Questions About First Time Purchasing - Houston, Tx

Hello! I’ve decided that my first car that I am going to purchase for myself will be a 19 Civic Si Coupe, but I have a couple of questions regarding the purchase (specifically in the Houston area) that I was hoping to have answered.

First is regarding TTL. From what I can tell, taxes will be 6.25% of the purchase price, and the title and license will be about $125-$200. Is that accurate? There doesn’t seem to be anywhere online that has definitive answers to what it will be for a specific area, so if someone can confirm that for my area I would appreciate it.

Given the previous prices, is asking for a OTD price of $25,000 reasonable? I’ve looked through the “how much did you purchase your si for” thread and it seemed that some people were getting around this, but I wasn’t sure how accurate that is for my area.

Regarding down payment and financing, I see some places that offer “$0 down payment*” and then “*+TTL” in the fine print. This seems to indicate to me that TTL is required outside of financing, however from what I have read elsewhere you can technically finance the TTL as well.

Assuming I get a $25,000 OTD price, how much should I expect to be spending before I walk out of the dealership with the car? If I’m aiming for a 10% down payment, would I really spend exactly $2,500? If I got financed out side of the dealership for a full $25,000 would I actually spend $0 at the dealership?

Thanks for any answers you might be able to provide! I’m looking to make the purchase in the next month or two and I want to be prepared for it, I have heard plenty of horror stories when it comes to car dealership salesmen and unexpected costs.

I recently had my first experience buying a car (2019 Hatchback LX) in Texas. I did everything through emails.
Although I don't live in Houston, I did seek quotes from Honda dealers there. Also, I paid for the car in cash, so I can't speak to financing.
My recommendation is to email dealers in the Houston area (Spring, Tomball, etc., etc.), Austin, San Antonio, the Valley and Dallas and ask each for an itemized breakdown of the OTD cost. For the couple that refused to give me an OTD price over email, I just didn't bother with them.
I wouldn't be too concerned with TTL and doc fees. They're going to vary from dealer to dealer. What you want to get is the lowest OTD price possible.
Once you get your initial OTD prices, make a counteroffer. In my case, I countered with the invoice price. And from there, it's just a matter of seeing which dealer ends up giving you the lowest OTD price.
If the lowest OTD price is from an out-of-town dealer, ask the ones in the Houston area to match or beat it. At least one or two in your area should offer to match it (in fact, I think a couple of dealers in Houston even advertise that they will match a price).
I ended up getting an OTD price for the Hatchback that was about $1,000 below the MSRP. So you may be able to get an OTD of around $24,000 for the Si?

El Greco said:

I recently had my first experience buying a car (2019 Hatchback LX) in Texas. I did everything through emails.
Although I don't live in Houston, I did seek quotes from Honda dealers there. Also, I paid for the car in cash, so I can't speak to financing.
My recommendation is to email dealers in the Houston area (Spring, Tomball, etc., etc.), Austin, San Antonio, the Valley and Dallas and ask each for an itemized breakdown of the OTD cost. For the couple that refused to give me an OTD price over email, I just didn't bother with them.
I wouldn't be too concerned with TTL and doc fees. They're going to vary from dealer to dealer. What you want to get is the lowest OTD price possible.
Once you get your initial OTD prices, make a counteroffer. In my case, I countered with the invoice price. And from there, it's just a matter of seeing which dealer ends up giving you the lowest OTD price.
If the lowest OTD price is from an out-of-town dealer, ask the ones in the Houston area to match or beat it. At least one or two in your area should offer to match it (in fact, I think a couple of dealers in Houston even advertise that they will match a price).
I ended up getting an OTD price for the Hatchback that was about $1,000 below the MSRP. So you may be able to get an OTD of around $24,000 for the Si?

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I appreciate the response! I’ve seen recommendations online to email like you stated, and then I’ve seen recommendations to not do that, so seeing that it worked for you is great to know