Zyuan10

Hello. Anyone from the Portland area here? I was just wondering which dealership provided the overall better experience/price in the area. Acura of Portland or Ron Tonkin Acura? I want to get some opinions so I can at least get an idea on how to prepare myself a bit ^_^;

I've decided on a 2007 non-navi TSX and done enough homework to be able to cite the info myself. Now I just need to know which one is the better dealership x_x

Oh yea... my family can only have one car and he wants the Jetta GLi -_- Similar cars, samilar price... I need some way for my TSX to win his heart so hopefully the better dealship can provide a bit of an edge xD

clee109

Plenty of us from Portland, search in the photo section for the meet we had not too long ago.

As for Tonkin, bastards lol. I sold honda/acura for Kendall honda/acura in Eugene for a while. Go down there and talk to Roger Poe, Ryan or Sean Carney, tell them Chris Lee sent you. They'll remember me lol.....

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

i would say AOP is lil better than RT. i don't like RT at all. service managers r bitch too. but the older ones with bad service got replaced i think. they have better service managers now.

you should make two dealers compete and go for the one that gives you better deal.

Ken1997TL

clee109

^^^ Rory was pretty good for a service manager at RT, just hate the sales staff. Plus AOP and RT have a huge pool to fish from, so if they don't like your deal they tell you to walk.

Go to RT, negotiate, take that and go to AOP and negotiate, then take the AOP price and call Kendall and they'll beat it, garunteed, plus make it worth your while to drive down there. Ohhh and here's an inside tip:

Sales Mangers at Kendall:

Kevin: sucks at trades, too new to the sales manger position to know how to play the trade game.
Ryan: veteran, good on trades, hard on discounts
Tony: used car manager, but if you manage to get him on a new car deal, you'll get a good price on your trade and a good discount to make the deal.

I didn't say it though....lol

clee109

oh and by the way, we'll need to have another meet sometime where everyone can make it!

gt0279a

I can get you in touch with the fleet managers at both AOP and RT. Much better deals than working with the salesmen @ the dealerships.

Jeffrey Serota

THe Tonkin family has been in the business for years and know how to run a dealership and treat Acura customers accordingly. In yhe final anaiysis you won't find to much difference in the 2. Acura maintains very hi standards for the dealers that must comply. I suggest a simple visit to both and make your own decision.. Sales and service are 2 seperate beasts with in a dealership. Not all have both Sales and service departments that operate at the same level. Hope this helps you sort things out.....

Zyuan10

Alright... I've finally decided...

If things can go smoothly and such, I'll take advantage of the finance offer from acura and grab a 2006 non-navi acura TSX w/ a-spec suspension and aero kit. I hope I can pull a deal off like $30k more/less at one of tonkin or AoP. Kendall is just about out of my reach x_x but i'll try to make them my last ditch attempt to get my TSX.

The problem I'm now concerned about is... are there still a good selection of 2006 models left? Well, accessories can be added but color cannot. I want Nighthawk Black! I know it's been awhile and the lots are full of 2007's. besides the tire pressure monitor, there's nothing different about the 07 from the 06 it seems.

I'll try to buy my car on the 30th because i read from another thread that that's when all dealerships' payroll closes so hopefully I can hassle some little discounts here and there. before then, I'll try to make some visit to check things out and stuff; Setting up my tools and weapons

Wish me luck!

Nintova

I got my 05 and 06 at AoP. Tonkin scoffed at what I wanted to pay and AoP was able to get very close to it.

shmork53

i bught mine from AOP, and I don't like RT. i went to them and they just couldn't do anything with trade in values or adjusting the price of the car. AOP has a great service department and they have always treated me well. Although dont let me make up your decision. Good luck

clee109

your idea about the 30th is perfect, and one other tip from experience from selling, do it late on the last day of the month, like around 6 or 7 in the evening cause sales people and managers and F&I wanna make the deal before the end of the month and go home lol, plus if you can see the managers office, like at Kendall you can, there is a board with each sales persons name and how many cars they've sold that month, pick the one with the highest or close to highest sales because they can be one car off of a AHM bonus and will whore the car out to make the bonus =) I did it a couple times to make AHM bonus hehehe.

Brandon24pdx

I bought two TSX's from Ron Tonkin within the past two years. (05 AT non navi and an 06 6m/t with nav)

On the 06 I shopped all the dealers in Oregon for a couple weeks and in the end it was Tonkin that coughed up the best deal believe it or not. I picked up the 06 for $28,600 I think it was, and they actually gave me what I wanted for the trade on the 05. And, I made the F&I dude bust his ass to find the best interest rate.

I visited Dick Hannah AOP too just for the hell of it. They seemed to have a deeper inventory than Tonkin but their internet sales team was a bunch of bozos so I didn't see any advantage in driving all the way over there (across town) to deal with them when I could deal fine with RT. You have to get a little nasty with Tonkin sometimes but they'll dance with you.

I spoke with the Dealership in Salem and also the one in Eugene...deal wasnt there bottom line.

Dont get an 06 at this point...you'll take that in the butt regarding long-term depreciation (When you go to sell the car at some point), paying new car prices for a car thats already a year old and whatnot

My only other advice is to go to Edmunds.com and use their TMV tool and get a good idea of what the numbers should look like if a fair deal is happening, otherwise tell the sales rep he can quit wasting your fucking time and get out of there.

1Louder

I used to sell cars at Ron Tonkin Acura, but WAY back in the very early 90's. I'd be stunned if anyone I knew was still there. It was always my impression the service there was decent - at the time they seemed to do a lot of repeat business. From a sales perspective, it was nothing short of robbery. Many of the practices were just shameful.

I picked up a 2006 with 5K miles just a few weeks ago. I was surprised at the amount of slightly used 06's around. I found two with 5K miles, one with 10K. Couldn't be happier, and got a good deal too.

Zyuan10

I had enough time to go to Acura of Portland today and browse through their (lack of) selection of TSX. about 90% of the lot is full of carbon grey pearl -_-. The color is not bad in itself but just about every TSX I see on the road is carbon grey.... so no, I don't want one. I was surprised they were pretty honest with me on how to work towards better savings on installing accessories and stuff. the prices on the sticker are also 28k for the base model so they're selling at MSRP. Now I don't know how to make an offer because I don't want to enter "low balling" category; probably lowest i can get is like 27,500 reasonably. Maybe when i go buy the car next week (if I decide), I can talk for like free installation or something. Funny thing was that they tell me there's no A-Spec package available o_0

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

are you buying car for the first time? what kind of dealer sticks on price below msrp?? if you want cheap price, set aside time to deal for long time. also bring in financial calculator. sometimes they cheat you with interest and number of payments. they make it look cheap but actually its not.

1Louder

This is exactly what Tonkin did. You agree on a price, then they add $1000 to it and then compute a payment. They they show you payment choices to pick one (of course, not telling you there's 1K of pad in there). Then in the finance office, all of a sudden you can get that extended warranty for only +$8 a month! Why, what an amazing deal! Who wouldn't do that? Because the payment they showed you already had $1000 of the $1500 needed to buy the warranty built into it.

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

that's why dealers always ask you "what kind of payment can you handle or willing to pay?" this way they get to play around with numbers.

clee109

F&I and sales people work together, for every warranty sold in F&I the sales person gets a 50 dollars added to their commission. Here's the break down on how a sales person calculates payments in the booth:

car MSRP: 30,000
Trade: 5,000
Cost to finance: 25,000
Take the first two numbers of the finance price: 25
Multiply by 2: 25x2 = 50
add a 0: 500
500 per month

hit you with that, ouch, ok what about 450, ouch, 400, ouch, 375 - you know this would be based on great credit and we haven't had the opportunity to check yours yet, you may get better, you may be right here, that's cutting it pretty tight. I dunno that's alot, ok how close can you get, ummmm 300??? wow that's going to hard, what if I get to 350? that's only 50 dollars, ouch I said 300, ok what about 325, that's only 25, that's nothing right? O.k.

Back to the manager and back to you:
Ok based on your credit and what the bank is willing to do I can get you all the way down too....are you ready? you wont believe it, 330 per month! that's within 5 dollars of where you wanted to be. HOO RAY!!!! lol sucker born every day.

that's how it works, I did it every single day....

1Louder

Payment buyers ALWAYS got taken. Always. The fun part was watching when a buyer actually refused the warranty - all of a sudden the F&I guy has to figure out a reason why the payment dropped ("oh look - we got you a better deal").

People would debate for an hour over the sales price only to loose it all because they couldn't figure out payments.

Zyuan10

as of now, I just want the car (and a spoiler). Nothing else, no warranty, no wax on my seats, no BS. The guy called me back later during the day and said he can throw in a free spoiler (this made me go o_0 as it is the most "original" freebies I've heard of since the wheel locks and mats). If I don't get my car for under 28,000 (before paperwork fees -__-), then I'm just gonna forget the TSX for now till August 30th. I'll be in Tonkin tomorrow...

Oh, Acura of Portland is applying the 3.9% for 60 month finance deal to 2007 models as well so I'll aim for that (if that's not possible, deal is off. period). Car shopping must be one of life's top worst experience...

Brandon24pdx

Its unquestionably a chore, but if you can get 3.9 for 60, that would be 2 pieces of the puzzle right there. Under $28,000 might be difficult if you're talking a TSX with navigation. Go to Edmunds.com and do a free TMV report on the car configured exactly as you want it and it will spit out a fair price based on market data in your area. Take those numbers and punch them into any one of a zillion car finance calculators on the web and itll give you a very good idea where you should be on monthly payment. You should be able to get within 5 bucks a month of your calculations at the worst

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

$28,000
60 payments
3.9% apr
$514.40/month


btw is anyone gonna drive up to seattle for a summer meet? think they are planning a big meet during summer.

Zyuan10

Okay... so here's my TSX buying experience...

Salesman from AoP: "$28,000?! that's under MSRP! are you nuts?! This is an Acura! We don't need to give rebates or any special discount to sell our cars!" (somewhere really close along these lines; he was practically yelling when I offered 28,000 just for the heck of it for a NON-navi auto TSX w/ a spoiler and nothing else since I didn't think I would get any good deal out of him) He wanted 29,xxx for the TSX. LMAO

I had even a better experience at Ron Tonkin Acura

ME: "hello? anyone here? uhhh..."
Dealership: *wind blows, ball of tumbleweed rolls by*

My family and I actually went into the showroom and saw the guys there were just chatting away to each other and laughing their ass off, ignoring us... so we laughed our ass off and drove off.

So now... off I go and wait till August/Sept to buy again

clee109

sorry to hear about the bad experiences. You gambled and lost this time, but next time you'll find a salesman that wants to play instead of laughing you out of town.

clee109

Maybe, depends on when their meet gets closer and what my schedule is. Seattle is a long drive

1Louder

Wow - wish I could say I was surprised. I know this is a bit obvious, but when the 08's hit the lot they'll be more flexible on the price of the 07's. Also, December is not a bad time to buy. December 31st may be the best day to buy. Seems like at the end of month and end of year we always got the word that the sales managers were more willing to deal.

Brandon24pdx

Start chatting with the internet dude from Tokin. James Lafleur was the guy I dealt with. Politely tell him his price stinks enough times and you'll eventually be down to a fair price for the car. (they hate fair prices, but they'd rather sell a car at the end of the day.)