I showed up with 310 $100 bills and told the sales manager "take it or leave it". He took it.

 

You can pretty much do the same with a check book. Just fill out the check with your price on it and and say "take it or leave it". If they start in with the doc fee BS and such, just slowly tear up the check in front of them.

 

This would be a great technique if only I had 31k in the bank haha.I am putting in $6k cash + trade-in worth about $7-8.....

I am going to try to get a CR with a/c for $32k.
08 s2k seem to go for around $29k, CR sticker is $3k more so I figure I will try $32k. Sound reasonable?

 

Know the bottom line price before you walk in the door. E-mail dealerships and tell them you know people getting 08s for around $30k and ask what their best price is. Once you get a decent price, e-mail it to the rest and ask them to beat it, keep doing it until someone hits the bottom price (you can exaggerate the deals other dealerships are offering just to test for the bottom, you aren't under oath). Once you get that price, go meet the salesman and sign the papers. Screw all the bullshit tactics they'll try to pull in person. If they can't commit to a good price via e-mail they don't deserve your business.

I'd avoid trade in. You are likely throwing away thousands of dollars. I asked about trade in value on the commuter car I was driving at the time and was told $5k. I sold it last week for $9k, hanging on to it for 7 weeks cost me about $180 to keep insuring it and zero to advertise on Craigslist and I came out $4k ahead of the trade in value. If you need to sell your car first, do so and drive a rental for a few days while you secure the S2000. It'll be far cheaper than the hit you'll take on trade in.

Financing should never figure into the negotiations. Either secure financing before going to a dealership or get that bottom price and then if Honda Financial doesn't approve you at the best rate, you walk away and see if you can get decent financing elsewhere. There is zero advantage in showing up with cash. It probably feels cool but paper money isn't worth any more than a check from a bank or approval from Honda Financial, the dealership gets the same amount. I believe a credit score of 710 is around the breakpoint for super-preferred (read "best") rates from Honda.

You can put yourself at a slight advantage by purchasing at the end of the month when dealers are trying to boost sales before the books close.

 

[QUOTE=amik,Aug 15 2008, 05:28 PM] Know the bottom line price before you walk in the door.

 

[QUOTE=s2kfrog,Aug 15 2008, 07:48 PM] I have a 760 credit rating, but I am a recent college grad just starting my career. Would they hold it against me that I am just starting my job?

I am trying the email around tactic now....

 

a lot of useful info here. i am actually looking for a lease on an '08 but from what i understand after snooping around on the edmunds forums the money factors are retarted for this car after being dirt cheap in the may/june sale. the rate equivalent went from like 1% to 8% i believe i had done the math last week i forgot the exact numbers.

in late june i had spoken to a dealer in new york and without flinching he quoted me like $420 for the car on a 36 month lease 12k miles with everything rolled in and my only paying first and plate transfer fee up front. i wasn't ready to get the car so i didn't even play around with it, i had done the math with the money factors of that month and figured i could get that deal about $50 cheaper per month than that especially considering i would get it down to invoice with the $1000 honda cash they had at the time and the dirt cheap money factor. plus they had the exact same car in their lot and there aren't that many s2k in new york honda dealers from what i understand.


but now there is no more honda cash and no lease special so i am debating what to do. i think i'll just wait and see what happens in september when the programs turnover hopefully the MF will drop, i mean i don't think it can even get higher. sucks because it seems as if this is the last year they are making this car and my current lease is up in december so i need to make a choice. actually if anyone cares my last car (2006 infiniti m45 sport) was already returned back from the lease a few weeks ago and i am driving my mothers civic for now which is on an extended lease as she got herself another car so technically it would be like a honda-honda lease as i'm sure she wouldn't mind being a co-signer hopefully if i can take advantage of any program discounts they have for returning leasees.



any insights into any of this???

ps - what is the 3% holdback someone was speaking about in a prior post. what does that mean? like additional discounts?

on edit: ok i googled holdback and pretty much understand it in theory. a few explanations, from what i understood, stated that holdback is irrelevant after 90 days of a car being in a dealers inventory. so in that case i cannot bring it up if the dealer is crying about not making any money because if the car has been sitting there for 90 days then they lost the holdback on it? the reason i say this is because the dealer in question has the exact car i want and it has been in their lot for like 6 months at least because when i looked at it in june he had told me it was there for a few months and i had called in like april in anticipation the guy told me they had one in that color in the lot for a "few months" and based on the fact that this car is a slow seller i was hoping to use that as a bargaining chip since no one is buying it especially in this economy. however unless i misunderstood holdback is irrelevant.

also how does holdback work when they have to get your car from another dealer???

 

Wow thanks Amik very informative... This should really help. I have been offered $1000 under invoice for the CR, your chart should give me some leverage to get even lower then that. Do you recommend any way of getting pass the CR's are "limited and collectors" argument? I figure with the market being down so much it makes the CR even less desirable to most.

 

Aramism,

That sucks about the lease deals. I picked mine up in May and was able to get my payment right around $380 per month, nothing down (before taxes).

The holdback issue is touchy. I think it is better to just play dealerships against each other and let them decide if they are willing to cut into the holdback to make the sale. If that car has been on the lot for a while, they are probably in the hole if you are getting quoted $1000 under invoice. They've got to make interest payments on the money they borrowed to buy the car and put it on the lot so they always want to turn things over quickly.

Holdback may very well be irrelevant in this case, but you still negotiate for the lowest price. Don't just accept they need that additional money to make ends meet. If they want the car off the lot they will give you a price that makes it happen. It being on the lot for months is not your problem.



s2kfrog,

I'd dismiss the limited and collectors argument. Tell him to show you sales figures indicating that they are being snatched up. The numbers don't lie.

If you really feel like debating him, I'd make the point that many people who would consider buying a regular S2000 would never consider the CR because it looks like a street racer. The average customer is not the average user on this forum.

Many S2ks in my area are weekend toys for the moderately wealthy yet frugal. That's why you see all sorts of lease turn ins with 12k miles after 3 years. They sit in garages until the wife feels like taking the convertible for a drive to the country club. Those people don't buy CRs.

I can see the appeal of the CR but I would never buy one as a daily driver. I take business associates (often more than twice my age) out in my car occasionally and prefer to avoid any "ricer" stigma (however unjustified it may be) by keeping things toned down and stock.

 

yeah man that 380 would be mint but sadly unless they lower the price to like $15,000 lol i don't see it happening with the current money factor. unless someone can tell me something i don't know?


hopefully things change in the next cycle after their current "sales" end in september.