"John Smith" <someone@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8jfJb.14294$R_4.5353@nwrddc03.gnilink.net...
> If you have done so, will you mind sharing your experience? Thanks in
> advance.
>
>

Ugh, accidently posted this on wrong thread earlier, but here goes:

Here's how I went about buying my Civic last week. First off I went and test
drove the models I was interested in (corolla, protege/mazda3, civic,
elantra) and each time they tried to sit me down I told them I had to go to
competition and I'd be back. So once I had it down to the Civic I looked at
carsdirect price, which seemed pretty good (about 500 under invoice). I then
took that price and called a bunch of the local Honda dealerships (there's a
crapload in Atlanta, GA area) and asked to speak to internet manager. A few
refused to match, a few did, and two dealerships in the boondocks of metro
Atlanta started beating the price. It got to about 800 under invoice + tax
(no junk fees) and I took it. The only number I ever threw out was the
carsdirect number, after that it was a matter of just asking these people
over the phone to match or beat. From first call, I was done in about two
hours with a bunch of phone conversations, only stop into dealership was to
get my car.

So, lessons learned:
1. Dealer hopping is a waste of your/there time... only do it to test the
cars out.
2. Use lowest price you can find as starting point, email/call to get a
match
3. Go pick up your car.