First time Dealership tips?

87elco said:

Also never buy the first time you come in there...they always will offer you a better deal when they call you especially if you are going to another dealer or competing brand

Click to expand...

OldSkool said:

I just picked up my vehicle on Friday, and can share my experience, which was totally different than the traditional walk-into-a-dealership-to-negotiate (which I will never do again).

You can get the "dealer invoice price" (supposedly, the price they pay for the vehicle, for free at carcostcanada[.com] (account creation is free, and you get 3 vehicle builds... Be warned, when you spec out the vehicle, they send your contact info to one of their partnered local dealership reps (who is willing to only take 3% above the dealer invoice price) who *will* call you. You can choose not to answer/go with them (let it go to voicemail).

But at the very least, you're armed with how much they should be making between invoice price and MSRP (typically $2000-5000). They also give you access to other members who reviewed dealerships and note how much of a discount they got at those discounts, to give you an idea of how much a dealership has historically cut from MSRP. Useful info for sure, to see if dealerships focus on low margins and high volume or not...

That said....



I just did this as well. Except I never spoke to anyone to negotiate. I just went to honda.ca and picked out all the dealerships within a 20km radius (or wherever I was willing to drive to) and got their sales contact email addresses... then created a new/anonymous email (optional) and picked a price I wanted to pay (I chose roughly 2.5%, or about $700 above dealer invoice price -- anecdotally, I copy/pasted the wrong value and ended up accidentally asking for the 3% value (+$800) lol, oh well).

So I disclosed:

• that I had a carcostcanada report, and stated the known dealer invoice price
• the price I was willing to pay (you can try not putting any price, and see what happens, but stating a price gives them a ballpark on what to work with). Since you can always get a dealer around you willing to go for the 3% above invoice price via carcostcanada
• the financing rate I was going for, knowing the existing promo and the biweekly payment amounts
• the few dealer-installed options I wanted (and how much each was)
• that I knew the fees that were unavoidable (freight, air, tire, PPSA), however, I wasn't willing to pay exorbitant 'administrative fees' (documentation fees, "admin fees", etc)

Note: the only additional fees on the quote (the only dollar values I didn't already state) were exactly what I stated, with the exception of wheel locks. blah
So you know...

• Ontario Tire Stewardship - $30
• Air Conditioning Tax - $100
• Freight & ADV Civic/ CR-Z - $1655
• OMVIC Fee - $10
• Wheel Locks - $85

Then I told them I had to make a decision within a few days, so I would contact whoever provided me with the best QUOTE.

The idea is that this is a no-nonsense way of getting a sales guy to put in one offer. And technically, you can pit them against each other if you get multiple favourable offers quick enough. (One guy was willing to match the price, and give a decent discount off the corrosion package)

Out of the 12 dealerships I contacted, 8 replied.
- 4 said, call and we'll talk. Pass
- 3 said they would settle with the price I requested (did not provide a quote though)
- 1 guy (and actually the first to respond), didn't even put any words into the email, just sent a quote (lol). He beat my price, and was just over 2% above the dealer invoice price (roughly $600 above dealer invoice).

This all happened within 3 days (including over new years, as I was trying to lock in the december promo (financing rate), not knowing there was a better promo (financing rate) in January. This guy obviously wanted the extra number for his december totals for very little work.

We got enough paperwork done to seal the deal on Dec 31, and I picked up the car last Friday. Best experience ever.

Infact, the January promo was better than the December promo, so I asked if I could get that (after the fact) and they said yes. Woohoo, $500 more back in my pocket! (or $5 more each payment lol)

This was all inspired by an RFD post I read just before. (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post other forum links, I need to check that first...)

Good luck!

Oh, also... The only issue I have with two points of japan617's post....



I would put your trade in as part of the deal. The point is to put out their best offer in one shot. Trade-ins do make the negotiations more complicated because that's two departments, but still worth asking. Infact, in your initial request, you can state two prices you are looking for, the one with trade in and the one without.


I don't think you really have power to negotiate the financing conditions, it was all very 'pre-printed'. And these end up going to HCFI (Honda Canada Finance Inc), and are not dealt with the local dealership anyway. They do the entire interest payment over the timeframe in question. Yes, you can pay it off early, but the interest is calculated in there. At 1.5% (the Jan promo rate), it's a pretty good deal. (though OP wasn't going to finance anyway)

Lastly, they didn't try and upsell me at all when I got to the dealership.. I expected window etching (is that still a thing? ), floor mats, tinting, etc.. but they didn't offer a thing, likely because I stated exactly what I wanted. I will say I picked up custom-fitted "3d floormats") from findway[.ca] for $100 (+shipping since your'e in BC). They fit perfectly! check their site out for the video of their product. Lots of recommendations from RFD.

Click to expand...