Advice on buying from dealer

Hey all..I wanted some advice on getting the best deal.

I test drove a 2018 with 10K mileage however they wanted 23K not including tax and were non negotiable so I figured I can probably land a brand new 2019 for similar. Absolutely the car and it’s what I want.

I’m going to look at one today and wanted to some tips or advice on getting The best deal. It’s listed at 25.7 msrp. What is a realistic price I can get it at considering the 2020s will be coming soon?

Brother... I got a 2018 new in November 2017 for less than that. Run... don't walk... away from that deal.

I do think we have a few decent threads on car buying already. I'd search so we don't have to rehash the same-old same-old.

Best advice without getting in the weeds... know what the car you're trying to buy is worth and don't pay more than what it's worth. That deal is highway robbery.

yanks101 said:

Hey all..I wanted some advice on getting the best deal.

I test drove a 2018 with 10K mileage however they wanted 23K not including tax and were non negotiable so I figured I can probably land a brand new 2019 for similar. Absolutely the car and it’s what I want.

I’m going to look at one today and wanted to some tips or advice on getting The best deal. It’s listed at 25.7 msrp. What is a realistic price I can get it at considering the 2020s will be coming soon?

Click to expand...

My advice is to email as many dealers in your area as possible. Let them know you are looking to buy an Si and that you are contacting dealers looking for their best price. They'll likely contact you asking you to come in for a test drive. Let them know that you've already driven one and at this point are just looking for pricing. Then, once you have a good price or two, even if it's from a dealer an hour away, take that to a local dealer or two and tell them that you'd like to buy from them, but they need to be able to match or get close to the dealer w/ the best price.

charleswrivers said:

Brother... I got a 2018 new in November 2017 for less than that. Run... don't walk... away from that deal.

I do think we have a few decent threads on car buying already. I'd search so we don't have to rehash the same-old same-old.

Best advice without getting in the weeds... know what the car you're trying to buy is worth and don't pay more than what it's worth. That deal is highway robbery.

Click to expand...

Are you referring to the brand new 2019 25K or the 2018 price? I ran from the 2018

My mistake the 2019 is 25.2 not 25.7

yanks101 said:

Are you referring to the brand new 2019 25K or the 2018 price? I ran from the 2018

My mistake the 2019 is 25.4 not 25.7

Click to expand...

I was referring to the 2018 w/10k miles.

Those prices your throwing out are at/near MSRP... assuming that pre-tax/destination... which is what you were referring to earlier. You should be paying substantially less than that. This is a pretty easy car to get for at or under invoice. If this dealer won't play ball... take your business elsewhere.

There's nothing special about 2020's, despite a few new things that make it have a price-premium. If anything, you should be getting an extra grand or so off any 2019 once the 2020s are on the lot... and that's still based on invoice pricing on a 2020. All the 2019s have depreciated a model year's worth of value... even if they're still 'new' sitting on the lot. You can prove this by taking a 2017 and a 2018 Si... giving them the same 10k of miles worth of mileage depreciation and setting up the scenario that, in early 2018... you had a choice to buy a 2018 or a left over 2017 Si. Same car. The 2017 will be worth about $1000 less... even if they were both new to you at the time... with just a few miles on the odometer at the time of purchase. Just look up their values and see.

Go read through the pricing threads that already exist. They're hundreds of posts long and have a lot of data. Car buying hasn't changed... and the only real difference is that invoice/MSRP might have nudge by a couple hundred bucks between model years.

My advice would be-- if you are having to ask, you should take someone with you that is much more familiar with car buying to help you.

If you don't know 101% what you are doing when buying a car, then the Dealer WILL take advantage of you and laugh all the way to the bank.

The sales person has a whole team of intimidating staff behind them... if you are there with someone who really knows what they are doing, you better the odds in your favor enormously.

Don't think your Dealer is your Friend - they are there to get the best deal for the Dealership, no matter how much "Friendly BS" they shower on you.

Educate yourself, know the math. Anyone who walks into a dealer not knowing the math (price, taxes, interest rates, etc) is doomed. If you know your credit you can find out what rates you qualify for before going in. You can calculate and get pretty close to a monthly payment. Once you have an idea you'll know how to defend yourself. Never tell them what you know.
When I got my R we were off by $2. My girlfriends WRX about the same. They knew we were prepared and it saved a lot of headaches.

I used true car and car gurus to find the lowest prices in the country. I emailed those dealers for an itemized out the door price. I took that email to my local dealer and eventually they helped me out. It’s a process but don’t rush into anything.

Aim for the 19!!!! If they tell you its non negotiable tell that salesman to kick rocks & find yourself a better salesman. I personally got a lease because everything goes for the car i plan on buying so im not worried about miles. Do your research on the car aim for invoice price. Do not let the salesman walk over you on the sale.

How many dealers are near you? In my case there were more dealerships selling Hondas in Northern Utah than I could count on one hand. However, none of them had what I wanted. A Civic Hatchback Sport in Manual. I had to go to Southern Utah to find one (which was 4.5 hours away), I was heading down there to visit family one weekend, so I figured I would hit up the dealership for a test drive. Loved the car after the test drive, but they didn't want to deal, they acted like I was twisting their balls every time I tried to negotiate, so I walked out.

Called up a dealer in Nampa ID which also had one and they seemed like they wanted to get rid of because they were very easy to work with on getting me a price $1500 lower than the dealer in Southern Utah was willing to go, just over the phone. They even held it for me for a $500 deposit since I wasn't going to be able to make it down until that weekend, which is something the dealership in Southern Utah absolutely would not do (I called them later to see if they would match or beat the price of the ID dealer, which they would not). How far are you willing to travel to get the price you want to pay? Just keeping calling dealerships until you get one that will work on getting you to the price you are able or willing to pay.

Perhaps another thing that worked in my favor was that I was trying to buy a model that isn't very popular and some dealerships were having harder times selling Hatchbacks in a manual. Because I could only find 2 within reasonable driving distance (4-5 hours). So maybe start looking into a model that has been on the lot longer than the others and they might be more willing to deal. Unless of course you are stuck on a certain trim then your best bet is to call multiple dealerships and let them fight each other to win you over, because no matter what kind of good deal you think you are getting, they are still making a good chunk of money off of you.

I bought my 18 as a leftover from Davis in Burlington NJ. At the time, they had several 18 coupes (black). It looks like they purchased and titled them for pre-owned inventory.

You can likely grab one for about $20k

https://www.davishonda.net/vehicle-details/used-2018-honda-civic-si-coupe-2HGFC3A58JH754629

Please, if by chance anyone inquires, let me know as I would receive a referral!

Good luck!

yanks101 said:

Are you referring to the brand new 2019 25K or the 2018 price? I ran from the 2018

My mistake the 2019 is 25.2 not 25.7

Click to expand...

All the other commenters are on target, I would just add that in NJ you have a LOT of potential dealer options within a 1-2 hour radius, depending on which part of the state you're in. I'm in North/Central NJ, and there are at least 15 potential dealers for me to choose from, depending on how far I'm willing to travel. And the nice thing about the Si is that there are zero options / trim levels -- except for color and sedan/coupe, an Si is an Si is an Si. So you can search inventory anywhere; use Cargurus to find which dealers have the Si's your're looking for. But I'll concur with the writer who said 23K for a used Si is flat-out robbery. At 25.2 sticker you should be shooting for 23-24K on a new 2019.

yanks101 said:

I test drove a 2018 with 10K mileage however they wanted 23K not including tax

Click to expand...

LOL mine was less when it was new... And many others on here.

SCOPESYS said:

My advice would be-- if you are having to ask, you should take someone with you that is much more familiar with car buying to help you.

If you don't know 101% what you are doing when buying a car, then the Dealer WILL take advantage of you and laugh all the way to the bank.

The sales person has a whole team of intimidating staff behind them... if you are there with someone who really knows what they are doing, you better the odds in your favor enormously.

Don't think your Dealer is your Friend - they are there to get the best deal for the Dealership, no matter how much "Friendly BS" they shower on you.

Click to expand...

Very very true!!!

Check with every dealer within a couple hundred miles of you, Tell him exactly what you want Tell him you're a serious buyer ready to buy ASAP only deal out the door OTD. that means everything included tax title license they way they can't have any BS charges at the end that way you can compare apples to apples Don't accept phone calls I usually give him my phone number with a different couple different number so they can't call only deal by email and go by out the door price and get your own financing