SuperDyu

As most know I recently got my S, tho most people on here already have theirs I was thinking I'd put a little listing up on my experience, had really good ones, and really bad ones and some tips when buying the S tho most may know just interesting stuff.

1. Don't buy anything, S2000 or anything, from Los Gatos Honda. Why? They lie. Called in asked if they had a blue s2k, guy didnt know but said yes, drove there ends up they only had gray and only 1 new one, tried to lie to me and say they had a used blue, asked to see it, no blue still. Then tried to tell me Accord engine is same as S2000 engine, and then when I told him he was wrong all he could say is "yes! Racing engine!" Horrible service, please avoid them at all cost and save yourself hassle.

2. Stevens Creek seemed ok, but they sold all their S2k's when i was ready to buy, so ultimately didnt get the deal, tho, they seem to have a lack of salesman in the mornings so the owner of the dealership or the manager comes out and does some deals, very straight forward yes or no person, dont have to deal with salesmans crap.

3. El Camino Honda (Larry Hopkins), had some annoying salesman the first few times I went, but the last time I went and ultimately bought the car, was with a guy named Jay (not his full name but nick name) AWESOME guy, totally proffesional and friendly, and most of all he was honest. I asked him if blind spot was a problem, and he actually told me yes, especially with hardtops. Didn't try to lie to my face saying "No! You can see it just fine!" let me test drive on freeway and Didn't make fake conversation or anything. Tho I've also been annoyed by another salesman there. Highly reccomend Jay tho to anyone.

Tips on S2000: You can get cheaper than 31.6k I got this much and played hardball, I think they'll go lower (feel free to disagree with me on this). So just go at it be ready to go home and leave and go to another dealership if they refuse to go lower to you're level.

EDIT: 31.6k before tax and fee's for clarification, ended up about 34k after all that.

Tips in general: When you're at the negotiation table, ask for ANYTHING you want, ie: food, snacks, drinks. They'll give you anything for free. Here's one idea Get to the table ask for food and drink, then leave the deal. Asking for food infact can put pressure on them more than you if you have that frame of mind. I got soda's and some pretzels, wonder if they'd get you a pizza

If anyone had good experiences in buying their car/any car, post it up so new folks can learn and have an easier time

Oh also to note: I MIGHT be working at Honda Dealership on Stevens Creek during summer so if anyone needs help or looking for car, I dont need money badly so I can tell you the lowest you'd be able to get and help you out best I can

-Dyuman (man I need to find a signature)

tritium_pie

I just bought my S2000, and if I might add:

4) Avoid Dublin Honda like they all have SARS. The salesmen there are totally scammy.

5) Jared Stika, one of the Internet Managers at San Leandro Honda is an alright guy. I ended up buying from them. Not to say that I didn't deal with some decent Internet Managers at other locations; Teddy Corpus of Honda of Hayward pops in my mind as another seeming easy salesman to deal with, he just didn't really offer me as compelling a deal as Jared Stika.

Also, SuperDyu, whenever you name a price, you should clarify whether it is before or after tax+license+etc. Are you saying $31,600 after taxes or before?

blue2k2s2k

I agree with tritium - STAY AWAY FROM DUBLIN HONDA.

give concord honda and/or autowest honda a try.

-blue

jrfblueeyes

Josh Stein: Internet manager of Val Strough Honda in Seaside.
Very cool and honest person. Loves the S2000 and knows everything about them. He will and did almost everything to close my deal. No bull!

jedwards

Stay away from Dublin Honda. (seems to be a consensus there)

I bought from AutoWest Honda and had a very good experience 2 years ago. That salesman is gone but made good on ALL of his promises on in email and on the phone. While other places replied to my web inquiries they bullshitted about one or more of the 3 things I listed as pre requisite to my buying.
1) Do you have any in stock at your location?
2) Can I take a test drive?
3) is the Dealer Markup negotiable.

At AutoWest they had a black demo that I test drove and two silverstones in stock at site. One red int and one black int. I test drove the demo and bought the S/Red that day... NO dealer markup.

Since then my Service people have been nothing short of excellent with many good anecdotes about going the extra mile for me in looking out for my interest.

BTW... today they are replacing my softtop for the standard wear problem. They've also done the tranny TSBs for me *no hassle*.

These are good people IMO.

jedwards

...no I don't work for Honda.

Voodoo_S2K

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jedwards
[B]Stay away from Dublin Honda.

Eternal706

Little bit of a drive for me, but I just got mine from El Cerrito Honda (kinda near Berkley) for $33,285 (plus tax and license) including a hardtop. Took all of 10 minutes for them to agree to that price so I guess I probably could have gotten better but I'm happy. Everyone at the dealership was really nice and didn't BS me about anything. If anyone wants more info, PM me but I would definately recommend them. Oh, and stay clear of Oakland...

S2-Raw

Stay away from Grace Honda. They suck ass!!! Not mention they are VERY unprofessional and are totally unorganized. I schedule a day to have some service done. I live one hour away and they are close to my work so I figured I'd drop my car off and they would give me a ride to work. Well I show up after my 1 hour commute and they say, "What appointment? We don't have any record of you making an appointment with us" I said "Whaaaaaat!! You're telling me I drove 1 hour for nothing?

mtbhead

OK, I'll throw in my $.02, since I just shopped for both used 2002's and new 2003's recently... First, I agree with SuperDyu about Los Gatos Honda - an idiot, I mean sales person there told me that the hardtop would only be $800 while I was there to take a look at what they had in inventory (they had one Silverstone). I wish I could remember his name - he also told about the mystery Sazuka Blue one, which the guy couldn't find when we went to go look for it. I wonder how many people go through that with them - why do they do that anyway? Anyhow, before you bother reading my new car buying tips, let me just give a quick reason why anyone would bother taking my advice: when I was looking at 2003's just a couple weeks ago, by the next day after I had visited my second dealership, I had already recieved a quote for $29,800 (not incl tax/licencing). I think that this is within $100 or so of dealer invoice plus destination charge for a 2003 S2000. Also, when my wife and I bought our new Passat a year and a half ago, we got it for invoice + $100. My "secrets" really aren't that big of a deal, but not everyone knows of them, or even follows them if they do know:

1) No matter what you do, no matter what they say, do NOT buy a car on your very first dealer visit while you're shopping. Along with this: don't let them convince you that this "deal" will go away tomorrow - that's typical car sales BS, and don't let them get you emotionally attached to one particular car that they happen to have on their lot - there's usually a few others around at other dealers... You can back out of a deal at any time prior to you signing the contract - don't feel like you owe them anything for their time. Caveot to this - if you're talking to 5 dealers, and you buy from one of them, send the others a quick email or phone messege thanking them for their time and help. It's just plain curtieous, plus it will keep them from calling/emailing you to try to continue to sell you a car...). You may have to "start the sales process" with them, just to get them to give you a real-world quote - then thank them, tell them that you're not ready to buy yet, and leave.

2) Use the internet!!! Most dealerships have an "internet" sales person who also doubles as their "fleet" sales person. These guys/gals often are on a different commission salary than the other regular sales folks. They can actually quote deals over the phone or in emails - most "regular" sales folks can't (other than MSRP). The "Fleet Dept" folks are usually more experienced sales folks with the ability to negotiate direct from the dealer's invoice cost (rather then starting at MSRP, etc). And, they will usually assume that if you're requesting a quote from them over the internet, you're probably doing the same with other dealers. My recommended way to do this is EASY! Go to www.edmunds.com and www.kbb.com, pick the new car or cars that you're interested in, and follow their instructions to "request a free quote". You'll have to enter your zipcode, name, email address (important!), and phone. I usually enter a fake snail mail address (but use your correct zipcode), since I don't want to recieve any junk mail afterwards. When you do this process, a list of local dealers (to your zipcode) will pop up - check them all - you have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain. I found that it would usually only give me about 3-4 dealers in "my local area". So, I also entered some other nearby zip codes, and viola - I was able to request quotes from just about every dealer in the bay area... Using this process, at least one of the quotes that I got (remember, this is prior to talking to any sales person directly) was for under $31k.

3) After you start getting quotes from them, start telling them what the "other guys" are quoting you... Basicly Basicly, dealer "A" sends you the first email back, and offers to sell you a 2003 S2000 for $31000, dealer "B" offers $30,500, and dealer "C" offers $32000. Send an email to dealers A and C, and tell them thanks, but you've already recieved a quote for $30,500 from Dealer "B", and they happen to have a color you're interested in (regardless of if they really do or not). By the way speaking of colors - when you actually start emailing them, always ask them what color/accessories they have in stock. Any price that they quote you is usually only good for the cars that they actually have sitting on their lots.

OK, I that's all I've got energy for - and my wife is telling me to turn the dang PC off... that's the most important stuff anyhow. Right now seems like a really good time to be in the market for this car: 1) it's been out for 3 years relatively unchanged, 2) since then other sub-$30k high performance cars have been introduced (the WRX, and recently the 350Z, Lancer Evolution, and new WRX STI), and the new car market right now in the bay area is s-l-o-w...