Honda North, Clovis/Fresno CA
 

I just wanted to add my experience with Honda North in the Clovis/Fresno, CA area. We went through the Costco auto purchasing program and found this vendor although they were an hour away from us. Talked briefly over the phone with the sales rep and then made the trip to test drive a car with Nav. We had previously test-drove another car closer to us without Nav.
Decided to purchase a car they were expecting and had just come into port. Here is were it gets a little hairy.
The sales man was great. He had patience, answered questions (although he tried to tell me when I picked up my keys that there was no alarm on the car) and altogether was fine.

The problem was the finance person (or as they call it, Business Manager). We were told to discuss a 2-day hold check with her. We get over there and she is grumpy. She states she has a headache, I drop my excitement and speak in a lower voice... tryin to accomodate her. She proceeds to write up the contract and some other paperwork. She gives me copies of most of the paperwork. I request copies of the two pieces she didn't automatically provide copies of. One of those forms was the one that said to hold our check 2 days.
We show up a few days later when the car comes in. She denies talking about the hold check and failed to put it on teh contract. She also failed to note that we would be making two payments: one on the cc, the other a check for the remainder of the amount. We have to redo our contract, and she was very grumpy again. There was no pleasing this woman short of her having constant headaches.

Now, I understand we were a cash deal and probably not bringing any extra income to her, but she still should have had the decency to treat us as the customers we were. We didn't have to purchase the car from that dealership. So, I'm a little dissatisfied.

That and we found some sunflower seed remains on the drivers side rail. Apparently their detailer or check-in mechanic spit out their shells in my new car.

Was it worth it? It was a no haggle deal. They can't keep the cars on the lot in our area and many dealerships are marking up the cars above MSRP. The Merced Honda dealership was willing to sell it at MSRP. However, being part of Costco's auto program, we were told Honda North had to discount the car at least $250 under MSRP. They sold us the car for $250 under MSRP--best deal we could find. That was do-able since Honda North is a fleet dealership. We were told the 09's have about $800 profit in them (salesman comment, and they usually don't know of all the gimmicks like hold-back, etc). The Merced Honda dealership said they had about $400 profit in the MSRP. I don't believe they are a fleet dealership.

So, while I've added my two cents about the dealership I dealt with, I also hope some of the info/gossip I heard will help others in their negotiations. :-)

Edit: Just after posting this, I was contacted for my survey from Honda. I was honest and told them about the grouchy lady calling us a liar in everything but name and the sunflower seed nast. I feel a little guilty, but the dealership deserves to know...