Honda windward has 55 fits to choose from ( on order of course)... but too funny just the same. Most dealerships here in the southeast show little to none on their websites.

 

I have no idea how many Honda dealers are in Hawaii, but I do know that dealers love love LOOOVEE to post things that they don't have, if it means getting someone in their doors.

The number probably means "We're probably not getting all of these, but if you come in and leave us a deposit, we'll get it for you eventually!"

The only dealers in Texas that have them posted on their websites/cars.com all said the same thing to me. "Yeah we'll get some eventually, but we don't have them right now. Can I interest you in something else, or how about a deposit?"

No... Thanks...

 

There are 3 Honda dealers on Oahu. In total they have 96 incoming 2015 Fits. There is a dealer on Maui with 12 incoming, 8 at the Dealer on Kuaui and the Dealer on The Big Island has 18. So yes, it does seem like Hawaii is getting more than our share of Fits, especially when you consider the population of the entire state of 1.5 million is less the metro areas of most of the large cities on the mainland.

But the Fit is a very good fit indeed for island lifestyles, where we do not drive long interstate distances, we have varied active lifestyles where the cargo space gets lists of uses. And we are very casual, and not as impressed with expensive cars and fancy clothes.

Still, it does seem strange that our relatively small dealerships are getting so many 2015 Fits from the initial production.

It is worth noting however, that those of us who live in Hawaii are used to the answer of, "what you want is on order and will be here in 8 to 10 weeks." So the idea of going to a store or a car dealer and placing an order or waiting on the next shipment of something to arrive, is pretty much normal. Where I know that in the large mainland cities, if one store doesn't have what you want, you just drive a few miles to the next one that will.

 

They had them on their site ever since the April release. But, they don't have any real ones to sell.

 

That is not a correct statement. Honda windward began loading their incoming inventory in March and every week adds the cars that are produced for them. Typically about 5 per week. They got their demo just before the the official release date of April 14 and it was available for Test drives. Then Honda told them the incoming cars were being held up. My guy at Hinda windward tells me their cars are mostly in San Diego awaiting release from Honda to get shipped here.

 

I guess that's just when I noticed them on the site.

 

TC, that sounds pretty promising that they are in the states waiting to ferry across! Hope you get one soon!

 

Our local dealers don't even have their websites configured to handle model year 2015 vehicles yet!

No loss, though. Less vaporware to trudge through.

 

Generally, this is a limitation with Honda's vehicle reporting system. It's a method for dealers to track their cars, but doesn't allow for the transit between the West Coast and Hawaii. In other words, the system counts the cars in dealer inventory when they are unloaded from the truck or train and handed over to the port processor. The problem is, the part processor is not the dealer, in Hawaii's case but the system cannot differentiate this.

 

Dealers each manage and advertise their inventories independently. They are indenpendant business and each has a different philosophy to selling.

Some dealers will not remove a car that is already pre-sold from their listing, or show that car as sold, in order to cast the widest net to bring in the most potential buyers. While other dealers will not list cars as being in stock, until the car is actually on their lot. But they know what cars are arriving and will offer them to buyers sitting in the dealership who are ready to buy. Figuring that they can make more profit from a buyer in the dealer than they can from someone looking at an online inventory and emailing a variety of dealers looking for their best price. In general, the more information you have, the better your negotiating position. As a result car dealers do not like you knowing as much as you can, and that includes knowing what their incoming inventory looks like.

 

As far as I know, dealers have very little control over inventory listed on the website. One way that Honda ensures compliance is by forcing all dealers to use websites created by one or two vendors. At least in our case, they are added automatically when "received" and removed automatically when a Retail Delivery Registration (RDR) is sent to Honda/Acura. It is pretty hard to fake an RDR, the cars have to be in stock in order for this to be done, also a customer name is attached to the VIN at that point.