After shopping at several Honda dealerships in Calgary, and getting different stories about the Honda FIT from each of them... you know the "we have no room to negotiate on the price, story" I visited the High River Honda website, filled out the "build your own fit", and withing an hour or so received a call from one of the Managers. TERRY Connolly, great guy, no BS, Irish... He was able to tell me in that first phone call that a BOM Auto-Sport FIT was allocated to his dealership, and I should come out there to talk with him about it.

High River, is a small town about 1 hour south of Calgary... so I made the appointment and paid Terry and the rest of the staff a visit.

Here is what transpired that first visit... I test drove the non-sport fit they had there... Terry was able to give me a firm price for my poor OLD Aerostar - '93 with almost 300K kilometers on it... He also knocked 1% off the price of the FIT because the government is going to reduce their goods and service tax in July... I made a deposit, and went home confident that I would be getting my "dream car" when they said.

Now, most dealers, would be happy with the sale, pop your deposit cheque in the bank, and you would never hear from them until your vehicle was ready for pickup.

NOT so with HRH... Terry called me the next day, just to make sure I was happy with everything... and they continue to call me with status updates.. (your car is on the boat, off the boat, on a train, etc.) I never had any questions that weren't answered before I even had a chance to ask them.

Then, the even better news, my car arrived at the dealership, on or near the day the promised (at least in the same week)... after getting the windows tinted, extra rust proofing... it was ready for me to pick up.

They were just as courteous when I picked up the car as when I first walked through their doors.

Also by dealing directly with Terry, there was none of the usual "I have to see what my manager will say".. he is one of the managers, so he was open, honest, and cut to the chase. Something I really appreciated.

The accounting manager, who sorted out the ka-ching part of the deal, was a little heavy on trying to upsell other services, security, windshield treatments, etc... I believe he even tried to tell me that the car I had just purchased did not have a security system... although I knew it did... so his product knowledge was a little rusty on the FIT...

If you drive around Calgary, I can really understand why you see so many Honda's with the High River Honda dealer sticker on them... the rest of the dealer's in Calgary can't hold a candle to them.

cheers,
NFL
CGY

 

I'm pretty happy with them too.

Best bang for my buck was a factor in my decision but quality, reliability, visibility and customer service were further up on my list. The guys @ High River Honda didn't treat me like a dumb female. Every other place treated me like a dumb and shallow female, only concerned about colour and Bluetooth technology. Get this: even though I did my research and asked questions about the life of the transmission and asked to see under the hood, other salesguys kept trying to steer the conversation back to their funky technology package and colours. They didn't seem to hear me when I said, "Visibility is an issue."

It got to the point where I started to bring my dog's crate, my sword case (for Iaido) and father to test drives. Granted, I just have practice swords, but I thought the saleguys would take me a bit more seriously. It was a big joke in my dojo that my swords were my negotiating assistants. Besides, I needed to make sure everything would fit in the car, including my friend's Pelican case.

High River Honda was a welcome change. To John and Terry's credit, they took it all in stride. Terry didn't even bat an eye when the long, black case came out of Dad's truck.

The Fit passed the "Can it fit multiple sword cases + owners + gear + dog + dog crate + dog gear?" test with flying colours. The test drive was a hoot, driving up and down icy alleys, the highway, all over town, on gravel, etc.

John has been great, answering my e-mails in a timely manner - even post-sale. He was asking about my piano studio as his mother used to teach piano also. The big surprise was to find out that Terry and I like the same Jpop band. Even Bernie, the stern Finance guy, was fun to deal with (once we got past the nitty gritty). He even threw in a Honda cap for my dad.

I was expecting to get my Fit within a month of placing my order. I ordered on Family Day 2007 and I was stunned by a phone call on Friday @ noon saying, "Your car is in our lot." I raced down the next day to pick it up.

I haven't had to go in for an oil change yet. The car is in for repairs after getting rear-ended. Thanks to HR Honda for advising me on where to go for repairs and even giving me advice as far as estimators go.

 

Totally Agree, every dealer I went to in Calgary gave me the same "We don't negotiate" story until I talked to them. Was a no bull, right to the point purchase. Added a few free goodies, subtracted some mola from the MSRP and we had a deal!

They have been great to deal with, provided excellent support after the purchase and if I ever do decide on another Honda it will be ordered through them

Please see latest posted update below:

 

Just an update regarding the High River Honda dealership I so highly praised in my previous e-mail.

It has recently come to my attention that High River Honda sold me a non-OEM hood deflector with my brand new Fit. Maybe they figured it was better than the old style, maybe they didn't have any OEM in stock...

the point is they never discussed it with me and basically slapped it on the car without any indication it was NOT and OEM part. I know for a fact during negotiations we picked all of the extra items from the Honda OEM sheet with no mention of using other comparative parts in place of the selected items. I dislike very much when people mislead me, This has left me scratching my head after the experience and wondering if there is anything else they decided to do this with.

In light of this recent experience I will say I continue to recommend them, however that people should proceed with caution and ensure that any extra's are marked clearly on the offer to buy sheet as OEM or NON-OEM.

 

Did you call them out on it? I know sometimes things can get mixed up and people just don't realize. Plus, the Fit is relatively low volume compared to everything else they are selling so they may have not known that it wasn't OEM.

 

I sure hope that is what happened. In any case I am raising the flag to anybody who goes there to double check things before they sign on the dotted line.

I've been considering calling them on it, but the last thing I want to do is damage the otherwise good relationship.