I'm very likely to buy a new Honda this month. Probably an Odyssey. I punched the details for an EX-L into TrueCar and it gave me some quotes. 2.8% off on 2022, and 6.3% off on a 2021. Is there a better source that any of you are aware of to determine what is possible? It's been a long time since I bought a new car.

Honda's, especially higher trim levels sell at or just below MSRP, not counting end of month, quarter, year, and model year discounts.

When we were shopping for a van a few months ago, I used various websites to try and figure out what the invoice price was. Then, I deducted the dealer holdback and any rebates. I added a couple hundred dollars to that figure and that was my starting offer. We weren't in a hurry to buy so I had time to negotiate.

We test drove two brand new 2021 and two used 2019 Odysseys. All of them had a shimmy when they reached about 72 mph. The salesmen said it was flat spots in the tires and that it will go away. Yeah, right . We gave up on the Odysseys and ended up with a Toyota Sienna AWD.

I'm never sure why people care. you still have to get a dealer to sell you the car and even if you think -5% is a good number if they don't it won't matter. I think the only good shopping tactic is to get quotes from a number (I like at least 3-5) for the vehicle in question and then you will know the market price for the car. I'm actually shopping for an Odyssey right now and the quotes I got are all within a hundred of each other. this is a competitive business.

Most have forums like this and common threads are about the price actually paid. I usually go look for those.

I can't help you on pricing, but in some areas Honda is offering 0% financing. Type in your zip code here to see what's available:

https://automobiles.honda.com/tools/current-offers

Mrs. Sigmund got a 2020 HRV last summer at .9% financing, at the time we thought it was a good deal. I'm not good at math (yeah, I went to public schools), but I think 0% is better.

This will help!

https://docs.google.com/spread.../edit#gid=2120251752

You should be able to get ~$5000 off of sticker.

quote:

Originally posted by Suppressed:

I deducted the dealer holdback

How do you find the holdback amount?

Let me talk to my manager

quote:

Originally posted by ss9961:
Let me talk to my manager

Wait in this glass-walled room "The Fishbowl" just off the showroom floor so other customers can see we're in the process of finalizing a sale.

There is a Youtube channel: Your Auto Advocate in which it's a father/son team where they focus on auto pricing. Seems to be very knowledgeable, you may find their site helpful.

I think KBB, Edmunds and Car Guru are good places to start in determining a fair price on a new car but how much a dealership is willing to negotiate depends on the popularity of the car, time of month and a host of other factors. Lots of buyers have had success just going online and emailing several dealerships and see who is willing to offer the best deal. There's also car buying services that many banks and credit unions offer to their customers that can help get a good price on a car. I refuse to pay MSRP on anything so I exercise a little patience and wait for the best deal to come along and when that deal presents itself I jump on it rather than miss out hoping to get something better.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
I can't help you on pricing, but in some areas Honda is offering 0% financing. Type in your zip code here to see what's available:

https://automobiles.honda.com/tools/current-offers

Mrs. Sigmund got a 2020 HRV last summer at .9% financing, at the time we thought it was a good deal. I'm not good at math (yeah, I went to public schools), but I think 0% is better.

Thanks Sigmund. Looks like there’re some 0% offers in my area for the next couple of months. Good to know.

I just waited for a holiday with multiple promotions, and got a local dealer with the exact truck I wanted to beat the best price given by a further away high volume low price dealer on a truck that was close.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Honda's, especially higher trim levels sell at or just below MSRP, not counting end of month, quarter, year, and model year discounts.

Not true. And I’ve bought a lot of new Honda’s for myself and negotiated for family and others.

On a Honda, start off about 8 percent below sticker if you’re not gonna use the internet sales dept. But whether or not Covid has affected their supply of cars right now, I have no idea. If supply is short the deals aren’t going to be as good, obviously. Like anything.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
I'm never sure why people care. you still have to get a dealer to sell you the car and even if you think -5% is a good number if they don't it won't matter. I think the only good shopping tactic is to get quotes from a number (I like at least 3-5) for the vehicle in question and then you will know the market price for the car. I'm actually shopping for an Odyssey right now and the quotes I got are all within a hundred of each other. this is a competitive business.

agree

once you realize the 'reasonable price range' (by gathering competing quotes) i will buy from a dealer who treats me right. i'm not driving 200 miles to save $400 on a car i will be driving for 7+ years.

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Most dealerships have some sort of internet department. Often they have the best pricing.

It's been a few years but my kids sent emails or fax to multiple dealers saying what they wanted. They were not set on a specific color so their email was something like: we are looking for an Odyssey with the xYZ trim package in any of the following x colors a, b, c, d, or e. Please reply to (fax/email) with pricing information. We will consider a higher trim level based on pricing.

Let the bidding begin.... LOL

Shop around on the internet or phone or both.

All the old tried and true ideas on how to get better prices are good places to start but the market buying new cars is different. Yes COVID

Short Supply allows dealers to hold prices, if you don't buy it, someone else will. 2020 was a record year for per unit profit, not volume, PROFIT.

It's expected that 2021 will be the same or even better as supply of chips are stopping production, the simple truth is, they are not making as many cars as in the past.

2021 Most profitable year ever for Car Dealers

Car Sales Tanked in 2020, But Dealerships Had Their Most Profitable Year Ever

On average, dealership profits rose nearly 50 percent in 2020—despite sales volume dropping by 15 percent. Here's how it happened.

Last year wasn't good for new car sales. Factory shutdowns, lockdowns, and consumer hesitancy caused car sales to crater in the Spring of 2020; stronger sales in the latter months of the year couldn't erase the early drop. Overall, sales were down 14.6 percent in 2020, which sounds like bad news for dealers. That's hardly the case: Automotive News reports that overall dealer profits soared by 48 percent last year, leading to record-setting profits despite sluggish sales.

That begs the question: How did dealers manage to make so much more money selling fewer cars? The first answer appears to be simple: They put the squeeze on us. Shuttered factories drastically reduced supply, but demand stayed strong. That led to a rush on dealers for in-demand models, with a line of customers ready to pay. Dealers could charge what they wanted.

Or, to put it in the sanitized words of industry insiders: "There was just an improvement in the returns from your operations [in 2020] due to the unique market conditions that increased scarcity for both new and used vehicles," Patrick Manzi, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association, told Automotive News.

As Manzi alludes, the used car market experienced similar pressure. The limited supply of new cars, coupled with economic conditions that squeezed many household budgets, led to huge demand for pre-owned vehicles. Prices, of course, skyrocketed. In January 2021, wholesale used-car prices were up 15.1 percent year-over-year, a remarkable jump that's nevertheless lower than the high-water mark for the pandemic used-car market.

Overall, in 2020 per-vehicle gross profit rose 13 percent on used cars and 22 percent on new cars. Some of that is dealership mark-up. But a second major factor played a part in the profitable year that COVID created for dealers: A shift toward more expensive vehicles.

That's because this pandemic didn't hit everyone equally. "There's really a dichotomy, economically, out there," Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at J.D. Power, told Road & Track. "The 'laptop class,' where you can shift to working from home... did extraordinarily well in 2020. It's really those that work in the service industry and other jobs that can't be done remotely that really suffered."

As the nation and world went into shutdown, well-off people changed their discretionary spending habits. "We saw a big shift in demand for durable goods," Jominy said. "You know, jewelry and—in particular—cars. If you're not going to swim with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa, you've got money for that $80,000 car. So we saw sales at that end really explode."

Explode is the right word. Sales of vehicles priced between $80,000 and $90,000 grew 91 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to J.D. Power data. Meanwhile, sales evaporated at the bottom end of the market. The under-$20,000 segment—which has been contracting bit by bit for years—collapsed, with a 30-percent year-over-year drop in the fourth quarter. The $20,000-to-$30,000 segment shrank 7 percent; the over-$100,000 market grew 63 percent.

Dealers had additional factors working for them. Many received forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans from the government. Overall staffing fell, and digital retail improved per-person productivity. Low interest rates, automaker credits, and low supply turned the floor plan from a liability into an asset. Every little bit helped: In 2020, dealers ended up making around $140 per car just from credits and interest alone. Compare that to a typical year, where a dealership might lose around $96 per car on fees and expenses related to slow-selling inventory lingering on lots—and have to make that money up elsewhere.

Whether these trends will continue in 2021 is hard to say with certainty. While the pandemic itself has not forced any recent factory closures, continuing shortages of crucial microchips have. It's an issue serious enough that the White House is getting involved, recognizing the severity of the potential disruptions. Should these issues continue, it's likely that we'll see a repeat of the higher per-vehicle transaction prices that defined 2020.

But the drastic spike in sales of expensive vehicles might correct itself sooner. "At the high end of the market, that is such a dramatic change that I can't see it running at those levels indefinitely," Jominy told R&T. "You get the one-time gain from a lack of options, but as we know, so many places in this country are ready to open up. And the expectation that we should have the vaccine rolled out to most of the country by summer means there's a large pent-up demand for entertainment and travel, vacations and movies, anything that we have been depriving ourselves of for over a year."

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
Most dealerships have some sort of internet department. Often they have the best pricing.

It's been a few years but my kids sent emails or fax to multiple dealers saying what they wanted. They were not set on a specific color so their email was something like: we are looking for an Odyssey with the xYZ trim package in any of the following x colors a, b, c, d, or e. Please reply to (fax/email) with pricing information. We will consider a higher trim level based on pricing.

Let the bidding begin.... LOL

Internet pricing isn't always/usually the best. It's just the easiest.

Most people will never truly get a bottom price. Nor do most people care. Most people just want to feel like they are getting a good/fair deal, subjectively.

Me? I want the dealer to lose money on my particular sale. They'll do it too, if you come in at the 11th hour to buy a car that they have on the lot and if they are close enough to reaching the next tier of sales incentives for the dealership.