my dealer rep just got off phone w Honda and all usa bound 2006 hch are stuck in japan due to scheduling errors with ship transport. initially honda stated it was due to freight rail in Indiana but san diego is shipping port and im in san francisco, so that made no sense.

mildly incensed

 

That would seem a little suspect to me. Honda ships thousands of cars a week from Japan to the US and it doesn't matter what those cars are. There is nothing special about the Civic Hybrid from a shipping perspective. It would be like saying I changed the color of my shirt from blue to green and now I can't get UPS to deliver anything for a month.

 

I'm thinking they found a problem with the HCH and are drasticly trying to fix it before shipping them.

 

The dealer in Long Beach California said they won't be here till Dec 06.

 

I feel for you guys... it's like a kid waiting for their birthday present....

 

This matches what I was told (the delay at least). I was told that they were delayed HCH production (or shipping?) due to increased demand for the standard Civic. Sounded a bit suspect, but the delay appears to be real...


Terry

 

Well, the good news is that I'm all set to get the first one at my dealer. When I got on the list (no deposit required), I was #11. But, I offered to put up some cash deposit and I got moved to #1. But they still had no visibliity on the cars. Finally, they got some color info on their allocation. Woo-hoo! Magnetic Pearl with the Blue over ivory interior, no nav. No vin yet tho, so I couldn't finalize.

Got the vin today and I went in and got all the paperwork out of the way. Car expected to arrive while I'm on my cruise, so I can (hopefully) pick it up when I get back November 8th.

Maybe I AM like a kid waiting for his birthday present, but WTF -- I don't care!

 

Sorry your getting the delay.

Could be good tho. With standard Civic sales now slowing a tad. It would now look like Hybrid and Si will be hitting lots within days of each other instead of a month or afew weeks apart. With the grand arrival of Hybrid and Si at about the same time.

I think they stagered the launches so each level of the car could have its own little stage. Now the stage is crumbling. All this MSRP sales hype and limited production crap may backfire on Honda and there dealers. ( Death to the marketing dept. )

Going to be hard for dealers to push MSRP with Hybrids and Si hitting the lots at close to the same time and they will have a load of standard Civics setting around. The ave. consumer will arrive on the lot and see a sea of Civics and even the stupidist folks will start to wonder,,, " why MSPR look at this sea of Civics "

I see a marketing problem in the making.

Only if folks would kick back and watch this play out and reep the savings in the thousands of dollars.

 

If all of the civics get delivered in Nov/Dec, that might be good. Just wait until the first snow hits and head over to your local dealer and watch all the sales reps moving and cleaning hundreds of cars, then make a deal. I'm sure you could get it way under msrp....

 

Plus gas prices are droping here. You get a sea of Civics in with gas at $2.15pg. Bet the ave. stary eyed cust. will be looking at Accords, CRV, Pilot and Ody. Then if they get caught by the consumer rolling prices up and down with gas prices in the thousands of dollars that will backfire on them also. Hate for the oil companys is at a all time high. Car producers arent far behind. Then throw in winter home heating cost going thru the roof. Home heating cost could really mess with cust. in northern states cash flow. Is the ave. Joe going to trade in his almost paided for Impala that GM has thrashed him on with the recent cheap prices. Take a huge hit. Or set back and ride the storm out and heat his home? I think its quite funny how this can break against auto makers trying to hedge there bets and play thug pricing games..... LMAO