She’s considering the ZDX when her lease is up. She’s definitely an Acura fan now and I suspect will be for the foreseeable future.
I can’t speak to whether the ZDX is a good choice or not, but I did read yesterday that they are now offering very, very aggressive lease deals on them. You might check that out and maybe they’d early terminate your existing lease.
Well, I just got back from the dealership.
After finally agreeing to a reasonable price after haggling back and forth with a couple dealerships, today my wife and I drove the 2 hours to the dealership to sign papers.
The sales guy slid across a piece of paper with terms that were totally different than we negotiated the night before, then balked when I protested and I had to threaten to walk and haggle some more to not pay an extra few thousand dollars.
Like I said, they are morally broken people. On my way out, I made a point of dressing down the sales manager in front of other clients and telling him a thing or two about what integrity means. ■■■■ those guys. The dealership model needs to go away. It shouldn’t be this difficult to buy a car and not get ripped off in the process.
well, you can always look at the bright side, you were able to negotiate a better price. Just one year ago, there was no negotiating at all. That’s our price, was about all I heard back. All those passports and pilots just sold - if you did not buy - the next person did. I had gone in to look at a Passport Elite - I missed it by about an hour. It was being sold at the kiosk right next to where I was then looking for something else. Ended up with the Pilot Touring - which we love.
What did you end up with?
My wife got a new car today. She leases so it was really trading in her old one. Well, they looked at hers and came back with numbers for a new lease, she leases the Honda HR-V, really likes the car.
Anyway, I gave my wife a number for what we could live with and there is no way I was living with their offer. I was ready to walk out and he asked for my drop dead number was and so I told him. It was literally $100/month lower. We have been buying and leasing from this dealership for over 14 years, we like Hondas. He said let me see what I can do. I knew what they would list the car for on the lot so knew they were low-balling us on the equity. Well, they came back and met my low ball offer. My wife signed the papers and we left with the car.
I hate the haggling, but ultimately got what we wanted. I’m not sure if we hadn’t been loyal customers for so long, we would have gotten the deal.
We have a cx9 and f150. The 150 is a much better family vehicle.
I think that depends on the family.
I have a full size pick up as well.
We have two kids and a 70lbs dog. On family trips, the truck just doesn’t work well. Two car seats in the back leaves no room for the beast in the middle seat.
Also, driving the truck in the city is an awful experience, we have tiny parking spots and narrow lanes here. The gas mileage blows too.
It sounds like you need an Expedition or Suburban. 
Tiny spots do make it challenging. We don’t have that problem in our area. I’ve done a couple of vacations to bigger cities and had to up my parking game for those.
Just replying to last to say holy hell, I hate car shopping, and I despise car salespeople with a passion.
I don’t think you become a car salesperson if you’re not, at some deep level, an awful, deeply flawed human being. Something is just broken inside of them.
The only folks more despicable are the people the salespeople pass you off to who try to sneak in dozens of extra fees and upsell you.
This whole process is insane.
I sold cars for a while - after I moved back from Germany. I am not, at a deep level, an awful deeply flawed human being. Most of my colleagues were not either. Most were very well-intentioned people with various education levels and factors that led them to car sales for a while. With only a high school diploma, you can make very decent money - usually even more than management.
Are there some that are not so nice to deal with? Yeah, sure there are.
But, if that is how you are approaching each and every interaction, you are setting the tone for your interaction - not the salesperson.
I noticed that nearly every Honda dealership has a slightly different approach - most of them seem to have adopted the old Saturn approach of no hassle/haggle. But, that was not true of the last Honda dealership that I visited and purchased. They were still old-school four-square sales technique.
You do want to play close attention to the finance folks as you close your deal. They can be motivated by incentives, some from the dealer, some from banks. Best to ask questions, know current financing rates, read items carefully before signing. Walk away from a deal if it changes between the sales agent and the finance agent, etc.
I highly suggest everyone visit dealerships more often - long before they are actually in need of a car. Drive cars more often to know the market. Learn from each interaction. begin to dispel the myth that every salesperson is the negative stereotype you described. I seldom buy new cars. So, driving the cars when they are new, a year or two before I plan to purchase, I have a good understanding of the used market. I make my point very clear to the sales agent - they have a job to do - but I also don’t want them to take up too much of their time on me when they could be trying to make an actual sale.
Yeah, glad you typed all that.
Just think working retail sucks… I think we almost all can agree… Now work retail where ever person coming in thinks they know more than you, thinks your overcharging and making thousands off them, wants to buy your product for less than it cost you.
With the internet, its much easier to buy a car now. I have a broker for my leases so thats really easy. But for buying, just send a bunch of emails to dealers, with what I want, and what I will pay, and wait for responses. Now I live in SE Detroit. You name the brand, I probably have 2 or 3 dealerships for them with in 15 min drive. an hour drive, and well I got a whole lot of dealer options.
I have yet to meet a car salesperson that knows much about cars. In fact, I can’t really think of any value they add to the sales process at all. Any info I want is easily searchable online. They have no real authority to move price, everything goes through their sales manager, and all the extras/financing discussion is done by the finance people.
Comparing to retail… imagine if regular retail worked like car dealerships? Walk in to a BestBuy:
Me: “Hi, I’d like this TV, how much is it?”
Sales guy: “Why don’t you watch a show on it first to decide if you like it? Can I get you a coffee?”
Me: “I’m good thanks, I just need a TV and like this one, and I’d like to know the price”
SG: “I’ll have to check with my sales manager”
waits 30 minutes
SG: It’s $75/week.
Me: That’s not a price, that’s a payment. How much does the TV cost?
SG: Are you putting anything down on it?
Me: I don’t know if I’m even buying it yet without knowing what the damn thing costs.
SG: I’ll have to check again with my sales manager.
Another 30 minutes later…
SG: It’s $2000 out the door.
Me: Ok thanks, I’ll take it.
SG: Great! Let me ring this up and now you can talk with my finance guy to handle the details.
Another hour goes by waiting for finance guy
FG: Thanks for choosing us, BCtriguy! Here’s your bill of sale of $4200, just sign here.
Me: Whoa, what? I was just told this item was $2000
FG: Yeah, it is! Plus handling fee, documentation fee, customer care fee, remote control fee, cardboard box fee, screen fee, and taxes.
Me: I’m not paying for that.
ANother 30 minutes wasted haggling back and forth
FG: Fine, we will reduce some of the costs, and sell you the TV for $3000, all in.
FG slides me contract across the table for $3500.
Me: WTF!!
Eventually leave, 5 hours later with a $2000 TV I paid $3200 for, and on the way home I pass another bestbuy advertising the same TV for $1800…
Why does it have to be this way? How is any of this even remotely good for the customer? Where is the value in this process?
I can admit that maybe my initial post was a bit too harsh on the sales people, as they are simply doing their jobs, even if they secretly are the type to enjoy pulling the wings off of flies or maybe kicking puppies just for fun when nobody is looking. But the process of buying a car is ridiculous, and filled with the most sleazeball, underhanded sales tactics one could imagine. The fact that I have to run the gauntlet of dealing with the sales guy, sales manager, and finance guy for every transaction is absurd, especially when this purchase could easily be facilitated with the click of a mouse or three. Say what you want about Tesla but that is one thing they absolutely nailed. I could go online and buy a Model Y in less time than it took to me to write this post. I should be able to do that with any car.
I highly suggest everyone visit dealerships more often - long before they are actually in need of a car. Drive cars more often to know the market. Learn from each interaction. begin to dispel the myth that every salesperson is the negative stereotype you described. I seldom buy new cars. So, driving the cars when they are new, a year or two before I plan to purchase, I have a good understanding of the used market. I make my point very clear to the sales agent - they have a job to do - but I also don’t want them to take up too much of their time on me when they could be trying to make an actual sale.
When I was last looking at cars and trying to narrow down what I wanted, I got a strong impression that if I wasn’t ready to buy a car that day I was wasting everyone’s time at the dealership. As soon as you say, I am not ready to buy and I need to look at a few other cars first you are basically treated like dirt. Which in my mind is really odd since I do in fact want to eventually buy a car and would be happy to work with someone eventually. So the idea of visiting dealerships more often is similar to suggesting to me that I should go hang around by dentists office.
I do feel bad for the front lines salesmen now. I only deal with them to deal with test drives and such. After that I avoid them like the plague and talk to the internet guy. Even if they somehow managed to make me the best offer I could ever get, I wouldn’t trust them.
Comparing to retail… imagine if regular retail worked like car dealerships? Walk in to a BestBuy:
Me: “Hi, I’d like this TV, how much is it?”
Sales guy: “Why don’t you watch a show on it first to decide if you like it? Can I get you a coffee?”
Me: “I’m good thanks, I just need a TV and like this one, and I’d like to know the price”
SG: “I’ll have to check with my sales manager”
I used to sell TVs on commission. You defiantly should test drive TVs 
We had a 10% bargaining room before we had to talk to our manager.
Lol, test drive tvs.
I think the thing I hate most about the sales process with cars is it’s just so fake. I know I’m being lied to, they know they’re playing a shell game with me. All the while they’re trying to ask questions about my life, me, feign interest in me etc and just draw out the process. like dude… I just need a car, I’m not here to make a friend.
I run a construction business. I meet and pitch clients all the time. My policy is just open book everything. This is what things cost. These are your hard costs, these are your soft costs and these are the rates for said costs. This is how long it will take, and here is why, and here is the contingency for my schedule for unknowns. Here are some previous clients you can call, or even visit their house and see if you like my work, and see if they’re happy. If I can help you, great. If I can’t, maybe I can point you in the direction of someone who can, shake your hand and move on.
There are no tactics. No wearing you down. No hidden costs. If I can do that with all the unknowns that come with renovating old houses with budgets in to the 7 figures, why can’t I just buy a brand new car with no surprises and similar transparency?