njtripface

Hi Guys/Girls,

I just moved to St. Petersburg and must say it's a beautiful area. As a recent graduate I'm looking forward to a new car. As you may have guessed the s2000 is my choice for my first car buying experience. I've been reading this board for a few months now and want to thank everyone here for such great information. I do have a couple of questions though that refer more to the people of Florida.

1. How are the Honda dealerships in St. Pete/Tampa are, worth calling to get MSRP? Or should I follow the advice of the others here and get the car from Maroone/Hollywood/Braman (Spelling?).

2. After purchase of the car, what is reputable dealer to get service in the St. Pete/Tampa area?

3. I'm looking to purchase the car in November/December time frame (2003 model year). Can anyone speculate on the time frame of waiting for the car to arrive? I could wait 1 month for the car, would it take any longer than that?

Thanks for all your help and advice in advance. Hope to see you on the roads in 5 months.

-- John

mav

Welcome!

1. I don't know how the Tampa market is but some dealers in the Miami area (Braman, Maroone and North Miami Beach Honda) are MSRP Dealerships.

2. No idea, maybe a Tampa guy could respond.

3. It all depends what color you want and the dealer's inventory. White is the rarest color, thus the hardest to get. Yellow and Blue seem to readily available. The wait time could be nothing (if what you want is in-stock) or up to 8 weeks. I have a 02 White on order and I've been waiting for about a month now.

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask.

wchin

There is a white (don't know interior color) arriving at Blount Honda in Leesburg (west of Orlando). They sold me my yellow 02 at MSRP.

I posted a thread about my buying experience on the Florida board.

Wei-Shen

njtripface

Thanks for the advice/info guys. I'll look into the dealership near Orlando. That one may be a closer drive for me, than driving 4 hours to Miami.

The color combination I'm looking for is Silver w/ Red Interior. Hopefully that wont be a difficult one to attain.

I'll tell you guys how it turns out in a few months of price searching and such. Thanks again.

NeuralMan

Hi John - welcome to the area!

I've called every dealer in the Tampa/St.Pete area and they are all selling @ $1500-$2000 over MSRP. In this area, used 01 S2000s with under 9k miles are getting around MSRP.

Who knows what the dealers in this area will accept at the end of the year . . .

As for right now, here's the snapshot >>>

[some MSRP Dealers in FL]
Gary Smith Honda - Ft. Walton Beach - 850.244.7151
Blount Honda - Leesburg - 352.326.2688
Maroone Honda - Hollywood - 954.893.1256
- - -
[$1000 + MSRP]
Regal Honda - Lakeland - 863.687.8000
- - -
[$1500-$2000 + MSRP]
Autoway Honda - Clearwater - 727.531.0444
Lindell Honda - Tampa - 813.872.4841
Crown Honda - St. Petersburg - 727.521.4000
Brandon Honda - Brandon - 813.769.4532
Honda Of Bradenton - Bradenton - 800.344.6632
Gateway Honda - Port Richey - 727.848.0688
Sun Honda - Sarasota - 904.809.3287
Tampa Hondaland - Tampa - 813.935.8585

The dealer I ordered from is in Gainesville, GA >>>
[$1000 - MSRP]
Milton Martin Honda - Gainesville, GA near Atlanta (not FL) - 770.534.0086
My salesman is David Copous who I highly recommend.

I am waiting to take delivery in a few weeks. . . my pain is worst than Mav's because i'm a couple of weeks behind

However, I can tell you that my dealings with Milton Martin Honda has been a very smooth and professional one - especially with David Copous. I called him around the last week of April, he quoted me $31,500 + $400 dealer fee right off the bat - no negotiation necessary! I called back a couple of days later on April 29th and placed my order with $1000 down. About 2 weeks later, David called me with a build date of June 17th, and last week David called me with my VIN #. The communication has been excellent. Give David a call and tell him Jia with the Blue Suzuka recommend you. You can ask him any question about the allocation/ordering process. Milton Martin usually gets 1 or 2 allocated S2000s/month. If you want your 03 in November or December, I recommend you call David now and ask him if he has available allocation to order for the month of September or October. . . if you give him $1000 i'm sure he'll work with you to order ahead for your desired color and delivery date.

As for service, I hear Honda Of Bradenton is the best in our area. That's where I plan to take my S2000.

Good luck and see you around town!

mav

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wchin
[B]There is a white (don't know interior color) arriving at Blount Honda in Leesburg (west of Orlando).

njtripface

-- NeuralMan

That was more information than I could have imagined getting. Thanks so much for the heads up on so many dealers in the area. The Georgia Dealership seems like such a great way to go in terms of price. I do have a couple of questions on this though, if you can answer them.

1. Will they pick you up at the airport if you fly in there?

2. Any tips / shortcommings that pertain to buying a car from out of state? Do you pay the Georgia sales tax, or Florida tax? Secondly, will they help you with license plates / registration for Florida, or will that have to be taken on by yourself?

3. I'm aware that there is a break in for the car, somewhere in the realm of 500 miles and not over 5500 RPMS, no vtec, and probably not over like 65 MPH. The Georgia dealer is about 500 miles from my place, so would generating the mileage in a continous manner cause adverse effects during the break in?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

-- John

SinD

Only advice I can give is make sure not to pay Georgia Tag it's expensive. My bro lives in Georgia and he keeps his FL plates just because of that.

BrownEydTrouble

If you are getting an 03, the silver is silvestone again, not sebring silver. I happen to prefer the silvertone myself, not just because I own one, but because I happen to think that it is more dimensional. Only prob, not too keen on the new all red interior. Just my 2 centavos! BTW, I just convinced a good friend of mine to get one too.

NeuralMan

[QUOTE]Originally posted by njtripface
[B]
1.