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2011 RTL/Nav vs 2012 RTL/Nav in Dealer's Inventory

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#1 ·
I have a dealer who have (4) 2011 RTL w/Nav and (1) 2012 RTL w/Nav. I'm going to the dealer on Monday 1/2/12 and see what are the offers on a 2011 RTL w/Nav and a 2012 RTL w/Nav. My questions are:

1) Would the dealer discount more on the 2011 vs the 2012?
2) Does the dealer have some kind of month end/year end bonus to get the truck sold? - Back in 2005, I went to this dealer on 7/1/05 and leased a 2005 Pilot EX for $249 for 3 yrs/12K miles with only putting down 1st payment @ signing. Also, back in December 2009, they had 2 RTL w/Nav left and was selling the last 2 for $29,999.00. I bought my 2009 RTS a month before, if not, I would have purchased one of the 2 left over.

If I purchase either truck and drove 24K in 2 yrs, @ the end of 2 yrs, there is a $2,000 difference in depreciation.

Any Ridgeline owners purchased @ year end? and what was your experience buying on the last day of the year?

For me to pull the trigger, they have to sell me the 2011 RTL/Nav for $32,500 and provide the $750 Honda down payment assistance. AND take my trade in (2009 RTS w/roof rack & chrome side steps- 25K miles) for $22,500. I'll give them 1 hr to work a deal, if not, I'm walking out. Maybe I'll start with the 2012 RTL w/Nav and see where they go from there.
 
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#2 ·
Your going to giive them 1 hour then don't bother never going to happen. I just got my RTL 2011 on the 5th for about 5,000 under sticker price took 6 hours. No it does not have NAV the NAV I find is horrible the oonly plus would be the bluetooth and back-up camera if you really need it. The 5,000 under sticker price was allso cause I have a family member that works at the dealership and still took 6 hours.
 
#3 ·
Celtics, that's a great price. Did you received any of the Honda certificates? Six hours, that's a loooooong time in a dealership. From your experience, what was the hold up? I'm sure is pricing, did they go back and forth to the manager office?

The way this dealer works, they shoot an email to you on the last week of the month with pricing (around invoice) for each model. The last push for month end. What I plan to do is to exchange couple emails on the 31th and see where they at. What I learned from my Client Advisor back in 2005 is internet pricing is definite lower then walking into the dealership. She no longer works there. She also mentioned this dealership generates most of their sales through the internet dept. This dealer have 8 client advisors and 1 manager in the internet dept. Other I had contacted have only 2 CA/1 manager in their internet dept. I also asked her why they agreed to a low lease payment with no money down for my 2005 Pilot. Her answer was for each unit sold after 7/1, the internet dept. gets $x amount of bonus. So her job was to sell as much as possible on those 3 days (July 4 weekend). That was the fastest transaction I ever made. I sent out 5 emails to different dealers. This dealer called me within 1 hr. They offer $399 per month with $1500 down. I countered with $249 with no money down. She put me on hold for 1 min then came on and agreed, but I have pick up the Pilot the next day.

Yes, I want the blue tooth and backup camera. Do not care for the Nav. So, 1 hr for them to lower the price from invoice and give me $22,500 (kbb/nada) for my 2009 RTS. Remember, no matter what happen, I still driving a Ridgeline home. The used value of RL is too good to turn down. I paid $26,000 for my 2009 RTS.
 
#4 ·
6 hours was for them to go back and forth and show me spreed sheets like I was a two year old and try and trick me into meeting a payment when I expalined to them its not about getting my payments to a certain amount its the bottom line price of the truck which will make up my mind if I should buy oor not. I made out like a bandit though they gave me 6,000 for my 2005 eqiuonox with a engine that needed major work. So pretty happpy over all and I also bought my wife a card that same night so that added some time as well. I can tell you that the truck is a gas guzzler I only get about 14 to 15 mile per gallon but I guess it all depends on how you drive and if its rural or not.
 
#5 ·
I have a dealer who have (4) 2011 RTL w/Nav and (1) 2012 RTL w/Nav. I'm going to the dealer on Monday 1/2/12 and see what are the offers on a 2011 RTL w/Nav and a 2012 RTL w/Nav. My questions are:

Would the dealer discount more on the 2011 vs the 2012?
Normally they always discount the older vehicle to make room for the new ones, but since the Tsunami, it might be a different story as demand might be higher, so they might not have to offer any discount what-so-ever!

I guess you will be our guiny pig, in this case!

Let us know!
 
#18 ·
You said you purchased a 2012 RTL with Navi for $32,500, including destination. That price is about $3,000 less than what I've seen (including from Autonation). Did you put a down payment down or have a trade in that is not reflected in the price you said you paid for your Ridgeline?
 
#17 ·
I know where I stopped they told me honda was discounting the 2012's 2000.00 off the sticker price and the same with the 2011's. Now I see that the 2011's have an additional 500 or so off the sticker and they don't have the 2012's in yet. I would definitly get a 2012 for that little of a price difference. Now after hearing about the 2013's I want to wait for one of those.
 
#19 ·
Well, I'm going to the dealership tonight to get a price quote on the 2011 & 2012 RTL w/Nav. They refused to send any quote by email, but they are the most aggressive dealer in NJ (#3 in the State of NJ). I'll see what is their best offer. Stay tune.:act035:
 
#20 ·
Update After Visiting Dealer

Well, I'm back from the dealership. Total time spent @ the dealer - 1 hr.

First, the salesman insisted we take a look at the 2012 RTL w/Nav (1 in stock) - MSRP $37,990 + $995 (Pinstripes/dr rubber guards). We sat down and the salesman started with the "4 square":act018:. His first offer was $37,990 - WTF, I got up and thank him for his time. Total shock on his face and asked if I can sit down and make an offer on the 2012. I told him to give me a legit offer on the 2012 and not anything close to MSRP. He came down to $36,990 and started to push hard on the 2011 RTL w/Nav (3 in stock). Within that 5 mins, I felt they're not going to go near dealer invoice - $34K. So we started on the 2011.

2011 RTL w/Nav - MSRP $37,890 +$995. His first offer was $35,890 and insisted I counter offer. I told him I'm going to low ball the 2011 offer because I came in for a 2012. He went to the manager desk and came back with a "closer" (a manager who try to close the deal)

The "closer" asked me for an offer on the 2011 RTL w/Nav and I have to drive home with the new truck tonight. I offered $31,000 and $22,500 for my trade-in (2009 RTS w/ Chrome sidesteps & Roof rack - 26K in miles). The "closer" came back with a final offer of $32,500 for the 2011 and $21,500 for the trade-in. Took about 3 mins to think about the final offer and then I got up and thank the 2 gentlemen for their time and WALKED OUT.

$32,500 on a 2011 RTL w/Nav is a very good price, but I couldn't accept the $21,500 on the trade-in. On the drive home, I was thinking I would have taken $21,500 if they taken out the roof rack and the chrome sidesteps and put it on the new Ridgeline. Oh well.

As I was walking out, I heard my salesman said "I couldn't believe he turned down this offer" showing other sales guys the "4 square" sheet with the final offer.

Moving on to the next dealer.
 
#24 ·
Re: Update After Visiting Dealer

Well, I'm back from the dealership. Total time spent @ the dealer - 1 hr.

First, the salesman insisted we take a look at the 2012 RTL w/Nav (1 in stock) - MSRP $37,990 + $995 (Pinstripes/dr rubber guards). We sat down and the salesman started with the "4 square":act018:. His first offer was $37,990 - WTF, I got up and thank him for his time. Total shock on his face and asked if I can sit down and make an offer on the 2012. I told him to give me a legit offer on the 2012 and not anything close to MSRP. He came down to $36,990 and started to push hard on the 2011 RTL w/Nav (3 in stock). Within that 5 mins, I felt they're not going to go near dealer invoice - $34K. So we started on the 2011.

2011 RTL w/Nav - MSRP $37,890 +$995. His first offer was $35,890 and insisted I counter offer. I told him I'm going to low ball the 2011 offer because I came in for a 2012. He went to the manager desk and came back with a "closer" (a manager who try to close the deal)

The "closer" asked me for an offer on the 2011 RTL w/Nav and I have to drive home with the new truck tonight. I offered $31,000 and $22,500 for my trade-in (2009 RTS w/ Chrome sidesteps & Roof rack - 26K in miles). The "closer" came back with a final offer of $32,500 for the 2011 and $21,500 for the trade-in. Took about 3 mins to think about the final offer and then I got up and thank the 2 gentlemen for their time and WALKED OUT.

$32,500 on a 2011 RTL w/Nav is a very good price, but I couldn't accept the $21,500 on the trade-in. On the drive home, I was thinking I would have taken $21,500 if they taken out the roof rack and the chrome sidesteps and put it on the new Ridgeline. Oh well.

As I was walking out, I heard my salesman said "I couldn't believe he turned down this offer" showing other sales guys the "4 square" sheet with the final offer.

Moving on to the next dealer.
Careful with NJ... AFAIK, they don't have a cap on "document fees". So you might negotiate a great price that turns out to be not so great after $2-700 of tacked-on BS document fees.
 
#22 ·
>> Did you put a down payment down or have a trade in that is not reflected in the price you said you paid for your Ridgeline?

paid cash and drove home. another dealer with the +800 higher price for 2011 RTL w/Navi said the price I paid for the 2012 RTL w/Navi is his price for 2012 RTL *without Navi* - so I expected to be paying about 2500-3000 less OTD in the final sale.

the point I was trying to make earlier is that I've bought several Honda's same way, never saw or spoke with anyone in person, never spoke on phone and handled all negotiation via email - if the dealer refuses to discuss, I move to the next dealer. Truecar.com is a good starting point but you *SHOULD* expect to *ALWAYS* pay at least 2000.00 below the best/lowest dealer price - otherwise you are paying too much.
 
#25 · (Edited)
There have to be regional pricing differences at play. Here in CT I had no fewer than 6 different dealers within a 50 mile radius working on a 2012 quote for me (all via email). The lowest price I got after weeks of back and forth emails was just south of 34k (this included destination charges, the first service for free and an extension of the full factory warranty for 9 months). Each of the remaining 5 dealers asked what the lowest price quoted was and when I told them each one said they couldn't come near that at all and that was a VERY good price. I would expect that if every dealer could offer the same price as henni's dealer did the other dealers in my area would have at least tried to undercut the lowest price by some amount.

The bottom line for me was I felt you have to get the best price for your area. My philosophy was that I can spend months trying to squeeze every last cent out of the deal only to walk away because I felt the dealer had more to give up OR I could take the best deal I got knowing (at least from what I have read in this forum) that I was getting a great quality vehicle that will give me many years of enjoyment. It's like those people that will drive 20 extra minutes out of their way to save 3 cents on a gallon of gas.
 
#30 ·
Re: Update After Visiting Dealer

>>. Can't believe you "WALKED OUT" on that one.

I concur as even for pure tax reasons (differential of sales tax with trade-in) that was not a bad offer
henni,

I'm trying to have dealers match your offer. One did, but for 2011:act024:

For a 2012 - NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!!!!!! You're the MAN!!!:act035:

Yes, I took the sales tax into consideration.
 
#32 ·
Re: Update After Visiting Dealer

>> I'm trying to have dealers match your offer.

I don't think Jersey dealers with match the price down here due to the individual deals in effect and who knows all the secret handshakes and one-off deals arranged if dealer meets some unknown volume quota and gets rebates from factory.
Henni,

What state/region are you in?
 
#33 ·
Finalized Deal on White/Gray 2011 RTL w/Nav

"Can't believe you "WALKED OUT" on that one."

Well, Monday morning I was asked to "WALK BACK IN" to the dealership. I told them before I go back to the dealership, either lower the 2011 offer OR go higher on my trade-in. The internet manager said they would go higher on the trade-in. After full appraisal, they came back with the same #s -2011 RTL w/Nav - $32,500, 2009 RTS - $21,500 (lol). I told them I would accept the deal if they move the chrome sidesteps to the new truck. They said no, they will give me 10% off on a new one ($800). I told my sales guy, this is a deal breaker, I'm walking out again. GSM realized I was not happy and came by the desk and told me he is giving me a great deal on both. I told him yes on the 2011, not on the trade-in. GSM was a big Giants fan and saw I was wearing a Giants fleece (small talk about the Giants win), he sat down and told me since we both are big Giants fan, give me your final offer. Told him very plain and simple, $21,500 on the trade-in and move the sidesteps to the new truck OR $21,750 on the trade-in. He took the $21,750.

They tried to add two BS fees on the contract - 1) Nitrogen for $59.99, 2) Safe & Secure Package for $299.99 - etching on glass & replacement key for 1 yr. I looked at my sales guy and make a funny face. Told him I'll give in the nitrogen but take out the safe & secure package. Which he did. Interesting thing my sales guy mentioned that most car buyers do not read every lines on the contract, they looked at the purchase price then signed and want to leave with the new car as soon as possible. And in the Finance dept, that was another adverture. Finance guy tried to sell me 6, yes 6, different warranty/maintenance packages.:act018:

Well, I hope you guys/gals enjoyed this sales experience and at the same time, learned alot from it (my 15 yr-old son did. This will be his truck in 2 yrs). I do have to say, this was one of the toughest deal I had to negotiate, due to the trade-in. In the very beginning, I thought trade-in was the easiest and getting a dealer to sell me a 2011 for $32,000 - $32,500 would be the hardest. Based on the conversation with the sales guy & GSM, I think I could got a lower price ($250-$500 less) if I didn't have a trade-in. Remember, shop around and if you're not happy with the deal - WALK OUT!:act035:

ps: At the final delivery, my sales guy went on and on about the survey. I told him don't WORRY, I'm giving you all 5s on the survey.
 
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