and a total "Out the Door" price on the vehicle and gave them two days to respond. After the first day, I got a fair amount of responses in several different ways. Some replied by email only, others by telephone only and some by both methods. Those dealers that I received no response from were then faxed the letter to the attention of "The Sales Manager or The Internet Sales Manager." The next day I received bids from some of these as well. Also, on the second day I had some of the first day responders calling to see if we could do business. I told a couple of them that they did not have the lowest bid. Nearly all responded that they would "beat" the lowest bid. I had priced the vehicle on Edmunds and other services and knew that MSRP (including Destination Charges) for this Vehicle was $20,840 and Invoice was $18,808. Subtract the Holdback of $610.50 and you had a True Dealer Cost of $18,197.50. Dealer Processing Fees in Virginia ranged from $220 to $499. Maryland Processing Fees are limited to $100. Virginia Tax is 3.2% (the .2% goes to the locality if purchased in VA just 3% if purchased in MD) and VA tags and Title Fees for two years are $75.50. Ultimately, on the fifth day after sending out the bid request, I bought the car from a Maryland Dealer, about a 40 minute drive from my home in Virginia, for a total of $18,480.90, OTD. Plus, this dealer had already installed Pin Stripes, Mud Guards and Wheel Locks and included them in the OTD price. The deal breaks down as follows: Selling Price $17,262.33 Destination $ 490.00 Total Price $17,752.33 Processing $ 100.00 VA Tax (3%) $ 535.57 Tag & Title $ 93.00 (included MD Temp Tag) TOTAL $18,480.90 If I am calculating correctly, this amounted to $345.17 BELOW True Dealer Cost (plus the value of the dealer added extras). In the event that this "deal" had disappeared upon my arrival at the dealership there were at least three other dealers that would have matched that price (one would have actually beaten it by $15 but only had my second color choice). Apparently the reason for such a deal was that I just hit a "perfect storm" where sales were slow in January, it was the end of the month and we had two snow storms early that week. Also, one of the dealers told me that the likely reason the other dealer was selling below cost was because Honda requires it's dealers to sell 62% of its cars as Civics and Accords in order to get it's allocation of the hot selling, in demand vehicles like the Pilot and Odyssey, CRV, etc., where they can often sell for above MSRP. In other words, they were gambling that in the long run they would be better off in the end by selling this vehicle below their cost to me. Whether or not this is true I do not know but it makes sense to me and I understand that each dealer has his own set of economic conditions going for them as well as the elements of supply and demand to consider when deciding on making any deal. Sometimes these conditions can work for the consumers advantage and sometimes against. This time it just happened to be to my advantage. The only snag that I encountered was while preparing to sign the Buyers Order and discovering that it included a mandatory binding arbitration agreement. Before I went to the dealership, I told the Internet sales consultant that I would not sign a contract that contained such a clause. She checked with the F&I boss who told her that there wasn't one included in their paperwork. However it turned out to be in there. Fortunately, because I had read this consumer site (http://www.dcu.org/streetwise/feb2003.html ) and others like it, I knew more about the issue than they did and refused to sign until it was struck from the agreement. After a few minutes of discussion between the sales consultant and the F&I boss they agreed to strike that clause from the agreement. Well thats my story, Happy car buying to you all. (Two weeks and no dings yet!!!) |
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| What a great story and a primer on how to go about getting a super deal. I too hit the January buying window for Accords. I asked for a quote via the dealer's web site from a San Antonio, TX dealer(100 miles away) who is reputed to be a hard line "no haggle price" store. The first response to my request for an EX-V6 w/o NAV was $22,250 or $1,994 BELOW INVOICE(+TTL from dealer stock). What's to haggle? They had the color I wanted so the next morning I test drove the car, declined the protection package and warranty upsell attempts, did the paperwork on a 3.9%/60 mos. loan and drove it home. Have since added splash guards, tint, cargo net and custom pinstriping for an add'l $349. I'm still driving my end-of-lease '01 Maxima for another couple of weeks but I can't wait to let my new EX out of the garage. This was, by far, my easiest car purchase in 30 years. | |
| I'm trying to purchase a 04 Accord V6 4 Door Sedan with Navigation System in NJ. The best price I got so far is $25,733 with destination included plus tax,tags, and license fees. Is this a good deal? I am not trading anything in. Should I ask the dealer to throw in some accessories such as floor mats or a trim kit? The invoice of this car is $25,551. I added destination($490), subtracted holdback(~$800) and added about $100 for ads fees to get a optimum purchase price of $25300 plus tax,tags,and license. Are there better states to buy a car from than NJ? | |
| The last few posts mentioned a dealer "holdback". Where do you find this kind of information? | |
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If you are willing to pay cash for your car instead of financing it, should the price be reduced? jmaxe: Do you mind my asking if you bought your car at Gunn Honda? I attempted to buy an Accord Coupe V6 6MT from them last month and the price also was $22,250. Unfortunately, the car was black with black leather interior. Had it been white or silver, I would have bought. |
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