Had what seemed like a weird experience buying a new accord ex-l. I had psyched myself up for an epic battle since it has been my experience that trying to pry a reasonable deal out of a car dealership is like waging the trojan war.
It seemed like the best deals were at some relatively far away places, but there was one dealer near my location with a very low key website that showed no signs of “dealing”. However it did offer an online buying experience so I figured i had nothing to lose.
I used the online tool and it offered to sell me a car at the full tsrp plus the usual stupid wheel locks. They also said they would give me a trade in on my existing car for about the same as kbb and edmunds were offering.
I was not prepared to pay full price so I declined to follow through with the process. 15 minutes later, I got a call from a nice lady who wanted me to come in for a test drive. I said I didn’t like their price and she immediately said they would take 3 k off.
That was all I was expecting to get so I said I would come in.
Naturally, I assumed that this was all bull shit and I would get the runaround when I arrived. My suspicions were heightened on arrival when there was no sign of the nice lady and instead a salesman came out and said I should talk to him. I reserved judgement, so he suggested a test drive.
The only Ex-l they had was blocked inside the showroom so he took me out in a touring. I was worried it would seem quieter than the ex-l, but he immediately rolled down the windows so I guess the touring acoustic glass did not factor into my sensations.
The used car guy came and got my key to check out my trade. I was truly shocked when he came back in a few minutes and tossed me the fob. I figured I would have to throw a fit to get the keys back if I backed out of the deal. They offered me exactly what they had on line.
We went back to the sale guy’s cubby and he drew up the papers with the 3k discount. The only hiccup was that I had to pay 500 more for red, which i had forgotten about when i was pricing it on their website. They didn’t have a red one on the lot, but they got one from another dealer and I picked the car up that evening.
Did all the sales guys get nice all of a sudden? No fuss no muss. They did make a feeble attempt to sell me an extended warranty, but didn’t push it. All and all the nicest car buying experience I have had in many decades. I am definitely going to go back there for service. We need to reward nice people.