Quote:
Originally Posted by dslw2024
I played five dealers since Wednesday, determined to find the lowest price possible in the San Francisco area with no wait time.
It seemed to me that supply was up from only a few weeks ago. I think it's because a bunch of people reserved the Fit a month ago and either changed their mind or made multiple reservations and took the first one that came in.
Either way, dealers have these cars on their lot now.
Some dealers started at over MSRP, others at MSRP, but I pushed, pushed, pushed for under.
By yesterday, I narrowed it down to 3 Sport ATs at 3 dealerships. By this morning, 2 out of the 3 cars were sold to someone else, so I finally decided that MSRP really was the lowest price I could get right now.
The last dealer standing had stuck some dealer add-on called a Protection Pack as well as wheel locks, neither of which I wanted. I did want floor mats. They valued all three add-ons at approx. $500. Dealer cost, according to them, was $300 or so.
Two hours later, I had them down to $100 for all 3 and a reasonable price for the trade-in, so I took it.
Honda Sport Fit AT- $17,580
Protection Pack, Wheel Locks, Floor Mats- $100 (all installed)
+ tax, dmv, etc.
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Kudos to you. One problem I have is a smaller market: I want a Sport MT with Nav/VSA, and only in Blue Sensation or Red. That puts me in such a small market that I lose some significant bargaining power. In fact, it appears to me that there will only be a few cars in this configuration in the next few months in the whole South Bay, and I can't really wait beyond that as I will be moving (with car) to Europe in the Spring (much cheaper to buy here since my employer will pay to move the car over there). Meanwhile, the car this is meant to replace will need some major (>$2000) service in the next few months if I don't get rid of it, so I'm pretty motivated to make a deal. Still, I'm better off than where I started, since I was being quoted between $1000 and $2000 over MSRP at the reputable dealers around here when I began looking (and there are some that I won't even talk to based upon reputation).
Now, with gas prices lowering and bad economic news, I would expect softening demand. So... I may take a run at the other dealers in a week or so to see if I can find a better deal before the car I reserved comes in (end of Oct.)
BTW, one dealer told me right away when I contacted them that they were not marking up their Fits *from stock*. However, since nobody (let alone that particular dealer) I contacted has yet received the car I want, that does not do me any good.