In the beginning I e-mail my Honda Dealer about my interest in the FIT! Only hours later, I got a quick response Then, a week ago I e-mailed him to see if they would accept a cash ($) deposit! Have not heard a word back Guess that means NO and the faimly has purchased 4-5 cars from him in the past~

 

Strange, my dealer was all too happy to talk deposits. Give him a call, maybe your e-mail fell through the cracks.

 

pro pack should also include a cargo tray, but that is still a silly price for that and i work for honda!!! hahaha
destination is defintely not part of the msrp

 

philly,
Is the "pro pack" an official Honda accessory package? If so, is there an official MSRP for it?

 

pro pack is definitely something legit. we include splash guards, wheel locks and a cargo tray. i think our dealership charges 595 for it. i don't think there is an official msrp for it. i think it's the accessories + installation and then if the dealer wants to charge more, they most certainly can. someone on here said it best, there should be no markup on these cars because it would defeat the purpose. pro packs and accessories are not markup though. that is a legitamate way to make money. another thing to consider, it really won't change your payment much to have that stuff in there. there could also be room to negotiate the price on a pro pack. god my managers would ****ing kill me

 

Good point - $595 at your dealer or $170 at one I've been talking to won't materially change the payment. However, it just irks me because they're options that I don't necessarily want. Thanks for the info though, you're awesome!

Do you have info on how much Fits at your dealer are going for? Is there room for me to try and talk my dealer down, or is sticker the best I'm going to be able to do for now?

 

i actually don't know. i haven't had anyone come into my dealer and ask for the fit. we probably won't take deposits. and we will probaly add some accessories and charge msp for them. depending on people's reactions, we might go 200 under msrp or something like that to say thank you, but we will never do markups. there is about 8% in honda front end profit. i've educated you too much, now send me some customers

 

GREAT info, thanks so much! If I lived in Cali, I'd come to your dealership.

Are you close to Mountain View? I have a friend who will be working for Google and is interested in a Honda, I'll send him your way if he's close enough.

 

i am not really close. mountain view is up by san jose, i'm in socal

 

I went and took a peek at the honda Canada site to see what options would be available possibly for here in the US. Saw some nice package options for grouping the sport grile and the wheels and some interior color. Looks to be shaping up quite well.

One thing i did notice though is the HUGE!! price diff between Canada and the US price.... Almost 5,000 more for the sport automatic!!! how do yawl afford Acuras!!!.... talk about sticker shock for me.

The good thing is that I just bought my wife a 2005 civic ex special edition in June and I can probably trick the heck out of the fit for the same price as hers

 

Phone the dealer. You can't always rely on email.

 

Such is the life of a Canadian. After all taxes, we do pay around $21,500 USD (7% less for Alberta), which comes out to $4,800 more out the door compared to the US.

This difference in price is true for all vehicles, coupled with the higher gas prices and lower average family post-tax income, explains the gap between Canada and the US in terms of car buying mentality. Hatches and all small cars in general here sell like crazy.

 

It doesn't have to be. The laws of supply and demand apply across-the-board. Right now, in the U.S. demand definitely outstrips supply, because supply is zero, so the price point will be higher. Let's wait to see what happens when there are actually cars to sell.

 

Someone should kill your managers. $595 for that is INSANE! Splashguards for the Civic Si are listed at $89.00 on the Honda website. The ones for the Fit can't be much more, if not less. Honda typically pre-stamps/drills/cuts the fenders to accept the mounting hardware without drilling to avoid creating spots of bare metal that could lead to rust. So, you don't even need any tools to install them. The wheel locks can't be much more than about $40.00, and the cargo mat installation is a two-step process: 1. Open hatch, 2. Throw in. How many hours does that take? It maybe a legitimate way to make money, but only if your customer is a total idiot. Fools and their money...

 

I understand supply vs demand, but that isn't always the case with markup. Some cars are just considered to be deserving of a markup, regardless of the availability. Take my Hybrid Civic as an example. When I bought it there were plenty of them and dealers were still charging markup. Sometimes it's supply/demand. A lot of times it's greed.

 

I'm not so convinced that there is truly a huge demand for the Fit. I'm sure every dealer will tell you there is, but as Philly noted above, no one has been to his dealership to secure a Fit. (My local dealer didn't even seem to know much about the Fit at all) I think the demand is huge on this board, but I certainly haven't seen much else to suggest the demand is huge out in the rest of the US. Honda doesn't even seem to be trying all that hard to market them at this point either... I guess time will tell...

 

It is a bit strange that I haven't seen a single commercial for the Fit even though they are due to be released this month. If you didn't learn about the Fit online, you probably wouldn't even know it existed. I guess for the general populace, they want people to be able to see it on the lots as soon as they see it on TV?

 

Over the last 2 weeks, the Fit has been in the newspaper, commercials before movie trailers and at the Vancouver Car show. At least here, I'm sure most people interested would have stumbled across it.

Wait another week, since the US release date is still a little way away

 

divisionerror,
The promotion efforts are happening - just not in channels that are visible to you necessarily. Campus promotion of the Fit (like at my campus) has been pretty heavy. Remember, the target demo is young (college kids and young professionals), who don't necessarily "trust" TV commercials. Honda doesn't need to create *that* much demand to make it a seller's market - as we've discussed here, 40k Fits translates into only 4-5 per dealer per month.

 

um ok.
the fit was in motor trend magazine. my dealership also just got the brochures