Dangerkitty,

I have to relate a short story. I sold Acuras in 1990 for a brief time. I started on the used lot. There was they guy interested in a 1989 Corolla GT. Kept coming in, but price was always too high (was like $9,999). Must have visited twice - never made a deal. A week later I'm talking with my sales manager and we're reviewing this guy. I'm nagging him to make this guy a deal (so I can make a sale). He says for me to call him up an tell him $9,299 and that's our best and lowest offer. So I do just that. After I finish with this "best" offer speech, he rips off a string of explatives and explains to me the car is on sale, in the news paper, for $8,999. He didn't buy the car. I will always remember that at car dealerships, the head and the butt may not always know what the other is doing.

Who knows why she quoted you $2200 over. Maybe they had a sales meeting that morning and decided they were going to start adding "market adjustments". Maybe the sales manager gave her bad info. Maybe they were hoping you were the 1 person in 10 that wouldn't know the difference and pay it (unfortunately, there are enough people buying cars with more credit than common sense who get taken and keep the dealers hoping you are such a person). Maybe they were trying to rip you off, maybe they just made a mistake. I more or less expect it. In fact if they don't try something sneaky, I get suspicious because I'm wondering if they're pulling something I haven't caught onto yet.

Clearly you don't need advice, but I wouldn't be too upset. Every dealer around here charges $1500-$3000 more for a Honda straight off the bat. Once you have it set in your mind what you should pay, everything a dealer says is just, "blah, blah, blah". They'll never have your best interest in mind, and if there was an extra dime in your pocket they'd try to take it.

Best of luck in your search.

 

Tim,
Thanks for bringing this back on topic.

 

Cars made these days (especially cars such as a Honda) do not degrade in quality over time. Yes, the maintenence expenses will go up over time but to say that their quality degrades is not correct IMHO.

I have a buddy that is a Master Mechanic. He has a mid 1980's Honda Prelude that has over 400,000 miles on it. He claims he is just breaking it in.

Comparing used shoes and clothing to pre-owned cars is making an apples and oranges comparison. Many if not most Certified Financial Planners recommend buying cars that are a few years old. You could buy a lease return that is just a few years old and save big over what the new cost of the automobile was. Since buying an automobile is the second most expensive purchase people make behind their house, why not shave off a few years of depreciation?

 

If that is directed at me I am at a loss as to how you came to that conclusion.

 

Tim,

Thank you for the info. I appreciate your comments and story.

DK

 

I should have quoted DTDRIVER to make it clear.

My mistake for making that post as the best thing I can do is leave this thread and hope things cool off....

 

I'm sure dealing with semi-reputable dealers is frustrating. I'm having my own frustrations in the plasma TV market myself at the moment. It seems the dealers with the lowest price are not reputable and pull bait and switch tactics once they have your credit card number. I'd love to have a new 50" TH-50PHD8UK shipped for under $3k but the too good to be true prices really are too good to be true.

I think whenever any large sum of money is involved there is motivation for dealer scandal/rip off and the best policy is caveat emptor.

Please don't take your frustrations out on one another.

 

No problem. If you haven't already, there are a number of threads on purchasing. Different stories, advice, etc. Some people who were being set up to pay a lot did a whole lot better by traveling a bit and crossing some state lines. Everyone seems to have different tolerance levels for how heroic they want to be to save some money. Lots of stories in the older threads.