I'm a wannabe 2007 Honda Fit owner. All my life, I've bought used vehicles, mainly because I loathed the idea of walking into a car dealership and either being abused and ridiculed till I walked out or being taken for all I was worth. There must exist decent car salespeople, but I have yet to meet one.

I've searched the web and read various dealer reviews on Yelp, Epinions, and similar. I was depressed at the predictably low reviews that abound. I've viewed the FitFreak forum dedicated to Honda dealerships, and I've read the sparse comments supposedly on San Francisco Bay Area dealers there. But they left me wanting.

So I'm coming direct to you, Bay Area Honda Fit owners. Specifically, I seek the name and email address and/or phone number of a straight-shooting Honda salesperson (for example, "Jo Smith, jsmith@lasthonestdealer.com, 650-123-4567") who has a conscience, doesn't overuse their rationalization skills, and will sell my husband and me the Honda Fit that we want. We've got it completely spec'd; we just want to do a confirming test drive then hand over our dollars and go pick it up.

To make your responses easy, here are dealerships near me in which I'd like to identify this mythical decent salesperson:

* Anderson Honda, 1766 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto
* Larry Hopkins Honda, 1048 W El Camino Real, Sunnyvale
* Stevens Creek Honda, 4590 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose
* Capitol Honda, 745 Capitol Expressway Auto Mall, San Jose
* Autowest Honda Fremont, 5780 Cushing Parkway, Fremont
* Mike Harvey Honda, 200 California Dr, Burlingame
* South Bay Honda, 16213 Los Gatos Blvd, Los Gatos
* Honda of Hayward, 24919 Mission Blvd, Hayward
* Menlo Honda, 601 El Camino Real, Redwood City
* San Leandro Honda, 1302 Marina Blvd, San Leandro
* Grace Honda, 345 El Camino Real, San Bruno

Have you met that rarest of creatures, that unicorn of commerce, the decent straight-shooting Honda salesperson?? If so, please comment below. Thank you for your time.

 

rcut-
Go to Val Strough Honda in Seaside (Monterey). They do not mark up- sell Fits only at MSRP. Their Internet Sales Mgr. is Art Agpalasin, artagpalasin@vscc.com. In the Santa Cruz area, Val Strough Honda is the Costco Auto Purchase program referral dealer. This is a small dealership, so you may have a bit of a wait to get your new car into stock, but that will probably be the case at any other dealership, where you'll get ripped off on price in addition to the wait. Seaside is only about 90 minutes drive from Palo Alto. Good luck!

I looked for my Fit over the Labor Day weekend last September, and talked to EVERY NorCal Honda dealer (20 in all) either by phone or e-mail. Val Strough was the only dealer to offer a Fit at MSRP. I bought one where a previous sale had fallen through, so I had no wait and picked it right up.

 

look up san leandro honda internet sales dept,it was a smooth deal no pressure,price quoted on line,no add ons,picked me up at bart.free tank of gas. good luck to you on your search.

 

I think theres more than 20... theres 15 within 20 miles of my zip code. I found one 100 miles away in Salinas when I was looking. I think I called 40 something dealerships. Just talk to the internet managers and tell them what you want. I got mine for 500 over msrp in mid June, just drove down there and picked it up.

 

San Leandro Honda. No gimmicks, no haggling, MSRP (+plus whatever you want to add) and that's all. They look up what they have coming and let you put a refundable deposit. This was a year ago for me, but back then my salesgal was Griselda but you can pretty much just call up, ask for internet sales and they'll hook you up. At signing of course they'll ask if you want extended warranty, etc. but just say no if you aren't interested and they'll leave it at that.

 

Anderson Honda (Palo Alto) has $500 markup - I will see about the others

 

Here is what these places quoted me on a Fit Sport MT

* Anderson Honda, 1766 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto $16,265
* Larry Hopkins Honda, 1048 W El Camino Real, Sunnyvale $16,340
* Stevens Creek Honda, 4590 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose $17,092
* San Leandro Honda, 1302 Marina Blvd, San Leandro $15,765

Looks like San Leandro Honda has the best price.

 

leandro82-
Good work! Your low price was about what I paid last Sept. for a Sport AT
from Val Strough Honda in Seaside. But to find my car, I had to talk with 18 dealers all over NorCal during last year's Labor Day weekend. Enjoy your new car!

 

Thanks as well. I had been checking out which dealerships to go thru. I hadn't even looked at San Leandro. I will be checking them out this weekend.

 

Unfortunately, it's all about dealer stock. You might have the nicest salesperson in the world, but if the dealer doesn't have the car you want, it's not going to help you. FWIW, I had a very easy and no-nonsense experience with Chris, the internet sales manager at Berkeley Honda.

 

I actually have recently been talking with him too and hopefully he'll get me in a Fit sometime soon!

 

Good luck. They had a white Sport in stock, but it's an AT.

 

We are kinda screwed because in this area people will gladly pay $$$ to jump the line and get what they want. Even for an economy car.

I'm not in that much of a hurry, so rather than pay markup, I ordered a car at MSRP. Fit Sport MT from San Leandro Honda and hopefully will be getting it sometime in June. I'll let ya know how it works out.

 

Yeah, that's what I was looking at.

 

I just got my SSM manual Fit Sport last night from Livermore Honda
I also got an email that San Leandro has an SSM Fit Sport manual in stock.

 

Congratulations, and welcome to the community. If you can make it, you are invited to our meet being worked out for 6/16 at the San Luis Reservoir park. See "Sac Area Fits Meet" on the Sacramento Area forum.

 

Who did you deal with in Livermore? Would you recommend them? Did you pay MSRP? Thanks!

And thanks for your response on the general forum!

fitfeevr

 

Hey there! I am pretty frustrated with the dealers in the SFBA too. I was just quoted 19,400 from SF Honda for a VBP Sport MT...when I told him that a Mini was less than that, and that was a 20% markup on the markup (!!!), he was totally disinterested!

I know that SF Honda is not even close to competitive as a dealership and their reputation is hardly a good one, but that price is ridiculous! Who would do business there?!?

Enough ranting, can you recommend a salesperson at San Leandro? Like you, I have the time to wait for the right price, but am ready to move forward if I could find a good dealer.

Thanks for your help...

fitfeevr

 

I dealt with Maria at Livermore Honda. She was pretty good. I also dealt with Evin at Livermore(not so good) I paid MSRP, but I think that might not be their usual practice. . .
If Livermore hadn't gotten it in and I noticed it on my lunch break, I probably would have gotten the one in San Leandro. I was also told Tracy was getting in a Manual trans fit sport in the next week or so.

 

San Leandro has my SSM auto sport listed for 16889 on their website, dunno if they've sold it yet or not. They only gave me 13 for it cuz it has ~18000 miles on it.