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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Honda Fit Prices Paid and Buying Experiences
1713 messages, Last post on Aug 19, 2008 at 8:12 PM
You are in the Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum. Your Hosts are car_man & kyfdx
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I just picked up my Base MT lunar-mist Fit, so I thought I'd write a summary of my buying experience to assist others shopping for a Fit in Southern Arizona. I paid cash without a trade-in. My procedure was to email the southern AZ dealers asking for an out the door price on a Base MT with no add-ons. I stated I was willing to put down a refundable deposit. I also emailed a dealership in Las Cruces NM. Of all the dealers I emailed, only a few gave me an "out the door" price I requested: Honda of Mesa, Earnhardt. Right and Chapman gave me figures but did not include the tax, title or doc fees so left things vague, which is not what you want in internet car buying. Some dealers didn't have MT Bases coming in, so I can't vouch for them good or bad. From my own experience only, I'd summarize the southern arizona dealers as follows, from the perspective of someone wanting "just the facts" without a lot of back-and-forth crap. 1) Concrete figures in email: Earnhardt, Honda of Mesa. 2) Not willing to give figures via email: Bell, Showcase. I got more calls and emails from Bell than any other dealer--yet even now do not have a firm quote from them. This is the exact opposite of what an internet shopper desires. 3) Gave figures but those figures were way above msrp: Right, Arrowhead. Lowest price I found on a Base MT was Honda of Mesa: $16,130 otd ($14,735 + TTL). No pressure for add ons, and no bait-and-switch. I'd have to order though, with the usual 8-12 weeks. Don't know how HoM are beyond the quote, but they were among the "good guys" up to that point. Although vague in email, Dobbs Honda was also straightforward and had almost as good a price over the phone without pressure for add ons, but again, I'd have to order. Dobbs claimed that they used a waiting list rather than having their salesmen do a free-for-all when one came in, which I found to be refreshing. They had a reasonable price for tinting ($229) too. If they'd had one already allotted I would have gone with Dobbs. I ended up buying from Earnhardt. I give them "ok" review. On the positive side, they replied immediately with a concrete figure. They gave me other concrete information (build and transit dates, expected delivery) which turned out in retrospect to be completely correct. The car they said they had coming in four weeks later with a VIN did indeed come on time, in the color they described. The other Fit they had offered me was right there on the lot so it also was real just as they described. No bait-and-switch. (The reliability of this type of info is crucial when you're buying a car over the internet.) They have been responsive after the sale, calling me several times to make sure everything is ok. My main complaint with Earnhardt is that it took a lot of pressure to get the car with no add-ons: they wanted $600 for tint and guards, then $500 for tint. Finally they acquiesced, but why did I have to fight for it? The salesman also pulled the usual dishonest negotiating tricks in email: "The other dealer would lose money at that price" (msrp + $300 doc!), "there are only three Fits coming in to Arizona" etc. They also had the infamous Phoenix $369 doc fee. Finally, signing at the dealership, the business manager put in pressure for an extended warranty using the usual sales methods. So in my opinion their slogan "no bull" is bull. But, in the end Earnhardt's $14,814 (plus TTL) ended up being the best price for an actual vehicle arriving within a month of deposit from the handful of dealers willing to negotiate via email. Final numbers: $14,445 price paid $ 369 documentation fee $ 5 arizona new tire tax $ 1,127 sales tax, 7.8% $ 246 az title and registration $16,192 out the door In retrospect, I probably should have emailed back everyone with my lowest bid. Once I put down my deposit with Earnhardt I didn't feel right cutting deals with other dealers, but I perhaps should have bid around first. But, really, with the Fit you can't get much of a competition going. It's more like "who has what you want coming in and are they willing to sell it to you without too much of a mark up?" Maybe I'm crazy but I feel that even at msrp I'm getting a good value with the Fit compared with other comparable cars. Now if I could only live in a state with lower taxes and regulated doc, I'd have saved more than a thousand bucks.
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Replying to: ten_year_man (Jan 20, 2007 4:10 pm) I think you did well.. You got the exact car you wanted.. you didn't pay extra for any add-ons.. and you got $800 for a car that the dealer probably didn't want at all.. If you keep it for ten years, a few hundred either way won't really matter.. Good luck with it! regards, kyfdx
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Replying to: kyfdx (Jan 21, 2007 10:28 am) I am quite pleased that I got what I wanted at MSRP less than 3 weeks after starting the search. That little silver car puts a smile on my face every time I walk into the attached garage. It's wierd not seeing the Neon there after more than 11 years. One thing I'll miss in that old car is the aftermarket stereo I had installed after the original crapped out. That Jensen cranked, and it played both CD's & cassettes. I have a lot of music on cassette tapes which I'll have to start transferring to CD. There was no way I could have installed the Jensen in the Fit. This is the first Honda I've owned. I hope the make lives up to its reputation. |
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Replying to: jkandell (Jan 20, 2007 11:03 pm) Enjoy your new car! |
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Replying to: fitluver (Jan 17, 2007 9:03 am) |
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Replying to: ten_year_man (Jan 17, 2007 4:11 pm) As far as negotiating that number if I were your salesman and you came to me after i got the car you wanted and waited along with you for it then you wanted to negotiate again with me for a lower price I would tell you to go pound sand. My word is my word and I expect my customers to live by the same mantra. If we agree on a price that is the price. If you only knew how many customers I have thrown out of my dealership for trying to negotiate an internet price we already agreed upon you would not even believe me. If you signed the Buyers order that is the price you agreed to pay so please go and pay it when your car arrives. |
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Wow, I don't like Earnhardt at all. I lived acorss town from them, called them and asked "Do you have a fit on the grounds I can test drive" and they said yes, they do. I said I'll be there in an hour. I was there in a half hour, and they said "oh sorry, we just completed the paper work on that one, so we can't let you drive it. Is there any other car..." I walked out right there.
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Replying to: hondaguy67 (Jan 23, 2007 11:51 am) As expected, the salesman wouldn't budge from MSRP. He was polite and explanatory, but firm. He didn't exhibit the kind of hubris that might lead a different sort of salesman to tell a customer -- either literally or figuratively -- to "pound sand."
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Replying to: ten_year_man (Jan 23, 2007 4:32 pm) That is the way of it. I am sure that if they took your deposit they told you the selling prioce. there is no such thing as "give me 500 dollars and you have the first opportunity to negotiate for the car." That is not the way it works. A deposit means that the car is yours when it arrives. I am 100% sure they are not going to tie up one of their high in demand Fits on a "I promise to come in and negotiate when the car comes in so here is 500 dollars" something is very fishy with your side of this story.
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