I definitely need a new car. Like I said my current car is a 2005 Ford Taurus that is on its last legs. I need reliable transportation to get to work. My Ford has transmission issues that I've already put 2k into fixing and that was money I threw into a pit because it's still broken. The car isn't worth enough to repair it anymore.

I absolutely won't buy a 2017 at this point. 2018 has too many safety features that make it appealing to me, I don't want to settle on a 2017 I don't want. The plan is to get a 2018 but try to knock the price down. 22k+ sounds outrageous to me though, I just need to find out what is a more reasonable price to pay.

 

Have you tried using the Costco buying program to price a '17? That will at least get you in the ballpark. If Costco can't get you a price on a '17, that means your market is unusually tight when it comes to pricing, because being part of the Costco buying program is voluntary for dealers.

FWIW, when I got my Costco quote, I also checked TrueCar. Glad I didn't go with TrueCar, because prices quoted there were much higher than the Costco quote.

 

I tried Costco but the website says "Currently, we have not located a dealership in your area that has met our strict pricing criteria for the manufacturer you selected".

 

That's life. But that's also too bad. It's harder to leverage a better deal when you are both locked into a specific and as of yet unavailable and rare commodity, and need it ASAP or immediately.

If your Ford is still running? I'd cross my fingers and see if it could at least get you through the winter. By spring 2018 inventory should be plentiful. Prices pretty established. AND...you won't have a new car you are trying to protect and drive through the winter...like I did.

But if this is NOT possible for you? Yeah, you're probably going to pay a premium for being one of the 1st, with the latest.

True Car is a tool that is suppose to show you the average price in your area a car has been selling for...
While Costco is a buying service designed to have you reach a price and an actual purchase.

 

haha u funny. well, u gotta pay to play in this case.

at 22k, id check out the new Civic HB's, especially the Sport trim with MT.

 

Luckily I live in Florida so I don't have to worry about winter. And yes it's running but barely, I've already had to have it towed out of my driveway twice in the past year because it wouldn't start. Also, while I'm driving it it sometimes likes to not be able to go to 2nd gear so I have to put on my hazards and stop, turn my car off, and turn it back on to make it work again.

 

22k was the total price with fee's and taxes, the car itself is not 22k. Civic's alone are 22k and that's just the MSRP. With taxes and fee's I can't afford that. Plus I don't want a Civic.

 

Pricing tool, yes, but TrueCar also tries to steer you into buying new and used cars as well. How do you think they make their money?

 

As I said upthread, if I was looking to buy a car I would use a broker. I hate negotiating and I'm bad at it. The $400 I would pay to them would have saved me $1100.

Alternatively, I think my car would be a deal at $25K (way over what I actually paid) I like it so much.

 

oh i c. just wanted to throw that out there cause you're in striking range of the civic hb which i thought was a better bargain. but then if you dont want the civic, i can understand. the Fit has much more versatility for daily use vs the civic hb. my wife didnt show much interest for the civic hb either. she was more interested in the HRV if from honda.

 

^Yep, what ken said. Unless you absolutely need a car....don't buy now.

And if you absolutely need a car, you can't wait for the '18s.

 

Again, yes I do need a car right now. I'm already upset that I need to wait 2 weeks until they get them in stock. I'm not going to drop thousands of dollars on a 2017 I don't want. I don't really have a choice. This is a big purchase and I'm not buying something I don't want.

 

Did you ask them to find you a 2018 Fit or a 2017 Fit? If 2018 they won't have relationships with any dealers that have them in stock because no dealers have them in stock. You will have to wait a while until the 2018s are in stock before Costco knows about them.

If 2017, you may need to call them up and ask them where the closest Fits are, possibly in another metro area.

By the way, the way the Costco program works is, they pre-negotiate a price with a dealer. You don't haggle. If the dealer has additional incentives, they may apply but the Costco price is the fixed starting price before additional incentives.

As an example, we bought our Prius V through Costco. We started with a price that was $800 below MSRP, then there was another $1500 drop that the dealer was offering on all new Prius Vs, then there was also 0% financing. We bought our 2015 late in the model year, so they were motivated to move stock off the lot.

Finally, I will say that I think this thread has exhausted most of the ideas that exist in the world for how to buy a car in the US. It's all been said above, it's really up to you to make a choice (or not) about how you want to move forward (or not).

 

My plan is to wait the 2 weeks for dealerships to get them in stock, and then check out Costco to see if its in their system yet. If not, I will just shop around and see which dealership offers me the lowest price. At the end of the day I just really want this car and if I overpay a little bit it's not the end of the world. I guess it's the price you pay when you want a car this new. Hopefully soon I'll have my new car and I'll get to show it off and post pics here.

 

I actually would go out and buy the 2017 because I wouldn't want those safety features. They seem like more of a nuisance than a benefit but that's me.

Those features would be just another cost once they break as well. My brother-in-law has an auto glass business and he said that it's more cost to replace the windshield on newer autos. Another thing is the vehicles that use cameras in the windshield, like the hondas, need to be recalibrated after the glass is installed and this is not included in his fee, it's another fee paid to Honda. What other costs will there be for the lane departure etc when they need repair?

When I bought my 2015, my CU had a program with True Car so I used that. Using that also saved me .5% on the car loan. I'm not interested in spending hours/days trying to eek out last cent of savings. My time is important to me so it's got a value associated to it.

I'd turn down any options from the dealership. You can buy it all aftermarket cheaper, even if it's OEM products. Also turn down any undercarriage coating or upholstery treatment. Not worth it. Extra warranty, not worth it to me but to some it is. Up to you but I've also heard it can be cheaper to buy it after versus at sales time.

 

I like the safety features and also the added volume knob. A couple months ago I was also having zero luck finding a 2017 in the color I wanted anywhere near me, so it was another reason to wait for the 2018's to come out.

And yeah I don't plan to buy any extras or warranty's. I'm considering a cargo tray and a rear back seat protector but everything else I want like floor mats I can just buy online.

 

Surely the $699 so-called "document fee" is negotiable. It has nothing to do with documents, it's just added profit added to the cost, for customers who won't argue. It's like charging you for the toilet paper in the salesmen's rest room, or a separate fee to cover air conditioning for the showroom. Processing documents is part of the business, and if it costs them $699 to process the paperwork for a car purchase, they're incompetent.

 

I'll for sure ask them to bring that down, as well as bringing the cars price closer to invoice (once I find out what that is, little info can be found online right now..unless someone else knows).

 

Dealers take an extremely hard line on that documentation fee, because it's really pretty much pure profit to them. They'll say it's required by the government and they can't waive it, or it's required by Honda or whatever other silly justification they can come up with. You can bet that the salesmen have had plenty of practice in fighting with customers to hold on to that money.

 

I'll see what I can do. If we don't arrive at a final cost I'm comfortable with I'm leaving. If they refuse to lower that fee they'll have to budge more on the cost of the car.