I took delivery on a Vivid Pearl Blue Fit Sport on Monday. My experience with the dealer was not good. I ordered the car in mid April and was told to expect delivery in 3 to 6 weeks. I ordered the Fit Sport, Blue with Manual Transmission, that’s it, no accessories. When I placed the order with Garcia Honda here in Albuquerque I was told that my price would be MSRP. The reason I picked this dealer was that the other Honda dealer in Albuquerque, Perfection Honda was charging $1000 above MSRP. I was told that Garcia did not believe in charging above MSRP.
I placed a $1000.00 deposit on the vehicle. My sales person called on Thursday, June 1st to let me know that the car had arrived and that I could pick it up Monday. The salesperson called back about 10 minutes later telling me that unbeknownst to him the service department had installed about $1,100 of accessories on the car. This included Sport Grille, Music Link, Floor Mats, Wheel Locks, Cargo Cover, Cargo Tray, Cargo Net, and Cargo Organizer. I was livid, but did manage to get them to remove to Cargo stuff, as for the rest of it, I was stuck. I was told through the sales person that the general manager authorized these accessories be installed. The general manager declined to speak with me, and used the sales person as a go between. Let me say that my sales person was great and I could tell that he was not happy with the situation, but his hands where tied.
I was finally told that if I did not take the vehicle, that my deposit would be returned. They had a waiting list of customers that would take the car as is. So the moral of this story is that once again I came out of a car deal feeling like had been screwed….. I love the car, but there is that bad taste left in my mouth by a unscrupulous car dealer.

 

What's the old saying? Car dealers are one level below prostitutes in terms of careers?

 

Tell Honda of North America!!!!

 

wow that really sucks...........

 

yah, that just really sucks.. its a bitter sweet situation

 

give them zeros on the survey. idiots

 

Yeah, that almost happened to me. But I decided to not trust the dealer, and asked if they had any documentation and other fees that I should know. And, behold! He gave in, and told me about the added accessories.

I have since found another dealer, told them I don't want to be forced into buying extra stuff besides the car and its standard equipment. Dealer wants my business and said, "sure"!

Now I'm a happy camper.

 

It sucks, but you have to check and re-check these guys. Many (but not all) of the dealers want to tack on extra profit somehow... if it isn't charging over MSRP, it's adding pinstriping or overpriced fabric protection! Bleh.

 

Not to mention they say it like it comes for free...

 

I agree, give them a negative survey.

They should be called CARD DEALER, as you don't know what you're being dealt with.

 

Send Honda USA a letter. They take customer satisfaction seriously. Call Honda and complain as well. They may not get you a refund, but if they get enough complaints they may pull that dealer's franchise.

 

same thing almost happened to me. I was minutes away from signing and i see the salesman writing down a bunch of accessories on a piece of paper. He then says "this car is gonna come with [this that and the other thing. I said I dont want the stuff and he didnt seem to care. He told me all of the cars coming in would be eqipped this way. Why the **** would i pay for the leather steering wheel wrap if it comes standard with a permanent one?? And that red dash kit thing??? are you joking?? I was heated.

I called another dealer and told him what happend to me. He said there will be none of that BS. Come look at the car and well talk. Went down same day, signed and had the car the following monday.

Honda of Nanuet NY is where I got it and my salesman (who happens to live the next town over from me) was amazing. Totally nice, regular, non-pushy guy.

 

Don't believe everything your salesman told you. They work in teams, good guy, bad guy. It's all a game. The manager delegates to the salespeople. They were out to get you because of demand. Luckily for me, I got mine at MSRP.

 

I attempted to play hardball with the salesperson, and it was the run back and forth thing to the Sales Manager (Typical car sales technique). Good cop/ bad Cop. The Sales Manager who is a family member (Garcia Auto Group), refused to speak to us, or meet with us, and at one point refused to sell us the car. I could have got my deposit back and gone to the other dealer in town, who charges $1000 over MSRP. I also found out from the dealer and from reading this forum that I could have been waiting another 6 months for a Fit Sport M/T. I took the lesser of the two evils and swallowed the $800 worth of shit I did not want. The story will not end here, "The pen is mightier than the sword", I may not receive any other satisfaction other than making that dealers like difficult, but that will do…

 

Well in the long term you will forget about this...the truth is it does suck

 

i am not sure how it works in your area, but in Ontario, when you put your deposit down, they have to draw up a sales invoice or bill of sale

on the bill of sale, it clearly spells out what you getting in terms of car, options and an extras, with the prices clearly listed. it's there so that there would be no argument of this sort

if the dealer doesn't have the vin yet, he will put down the make / model / color and then update the bill of sale when he receives the vin from honda. at that point, he prints out a new copy, you go back, double check nothing has been changed from the orginal other than the vin and sign again, at that time, he will schedule a pick up date etc..

-joe

 

Well, I got lucky I guess. I bought the first Fit that came in to the dealer on April 20th. My salesperson called and told me my car had arrived as soon as the truck pulled up. The process went so fast, they didn't have time to add all the extras I didn't want.

 

Great system you have in Ontario to prevent auto dealers from ripping you off.. I have bought many vehicles over the years and I have never walked out of car dealership without feeling I have been screwed in some way. At least I love the FIT.