Honda of Seattle (Downtown Seattle) - Is this a bait & switch tactic?

[stellablue19]

Last Saturday, my husband and I decided to go look at and test drive the Fit. Our first stop was Honda of Seattle because it is close to home and according to their web site, they had a few '08 Fits in their inventory including a Storm Silver AT Base model which is what we wanted.

We meandered around the lot on our own and didn't see any Fits. We were then approached by a salesperson who told us that they don't have any Fits in their inventory. He proceeded to desperately try to talk us into a Civic. We were very clear in our preference for a Fit based on 1)fuel efficiency 2)cargo space 3)versatility 4)price. Still, he tried to push us into a Civic. Even a Civic coupe (2-door).

He introduced us to his sales manager and the two of them tried to talk us into pre-ordering (for a $1,500 deposit) a 2009 Fit even though they couldn't tell us anything about its price or ETA. They made it sound like there were no 2008s on earth and we would miss our chance for a 2009 unless we put down a deposit and got on their waiting list.

They also told us that other dealers were adding on between $2,000 and $4,000 over MSRP, and they they only charge MSRP - No added "Adjusted Market Value".

We declined getting on the 2009 waiting list and they offered to look up the inventory for other Honda dealers in the area so that we could go to another dealership. (Is that weird?)

They came out and told us that Hinshaw's in Auburn had 2, and Renton Honda had 5. They said there were NONE up north.

We left there and headed down south to check out Hinshaw's and Renton. We found that Hinshaw's did add a second sticker Adjusted Market Value of $3,999. They ended up having maybe 5 Fits on the lot. We test drove at Hinshaw's knowing that we were also going to check out Renton Honda because I had called them on the way there and they told us they had about 20 Fits on the lot.

At Renton Honda, they did have about 13 on hand, and their Adjusted Market Value above the MSRP was $1,899.00.

Both Hinshaw's and Renton didn't believe Honda of Seattle's claim that they only charged MSRP. They pointed out that of course they could say that, but were they selling any fits? No - because they didn't have any.

Honda of Seattle has left me about four or five desperate voicemails in the past week asking if I had any more questions, if anything else other than a Fit looked interesting on their web site, what the "next steps" were in pre-ordering an '09 and how we wanted to proceed, and most recently today telling me that they still didn't have any '08 fits and that they are starting to get information about '09 pricing on some models, but not the Fit.

If they don't have any Fits, can't get any '08 Fits, don't have any solid info about '09 Fits and they sent us off to other dealers that DID have '08 Fits, why are they still calling me trying to sway me to committing to them?

(By the way, we ended up purchasing one from Renton Honda and were very happy with the transaction.)

[kylerwho]

the guys at honda of seattle are definately a little sketchy. They tried to get me to come in and put a down payment on a fit they didnt even have. I got mine from burien honda and they were a great help. Congrats on the new car.

[Flyin172s]

That's one thing I don't understand about dealerships. My friend worked at a BMW dealer and their policy for phone calls was say yes. If they ask if something is in stock the answer was, 'yes'. Then if they didn't have it, after the person got there, they'd try to get them into something else. It's classic bait and switch, and so many dealers do it.
Irvine Honda says they have every 08 Fit in every color... I've been there they have a BOM base, NHBP sport, and one more.

The trick is to do what you did and find a dealer that you feel comfortable with, so you get a car you're happy with.

[mekaniak]

What they probably said is that they have all colors available. You see it in ads dealerships run. They have X amount available. None will be on the lot, but they can do a dealer-trade for it. i.e. "We have over 150 civics available." There will be 4 on the lot and 145 civics at surrounding dealerships. Its all about getting a deposit for the car. And there are some dealerships that are not allowed to charge over the MSRP do to their own company policy. Mine being one of them.