I was trying to find a local dealership to order my Fit from and all the Honda dealerships up here in Dallas try to make you pay an extra $500 for crappy pinstriping, scotchguarded interior, and some other worthless sh** (sorry just gets on my nerves). I try telling them I don't want all the extra stuff, and they tell me they are required to do it on all the vehicles they sell, and cannot sell me the vehicle without it added.

Now if this is not a load of B.S. I don't know what is. Anyway, good news is, I found a dealership in San Anontio that will order me my fit without the pinstriping and other meaningless markups. Yeah!!!

I'm just wondering if anyone elses dealership gave them this B.S. story.

I figured other future fit or Honda owners would like to know they do have a choice. Shop around and be careful.

***END RANT***

 

There is no MANDATORY anything.. they can sell you just the car.. no options nothing. Just like I got mine.. bone stock not even floor mats

 

most of the dealerships will try to get more money from the msrp price bro thatswhy they give u that BS.....

 

The add ons are marked WAY up! Move on to San Antonio and enjoy the drive home!

 

I ended up with pinstriping since it was already on the car - so the choice was to drive the one I wanted off the lot that day or wait a few months to save the few hundred bucks....

"i want it NOW" got the better of me ;p

 

I ordered a BOM manual last week, with a few of the extra add ons which the dealer will have to install, but my salesman actually tried to talk me out of upgrading. I can't say I've ever had a salesman try to downgrade a purchase. Go figure.

 

maybe it's because he wasnt making any money on the parts...

some dealerships dont pay sales commission on parts, so they dont really care, and kick the add ons.

or if he is getting paid on parts profit, there simply isnt any profit to be made to worth the time and effort to him to write the stuff up to put it through parts and service.

last reason. the stuff you wanted was just stupid and completely useless, he was being a good guy and telling you to save your money.

 

no floor mats is because fit dont come with them.

there indeed isnt mandatory anything, however, when you buy a car in stock, and if there is dealer add on added that cant be removed (such as scotchguard, paint guard, etc) the dealership will either give it to you for free, or charge you for it.

take a guess at what a business looking to profit will do??

unless there is profit else where to cover the cost of what is already added, dont expect them to give you anything for free. no one likes anybody that much, espeically a business.

 

Thought pin stripes went out of fashion with whitewall tyres.

 

When I sat down with my dealer to talk about the cost and options, he said there's a mandatory Dealer Package. I said, "Take it off". He said it's mandatory.. I said, "Ok, then I will go elsewhere, thank you." then stood up. I have no patience for dealers that tries to sell you BS and I don't have any problem standing up and going elsewhere. The guy said, hold on, let me see if I can get that for you at no extra charge. Then walked away for about 5 minutes, then returning to tell me his manager approved it for free.

 

OUCH! well I wanted the 16" wheels on the sport instead of the 15" that come on it. Hey, I like the look of them and to each his own. He did explain the fact that I'll have to pay for new tires, but did suggest I sell the 15's that come off it since I'm paying for them too. I figure I'll have no trouble selling them.

 

Pin stripes? On a Fit?

Man, I love school hot rods. Love primer, Von Dutch pinstriping (Ken Howard was a genius!), and whitewalls. But on vintage iron.

Maybe if Dutch or Ed Roth were alive today, they could pull it off. But that's it.

 

Did you go to Honda Cars of McKinney? They are the worst when it comes to this crap.

I did not have a similar experience with any other dealers though. I talked with David McDavid of Frisco and they did not require any of that junk. I ended up buying through Lute Riley in Richardson and there were no markups. They actually put on the pinstriping but I did not get charged for it since I didn't ask for it. There's no reason to go to San Antonio, try a different dealer up here.

 

This is the 'American Way' dealers work. Once they get a new car dealership, and a hot car, they can charge anything they want above (or below) MSRP. They are protected by laws that make their retail pricing totally independent from the mfg. The mfg's are helpless in keeping the retail prices up or down on hot cars. The mfg's can play with allocation numbers a bit, but they must be carefull that they don't create a situation where a dealer could sue them for hurting the dealer's business.

This is the old story of free-enterprise price and demand (or demand pricing), sort of like an informal auction driving the price up. With the long lead times to create capacity, and global demands and competitive pressures, we will see more of the dealers taking advantage of extra profits on hot cars, just as they take a bath on slow moving American iron creating heavy floor plan finance charges.

 

David McDavid in Frisco Texas sold me a Fit Sport automatic with no dealer add ons. I paid MSRP, and gave them a $500 deposit on May first. When I picked up the car on Memorial day, the finance guy tried to sell me an extended warrantee, which I turned down. He even tried to sell me a security system. The car comes standard with a security system. I declined both with no problems.

 

That's funny, because David McDavid of Frisco was the dealership telling me the pin striping was put on all their cars whether you like it or not, as well as the Honda Dealership in Denison. We walked into Lute Riley, but it seemed every salesperson was busy, so we moved on to the next dealership.
We even talked with the sales manager at David McDavid in Frisco and he couldn't even match what San Antonio was offering. He said he could get it sooner (whether or not that's true is still TBD), but not at the same price. I told him I was willing to wait for San Antonio.
Plus, Gunn Honda in San Antonio only wanted a $250 deposit, whereas every dealership up here wanted $500. Just little things like that, other dealerships seemed to snub their nose at. Did I mention the sales manager at David McDavid called me back, and talked to us like he had never even met us. He had completely forgotten that we were just in the day prior talking to him about the Fit. What a moron...not very good customer service.
I could have given Lute Riley another chance, since I did buy my 94 prelude from them and had a good buying experience. I just wanted to go ahead and get the car on order, since S.A. was already giving me a good deal.

Oh, I did go to Honda Cars of McKinney too. I wasn't too fond of the salesguy I had. He couldn't speak English very well, plus he knew nothing really about the Fit. They did have two on their lot, but they were both base autos.

 

Yeah, forgot to mention...when the sales manager at David McDavid came back with a higher price than San Antonio, it turns out the difference was exactly $500. What a coincidence...that's the same price they quoted me for the pin striping, scotchguard, and the other crap I didn't want. They were still trying to throw it in, but trying to skate around it by not mentioning it to us. Not good in my book!

That's alright, I can't wait for my roadtrip to go pick up my new Fit when it comes in...that will make everything better.

 

I had exactly the same experience in Phoenix. However, the dealer tinted the windows (beautiful job) added the clear protectors in the door handle wells and door edges, and pin striping if I wanted it. I chose the silver which is subtle but really added a little class to the car...it's a different color of Silver obviously. BTW, paid MSRP.
bob

 

I went to Lute Riley (whom I happily recommend; I tried Bankston [really impersonal] and McDavid [epic car salesman stereotype: slicked-back hair, 3 piece suits, I even saw one smoking a CIGAR outside of the dealership, ugh]) and the mantran NHBP sport I'd been trying to track down was there on the lot, with a dealer stripe. I told them they had the exact kind of car I wanted but I didn't want the dealer stripe, so they took it off the price of the car and the car itself. I even had them remove the dealership badge (debated taking off the Fit badge, but I'm happy to advertise the car since I love it so much), and they didn't balk at all. Bought the on-lot car for MSRP that day, and my salesperson threw in the cargo tray for free. For my first new car buying experience, I don't know if it could have gone much better.

 

It's ashame other dealerships can't treat their customers the same way. I was amazed that the Lute Riley salespeople didn't tackle us when we walked through the door. If all the salesguys hadn't of been busy the day we were over there we might have ordered our fit from them. It's alright though.