Ironically I wish the frigging American companies would make Coupe versions of their Full Size 4-door Sedans. A Sporty 2-door Coupe version of the Malibu, CTS, or Fusion. For some reason it works for the Camry, Accord and BMW 3-series yet I’m forced to choose between a grocery getter or a econobox.
If I’m not buying American in the next couple years when I replace my current car this will be why.
You know you’re going to get a Fit, the dealer doesn’t know that. Just because there’s only one Honda dealer with the car you want doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate. You need to appear to be tossing up between a Fit from his dealership and some other type of car. He’s not competing with other Honda dealers, he’s competing with every dealer and manufacturer within driving distance, or at least he needs to believe he is.
I’d love to see a two-door Fusion, but you and I don’t provide enough of a market for one or most two-doors. They’re niche cars. The BMW justifies it due to its cachet; the Camry and Accord probably lose money (bear with me) in the engineering and manufacturing, but recoup it in good will and in attracting people to their brands. For GM and Ford, in the end it comes down to manufacturing cost versus demand. Despite appearances, they are substantially different (me = body structures guy).
The CTS and the MKZ are no mere grocery-getters, and despite being four doors, are both pretty hot looking cars.
The Fiesta won’t be an econobox (unless you order it that way). A Lincoln is my current daily driver, and I’m not willing to compromise on any of the creature comforts. (Part of the reason the Aveo is poorly received: you can’t even specify higher-end options!).
The CTS should be available in coupe form by 2010
http://www.motortrend.com/future/concept_cars/112_0801_cadillac_cts_coupe_concept/index.html
Also the 2 door version of the Malibu is called the Pontiac G6 Coupe 
So, OP, what was the end result?
I haven’t bought one yet, but all dealers I contacted came back with the same price, i.e. MSRP + destination charge + TTL.
Thanks,
Rob
If you’re really ready to buy, going into a showroom with a checkbook and a definite “out the door” number will probably make a big difference. It’s easy to fire off e-mails.
Here’s how it’s gone down the last few times for me. Go into a dealership, meet a salesman, find the car you’ve researched and want to buy. Tell the salesman you’re ready to buy, and then make an out the door offer. Something like the invoice price that you’ve already researched online (including optional equipment costs) plus two or three hundred dollars. Know this number before going into the dealer.
The salesman will probably go through the act of going to check with his manager, he’ll be gone for 5 minutes or so to let you “sweat.” Then he’ll come back and say there’s no way they can do that, how about [MSRP + $TTL] or something. Say, no, that’s not quite good enough, you really wanted to spend $xxxxx. He’ll go off again and maybe even come back with the manager and a story on how much they paid for the car (which may or may not be the whole truth, they get dealer incentives and things like that.) Plan on them maybe getting within a few hundred of your out the door number. If not, say “No thank you” and continue looking elsewhere. They may make another offer, they may let you leave and call you later, or that may really be it. But you’ll know you held out for the best deal you could. Bottom line they will not agree to a price that loses them money, so don’t feel bad offering a low number.
Don’t let them add on any processing fees or extra services. Be firm.
This is rather outdated. Now, in todays market, a dealership will happily let go of a slow selling vehicle, even if it causes a loss on that sale. If I wanted a gas guzzling truck or SUV, I’d cheerfully offer them $5000 under MSRP and even thousands under invoice.
In fact, they sold my Volvo C30 to me at below invoice (which with other incentives doesn’t nessesarily mean a loss, but it was a 2008 just before the 2009’s arrived)
And, in the case of a Honda Fit (and a couple other cars- Prius, etc) there is such a high demand that the price the Op was offered is likely the best he can get.
Of course you can negotiate, and as long as you’re willing to pay a fair price in which the dealer makes a fair profit, it should be extremely simple.
Find out what the dealers are paying for the car you want. If you want a very accurate number, I highly suggest paying the $12 or so to Consumer Reports to get the real, bottom line price, after dealer incentives/holdbacks/whatever.
Then, add in a fair profit for the dealer. According to CR, that’s about 4 to 8 percent of the bottom line price the dealer paid.
Go in knowing exactly what you want, and exactly the amount you want to pay. Bottom line price plus fair profit. Tell them that is what you’ll pay, and if they say no, thank them for their time and go find a dealer who’s willing to sell you the vehicle for that price. As long as you’re making a reasonable offer, they shouldn’t be turning you down, and you shouldn’t have to bluff or act like you’re going to leave to get them to agree to a fair price.
It shouldn’t be so much a negotiation or a game as a straightforward exchange. If you’re educated about the price you should pay, the price they should give you for any applicable trade-in, and the rate you should get on financing, it should be a very simple process. That’s exactly how it went for me, and I’m very happy with what I paid.
You can find a lot of helpful advice at the Consumer Reports website here. I followed their guide when I bought my car, and I feel like I got a much better deal than I otherwise would have.
I said the same thing above. It’s how I bought my last Civic. They tried to play the “we don’t negotiate game” until I showed up in person and wasted my time doing things the old fashioned way. I absolutely loved the car, price, and everything except for the dealership experience.
In the end, yeah, I got the car I wanted, but I’ll never buy a new Honda again (and it was my second). There are additional (personal) reasons I don’t plan to buy any Honda again, but I know for a fact, I will never, ever buy a brand new Honda from a dealership again.
Why shoud you pay them a “fair profit” when most dealers on most cars today are dying to sell you a car at a fairly stiff loss? :eek:
And $1600 profit on a $20000 car? :dubious:Even in the good old days, that’s high. Many dudes right here have walked out with $500 over invoice. I walked out with around $500 under invoice.
Invoice doesn’t reflect profit or loss. Unless they’re trying to get rid of a vehicle, there’s no way it will leave at a loss, despite what the invoice says.
Again it really depends on the vehicle. If you paid $500 under invoice on a Dodge V8 heavy-duty pickup I’d say you got ripped off and could have done better.
If you paid $500 under invoce for a Honda Fit I’d say you got the deal of the year.
In the Edmunds message board forums you can read what people have posted regarding purchase price/experience. I’ve found that Edmunds has for free a lot (but not all) of the same info you pay for with Consumer Reports.
I also found this site useful (AutoBrag).
But they are currently “trying to get rid of” lots of their inventory.
Right, on large PU or SUV you can get deals of $10000 off MSRP.:eek:
And I did pretty much the same thing in December of last year with my '08 Lincoln MKZ.
I see your point, but you’ve got to want a sleeper. Not all cars are sleepers, and despite the downturn, there are still certain cars that are always sold at sticker. Period. So we call someone a chump if they pay sticker for that car, but they’re chumps because they absolutely had to have that car and nothing else, rather than being chumps for lack of negotiating abilities. All I’m saying is, you can’t expect to always get under invoice for just any car.
True, and the Honda Fit, which the Op wants is one of those. It also has a tiny mark-up or profit margin anyway. It’s far less than the 8% mentioned upthread, being around $500 iirc. It’s about the only current mass-market car with no significant discount being offered, due to the tiny mark-up and high demand. The Prius now has a small discount being offered but when gas was highest just a few months ago, you’d have to pay extra over MSRP to get one fast.
Even other high MPG econoboxes are being offered at a decent discount, althought likely not under invoice.
Pretty much every other non-hybrid non-econobox mass-market car is currently a “sleeper”, in this weird market of today.
Admittedly, todays market is an anomoly and some of the advice being given here is good in normal circumstances. Todays circumstances ain’t normal.