[williamsji]

Find an honest dealer.

In my experience, TrueCar will only recommend the most reputable dealers as part of their referrals.

Thing is... with no inventory in stock and buyers placing deposits for orders from the factory, that kind of blows all the car price referral programs out of the water right now.

The right move right now is to NOT jump immediately on the 2023 models... as even before supply chain madness and the pandemic... brand new generation models were often surcharged by dealers in the first months of sale. Best to wait at least 2 quarters.... say March of 2023 to really look for fair pricing without dealer markups.

 

[williamsji]

So you’re a Beta tester for Honda and paying for the privilege? I guess if you really needed a car…

^^ Unnecessary snark here.

 

[williamsji]

Gen6.

The underlying notion being that Honda's new generations are pretty buggy the first year.

It is an exaggerated and misplaced notion, used by a select few disgruntled owners, most of whom probably wake up disgruntled every day, and owning a Honda has nothing directly to do with it.

Any attentive read of field issues with gen5s at the NHTSA website shows a clean, though not perfect, largely defect free life cycle.

The track record for gen5s has actually been really good. And those issues that did crop up in the field, were quickly addressed by Honda in most cases, at no charge to owners.

 

[williamsji]

For the first time in about 2 years, I see they actually have some CRVs on the lot ready for sale, and more incoming. Looks to be a bakers dozen of ICE and a bakers dozen of hybrids. It appears they are not only selling them at MSRP, but are also offering some discounts as well. Quite a change from the last year or two. Same for Accords. Civics though... appear to be almost non-existent at the moment. A bakers dozen of HRVs though.

This tells me that supply chain issues are easing up, and production rates appear to be much better than in 2021 and 2022.

 

[williamsji]

The dealer did the paperwork for the Honda Finance, title and plates. He prepped the car, drove it to my house and did a detailed explanation of the features in my driveway. So, yes I was serviced. I noticed other posts here that mention ‘doc fees’ which I assume is something similar.

Document fees are pretty normal these days, and yeah.. they are a few hundred dollars in my most recent experience + the actual fees DMV will charge for title and registration.

Thing is.. they handle all the registration and other paperwork with the DMV, including a transfer of title if you have a trade-in. Personally, in my view it is money well spent to NOT have to go to the DMV and wrangle with them and have them run you in circles until you get things right with them.

Vehicle prep should be included in the MSRP as it IS required by Honda before a vehicle is properly configured for a buyer. But it would not surprise me to hear some dealers are padding this and other misc things they do which frankly should be good will on the part of a Honda dealer and not an extra charge.

 

[williamsji]

the dealers here in NorCal / Bay Area still want 2K markup (43K+). 39.5K has been my target price as well, and I would jump at such a deal.

Have you price checked Anderson Honda in Palo Alto? Actually solicit them for an internet price quote?

I ask because in my experience they do not mark up over MSRP, nor do they pack on after market additions (not even wheel locks) onto their vehicles to push up the price tags. Granted, it's been a few years since my last purchase with them, but they really have been the best dealership in the bay area for buying new Hondas in my experience. They also have always exceeded my expectations on any trade-in as well... offering me more than my KBB lookup assessments on price.

Worth a shot, nothing to lose.