Two weeks ago I sent several area dealers an email offer ($30500) for a silver/black 2002 S2k. One local dealer accepted my offer. He said he didn't have the car but could get me one, so I gave him a $300 deposit.
Last week he called and said he had found a car. It was at another dealer, so would I like him to go get it and drive it back or trailer it for an extra $300? I said as long as he kept it well below 6000 rpm he could drive it. So far so good.
This week I called him to see when I was going to get the car and he says it still hadn't arrived at the other dealer.
My question is this: if the car hasn't been shipped to the other dealer yet, why couldn't they just ship it straight to my dealer? I'm starting to wonder if this car really exists. Is this guy just stringing me along?

 

No because if it's an actuall dealership they will get the biggest law suit ever herd of.

But that is a good question as to why they wont ship it.

How come you don't go with him to get it? Or just buy it from the dealer its arriving at? Since oviously they are willing to sell the car for that low amount of money.

 

My local dealer tried something similar. He said they had to trade their S2000 with another dealer willing to swap colors. THEN, the cost of transporting both vehicles would be mine. If I were to go to the other dealer, it would be the other dealer's sale. I wound up going to another dealer because my local guy couldn't find any one willing to trade. I just hope he'll do well by me for service when the time comes. I really like the dealership I'm buying from--a new "Honda Standard" facility. My local guy is really a Chrysler dealer, and it looks like he is selling Honda's to make ends meet.

 

A couple of thoughts that will help explain your situation, but before I "describe" what happened to you, let me tell you what you need to do (which is exactly what I did 2 months ago to get my '02 Spa Yellow):

Step 1. Call the loser you've been dealing with and engage him in a conversation regarding the distance of the car. Try to discern where this other dealership (that supposedly has the car) is.

Step 2. Once you have a pretty good hunch of the general location of this other dealership, ask the dealership you've been dealing with to refund your $300 back. IT IS REFUNDABLE NO MATTER WHAT THEY TRY TO TELL YOU.

Step 3. Start from the top of the virtual phone book of Honda dealers in the area of where you think this other dealer is and work the phones until you find it. Given that you're being jerked around, it is likely that the car exists, but the store that took your deposit cannot trade for it successfully, especially with that kind of discount because they're probably isn't any gross left in the deal, so that holding dealer is not incentivized to trade the car out.

Step 4. Buy the car from the store that has it on the ground. When I found mine (200 miles away from where I lived), I had the guy tell me the mileage and the VIN and then I anonymously called another sales guy on the same showroom and had him do the same (to verify that it is on the ground).

Step 5. GO AND PICK IT UP YOURSELF. DO NOT LET SOME 18 Y/O PORTER WITH A LEAD FOOT DRIVE IT FOR YOU.


Alright, now for the explanation of what just happened to you:

In order for a dealer to advertise any car at a specific price (often a deeply discounted price, like in your case), he has to have at least 1 specific car that 1) has the described equipment/trim level, and 2) being offered at the exact discounted advertised price, and 3) has an assigned stock number in their DMS and DCS, and 4) the ad for it must run within 30 days from the time the vehicle got listed in inventory. Hewww Did you follow all that?

Now, what probably happened to you is that this goober store had the car, advertised it, someone snapped it up at that price, and the car was gone. But a number of people probably got interested (like you), and the dealer had a set of very good leads that he wasn't about to let walk away. So they gladly took your deposit (along with other people I'm sure) and started working the phones to find you a S2000 that they can dealer-trade for. And then they probably ran into a couple of problems: 1) the only cars that Honda dealers are willing to trade S2000's for are other S2000's on MSO or Odyssey's on MSO (both in short supply). So you're guy probably did find one but is having a hell of time trading for it. In addition, your guy is heavily discounting the car. So for him to trade on invoice would leave him with little or no gross on your deal. So the only thing left (short of letting you walk, which they will not do) is try to squeeze more money from you to make their dealer trade financially feasible.

This is a bad bad situation that you need to get out of NOW. And remember, as with anything in life: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

OK. I'm tired now from all the thinking and typing. I need a nap. Seriously drop us a line and let us know how it went. If you need help walking through this deal, PM/e-mail me and I'll be glad to give some advice along the way. Best of luck. -KM.

 

Man Kalcium,I'm I glad your aboard in this forum....the more I was reading of your post the more pissed I was getting at that dealership.

 

Sorry for the lengthy post, but it really ticks me off to see somebody who is so interested in the car as to do tons o' research (like talking to us) and then end up being jerked around by an unscrupulous store. Can't stand it.

Besides I'm here to help. -KM.

 

Kalcium

 

I'd also agree that you need to get your deposit back. You should not have to bare the burden of transport costs (after all, isn't that what the delivery charge is for?). If you are willing to travel, there are some really good deals to be had.

I had a deal lined up with for an S2k that was going to be a dealer trade. However, the dealership listed the sale price as $40k. Of course, they knocked off $2k for a deal clincher, still low-balled by on my trade using apples and oranges comparisons, and told me that the price could not come down anymore since they were buying it at MSRP from the other dealership and trading an Odyssey. They also added ~$500 to the price of the car for destination charges.

I walked away from that deal as I was not about to deal on their terms. However, they did let one piece of information slip in the process... where they were getting the car from. I went home, called that dealership and got the car for what I wanted to pay. Besides, I had the best time driving the car home. I also know that it never exceeded 6000 RPM until 610 miles.

 

I could tell from the title of this thread that it was probably about a dealer issue and that automatically means the answer to your question is probably yes. Go to the MSRP dealer list in the Library section and see if you can strike a deal with one of them.

 

I was in the same boat......got dicked around for a while.....then drove 50 miles to a dealer that had what i wanted on the lot and drove home the same day.......Take the drive to a dealer that has what ya want......the trade thing just causes major headaches!