I am interested in a Honda Fit and there is only one dealer in my area who has one in inventory. What do I need to do to negotiate a price or am I pretty much stuck? I will be paying cash.
Thanks,
Rob
Go to Edmunds and see what others are paying and what the invoice is.
There also may be a Honda owners website where you can ask what others paid.
Right now, you should be able to get anything but a hybrid at Invoice or less, plus watever dealer incentives are out there.
What Honda do you want? Have you considered Saturn or Subaru as alternatives?
Haggling tip: when you go to look at a car make up your mind beforehand that you are going to at least pretend to leave the lot. Look at the car, test drive it, maybe even get a purchase order, but don’t write the check just yet. Normally I’d say leave and sleep on it, but if that’s the only Honda Fit you can find and you really want it I’d say bluff leaving with a comment of “it’s really expensive” or similar.
This tells the dealer that you’re not going to make a spur of the moment decision and they’ll have to bargain with you to get the sale. I’ve even heard of dealers dropping thousands of dollars off the price of a new car just to keep a person from leaving the lot. Remember, it’s a buyer’s market right now.
At the very least, give them some reason why you can’t afford the price of the car and offer them something lower. I bought a used car last week and got $800 dropped off the price just with that.
ETA, if it’s a used car check NADA and Kelly Blue Book’s websites and they’ll give you a ballpark for what the dealer paid and what they should be asking. You’ve got the ground in between to figure out a price.
Contact Honda directly if your buying new, there is nothing stopping them from delivering a car to the dealership for you. And since your paying cash in these times you have the stronger bargaining position.
Declan
We just bought a Honda Fit- and, like you, paid cash.
You’ve got a LOT of bargaining power right now. Granted, the Fit is in demand- but dealers across the US are having a hard time selling cars, and they’re starting to get desperate. I looked up the Edmunds price, and told the dealer “This is what I’m going to pay.”
I’d suggest, just to make your bargaining position even stronger, that you don’t tell them you’re going to buy it with cash (as they really want you to finance through them), and also, don’t tell them you’ve got a trade-in until the end (if you have one). If you do have a trade-in, make sure you know how much the value of that car should be, as well.
Normally, I would’ve tried to save even more money, but the Fit can be a hard car to find.
Good luck. You’ll love the Fit.
Oh, forgot to add- don’t just talk to one dealer. Decide exactly what model you want, and the color, then email a bunch of Honda dealers. Tell them exactly what you want, and ask for a quote. This will make sure they don’t waste your time.
I’m not sure if you can really do this. The car manufacturers generally only sell cars through their dealers, unless you plan to pick up one at the factory. If you can directly buy a car from the maker please provide a link so we can check it out. I’m looking at buying a Toyota Tacoma in the Spring and they are made in Fremont, CA.
You can go thru Edmunds to get several local dealers to contact you with their best offer.
At the risk of being a broken record…
Use the Costco buying service. Go to their website and look for something that says Autos or New Cars or something similar. With this service you will deal with the leasing manager, there is NO haggling, and there is NO stress. You tell him the car and options you want. He’ll give you a fixed price offer, usually very close to invoice price. You can take it or leave it.
ALL of the new cars I’ve purchased in the last 15 years have been purchased through this method.
J.
I’ve had good luck with carsdirect.com. Bring in the printout from carsdirect and tell them that you’re not paying one cent more than the internet price. They can give it to you at that price or you’ll just buy it online.
AAA offers a similar service. I recommended it to my sister (she’s a horrible negotiator an I live 600 miles away, so I couldn’t go with her) and she bought a Civic in August using it. As JHarvey says - no haggling, no stress, fair price.
I couldn’t find the service that you are referring to. I saw a section for auto loans, but as I said, I am paying cash. Do you have a link or anything?
You aren’t stuck dealing with that dealer – any Honda dealer can get one for you. Even if the factory is sold out, they can check the stock at other dealers in nearby states, and have that car driven to their dealership for you. And they will do that, if that’s what it takes to make a sale (especially now).
When I wanted a specific model Toyota in only a couple of colors, a nearby dealer located one 2 states away, and after I approved it (I turned down the first 2 he located), had it driven here for me.
I just bought a $51K BMW, 2009 model, first year for the 3 series refresh.
I paid $500 over factory invoice. I’m not the only one, the BMW message boards will back me up.
Do your research on the internet. The last two cars I have bought were negotiated over the internet and I didn’t step foot in the dealer until the day we picked them up. Tell them what you want to pay. That way, you can’t be intimidated by the salesperson.
Remember you may need to add between $100-$300 for advertising/training which is a cost passed down to the delaership and not reflected in Edmunds.
I would seriously think you could get a Fit for invoice unless for some reason they are seriously a hot commodity in your area. The dealer will get his profit from the manufacturers holdback.
Do the deal in the last few days of the month. Salesman and Sales Manager are trying to make their quotas.
Edmunds has a good article of a person who went “undercover” as a used car salesman and got to know the tactics and secrets. It’s a long read but worth it if you’re planning on making such a large purchase.
I strongly second this. The internet has really shifted bargaining power in favor of the consumer, not just by making pricing information available (which is what people usually think of) but also by making it much easier to shop around. In the old days, shopping around was very time-consuming, because you had to visit each dealer and the visits took a long time, and the dealers exploited this. Now, you can shop around without leaving your house, just by emailing the dealers. I did this a couple years ago when buying a Honda (not a Fit) and was pleased with the results.
A few suggestions:
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Make it clear in your emails that you know precisely what you want, and that you are NOT interested in coming in for a test drive. You’re emailing them to negotiate a price, and if you can reach an agreement, you’ll come in to pick up the car and sign the paperwork, and if not, they’ll never see you.
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Make it clear that you want a price that includes everything except tax, title & license, which should be the same at any dealer. When they give you a price, write back to confirm that this includes absolutely everything other than TTL. One nice thing about communicating by email is that you force them to put offers in writing, so you’ve got something to fight back with if they try to add on any charges at closing. (In fact, on the few occasions I talked to a salesperson by phone, I told them that I wouldn’t consider verbal offers – if they wanted to be in the running, they had to follow up with an email stating the price.)
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I don’t know what your “area” is, but consider expanding to a fairly large geographical area. If you can get a good price and have everything locked in beforehand, it might be worth it to drive a couple hours to get what you want.
I paid slightly under Invoice for my Volvo C30- and I didn’t pay any advertising charge, either. I did negotiate over the internet, I used Edmunds to get an inital offers, then went back and forth. They really wanted to get rid of the in-stock 2008’s so they offered me a great deal.
The Honda Fits are in high demand right now (inexpensive, fuel efficient, Honda) and there’s not much wiggle room between MSRP and invoice ~$500.
If they are really that hard to come by and are selling fast (probably why your dealer only has one) the dealers know this and will sit on it till someone pays full MSRP or more for it.
The auto market as a whole is a buyer’s market*
*(with the exception of inexpensive, fuel efficient, foreign cars)
With a Honda Fit you may just be walking into a seller’s market.
I have always heard that it is a lot harder to negotiate with Honda and Toyota dealers that it is with other dealer due to the higher demand for those makes. Is that true?
Thanks,
Rob
I think so. Just for the reason you mention, supply and demand.
I can find numerous Dodge dealers around with oceans of trucks to choose from. Those guy have to find a way to move that inventory and compete with other local Dodge dealers.
Toyota and Honda dealers keep small inventories and can often get their asking price since they know # of cutomers outweigh # of available vehicles.
Not so if we’re talking Mini-vans, large trucks or large SUVs. Toyota and Honda can’t sell their gas-guzzlers either. Toyota is offering 0% apr and $3000 back on the 17 MPG Tundra, for example. Even the Camry, Corolla and Accord aren’t selling all that well.
Take a look here:
http://www.edmunds.com/incentives/RebateController?step=1&setzip=95113&tid=edmunds.n.incentivesindex.incentives.1.1.*
*2008 Toyota 4Runner cash low apr
2008 Toyota Avalon cash low apr
2009 Toyota Camry cash low apr leases
2008 Toyota Camry Solara cash low apr
2009 Toyota Corolla cash low apr leases
2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser cash low apr
2008 Toyota Highlander cash low apr leases
2009 Toyota Matrix cash low apr leases
2008 Toyota RAV4 cash low apr leases
2008 Toyota Sequoia cash low apr marketing support
2009 Toyota Sienna cash low apr leases
2009 Toyota Tacoma cash low apr leases
2008 Toyota Tacoma cash low apr marketing support
2008 Toyota Tundra cash low apr marketing support
2008 Toyota Yaris cash low apr *
and
*2008 Honda Accord low apr marketing support
2009 Honda Accord low apr leases
2009 Honda CR-V low apr leases
2008 Honda CR-V low apr
2009 Honda Civic low apr leases
2008 Honda Civic low apr
2008 Honda Element low apr marketing support
2009 Honda Odyssey low apr leases
2008 Honda Odyssey low apr marketing support
2009 Honda Pilot low apr leases
2008 Honda Ridgeline low apr marketing support *
Note the lack of any “low apr” or “cash rebates” for hybrids.
True, small cars with high MPG aren’t getting super cheap. But the Nissan Versa (similar to the FIT) has $750 cash and 0%. (Skip the Yaris, Toyota’s econobox, it’s a bad design).
Fit is rather hot. There’s not going to be a large discount, as there’s hardly any mark-up anyway, as Hampshire sez.