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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Honda Accord Prices Paid and Buying Experience
24566 messages, Last post on Dec 02, 2009 at 10:27 AM
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Just bought an Accord V6 with navigation on Friday evening, and wanted to share my experience. Edmunds forums, by the way, have been invaluable for me; in car buying, knowledge is crucial! I'll spare you the details of how I decided on the accord; suffice it to say that I tried about 10 different makes/models over the past month over a wide price range, and I thought the accord was not just the best value, but also provided all the luxury+techie goodies that I wanted. I decided to use the email/fax attack method to buy the car in the CA bay area. I combined knowledge from fool.com's car buying guide (http://www.fool.com/car/car.htm?source=PFinAg), as well as posts on this board, most notably musicboy's posts (see post #4404 for an index of his excellent posts). I won't post the entire email I sent out here, but I think the major ideas to keep in mind when doing this: 1) Decide exactly what you want before you start this. Know the model, trim, options, etc. Have a couple of color preferences in mind. Specify everything as clearly as possible. (In my case, I had already decided on the accessories I wanted - auto dim mirror, deck lid spoiler - and asked them to include these as well) 2) Ask for out the door (OTD) bids. This is the only number that makes sense to compare. Make sure they itemize all costs. 3) Specify a time constraint on the dealers, to show them that you are serious. I think serious buyers get more serious quotes. Timing this for the last week of the month is a good idea, although probably not entirely necessary to get a good deal. 4) As musicboy has suggested, you don't need to specify a price. As it turned out, the deal I ended up getting was well below even a more aggressive price that I had in mind. No need to limit possibilities beforehand. The idea with the email/fax attack is to commoditize new car buying: let market competitive do the work for you, so to speak. I emailed about 15 dealers in the bay area (in some cases I used the dealers' online submission forms). Within a day, I had about 3-4 quotes, one of which was very aggressive. Somewhat dismayed by the low yield, though, I faxed about 6 other dealers the next day, indicating on the fax that this was my second attempt to contact them. I also indicated the current low bid that I had received. Within a couple of hours, I had received an excellent OTD quote (from Dublin Honda - btw I got a very positive impression from them) that was about $500 below my previous best. This quote was well below my goal price (my goal price was essentially invoice - holdback + accessory costs matched with internet resellers costs). I gave a few other dealers that had given me quotes a chance to match the price. Some of them gawked; a couple offered to match/beat the price if I came into the dealership with a copy of the bid. I had heard negative feeback from people who had bought from one of them (Autowest Honda Fremont if you are interested), so I decided to give the other dealer (Capitol Honda in San Jose) a chance to beat the price since they were located much closer to me. My experience with Capitol Honda was overall very good. They did, as they promised, match and beat the bid by $100, pretty much no questions asked. If you are interested, I can provide you with the name of the internet salesperson I dealt with; very straightforward in their dealings. The real fun came with the finance manager; but first, let me detail the deal I got: Car price: $24,733 (V6 w/nav, includes parts/install for auto dim rearview and decklid spoiler) Alarm: $485 Extended warranty: $900 (7 year, 75k) Tags, taxes, etc: $2308.20 (8.25% tax) OTD Price: $28,471.20 I am ecstatic about the price I got on this car. The dealer estimated accessory parts/install at ~$700 - probably an inflated estimate, but assuming it is reasonable, I got the V6 w/nav for about $2000 under invoice. The finance manager, unfortunately, was not as honest as my salesperson (misleading and manipulating the buyer is part of their job, I guess, so probably not specific to this dealer). He first claimed that they only offered 4.9% on the v6 accords; when I showed him a pre-approval for a 2.99% loan from a credit union, he "called his director" and was somehow able to get me a 2.9% loan for 60 months. He then pushed the extended warranty for $1595, which I thought was exorbitant. I was eventually able to get him down to $900, by telling him I had heard of people getting the warranty at that price. Along the way, there were several stops, and, of course, in each case "he was only making $50" or "he had a special coupon (that he can only use once a month!)" or something to that effect. Probably still not a great deal on the warranty, but a decent compromise. Where I probably lost out was on buying the alarm system. The basic problem here: despite the extensive research I did on this car, I did NOT DO ENOUGH RESEARCH on the alarm beforehand. I did not know what alarm came stock on the v6, so I could not evaluate what I was buying. And he took advantage of that. Of course I want some kind of security protection for my car. However, I now understand that the alarm I bought is essentially just a shock sensor (for window breakage, door handle jiggling, etc) that will make noise. The stock alarm will detect if a key with an invalid id chip is used, and immobilize the engine (basically cut off fuel supply to the engine, I believe). The salesperson mislead me to believe that engine immobilization was added in the system I was buying. That's my understanding of the differnces; if anyone has more detailed info, please provide it. I probably overpaid by a couple of hundred dollars on the system I bought. Overall, I'm very happy with what I got, and I'm very happy with my car. INFORM YOURSELF before buying a car - forums like edmunds are invaluable for this. Also, I think this is a good time to buy, pricing on accords is very aggressive right now (at least in the bay area). Anyway, hope this has been helpful. Can't wait spending the next few weeks getting to know my car!
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| Any news on if there are incentives this month for Accords? | |
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FYI for those interested. just got accord EX V6/with Nav/leather, metallic black with ivory int. selling price: 25,500 trade in: 4500 tax: 1260 title/registration/clericalfee/NJ fee/etc: 202 TOTAL OUT THE DOOR: 22,462 probably could have gotten better if I hadn't opened my big mouth and mentioned a trade in at the beginning! oops!
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Replying to: jpat1 (May 03, 2004 4:31 pm)
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I just bought a Blue 04 Accord EX Coupe, V-6, 6-speed with Black Interior on 5/29/04. The dealership is Don Ayres Honda in FT. Wayne, IN and the Sales Manager was Excellent to deal with. I used the Carsdirect.com price of $24,133 to bargain. I wanted Blue and he did not have the car in stock so he went to Columbus, OH to get it. The details are listed below, which I think was a good deal especially since I did not have to travel to get the car. Car = $24,633.80 Splashguards = $0 All Season Mats = $0 Trunk Tray = $0 Wing Spoiler = $323.75 Installed Fog Lights = $393.75 Installed Sub Total = $25,351.30 *After Taxes* Doc Fee = $89.00 IN Tire Fee = $1.25 Thanks for all the advice and sharing of information. I also bought an 04 Odyssey EX-L from them with fog lights, trunk tray, wheel locks, splashguards for $26,560.09. Excellent overall car buying experience. |
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Replying to: tiger0 (Apr 14, 2004 5:11 am) Local houston dealer gave us a price of 23,995$ for a EX V6 coupe. Not a very good deal really after reading some of the posts on this board. In fact, one person on the accord coupe board paid $22,696 for one. I told the salesman to call me when they could locate a 6-speed model in my color. He calls me at 9AM today (monday) and told me he has located the car. I asked him are you SURE and he affirmed. They ran my credit and I was told "the manager says 3.9% no problem". Even though I told them to submit it to honda finance so I am 100% sure. Anyway, after I tell him we have a deal he calls back 10 mins later and the 6-speed car the color I want cannot be found! Somehow both of them were sold! They wont go out of state to get one because it "costs too much." he then tries to switch me to a silver one they have in stock. No deal. Still never submitted my info to honda finance after they pulled credit bureau. I should have known better. it was a unrealistic lowball offer that only was conditional upon jacking the rate up to cover their profit, I suspect. Any way to contact Honda Finance to see what exactly will qualify for 3.9%?? BTW another dealer located two of the cars I want in Dallas. I dont think I am buying a car at all after this experience. I am disgusted with this game. Two dealers have done this exact same thing to me in a week
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Replying to: jetdriven (May 03, 2004 8:21 pm) |
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| jetdriven: Why not go to www.hondacars.com and get preapproval online from American Honda Finance. Then use www.carsdirect.com to buy the car. Their prices are usually very competitive with what you could get on your own at a dealer. | |
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Since I have used this site for assistance in negotiating car purchases for a few friends recently, I thought it was time I contributed. On Friday my friend signed the papers for a 2004 Accord EX Sedan Automatic/with Leather interior and 4 cylinder engine. This model did not have Navi. He paid $23,000 out the door(give or take $50) in the state of NJ. I got this price for him by using the email-blasting technique that has been discussed here many times. Although I sent the email to 5-6 dealers, only one responded, yet it was the one I wanted to pair up against the dealer that I had used before. It was amazing how out of touch with technology and the power of the Internet many of the dealers are. It was like pulling teeth just to get some of these dealers to find out the email address of the person at the dealership that handles Internet-based sales. Yet in the end, the Accord that was purchased was located at another dealer in the state and everyone was happy. After making sure the price was going to be honored, he then purchased the 7 year/100,000 mile warranty for $995. I don't have the exact breakdown of the numbers here, but in the end I think it was something like $700-800 under invoice. April and August are supposedly the two weakest months in auto sales and my friend surely benefited last month. Anyhow, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to describe how you got the aggressive pricing you did on your purchases - it really helps those of us who take the time to do the research. If there are any buyers in the South Jersey area, the two dealers I dealt with and could recommend were Willis Honda and Burns Honda. |
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