this is why car dealers have a bad rep.

tuesday 10/21 sales rep from honda tells me he can get me a silver sport auto "in a couple of days (thursday 10/23)." all he has to do is set up a swap w/ their sister dealer 15 miles away. the other dealer had 1 silver sport on their lot.

he asks for a $500 deposit on credit, which is totally refundable.

2 hours later he says a swap is confirmed and they have set aside the silver fit at the other dealer. all that needs to be done now is swap a red fit for the silver fit.... they're just waiting on the arrival of the red fit.

thursday comes. he doesnt answer my call.
turns out he's off thursday.

friday comes.
my salesman doesnt answer the phone.

so i call the dealership where the silver fit is located.
the sales manager says, "i have 1 auto silver sport."
"how long has it been on the lot?" i asked.
he said, "10 days."
hmmmm.
i asked, "it's not being held for a swap with another dealer?"
the dude said, "no. i can sell you the car right now."
he asked $19,061 OTD.
i said, "i'll call you back."

i call back my original dealer.
i finally get the guy who had set up the swap.
now he says, "we wont get the swap done until the 27th, when the car we're swapping comes in."

on tuesday he said the car would be here on thursday (10/21)
he got my deposit.
now he's saying "by the end of the month, but probably the 27th."

and he has no idea why the sales rep at the other place has no knowledge of the car being on-hold for a swap.

so i said, "seems like anyone can come in and buy the car that is supposedly being held for me?"
he assured me that wasnt the case and that if the guy tried to sell the car at some point in the porcess he'd find out it was being held for a swap.

right.

i told him the curious fact that the silver fit had been sitting in their sister dealers lot for 10 days.... "isnt that unusual?"
he then said, "that's because it's missing an inside panel and they're waiting for the part to be shipped to them."

hadnt heard that before.

i called back the dealer with the silver fit.
he said he was unaware the car was missing a panel.

allrightythen.

when this car finally comes in, and i test drive it, i'm going to act less than convinced i love the car and try to get them to come down in price... if for no other reason they flat-out misled me when the car would be available. if they dont come down in price, i'll walk.

there are 2 other dealers within 20 minutes of me.

ive talked to 4 dealers. they really dont want to budge off msrp.

any advice from anyone is welcome.

 

I just bought a 2009 Fit Sport SSM a week ago and they wouldn't budge off MSRP either. I tried and tried but they wouldn't't budge or toss in anything for free. MSRP is the best your gonna get, IMO, at the present time.

 

here's the thing.... the car they're holding for me is waiting for a part.
why should i trust it's simply an inside panel?
they can say anything.
they already have said anything. lol.
i dont trust car dealers.

i read somewhere to always try avoiding a dealer swapping with another dealer.

should i just order a car and wait on line w/ everyone else?

 

Why don't you just go to the dealership that has your silver Fit and buy from them? Or at least look at it and see if anything's missing. if it's just a panel, buy the car and have it installed when it's there...

 

Collect your $500 and go get it at the other dealer.

 

i cant get you a fit for below msrp. i work at honda in miami. let me know.

 

As soon as the 'story' becomes a bit fishy, it probably is. I negotiated the price by email, that way:
- I have it in writing plain and simple
- I can shop the quote to other dealers
- I'm not pressured to answer right away

Sound like he's trying to take advantage of an eager buyer.

 

that's an idea. it would really piss off the guy who has my $500 deposit.

as it is, it should get to the dealer who has the deposit near the end of the month. the hope is to squeeze a few bucks off the price (end of the month) and hold his misleading statements against him.

 

unfortunately i'm in new jersey. and believe me, being in new jersey is unfortunate.

 

I had a somewhat similar issue. First dealer I was talking with said 4 weeks for a MT Sport, so I gave them a $500 deposit. 4 weeks later the same dealer quoted me 4 more weeks (and my salesman had quit). So I got my deposit back and made a few calls to other dealers.

4 days after I got the news from the first dealer I was driving to another dealer (admittedly 300 miles away) to pick up my car. No local dealer was willing to get me what I wanted (all quoted many weeks out), so I did it myself. Internet and a phone put a lot of power in your hands.

So I'd say get your deposit back and shop around. No need to work with folks when you don't have a good feeling about them.

 

Where in NJ? If you're in central NJ I could point you to whom I bought the car from, but it will likely be at MSRP price. There are other people in the same dealership I wouldn't want to work with though... most car salesmen give me the creeps.

 

If the other dealer is only 15 miles away why not even try to deal with them? They obviously are willing to sell and there is no guarantee the car will still be there when the other dealers red fit comes in.

If they are lying to you now, they will certainly be lying to you when it comes time to crunch the numbers.

 

I second the motion to go to the dealer that has the car you want and at least get the whole "real" story. I had the same thing happen in reverse. The "bad" dealer was trying to get me to buy a car he was going to trade for. I already had a deposit on a car at another dealer. The original (good) dealer traded for a car a month in advance of when I was supposed to get it and didn't call me until he had the car on the lot. Like he said "no funny business here".

 

I bought my Fit SPort 5MT this last Saturday and it was my first new car buy ever from a dealer (have had a Civic and an A4 before this, both private party, excellent buys).
I had a decent time buying one. Only went in to one dealer once to test drive it, got him to continue dropping his premiums over email until I had him at MSRP, had another over email at 100 below MSRP and finally the first dealer who'd ever given me MSRP straight up in Aug-Sept was the one who offered 200 below. I just told him I'm coming in, on the day traded the Audi A4 for about 4k (very decent) and he dropped the Fit price when I got there.

Finally got it at 500 below MSRP. I think I like the email only way of working.

If anyone wants, go deal with Paul C at Manly Auto in Santa Rosa

 

spin out, I think you should get your $500 back and go get the other car, if that is the one you want. I will not deal with crappy sales organizations like this.

One dealer locally did not have the AT sport in the color I wanted, but they tried to sell me a base. I told them the color I wanted and left. A few days later, I got a call from some female who told me they had my car. I asked her 3 or 4 times, "You have THIS color and in AUTOMATIC SPORT? Are you SURE?" She assured me they had 5! What do you know - I drove out there and WOOPS! they did not have the car after all! It was a mistake! It was so not funny I ripped the sales manager a new one, told them I would NEVER buy a car from them even if they had the one I wanted, and left.

And a few days later, they called me AGAIN! I explained as nicely as I could that hell would freeze over before I would ever talk to them again, and they should never call me.

 

I got the car I wanted, was just detailing the experience I had to say that there are some decent ones out there, if they're hard to find.

What happened to you really sucks, obviously, but I guess I can suggest that if you're not pressured for time and are ok with just emailing/faxing a bunch of dealers repeatedly, someone will eventually come around. Good luck!

 

holy crap! nice work.

 

that's what im going to do.


in my case, i think both dealers are BS-ing me.

 

Honda will not deal on a Fit because they don't make much money out of the sales. This is why they don't push the Fit - 2 second commericals and they are always parking them behind the Civics. They can come down on the price of a Civic because they are more expensive than the Fit. The first time I called the local dealership they did not even take down my name or number. They told me that I would just have to watch their lot because they never knew when the Fits were coming in. I just got really persistent and my salesman ended up being a nice guy who just was not into the Fit at all and felt that I should not be either. I even bought him a Honda Fit baseball cap as a joke and I would have no problem referring anyone else to him. My Honda Fit gets more comments than any Civic ever would have. In fact Thursday some guy made me roll down my window and asked me what the heck kind of Honda was it. I had to show him the entire car and he was really impressed. He was in his 70's and driving a Lincoln!LOL! He said the gas prices were killing him but he wanted something he could haul his wife wheelchair in and he wanted to know if my Mugen parts came on the car. I told him no those were just parts that I had put on myselfHe was like darn you don't get the racing pedals with it?

Cat :x

 

The more I look around just out of curiosity, the more I realize just how much of a bargain the Fit is for the loaded content it comes with.