Hi all. I pre-ordered a 6MT Fit EX in Passion Berry Pearl from Advantage Honda in Manhasset, NY. I paid a $500 deposit on 4/07/2016, and was told that their order would be placed in "a couple weeks" and that I should expect delivery "roughly 6 weeks after that". So June 18th was the "delivery date" I had in my head.

So I waited, patiently. I sent about an email a month asking if we yet had a VIN number for the vehicle I ordered, and was told "Not yet" both times. The dealership did, however, try to get me to agree to financing, which I politely declined until "the car was at least inside the country".

Flash forward to 3 days ago, when my salesperson contacted me by email to say, "I hope all is well. Sorry for the late response with regards to your Fit order. I recently learned that Honda fixed its Fit allocation. This means that Honda will build a set number in certain colors and with certain transmissions. I am trying to find a way around it and I will call you when I get in on Friday with more details. "

I spoke to him by phone this morning. Apparently there are NO MT fits, of any color or any trim, coming in the allocation to NY, NJ, or CT, according to his swap manager.

So far I've asked him to widen the search nationwide, since MT is very important to my driving experience (and I'm coming from a 3-speed AT 1999 Corolla, which is kind of horrible). I've made it clear that the cost of bringing in a vehicle from another area is the responsibility of the dealership.

To be fair, they very quickly offered me a refund on my deposit, which I consider to be a last resort.

My questions are:

--How angry should I be that I wasn't informed of the "fixed allocation" 2 months ago?
--Do you think they took my pre-order in bad faith? My salesperson thinks not, that they "didn't know about this", but... how long have they been ordering Fits from Honda? They had at least 20 on the lot for the test drive I went for, all CVT, so they had to know SOMETHING about how they order them.
--What would you do?
--If they CAN find a car even sort of like my order, how far do you think this delay and misinformation will go as a negotiating tool?

Thanks in advance.

 

Oh man. I just re read my own signature and it made me sad.

 

Are you the same person who posted about this topic a while ago (asking about how long it takes to get a VIN after placing an order), or was that someone else?

 

Truthfully, I don't remember. I've had a LOT of stuff going on the last 2 months. (Getting this car was supposed to be a bright happy reward for some really hard work, too )

 

I'd call Honda Corp Customer service and ask what the date was that they quit taking orders.

Then sue the dealer if it turns out it was before they took your deposit. Find a shyster attorney that will do it for a share..

No car is worth worrying about. And if it helps,,, for the price of a brand new fit you can buy almost 2 lightly used Porsche boxters.. Or even a maybe decent 911.. Silver linings..

 

Not really reneging, they took your order thinking they could find what you wanted and offered to return your deposit when it became clear that your order couldn't be refilled. It's classic Car Sales 101: promise anything, get the deposit so the customer is locked in, then try to fill that promise. It doesn't sound like the dealer did anything particularly underhanded.

The dearth of MT Fits from Japan is only now becoming apparent. I doubt anyone knew this in advance -- except maybe the guys in Tokyo or wherever who crunch the numbers and make these kinds of decisions.

 

Yet Honda still advertises the manual transmission Fit on its website. It seems to me that advertising something you can't, won't, or have no intention of delivering is unethical at the least and fraud at the worst. Honda's not winning a lot of friends here.

 

Honda Fits are not exactly built to order. And yes, dealers are allocated a certain number of cars, and sometimes they don't have a lot of say in what they get. I don't see how the dealer is at fault in this. They tried to get you the car that you wanted, but couldn't.

 

Take the refund they are offering and go elsewhere. Dealers lie, find one that has one on site or are willing to move some from different areas