Well after I've had my Fit for about 2 weeks, I decided it was time to talk about my experience with Cape Girardeau Honda, located in Cape Girardeau, MO (2 hours south of St. Louis).

I started by checking out their inventory online. They only had 2 when I first started looking: Milano Red base and a Blackberry Pearl Sport AT. I emailed them about the Blackberry Pearl Sport AT and Gregg Klug the Internet Salesman contacted me via e-mail and let me know that it was still available.

By the time I was able to set up a test drive they had 4 Fits: the two I mentioned plus a Milano Red Sport AT and a Vivid Blue Pearl Sport MT.

I got 2 calls from the dealership (one from a secretary, then one from Greg Klugg) on a Tuesday and I went and tested it out on Wednesday.

Showed up at the dealership and immediately was approached, but I had to wait a few minutes for Greg Klugg that I spoke with before to show up. This gave us time to really check out the car in person.

I had a little bit of sticker shock thanks to the "dealer add ons." It was somewhere near $17871! But the price was listed at MSRP besides that. So I thought the worst I could get was MSRP if the options were removed (or could be removed).

I test drove the Blackberry Pearl Sport AT and loved it. Made a trip of about 12 miles and went back and started to talk turkey about it....

Here is what I was able to deal on with those extra options:
Paint Protection- Dropped since it hadn't been applied $0
Vin Etch - Already applied $299
Floormats and pinstripe - Internet Special= FREE
Tires for Life - Just pay taxes on new tires when mine get below 3/32" FREE
Doc Fee - wouldn't wave $199

So I was able to get it down to $17289 as the final out the door price... this doesn't include tax since you pay that when you pay for plates in MO. So I'll just have to come up with that when my temp tags run out.

I didn't do a lot of haggling, I was pretty happy with what I was being quoted. I didn't want to lose my cool over a few bucks if I tried to haggle.

Before this, they ran my credit and got nothing (not bad, just nothing... and I new that). They ran my wifes and said it wasn't great, but could work. And then proceeded to quote me $329 at 5.9 percent interest. But that if I financed it through my bank I could probably get 4.9 percent....

But in order to keep it from selling I had to put something down.... so I put $100

Talked to the father in laws girlfriend (a bank VP) and she said it would probably be more like 9 percent... and thats when I felt like no one wanted me to get this car... and now I feel like that here. It's like I'm paying so much for very little car... and now after I've drove it and like it... I want it.

But I got a call the next day from my father-in-laws girlfriend saying my rate would be 5.75 percent at 60 months. With payments around $333 and I was happy. Arranged the financing and but I was going to have to wait until Friday to pick it up.

I got a call the next day (Thursday) from Greg Klugg asking if I was picking up the car. I said no, I have to wait until I have the financing in hand. He was a little pissed that I had only put $100 down and they were having to hold it. But I just thought "tough shit" and said "I'm sorry" and hung up.

Then on Friday I was supposed to pick up the financing and go to Honda before they closed. That didn't happen, and I called to let them know and they were alright with that. We think that since the deal didn't get closed in July (when we started) that he isn't going to get his incentives or whatever they get until the August book. But thats not my problem..

Anyways, fast forward to Saturday.

Showed up at the dealership after trying to call ahead on the way in... had to wait like 20 minutes before they could even start talking to us. Then our salesman Greg Klugg came over and started showing us some of the stuff with the owners manual and what-not (including the key making card thing and stuff).

Then we get to the finance office where we're filling out paperwork, we talked to Jared Ritter in Finance. Before anything gets signed, he says he's required to show us our options on an extended warranty deal. There were like 4 different packages that went from the basic super-extended warranty to roadside and stuff covering the belts/hoses.. ect. Well I didn't buy it, b/c I can't afford something like that. It was going to be another $2K over what I was financing... and thats not walking around money.

But we took that in stride by saying "hells no." Then we did all the paperwork. Got a temp license for it, our $100 hold refunded and off we went.

Overall time in the dealership between the 2 visits: 2 hours tops. That included the test drive.

Cape Girardeau Honda was very professional and helpful. There were a few ups and downs that were situational at best (mostly our schedule played a part in this). They really worked with us and answered all the questions. Never second guessed our decisions and always greeted us with a smile.

To me that is a great car buying experience. I would recommend them to others!