Did i get rip by car dealers?

Question

I just brought a Honda Civic LX 2006 from a Honda store in SF. They have the car for about $17,500. But when i was working with the dealer buying it, they said it will be $21,500. I was like WTF? They said they wont earn any money if they do it that cheap, but i manage to bring it down to $20,200. I also brought a 4 year extend car serviese. End up being like $24,500. I put $2000 down payment and going to do $391/ 6 years. Did i get rip?

Answer 1

I did some quick calculations based on the numbers in your question. The total amount you are going to be paying for the car at the end of the six years is $28,152.00. This for a car that started out being $17,500.00. Is this your first vehicle purchase? You should have walked out of the dealership as soon as the price went from the $17,500.00 to the $21,500. They knew that you could be an easy mark as soon as you fell for the they won't earn any money.....You most likely wasted the $4,300.00 you paid for the extended service also, most vehicles never develop anything covered in those extended warranties until they have 175,000 miles on them. Honda's are good cars, but that car should have been closer to the $18,000.00 mark. You need to be doing more research into vehicle purchases, checking the Kelly blue book and consulting Consumer Reports and talking to people who actually own the vehicle. I don't know if you can return it or not, if you are unsatisfied; but you may want to check that out before you put a lot of mileage on the car. Some states have laws governing big ticket purchases, you may want to check with a local lawyer, to see what your rights are. Best of luck to you, this will be a learning experience for you, and you will probably never fall for this type of thing again. Have a good night!

Answer 2

Yes! You shouldn't care if they are going to make any $$ on the deal. You tell them what you want to pay when they say no walk. You can leave them your # and at the end of the month when they are hungry for the sale or trying to beat the other sales men for top dog then they will call you and now you hold the cards. The extended warrenty was overpriced. You can buy those online after you purchase the car for cheaper. Dealers feed on suckers like you. I know I worked at a dealership. Never beleive anything they say. I am sorry.

Answer 3

I was in the car business for over 6 years and worked my way up to finance manager for a Nissan dealer. Its easy to point fingers at the dealers but the bottom line in any type of sales transaction is "BUYER BE WARE". Did you do some research before hand? No , if you did you would have no doubts. The best thing to do is to at least learn from your mistakes. The dealers are in the business to make money. Keep in mind everything in this world is negotiable.Especially a car! Take the responsibility for not educating your self. There is an abundance of info on line that could have helped you in your car purchase. But here is my insiders tip on car buying:
1. Go on line to all 3 separate credit Bureaus(trans union,exquifax,experian) pay $10 for each report. Don't do the three in one reports. That's never to accurate.
2.If your a first time buyer keep your sights low on the value of the car $16k and under. Most banks will not finance you on something more expensive. You have to work you way up over time.Keep in mind that most banks want to see some money down for a first time approval. At a minimum $2 or 3k or better. Again go on line and try to secure an auto loan. By having a loan in hand before you buy at a dealer gives you great leverage.Plus you can get a better rate than a dealer can . Dealers make money on everything they sell including a loan(called points).
3. Narrow down to the type of car that you would like and research it. a great site is "www.kbb.com or edmonds.com"
There you can see what the invoice price is on any new car. The "invoice" is the price the dealer pays the manufacture for. $300 to $500 over invoice is fair price for any car where there is a good amount of vehicles to choose from. This cant apply to cars in high demand and short supply.Even premium(BMW , Mercedes etc) cars are hard to get a discount on.
Sometime for a no hassle deal contact an Internet manager.Ask for their Internet price and compare that to what you found out on line.
Here's an example your purchase, from Kelly blue book:
2006 Honda Civic LX
MSRP(manufactures retail price)
$18,105.00
Invoice
$16,612.62
New Car Blue
Book Value
What consumers are really paying for this vehicle
$17,859.00
You paid $17500, did you get rip? Not really. Could you have gotten a better price ? Of course.

"They said they wont earn any money if they do it that cheap"
Not true at all. Even if you can negotiate a car below invoice they still make money. Dealer get all types of kick backs and bonuses from the manufactures . Plus even at invoice that's not a true price either. Dealers have whats called a "pack" and extra cushion to help cover expense incurred by every car on the lot.

4.Never buy any thing else in the finance department.Again that's another way they make their money. That extended warranty for four years could only cost them at most $500 to $800 max and charge you $3000! The good news is that you can cancel the warranty at anytime. They just refund the lender. You can get a warranty later right before the manufactures warranty expires.You need to pay attention By the millage or the months left. At that point you can choose an additional year or two. remember you can negotiate the price of the warranty as well. Good luck.

Answer 4

Hey, the cost of the car and the point that you brought it down to 20+ K is good.
Now the 4 years extended car service is a rip off. Also read through and you will learn that not many things would be covered in that extended service.
So you will still have time to take that agreement of extended car service back. Talk not to car dealer, but to the Extended car service company and cancel your extended service. Sometimes you might even get back the portion of money you gave for extended service.

Generally nothing would happen to car and the maintenance might also be lesser than actuall extended service cost for 4 years. -- My experience.

Answer 5

I hate to break it to you but you could have had a better deal if you shopped around, too bad CA does not have a 30 day cooling off period anymore. MSRP on your car is 17,500 according to Edmunds.com. The dealer would have made 1000 plus any factory incentives. I just bought a new Fully Loaded Pilot for 28,000..it was MSRP for over 34,000, there is room to deal. You also need to look at how much interest your going to pay over a six year loan. Live and learn.

Answer 6

You do realize that you're gonna end up paying $30,000 for an economy car??????? Did you get ripped-off? DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you signed the contract, there's little you can do, unless you bought the 2-day option to cancel your contract (new law in CA). Btw, there never was any "30 day cooling off period" in CA or anywhere else for that matter. But Saturn and Dodge offer that.

What the hell were you thinking?

Answer 7

Civics hold their value, you didn't say what options you got with your car. My wife & I looked to buy an '06 Civic a few months ago
and your correct on what the car lists for. We have a '99 Civic EX
and Kelly Blue Book still values it at $9800. at 55k miles.

Answer 8

Wow, they saw you coming! Extended warranty??!!! On a Honda???!!! Would you like to buy this really nice bridge in The Youkon?

Answer 9

Extended warranty is worthless, most cars last long if taken care of.
People think car dealers rip you off, but, if they only new about independent shops

Answer 10

Car dealers ALWAYS RIP YOU OFF. Your best bet is to bring a person who knows a lot about cars and prices with you. Don't let them mess with you.