You may have had an easier buying/negotiating experience that WAS the "steenking bonus".

Me, I got a rather annoying process where I bought, but they give free lifetime oil changes (every 5000 miles.)

 

I checked dealer inventories on the Honda site. Found the car I wanted (white auto base), sent an email. Chatted on the phone, said I didn't pay retail, got a slight discount. Told them what stuff I wanted installed on the car (all-weather mats, cargo mat). Asked for the total price. Walked to the bank, got a check. Next day they picked me up, I signed some papers (which actually took hours), gave them the check, went home.

It doesn't have to be a traumatic experience, buying a car. I'd checked on insurance rates well before picking out a specific car. I'd checked around on prices and inventory for new and used.

Hey, I bought it without even driving it. The most important components should work if it's new, like "go, stop, steer". All the reviews said it should be good. That's all I needed to know.

 

You bought a car without driving it first?

 

Yup.

Ever read car reviews? I read a lot of them. And no matter who was doing the reviewing, the Fit was a fine car. It was rated well by Consumer Reports. I checked the Fit against other cars for things like fuel economy and price and even those 0=60 times.

I don't plan on taking it on a track to test, but people who are in the auto business did. They are the ones who have a lot more knowledge than I do. They have driven more cars in a year than I probably have in my life.

So I listen to the experts. The same way I listen to the experts about crash test safety ratings, without having to crash my car myself. I read the information at the fuel pump that says "Regular" and my car takes Regular, I don't have to take a sample and run it through analysis to be sure.

How long was your test drive? A few miles? What did the test drive you took tell you about the car? The things that were most important to me were already covered in the reviews.

 

I know that a few people on ff.net didn't test drive their cars but I think it's a generally good thing to do..

Obviously, TW, you do extensive research rather quickly and get to know subjects inside and out. (As do I..)

That being said, a test drive is not really about the category, brand, or model, but more about that specific car.

I already knew I wanted a Fit before I ever test drove one, my mind was pretty much made up before I ever went to a dealer, simply based on the information available online.. (based on the fact that I wanted/needed to take advantage of the C4C deal and act quickly.. if not for that, I definitely would have put in more time comparing and contrasting) I was trying to decide between different makes and models, but I really didn't have to. It sounds like you did the same. You went into a dealership fully knowing you wanted a fit, what you wanted, and what you wanted to pay.

That being said, I do think it's important for people to test drive automobiles to make sure 1) the vehicle is right for _you_ (after all, all the glowing reviews in the world don't make an ounce of difference if you don't like the _fill-in-blank-of-any-consumer-item_ for one reason or another) and...more importantly... 2) that that SPECIFIC car is worthy of you plunking down a chunk of change for it.

In the end, after test driving fits at dealerships so that I could check them out, and my mom who I brought with me could do so also, we wound up at the dealership where we bought... we test drove two identical base fits.
For whatever reason, my mom thought the steering was off on the first one, and that it was noisier than the others we had driven. I'm not as sensitive to such things as she is, so I trust her judgement and experience. There _might_ have been something wrong with it, who knows? A new car sitting on the dealers lot doesn't necessarily mean that it's perfect or in good mechanical shape.

So, we test drove the second one, which we bought.

Our test drive(s)? Most of them were short. However, one of our test drives showed us some great features of the vehicle including the incredibly small turning radius. Infact, I have to give kudos where kudos are due -- Burns Honda in NJ is a very good dealership, while we didn't wind up buying there, their sales staff was extremely knowledgeable and well-trained, and they had a good plan for the test drive where they could show us some of the features. Had I not taken this test drive, I would have not been aware of capabilities like this small turning radius which I have already put into practice several times just a month after buying.

In the end, the car that we actually bought -- our test drive was actually rather long, and we took the car up on a major highway, and tried it under different conditions. (Probably longer than it needed to be, as we got a little lost initially.. heh.)

 

Interestingstuff:

I walked for nearly a year, as in, I had no running car. I wasn't sure if I'd fix the old one or get something else. I started looking at used 2007-2008 Fits. After sending the info to my brother, he said "you might as well buy a new one, the new ones cost less" and it was true.

So I did look for a YEAR. I read a LOT. I couldn't drive anywhere to test drive cars. I was on foot. That made looking for a car a lot different than what most people go through. I didn't have anyone to take me there.

People buy stuff all the time without checking it out first. People go to movies after hearing about it. They buy CDs when they've only heard one song. People used to buy Sears kit homes, just from a sketch and a floor plan.
Images of Sears Homes

Notice on the early ones, there are no bathrooms. "Any of the houses shown in this book can be arranged with bathroom for a small additional charge." Want plumbing? Heat? Acetylene lighting? All extra.

But the Fit comes with everything. More than what I need.

 

Mmmmh. What did the test drive tell me about the car you ask? It told me whether I liked it enough to buy it or not. To me, purchasing an automobile is an investment not to be taken lightly. Therefore, I too, researched the car before I ever set foot in the dealer's showroom. The final hurdle of deciding to purchase was the test drive.

The first Fit I test drove was an automatic. I was most interested in a silver one...until I drove it and witnessed first hand the transmission's behavior on the interstate. I do a fair amount of highway driving and use the cruise control regularly. Poor lil Fit was struggling to keep the set speed of 65 mph without frequently downshifting, which was annoying to say the least. The only automatic I have owned which came close to this characteristic was a '94 Nissan Sentra. Unacceptable driving behavior in my book.

So, I decided to try a MT and was pleasantly surprised. It was my first experience with a Honda MT and it was exhilarating! The car had no problem maintaining highway speeds with cruise control, and it behaved like a baby sports car around town. It also felt like a well built sturdy car.

Had I bought and NOT test drove the AT--I could have ended up with about 17,000 dollars worth of unhappiness.

Hey...if the shoe Fits..oh wait, one wouldn't know if they're not tried on first, would they?

Happy motoring!

 

somdamon:

I didn't have many choices. I had no one to drive me around. I had no running car. I'm disabled/in pain. And I HAD to have an automatic, because of the same problem.

For your purposes, it was probably the right thing to test drive. For my purposes, I desperately needed a good car, immediately. I have never used cruise control. I don't do much driving at all.

All I do is read and look stuff up online.

 

Hey TaffetaWhite...its all good. I didn't realize the scope of your situation. I was only replying to what you had posted...wasn't meaning to be insensitive to your disability.

Motor on!

 

I'll verify that Keenan is a Costco dealer (at least that was the dealer I was given when I was shopping for my Fit in July). They're low pressure and easy to deal with, but I found pricing lower than Costco's pricing elsewhere (though it was a super high pressure dealer), primarily because Keenan didn't have the car I wanted in stock and I would have had to pay a couple hundred extra for them to do a dealer trade...

 

Did you get your car yet? I get SO darned excited about people getting a good car. The other day when I was at the dealership waiting for my car, I got all giggly and smiley and literally clapped my hands at seeing a lady who was interested in a Honda Insight. Not just interested, but ready to take that car home. She had wanted in on the CARS deal and didn't bring her paperwork with her.

Later that same day, a couple of friends came into the dealership to check out cars. I was standing around eating potato chips, and the ladies were looking for a salesperson. I don't know WHERE the sales staff disappeared to, but there was NO ONE on the floor. Or at the info/phone booth.

So I, yes, I, went over to help them. In my grubby gray sweats. Eating chips. Told them I obviously didn't work there, but what do they need? I just can't STAND to see unhelped people when I am able to help a little bit.

I scampered over to have a salesperson paged to assist the ladies with info and test drives.

I am such a buttinski, that I called my local dealership to let them know when the CARS program was over. Just in case they hadn't heard.

Before I was disabled, I loved working, customer service, helping people find what they needed. We all used to joke in retail that there were organized mobs of people that would come in and purposely unfold all the folded sweaters, shirts, and towels, and throw the throw pillows and unfold all the rugs.

I said "How come there aren't any customers who come in and neaten up the place?"

I became that person. When I am able, I tidy up store displays. I can't work like I used to. I can't do that kind of thing for 8 hours. And nobody will hire me to do a job until my back hurts too much...which could be five minutes or a couple hours.

But I have it in my blood. To help people. To use the time I have being disabled to help other people find things, to sort of do their homework. Because I DO have the time. And I believe TIME is the most precious gift you can give.

I've been called a lot of names because i am disabled. It's not that I get a lot of money from Social Security. Around $800.00 a month. That comes out to less than $5.00 an hour, if I was to work a 40 hour week. And I still get crap for being disabled and taking "government money".

 

I also did extensive research, I waited almost 6 months before my car got here. I never test drove a FIT either. Ordered it drove 5 hours to pick it up signed the papers and drove it home. You might say I had a very long test drive home People kept asking me how I liked my car and they were disappointed that I was not raving about it. I owned my Geo Prizm for 10 years and the FIT was so different to drive, my foot and leg actually hurt by the time I got home because of the different driving position. Now I rave about my FIT. It will be a year next week, and its one of the best cars I have ever owned and I have had quite a few.

 

I have no idea what your disability is (apart from causing you unpredictable back pain), but it's quite obvious that almost any Honda dealership would benefit from hiring you; heck you could even telecommute and act as phone/online staff/support/sales.

I would think you could get a lot of recommendations from fitfreak.net folks too.

Seriously. Surely there are a number of Honda related businesses on here; won't anybody hire TW?!

 

Aw, thanks. It's OK, I like doing what I can, when I can, right here. I do some things on other sites too, often times the same type of thing, finding what they want. But it's related to interior design.

If I was ever to take a job doing what I do, I wouldn't get to do what I do anymore. Why? Because someone else would be telling me work only for them, only doing what they want, only helping certain people that were paying for a service.

Right now, if I have the energy to start a search, I can do it. And rather than selecting from only certain dealerships or products or sites, I can use them all, whatever I find.

There are already tons of people at each business set up to finalize deals, ship orders, sell cars, or other products and services. I just like pitching in and being a small part of what is going on in the world.

Realize also that as soon as I would take a job, I wouldn't be here anymore either. I wouldn't get paid to sit on FitFreak looking up stuff to help people.

ALL the people here that pitch in and help others do so because they want to, because they have some time and ability. It's people helping people. They're all doing it because they enjoy sharing their expertise with others.

This is great. It's often not just what we do for a living, or what our job is (or in my case, what my job isn't), but it's what we do in our spare time that makes a big difference.

Thanks everyone out there for making a difference here!

 

I gave Keenan a shot as well. I had already placed a deposit with another dealer, but wanted to see what I'd get with Costco pricing. Shopping multiple dealers via internet requests I was able to beat the Costco price. They did have decent prices on the installed accessories and gave you a price list (ie. if you bought 2 u get 15% off ,3 or more 20% something like that) I used that also in my bargaining with the dealer I ultimately went with.. Piazza Honda in Drexel Hill , PA.
Also found a review on the boards about Keenan https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/hond...umbs-down.html

 

I know reviews are very personal and individual. I think there may have been a whole lot of greed occurring during the CARS program. Not just dealers, but customers too.

As far as a specific dealership, it might help to contact the owner or manager of that business.

They could have had a meeting, that morning, before the person came in who wanted Costco pricing, and decided not to allow it.

Why might they have had that meeting??? Look at the dates:
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/general-fit-talk/47241-heads-up-cars-program-end-aug-24th-forclunkers.html#post729725

That's right, it was announced late August 20th (Thursday night) that the CARS program was ending the following Monday.

And the review was posted August 21st, having had a bad day that day, with having called the night before, August 20th...possibly before the announcement of the program being shut down?

Even if it was after the announcement that the program would be shut down, the dealer may have wanted to squeeze out the last few dollars they could, on their last day they were going to participate.

That might not be so bad, if you think about their perspective. They won't have a lot of cars to sell (after CARS is over) and won't have a lot of buyers for what is left. Folks that could get in on the CARS deal, did.

There are now a few cars trickling in to the dealerships. Last time I was at the local dealership, they finally got ONE Fit. And a couple of Insights.

So, it's not really as simple as it seems. It's important to look at all sides of a situation, all points of view, to decide if there is "wrong action". If you were the commission sales person who had to live off the bountiful CARS paychecks...while getting little to nothing for the next three-four months, you might want those extra few dollars to get by on too.

 

Yup, signed all the paperwork yesterday at the Lehigh Valley Honda and now I'm waiting for that special phonecall to tell me when I can pick up my 2009 Blackberry Pearl Fit Sport. The dealership was basically empty, same as when I went to test drive the Fit 2 weeks ago. I was in and out in about an hour and half and everything went very smoothly. I'm glad I did my research as far as pricing, so there were no surprises or anything like that.

Of course, the whole waiting part really sucks.

 

Yay! Congratulations! They're going to do the dealer trade for you?

 

If you have the patience, at the end of the month dealers/salespeople are trying to make quota, and you are likely to be able to get the best prices. As others have suggested, try to do the deal on a weekday, rather than on the weekend.

That said, it's a crap shoot as to how many unsold 2009 Fits are still in the pipeline, and what will be available when the 2010 models start arriving -- with the CARS stimulus, there may be little need to clear out existing Fit inventory. You should pay no more than invoice + delivery (plus local taxes, etc., which vary state to state), but you may be able to do better at the end of September or October, if you find a dealer who really does need to clear out 2009 inventory to make room for the new models.

I did an internet purchase with Martin Honda in Newark, DE at the end of July. They also have a dealership in Ardmore, PA. I was impressed both by my phone calls and e-mails with my sales guy (Michael Libetti), as well as with the actual sale process. No "I have to check with my manager" crap, no attempts to upsell me with useless crap like paint protectant, door guards, and pinstripes, and no surprises on the sales document. Normally, I would rather undergo a root canal than buy a car, but I would buy again from Martin Honda.

 

After hearing that the 2010 Fit would be unchanged from the 2009 we opted for the 2009. Bought it right off the showroom floor, a Taffetta white Sport. Our dealer had only three to choose from at the time and was not expecting any Sport models any time soon. So far I really enjoy the Fit!