Hi guys!

New to the forum and buying my first new car. I apologize for the long post but would really appreciate some advice from you seasoned car buying veterans. I have settled on the Honda Fit but feel like I am getting worked over by the dealers.

Story:

Dealer #1 2013 base, red, $16,899. (not including TTL + 99 doc fee)

Dealer #2 2012 base, red, $16000 (not including TTL + 99 doc fee)

Dealer #1 agreed to match dealer #1's price of $16,000 for the 2013. However, I learned that the car was damaged in a hail storm and repaired to new. (Dealer #2 alerted me to this by the way).

Dealer #1 assures me that it wont show up on a carfax, that the dealership paid for the repairs. Don't dealerships have insurance for this kind of thing? Wouldn't they use the insurance to repair the car and it would show up on carfax? Can they sell a car that had repaired hail damage as new?

The fact that the damage wasn't brought up (until another dealer brought it up) and I inquired kinda makes me doubt what he says. Any advice?

Also dealer #2 wont budge on the 2012 &16,000 (plus TTL and 99 doc fee) they are offering a 2013 for $16,550 (plus TTL and 99 doc fee).

I don't think a $550 difference between the two makes sense, am I wrong here? I mean one has been sitting on the lot an entire year longer and will depreciate more as soon as I drive it off the lot. Are these prices fair and I'm just being cheap or am I getting worked over by these dealers?

Sorry for the long post, first time buying a new car, so take it easy on me. I would really like to own a Fit and appreciate any help you can provide.

 

OK, as a person who bargains at Sears and never, ever pays retail, AND as a self professed car buying expert, here's my two cents. First, it is time to take back the night, as they say. Dealers have worked us over for decades, ripping off the unprepared and those who don't have the stomach for confrontation. Now, however, dealers are a bit stuck. People have educated themselves about their second largest purchase in their life, so much so, that the profit margin of most new cars has been slashed considerably. New car profits are so lean that dealers are now "flipping" used cars; buying up ones posted on sites like craig's list, titling them, and then reselling for up to $4,000 higher than the individual originally tried to sell it. It is the only way dealerships are staying solvent and keeping the lights on, other than ripping customers off in their service department. Now, back to new cars. If you don't have a local car buying service (ie: credit union, USAA, etc) use the internet to make your purchase. The best deal will come through a dealership's internet manager. Since new car profit margins are so slim, volume sales is the key now. "Mr. Mazda" is very happy to reward his high volume sales dealerships with a nice Christmas bonus (dealer holdback) for moving large volumes of cars each year. For you to take advantage of this, there are services who will send out your car requirements to up to five local dealerships; Consumer Checkbook Magazine has such a service. The one who comes back with the lowest price wins. You can also do it yourself. Contact five or so Internet Managers at your local Honda dealers and see who is hungry. Remember, end of the month quotas are still a very real thing. Those dealerships who are short on sales at the end of the month will be hungriest for your business. Why? Because they want "Mr. Mazda" to take notice AND they don't want to waste money on another monthly payment to the bank who is fronting the money to have these cars on the lot in the first place. So in short, use the internet. Dealerships are like Best Buy. You only go in to make sure the product is for you. Then you walk out and buy it on line. Don't ever waste your time talking to the sales people. They know less about the cars than the average drunk sitting in the gutter in front of the dealership.
I won't give you any advice on the prices you are quoting since you can research them on edmunds.com and other sites. As an expert negotiator, get your best price from the internet sales manager. Once you have the quote, go in and if they try to stick you with "paper processing fees" such as the trash-ola document fee, just look them in the eye and say, "sorry, I've already negotiated my price. I'll take your written quote and go somewhere where they don't charge to stick pieces of paper into a computer printer." Trust me; they won't let you leave when they know you mean business.

 

Buy a Sport unless the Base you're looking at is a MT, but the sport AT is sooooooo much better with paddle shifters and the resale (whenever that might be) is higher!!!!!

just my $.02

 

What BurntZ said. Those prices, depending on your area, don't seem totally out there. But don't let them dick you with BS fees. And consider the Sport!

 

Area is Nebraska.

Thanks for all the advice so far. Any other input would be appreciated.

 

I agree that those prices don't seem out of line; you're dreaming if you expect to get a Fit for a substantial discount off of MSRP (plus doc fees, TTL, etc.) While you may (or may not) be able to finagle a slightly better deal, you aren't being ripped off unless you let either one sell you some sort of extended warranty or protection contract or other such upsells which frequently have outrageous profit margins.

Hail damage may well have been repaired by the dealer in-house, in which case there's no real reason why they'd have to go through the effort of submitting any sort of insurance claim. Carfax is a useful tool, but it's far from infallible. "Hail damage" could cover quite a broad range of things, too, from a couple of tiny dings that get sucked back out to more or less complete destruction of the body sheet metal. If it's at the lower end of the scale, I guess I don't have any problem with the dealer failing to disclose it, just as they might not disclose a tiny scratch in the paint on the edge of a door that was properly repaired...or a greasy steering wheel that was subsequently cleaned.

Resale value of the older car is somewhat of a concern, primarily if you intend to sell in not too many years. If you're planning on keeping the car a long time, it becomes largely inconsequential. On the other hand, if you're going to sell or trade it in within a couple of years, it could make a substantial difference.

 

$550 for peace of mind is a good bargain.

By the way, how did dealer #2 find out about the hail damage, I wonder??