Honda Car Forum

I'm in the New England area and am wondering
if I can close to Invoice if I push hard.
What prices have you paid recently?

nearly_blind@yahoo.com wrote:
> I'm in the New England area and am wondering
> if I can close to Invoice if I push hard.
> What prices have you paid recently?

I found carsdirect.com to have the best prices in my area, San Francisco.

For a 2005 accord lx sedan 2.4 w auto in the San Francisco area
(zip=94110) cardirect.com shows a price of $18,034 ($1,000 below
invoice, almost $3k below MSRP). In the Boston area (zip=02107)
carsdirect.com shows $19,084 ($50 above invoice) for the same car.

I bought a 2005 accord ex-navi v6 a month ago (mid Feb). At the time (my
recollection is) carsdirect.com suggested it could be bought at $25,935
(MSRP=$29,315, invoice about $26,470). The SF dealer quoted a "fleet"
price of $31K (~2K above MSRP, $5k above carsdirect.com, lol). At a
different dealer I paid $26,000. I probably could have gone a bit lower
if I tried but I figured the $65 was not worth much haggling. Right now
carsdirect.com suggests it can be bought at $25,720.

You could try my strategy: I chose a rainy weekend when I knew their
sales totals would be low. I went to a dealer that didn't have the car.
Since they didn't have a car to sell me (but could get it in a few days)
they were anxious to deal. I asked and they quoted me $26,000 (near the
carsdirect.com price). I then went to a dealer that had the car. When
they asked how much I wanted to pay (what a stupid question) I said
$26,000. They said no. They said the best they could do is invoice plus
$200 ($26,670). I said "Why would I pay that? I already have a quote
from another dealer at $26,000". They made a couple more of these
(silly) price demands and got the exact same reply. Then they agreed to
the $26,000. The only additional costs were tax and license.

Happy hunting.

I don't remember if Honda's have a holdback. But a dealer working
within that system does NOT get the holdback amount, if they are
getting the car from another dealer. That other dealer gets the
holdback simply because it came out of their stock.

So, I am not so sure that a dealer that does not have a particular car
in stock is "anxious" to do business.

JM

jmattis@attglobal.net wrote:
> I don't remember if Honda's have a holdback. But a dealer working
> within that system does NOT get the holdback amount, if they are
> getting the car from another dealer. That other dealer gets the
> holdback simply because it came out of their stock.
>
> So, I am not so sure that a dealer that does not have a particular car
> in stock is "anxious" to do business.

It was clear to me that they wanted to sell me a car even thought it was
from another dealer. They had no problem going below invoice. I got a
written quote and the salesman was actively pushing me to commit to buy
the car. When I said that I would be making a decision on the next day,
Sunday, the salesman said he didn't work on Sunday, paused, thought a
moment, then said he would be in. All this at a price below invoice. I
don't know about holdbacks. Unless they were very nice people, seems
like there must be a profit for them.