Yeah, I've already considered all of that. Like I said, it's not so much the price that bugs me, it's the damage. The salesman said that they could detail the car (he said they do that with all cars they sell), but he agreed that the chips were too deep to be taken care of by detailing. Not to mention the little dent...

This has me wondering if they could just replace the door panel. College Hills Honda lists them for about $156. For that price, I could do it myself, I suppose. Does anyone know if new door panels come painted?

 

The problem with using that truecar.com site is not what it shows: prices actually paid, but that if you simply rely on that, all you end up doing is essentially getting an "average" price. It's great for people like me who while they wanted to get a good price, (who doesn't,) were as much concerned that they shouldn't be the muggins who paid over the odds. So if you look at that site, you can at least be reassured that you were in good company. However, what it doesn't really do is tell you an excellent price based on actual costs, except by inference. I'm not temperamentally suited to the sort of haggling necessary, but there is no doubt in my mind that if you're in the right place at the right time you may well be able to get an excellent deal but one which still gives the dealer a profit margin, albeit not as much as they might want. That's where CR comes into its own - you know (really know) what the dealer paid for that car, so you can make a reasonable offer with confidence that it is fair, if not spectacular, and if it's not accepted you can go on to the next dealer and so on. Of course, this only works if you are prepared to walk and you're not looking for a "rare" auto, so this may not apply to the OP at this time.

 

Uh, what? The door is $156? I don't think so. Not when the body side molding costs 148.80
http://www.collegehillshonda.com/sto...demoldings.jpg

edit add-on:
Used doors, Honda Fit, 2008 (they don't have 2009 showing), above 700 each:
http://www.automotix.net/usedautopar...inventory.html

We gotta get you some edumacation on pricing...LOL!

 

Bernardi is showing panels at 382/397 and skin sets at 146. Maybe the skin set would be sufficient?

 

Uh, yes. Door panel, not complete door.
College Hills Honda Parts

 

I'm getting up to speed here. Because I don't know anything. So!

The skin set at Bernardi looks like it would be a lot of work to put one on the door inner panel, if this page is representative at all of what has to be done:
Door Skin Replacement

And here's an article on Door Skin replacement:
Door Skin Replacement - - Search Auto Parts | Automotive News

Grinding and sparks and hearing protection and door flanges seals, oh my!

Two dings and a little dent. The little dent could be popped out probably with the paintless dent people. And getting the paint fixed by a reputable body and paint shop shouldn't be that hard.

Certainly not as hard as:
To remove the skin, the folded flange seam must be ground off or opened, and any welds must be ground off. The most common practice is to use a grinder and grind off the metal at the edge of the door skin. This allows for removal of the skin. The bonded and welded ribbon that is left can be peeled from the door shell. The noise of grinding the edge of the door is one of the most irritating sounds produced in the collision shop. The door shell acts as a resonator for the sound. It is also loud enough to require hearing protection. Of course, eye protection is also necessary because of the flying sparks. When possible, the sparks should be directed to the floor so they cannot travel far and cause damage to other vehicles nearby.

It's not like putting on a sweater. Although I don't know if that is exactly the same thing that has to be done with the Fit. Maybe it's easier? But it sure isn't like a Smart car (that was one of the big pluses of the Smart).

How could all that work possibly be cheaper than a good body and paint shop?

Bernardi Search Page here:
Find Honda Parts and Honda Accessories by Car Model - Bernardi Honda Parts and Accessories

And the door STILL has to be painted. By a paint shop. The same paint shop that would be in charge of fixing the current doors. Am I missing something here (besides all the stuff I was missing???)???

Here, blue nail polish, have a nice day:

 

I'm a dork! I was thinking WHOLE door. This is the accelerated learning class, isn't it? Start off stupid and learn fast, while still appearing to be...uh, stupid? That's me!

No welding? No grinding? Is that door only held on by those couple of little things?

But you still have to have it painted, right?

 

Yeah, I don't know how that installs, or if it comes painted.... might not work out at all.

 

It's good to throw out ideas to see what is and isn't possible.

How about asking if you can take that car to the body and paint shop yourself to get an estimate? They probably have one they use themselves and for whatever reason just aren't doing the fix. Probably because it's the end of the year and they'll be getting in the new cars.

I still totally scavenge for clothing and other items that I can get at a good deal. I used to do more hand-sewing, and I could fix and reinforce seams and such, so a thrashed seam was no problem. I could fix it myself.

I even did a half-way decent job on a hole in the woven fabric seat in my old VW using embroidery thread and reweaving. It didn't look brand new or perfect, but for me was way better than a hole (which would only get bigger if not attended to).

Are the dings in the paint where the body side molding could go? There are many variations of the body side molding, other than the Honda OEM. Like at Zeta.
Honda Fit Wide Body Side Molding - MISC-PAINT-FE2-FIT-DEI

If the ding happens to be in that area, you could have it fixed enough to prevent rust, but not a factory finish, and put the molding over that area.

It's going to get dinged again, eventually, so prevent it before it happens again!!!

I got the Honda ding strip. I think I like the Zeta one better. Oh well.

And those come in your color already!!!

 

By the way, before you get the car and then start complaining about the seat fabric (which you will do), go here, get these:
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gaug...tml#post733065

The blue stitching on the black/black seat covers matches up with blue stitching of the optional gear shift knob. It will look especially nice with the Blue Sensation.

 

Yes, and I definitely don't want to buy a supposedly brand new car that is already dinged up. Who would?

Personally I'm not too fond of the door moldings, but that's an option worth considering. I don't see why it's unreasonable to ask them to throw that in, since the damage occurred on their lot, and they're refusing to fix it. I think it all boils down to that... why would anyone buy a brand new product that's already damaged, without any incentive? I've never heard of any retail operation that would do that.

 

"But they're already reducing the price of the car!", she said, exasperated. She sipped her hot peppermint tea, staring at the acrylic crystal wind chimes, admiring the sparkle in the slight breeze. Another sip and the clock's tick-tick-tick was heard, acknowledged, with a sadness of time that continues to pass, whether or not one has something to do.

By the way, my car was damaged when I bought it. The door handle part? Some idiot apparently had a huge problem with the key hole on the driver's side at one time. It kind of made a big dent/scrape in that part that is round.

I was actually GLAD to see it after I thought about it. No more worrying about that first "oops". The first oops is already there. Not to say I want additional ones. But it will happen.

Little scuffs on the door panel inside from shoes. Already had the lower glove box replaced from a rattle. And it has to go in to have the back left window looked at, it makes a sound sometimes when it goes up. Rubbing against the rubber excessively.

Want it done perfect? Do it yourself. And then you find out how hard perfection is to reach.

Look what happens, dealers don't have the ability to create perfection when the world has people like this...

Cars damaged at dealership
Sometime between Saturday and Monday morning, three vehicles at Sullivan Toyota had their windows broken, according to police reports.
Sgt. Joe Snyder, public information officer with the Wichita Falls Police Department, said police were called Monday morning to take reports on three damaged vehicles at 2213 Jacksboro Highway.
An employee took officers to the back lot, where the driver’s side window on a Toyota Tundra and the passenger side window on a Toyota Tacoma were broken. It was not known if anything was missing from the vehicles.
The Tundra belonged to the dealership, but the Tacoma did not.
Officers then went to the used car lot, where they found a Ford Expedition with the passenger side window broken. A stereo was missing from the vehicle.


Crime Beat, August 19 : Crime Beat : Times Record News


------


Or this, what's the matter with these kids???


The suspects are a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, both from Medford, and a 12-year-old from Delran, according to police. They are charged with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.The vandalism spree damaged 32 vehicles at Medford Ford on Route 70. Eleven more vehicles were targeted outside a ShopRite supermarket, also on Route 70, and along Union and Cherry streets and Allen Avenue in the neighboring Medford Village area, authorities said.
...
Worrell said the vandals appeared to become more violent as they moved from the front to the back of the sales lot. They gouged paint, hit vehicles with a board and threw rocks through windows as they headed away from the road, said Worrell.He said the lot resembled a "war zone" in the wake of the attack. Police estimated $30,000 in damage just at Medford Ford.


Youngsters blamed in $30,000 Medford vandalism | CourierPostOnline.com | Courier-Post

 

Hey Guitar Trance, they are offering the car at a substantial discount. And LEMONed made an offer that was far too low.

The car wanted is a stick/nav. Not available for 2010.

Waiting may mean "completely out of luck/stock". Which then means buying used, if that specific car is still wanted, and used may have more than a few dings, as well as other wear and tear.

 

Used, stick/nav, Blue Sensation, 2,549 miles, in MA, $17,495

Do a used car search on Edmunds for 2009 Honda Fit manual (can't paste in the links).

Another stick/nav, Storm Silver, 12,103 miles, in NC, $19,900

White stick, doesn't say if it has nav, 2,935 miles, in WA, $19,518

Silver stick, NOT with Nav, 19,928 miles, in TX, $19,991

Are you getting it yet?

I bought a new 2009, because used 2008 were more expensive than buying a new car. Looking at the used prices (remember, they went UP after C4C), they are also higher than buying a new car from the local dealer you have.

 

When I went down to the dealership to purchase my fit I was meandering around the lot with the sales guy trying to find an 09 that was the color I wanted (black). The first one we got in was fully loaded (nav/vsa), which is what I thought I wanted before I found out it was an added $2200 or whatever. So we get in to test drive it and some dumbass had left the passenger side front and rear windows down and it had down poured the night before and morning of. There was water in the seats, on the floorboard and god knows where else.

The dealer tried to brush it off like it was no big deal and wouldn't stop pushing that car. I had to finally tell him that there was no way I was going to purchase a BRAND NEW vehicle with 0 miles that had been rained in, whether he could dry it out or not. Needless to say I did end up purchased a sport but not one with Nav or that had been rained in. But, I had to look at the guy and say "seriously, are you arguing with me about this? Would you buy a brand new car that was rained in the night before."

 

Clearly we differ on opinion here. If you're happy buying damaged goods as new, then good for you. I'm not.

Do it myself?! Hey, if I could build a new Honda from scratch myself, I would. Unfortunately, that's just a little beyond my reach. A new car is, by definition, supposed to be new. No one said anything about "perfection", buddy.

Right, and how much do you want to bet the dealer had those cars repaired before selling them?

 

Actually, they said that the discount is because the car has been on their lot for too long. The salesman didn't even know about the dings until I pointed them out to him.

And as I said already, I raised the offer, but the salesman was completely unwilling to listen to anything. You make it sound like I was being unreasonable. Well, I wasn't, but I don't feel like repeating everything I wrote already.

 

Of course they were unwilling to listen. That first offer was so out of line that the salesperson made a judgment. That judgment being "this guy isn't going to be satisfied with anything".

Here's a dandy quote from a post of guitar trance:

"It's the "I'm entitled to everything and anything I want - It's all about me" syndrome! But what can you do about it? You can try to polish a sewer pipe, but in the end, until it's flushed and the crap is washed away it still stinks and is the same old full-o-crap pipe it started out as! "

From:
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...tml#post742202

You have that aura of swaggering entitlement, where you seem to believe you should be able to have a perfectly unblemished car (that part isn't unreasonable) for far less than what everyone else pays in general (that part IS unreasonable).

You made an offer that would be a decent price for an auto sport without nav.

That is not only insulting to the dealer, but insulting to the rest of the buyers here.

There's a certain way the game of auto buying is played. I don't know all the rules, as they are unwritten. And they change constantly over time, depending on area, demand, incentives, etc.

But I'm pretty sure door-in-the-face technique is worthless when buying a car:

The door-in-the-face (DITF) technique is a persuasion method. Compliance with the request of concern is enhanced by first making an extremely large request that the respondent will obviously turn down. The respondent is then more likely to accede to a second, more reasonable request than if this second request were made without the first, extreme request. There is also a feeling of guilt associated with the DITF technique of sequential requests (Cialdini, 2000). A person is also more likely to agree with the second request because they feel guilty for having rejected the first request. A reference point (or framing) construal can also explain this phenomenon, as the initial bad offer sets a reference point from which the second offer looks like an improvement.
Door-in-the-face technique - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All you got was the door in the face for making such a low starting offer, and they probably won't reopen the door.

 

hmm... smells like a contradiction...

Swaggering entitlement? Now that's just insulting. How many times do I have to say it? IT'S NOT THE PRICE THAT'S THE PROBLEM.

I don't know why it's so hard to understand that. Anyways judging by the other responses in this thread, your opinion is clearly in the minority. I don't know why you keep trying to make me go back to this dealer and buy a car that I obviously have issues with. Wait, do you work for Anderson Honda?

 

No, I'm disabled. If I worked for them, I wouldn't have spent this much time on you. It wouldn't be worth it.

And don't get all bold and big typeface on me. Geez.

The Blue Sensation is reduced. Are the Tidewater Blue discounted?

If the price isn't the problem, then it's simply a matter of having the dings fixed. Is that correct?

Call them, tell them you will buy the car at their price if they fix the dings. Problem solved.

I assume it's a cash deal (or financing is secured), and you can have a cashiers check ready for them if they say "Yes".

If they say "No", that's it. Quit complaining.