Recommendation needed: Honda dealer & sales contact

[mousegun87]

I am looking at getting a new ride, probably a Honda Pilot. I went online and used TrueCar.com to get some pricing info on the model and trim I want. I used TrueCar in my prior 2 auto purchases with good results. This time I found myself being bombarded by emails, phone calls, and txt messages coming from 3 local Honda dealers identified by TrueCar as nearest to my location. These guys and gals are very aggressive and persistent. I got multiple people from the same dealership trying to contact me by all means available. Frankly, if they are already this pushy even before I talk to them, I cannot imagine how much more pushy they get once I visit the dealer lot.

Do you have any recommendation on Honda dealership and contact person(s) who are helpful, but not pushy in making the sale, in the Denver-Ft. Collins area?

My last purchase with Toyota was very pleasant. I visited the dealership, gave the internet sale manager a sheet of paper with the specs of car I was looking for. He found the car (while I was there) and gave me a price. I knew the statistics of sale prices in the area and his price was under the average sale price, I knew he tried to save me the aggravation of price negotiation. I made one minor request, and we reached a deal ..... all in a matter of minutes. Easiest car buying experience in my life and this is how I intend to make my next purchase.

[CS1983]

Schomp in Littleton. No haggle. Good dealer warranty available.

[Great-Kazoo]

I am looking at getting a new ride, probably a Honda Pilot. I went online and used TrueCar.com to get some pricing info on the model and trim I want. I used TrueCar in my prior 2 auto purchases with good results. This time I found myself being bombarded by emails, phone calls, and txt messages coming from 3 local Honda dealers identified by TrueCar as nearest to my location. These guys and gals are very aggressive and persistent. I got multiple people from the same dealership trying to contact me by all means available. Frankly, if they are already this pushy even before I talk to them, I cannot imagine how much more pushy they get once I visit the dealer lot.

Do you have any recommendation on Honda dealership and contact person(s) who are helpful, but not pushy in making the sale, in the Denver-Ft. Collins area?

My last purchase with Toyota was very pleasant. I visited the dealership, gave the internet sale manager a sheet of paper with the specs of car I was looking for. He found the car (while I was there) and gave me a price. I knew the statistics of sale prices in the area and his price was under the average sale price, I knew he tried to save me the aggravation of price negotiation. I made one minor request, and we reached a deal ..... all in a matter of minutes. Easiest car buying experience in my life and this is how I intend to make my next purchase.

Call the dealer you were over burdened with sales calls from. Ask to speak to the sales manager, explain to him what you posted here.

[Gman]

What happened here is a good case for going through a broker. I've done it twice to get a specific VIN from a dealer's inventory without a bunch of hassle and being held captive at the dealership all day. The broker also sold my used vehicle at auction to get me top dollar for the trade-in.

[kwando]

Call my buddy Peter Schramm at Centennial Leasing and Sales. Tel him Simon sent ya, he’s a great guy. The only guy you’ll deal with also at CLS. He’s pro 2A also.

‭(720) 327-0233‬
pschramm@centleasing.com

[MrPrena]

Ones that I DO NOT recommend is MileHigh and Planet.
I would avoid any place with high D&H fees.

Places with moderate services are Fisher, Frontier and schompz. Only thing is the Ralph schomps have a fixed price.

Funny that main Honda sales guy and managers are same person from 20 years ago. Wow.

Talk to Internet Sales guy or accidently talk to fleet guys. They usually so good deals. Only thing if you talk to manager is that he/she will have available sales guy to help you out. (Called spoon deal in the car industry).

[ben4372]

I'm not a fan of Schomp's service department. Though they seem competent, work always done well. And not really a fan of the new store. I get the sense some change of guard happened. Maybe the kids are in charge now. But feel free to haggle there. I got 500 off the minivan a few years back. Not a ton but nice.

[mousegun87]

I visited AutoNation in Westminster, Kuni, Schomp, and Planet. Honda of Greeley and Markley got written off early due to their high pressure tactics even via email, text, and phone calls.

AutoNation was ok. Their pricing was not the best. Nothing remarkable.

Kuni ...... well, the sales rep fits the stereotype of a car salesman. Sales manager is super high pressure. He even tried to discourage me from visiting other dealerships even though I told him that I already made appointments there. So we wrote Kuni off and will never do any business with them.

Schomp ..... we were impressed by the services. No pressure at all. Very professional. We knew about the fixed pricing. We thought this was the place to buy our Honda, but we still need to visit Planet.

Planet .... they called us to confirm our appointment 45 minutes before the time. We confirmed it and told them we were on our way there. We arrived early ..... front desk was empty. Lots of staff walking back and forth seemingly busy. They walked passed us and nobody said HI or asked if we needed help. This went on for a good half hour. Then we sat down while trying to "read" the place and decide what to do next. By this time our impression has gone way far into the negative. Then there was a staff member who walked by and said HI. But he did not stop to talk to us. He went to assist other customers who just arrived. What about us? 10 more minutes passed, and my wife wanted to leave. Ok, we take our business elsewhere. Just as we stood up and about to leave, the same guy who greeted us walked by and I called him over. When I gave him my name, he was surprised ..... because he was looking for me. But he saw us sitting down thinking that we were already helped by other sales rep. The guy's name is Ray Williams. He apologized profusely for missing us and letting us waiting for so long. He acknowledged that he and Planet dropped the ball there.

I told him we were on our way out and would go to Schomp to buy our Pilot there. But I would like to know what he could put together for us. Ray put together some numbers and gave us the printout. We were surprised to see that his number was the lowest of all offers we received. He beats Schomp by $600 for one particular Pilot LX they have in the lot. The only catch is, the color is not what I wanted. Planet has a fixed price policy and no dealer fee either. Apparently, this specific Pilot LX has been sitting in their lot for 57 days. He explained to us that he could offer larger discount the longer the car sits in the lot. The car has just 53 miles on the odometer. He explained that their clienteles prefer higher end Pilot. So the lower end LX does not sell that quickly. Ray also told me that in 3 days, when the car enters the 60th day in the lot, he would be able to knock another $100 off the price. This is the first time a car sales rep explain this to me. We like Ray. So we decided to wait another 3 days and buy our Pilot LX from Planet. Our final price was $700 lower than that of Schomp and $600 less than Kuni (and the car from Kuni had hail damage that they would repair before selling it).

[buffalobo]

Call my buddy Peter Schramm at Centennial Leasing and Sales. Tel him Simon sent ya, he’s a great guy. The only guy you’ll deal with also at CLS. He’s pro 2A also.

‭(720) 327-0233‬
pschramm@centleasing.comNext time save the hassles and do this^^^

[Wolfshoon]

True_car used to be a great deal, as they were an independent service with access to actual dealer invoice pricing. They gave real info on MSRP, dealer cost and hold back infomation and passed it onto you the consumer in an understandable way. It was very popular and dealerships had to pay Truecar to get on their referral list and dealership profits were being cut fairly significantly as a large portion of customers were using the service.

Of course the car dealerships didn't like all this good info being put out there for everyone to see, so they banded together and sued TrueCar. Something along the lines of "operating as a dealer without a license" or some similar BS back in circa 2015 IIRC. bottom line is the dealerships lawyers won and TrueCar was effectively gutted and part of the settlement was the dealerships now own TrueCar. So now it has essentially become an advertising venue for the dealerships.

That's too bad, I remember using Truecar back in 2013 and that made for a pretty good deal for me with all the info they provided. I made the mistake of using them again last year in 2017 and the info was maybe a 1/5th of what I got in 2013 and of no bargaining use and I got barraged with calls and emails from dealers. Not a good experience at all. I negotiated a much better deal by over a $1200 better than what Trucar said I should expect to pay.

[BladesNBarrels]

Call my buddy Peter Schramm at Centennial Leasing and Sales. Tel him Simon sent ya, he’s a great guy. The only guy you’ll deal with also at CLS. He’s pro 2A also.

‭(720) 327-0233‬
pschramm@centleasing.com

Is he doing used cars also or just new and leases?

[mousegun87]

True_car used to be a great deal, as they were an independent service with access to actual dealer invoice pricing. They gave real info on MSRP, dealer cost and hold back infomation and passed it onto you the consumer in an understandable way. It was very popular and dealerships had to pay Truecar to get on their referral list and dealership profits were being cut fairly significantly as a large portion of customers were using the service.

Of course the car dealerships didn't like all this good info being put out there for everyone to see, so they banded together and sued TrueCar. Something along the lines of "operating as a dealer without a license" or some similar BS back in circa 2015 IIRC. bottom line is the dealerships lawyers won and TrueCar was effectively gutted and part of the settlement was the dealerships now own TrueCar. So now it has essentially become an advertising venue for the dealerships.

That's too bad, I remember using Truecar back in 2013 and that made for a pretty good deal for me with all the info they provided. I made the mistake of using them again last year in 2017 and the info was maybe a 1/5th of what I got in 2013 and of no bargaining use and I got barraged with calls and emails from dealers. Not a good experience at all. I negotiated a much better deal by over a $1200 better than what Trucar said I should expect to pay.

This is my experience too with TrueCar. Used it in 2013 to buy my Camry. Got good data on pricing. I recalled how I was able to get dealer pricing from TrueCar and other data without being bormbarded with emails, phone calls, and txt messages from various dealerships in the area. I did not know about the lawsuit in 2015. So I used TrueCar again this year as I did in 2013. OMG. within hours of putting in my "Request for price", I got tons of email, txt, and phone calls from 3 dealerships (TrueCar only listed the nearest 3 dealerships). One of them was so aggressive that I had 4-5 people trying to contact me at the same time! I contacted their sales manager and told him that I would not be buying a car from them simply because of their overly aggressive marketing tactics even before I set foot on their lot. He tried to lower the offered price after I told him that. I still declined. I don't want to deal with people or organization who are that aggressive to the point they made my life uncomfortable.

Thanks for the tip. No more TrueCar for me.

[snichols28]

Costco's Auto Program without a doubt!

I just left a 20 year job (in service department) at the Honda/GM dealer here in Fort Collins and can tell you buying through Costco's program is easily the way to go. You can get on their website, see exactly what the vehicle and every option cost is, and buy it for that. ...and usually get rebates/incentives on top of that. It completely eliminates the hassle of trying to negotiate with dealers.

Even as a dealer employee at the time, Costco pricing was better than I would have been able to get as an employee. 99.2% of car salespeople are also dishonest schmucks and make you "feel" like you're getting a deal. I saw many many dishonest moves and over-promises by car salespeople over the years and I absolutely hated even being associated with any of it. Dealers make a lot more money off customer's than you'd realize.

[ray1970]

I spent about fifteen years working at various dealerships. One of the younger, up and coming salesman explained the car sales business to me pretty early on. He said that if you wanted to make a successful career out of selling cars then you had to be willing to screw your own grandmother over to make a deal. I remind myself of this every time I deal with anyone in sales. Going into combat knowing how the enemy operates makes it a little easier.

[kwando]

Is he doing used cars also or just new and leases?

He does everything, new/used/classics.

[electronman1729]

Are you a member of USAA? check them first.

We used the Honda dealer in Boulder. Worked out well and I still forced them to lower the price on the CRV.

[BladesNBarrels]

He does everything, new/used/classics.

Thank you!
We just went through a round at McDonald's Audi concerning a 2014 Honda.
Their last argument was they had to protect the McDonald's family assets.
New one to me. Later (of course) I had the thought to respond that I had to protect my assets.
We didn't buy the car, and last night it hailed like hail and the car would have been hammered.
Providence?

[thebolt]

Costco's Auto Program without a doubt!

I just left a 20 year job (in service department) at the Honda/GM dealer here in Fort Collins and can tell you buying through Costco's program is easily the way to go. You can get on their website, see exactly what the vehicle and every option cost is, and buy it for that. ...and usually get rebates/incentives on top of that. It completely eliminates the hassle of trying to negotiate with dealers.

Even as a dealer employee at the time, Costco pricing was better than I would have been able to get as an employee. 99.2% of car salespeople are also dishonest schmucks and make you "feel" like you're getting a deal. I saw many many dishonest moves and over-promises by car salespeople over the years and I absolutely hated even being associated with any of it. Dealers make a lot more money off customer's than you'd realize.

I also recommend going through Costco. Car salesmen are tortuous and there is no reason to undergo that miserable process of dealing with them on their own ground.

[Zman]

Are you a member of USAA? check them first.

We used the Honda dealer in Boulder. Worked out well and I still forced them to lower the price on the CRV.

Unfortunately USAA uses TrueCar for their support.

Z