chargergrrl

I've been checking out this site for a few weeks now, and first off want to thank so many of you for providing me with tons of great info. I currently drive a '97 Integra (which still runs great)- but it's time for a new car! I've decided to purchase a 2005 TSX, CG/Quartz, AT, Navi- hopefully by the end of the year.
I would like to hear from other members who purchased their TSX's here in the L.A area, regarding their experience (negative or positive) with their dealership. All feedback is appreciated- THANKS!

Conman

I bought a car from Keyes Acura in Van Nuys last week. I asked for an Internet quote during the late morning. The floor manager, Chris, called me a few hours later. After a few exchanges of phone calls within a 15 minute span, we agreed on the price. I picked the car up the same day. No hassle, very professional, and the best price I could find. I would recommend the dealer. If I recall, the dealers is the largest volume seller in the Western US, so if you want a good deal on the TSX, it would be a good place to bargain.

and welcome to the board, chargergrrl.

Go Chargers!

PACman

After getting internet quotes and emails from several LA and OC dealers, I settled with Weir Canyon. I dealt with Kelly(her), internet sales manager with no pressure at all. Although I had to wait several weeks (ordered in Aug '04), they got me the TSX I wanted - CG/quartz, 6MT, non-Navi.

kammerz

I recently bought my 05 TSX at Acura 101 West in Calabasas. I shopped around other LA area dealers including Keyes, Power, Santa Monica, and Downey. Power had given me the lowest price but I only bought at Acura 101 because they beat the price by $200...a couple hundred bucks saved is a couple of hundred bucks saved...let me know if you want a salesperson referral...good luck! Be sure to post pics when you get your new ride.

BusyShifter

Phone as many dealers around you, and visit a few dealers to test drive the car. While Keyes Acura might carry larger volume of the cars than other dealers, you might be able to get better quote else where . I got very similar quotes from Keyes and Sierra at Alhambra, but ended up purchasing from Sierra based on the model available. Salesmen at both dealers are friendly and professional enough. I would not recommend the one at Santa Monica though.

By the end of the year? Do you mean within a week and half? You might be able to get better deal if you allow more time to shop around. Have fun shopping.

Pauly

I got mine at Tustin Acura. A little far in the OC, but you get to use the Navi to guide you home! On a scale from 1-10 I would give them a 9. Everything went extreamly well with no problems, but I have to reserve the 10 for something to really wow me. They were really fair, I negotiated on the phone and when I walked in, Everything was as Discussed. No tricks or last minute changes.

They do have a pretty lame no hold policy though.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

I bought (or rather leased) from Cerritos Acura. Got a great deal and my family has now leased 5 different Acuras from that dealership so they're really nice to us.

My car has gotten serviced at Metro Acura in Montclair, CA and I have always had a decent time with their sales department (I always test drive cars while the car is getting serviced).

My car get its regular service from Southbay Acura in Torrance, CA and they have been pretty amiable and pleasant, though the Internet Sales Manager there can be a whiny, snivveling little bitch, but the regular sales people are cool.

jlukja

I bought mine from Acura of the Desert in Cathedral City. My initial contact with SoCal dealers was by e-mail. I decided on a price I was willing to pay (thanks to this site) and e-mailed a firm offer to buy, with cash. Several dealers responded with "come by and test drive and we'll talk" but Acura of the Desert e-mailed me back saying they accept my price. It was approx. $700 less than any other dealer was offering. We exchanged faxes and I took the 2 hour drive 2 days later to pick it up. I spent about 30-40 minutes at their dealership going over the car and another 30 minutes with the paperwork and we were done. They were great to work with, I'd give em a 10 out of 10.

LB-TSX

I purchased mine at Acura of Pasadena, they were all really nice guys. Took their time and explained everything to me. I've had my car serviced at Acura of the Desert in Cathedral City before when they changed my rear bearing, the service there was amazing. Plus I know of other people who purchased their car at Acura of the Desert and got incredible deals.

chargergrrl

WOW- thanks to everyone for your input on this! I've had some initial (email) conversations with Acura of Tustin, and Downey. Both seem pretty motivated to get my business. Can't say the same about Valencia & SouthBay (and they're right in my backyard!)- wonder if it's the same whiney, little bitch, CGTSX 2004? Will send email requests to the others- especially Keyes. Had a bad experience w/ them back in '97 when I bought my Integra, so I walked out and went elsewhere (Valencia), but it's now water under the bridge. My challenge right now is that I'm recovering from getting my tonsils out on Friday, so I can't do ANY talking. Will work on narrowing it down to a couple of dealers so that I'm ready to go next week! At least I've got my financing done.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

It sounds like it might be the same guy, chargergrrl. He actually worked at Cerritos Acura before, but must have moved. Unfortunately, the salesperson I dealt with when I got my car no longer works at the Acura dealership (he's over in the Mazda dealer now) otherwise I would have highly recommended him.

You say Southbay Acura is right in your backyard, what city are you in? My family lives in the Southbay.

pandimus

I got mine from Valencia... No problems what so ever.. i initially got a quote via carsdirect, then tony the internet sales manager gave me a call. In less than 10 minutes we had agreed on a price. I was in and out, within 45 minutes.. Best car buying experience ever..

DJDZ

I had a very good experience at Thomas Acura in Covina( purchased an 04/CG/AT/non-Navi). NO pressure at all. I had a great test drive ( I think it lasted for about 7 miles) through back canyon roads and even on the 10 freeway. The whole process took about 1 hr.

Hope this helps.

euroStyle

Santa monica is ok, thats where i got mine, they really rushed me thought, didnt like that. but still got a good price.
Thomas is great, but they didnt have the color or transmission my wanted. they can get you a good price.
Keys was very desperate to sell.
Downey tried to jack me on a deal.
Cerritos, service wasnt the greatest, that put me off.

BlackTSXer

i purchased my car from downey acura.. and soo far they have been pretty good. if you want more info pm me and good luck

foolioness

Got mine@ Santa Monica Acura. No pressure at all. Called in, talked to teh sales manager JC, gave the price that I wanted to pay and BOOM! made the deal over the phone. He gave me the price $1000 below what everybody was overing me (back in sep04). 2 hrs after I arrived, I walked out with a TSX. Hope that helps

lukatmyshu

I got mine from Tustin Acura as well. Extremely good impression .... we walked in @ 12:10 (had an internet quote) and

lukatmyshu

I got mine from Tustin Acura as well. Extremely good impression .... we walked in @ 12:10 (had an internet quote) and left with the car at 2:00. This time included 1) A Test Drive of the actual car and 2) 10 minutes of further haggling over the price. Experience was great.

jlukja

chargergrrl,

IMHO the quick agreement to a low low price really depends on what the particular dealer has on the lot. The less money the dealer has invested in a particular vehicle (i.e. not having to do a dealer trade or order the vehicle or add various options etc.) and the less time the dealer has to spend on the transaction the easier it is for that dealer to sell the car to you for your price. You're shopping at a very good time (end of the month, end of the year) where some dealers want to make their numbers or just don't want inventory carrying over into the next year. If you canvas enough dealers (and there are many in So Cal) you're bound to run into one that has "your car" for "your price". Good Luck.

CobaltForge

Chargergrrl,

Went through a couple of different dealers in a span of a weekend before I ended up getting by '05 CG/Ebony, AT, Non-Navi from Sierra of Alhambra. I'll do a little breakdown of each dealership that I visited and my experience with them:

South Bay Acura (Torrance?) - Didn't care for the internet manager there. Low-balled me on my trade in.

Thomas Acura (Covina) - The 2 gals there are great to deal with, but they didn't have my car.

South Coast Acura (Costa Mesa) - Were willing to give me the lowest price, but didn't have my car.

Acura of Tustin - Great dealership, love the Internet Manager and his assistant, but once again, didn't have my car.

Weir Canyon Acura (Yorba Linda) - I found the internet people to be pretty good, but not willing to budge on price not even to match or beat their competition.

Browning Acura (Cerritos) - Didn't like the salespeople there (internet and non). Were not honest from the start got a lot of "why don't you come in and we'll talk about it"

Downey Acura - Tony is a nice guy, but he was busy and the salesman that he stuck me with played games with me. Even though they had my car, I walked away.

Keyes Acura (Van Nuys) - Great guys and very diligent about maintaining the whole "largest West Coast Dealer" namesake. Had to wait for my car to be delivered.

Acura of Pasadena - Good service, and decent guys at the internet department, but once again, didn't have my car.

Finally, Sierra Acura (Alhambra) - Very honest and straightforward guys. Alvin and William showed me the numbers and were pretty cool about everything. Whole process took about 45 minutes. I walked onto the lot, saw my car, sat down with Alvin, we had a deal in about 30 minutes.


Keep in mind that I got my '05 about a month ago, when most dealers were barely getting their shipments of '05 into their lots. I believe that when I got to Sierra Acura, the car had just been delivered the day before. If you want a referral, go ahead and PM me. Hope this helps.

chargergrrl

CobaltForge:THANKS much for all the detailed info! I think that it's gonna come down to the dealership that has the car I want.
I'm taking advantage of this down time to contact as many dealers as I can and request quotes.

THANKS, again!

chargergrrl

CGTSX2004
I'm in Redondo Beach

CobaltForge

chargergrrl,

Sometimes quotes are great, but don't think that it's a set price. I had multiple dealer quotes with the "lowest" being $1,000 over invoice. All the dealers on the list that I mentioned were willing to meat that price to sell me the car. Few of them (off the top of my head: Van Nuys, South Coast, and Sierra) were willing to offer me a range of $700 to $800 over invoice.

Don't be afraid to pit each dealer against another. In the end, they all want to sell you the car, so don't be afraid to haggle, even over the "internet quotes". Like jlukja said, he drove over 2 hours just to go get his car at the price that he wanted. This is a major investment and a few hundred dollars could equal: more gas money, more mods money, etc.

Good luck to ya, and let me know how everything turns out.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

My family is in Torrance. Just down PCH.

And as another suggestion, instead of taking quotes from dealers, put together what your perfect deal would be and go to the dealers and say that this is what you want and then ask them if they can do it. You'll typically get at least one dealer willing to take your offer. If you get more than one, play them off of each other until you get to a deal you're 100% satisfied with.

When I was looking back in 2003, I did just that and I got two dealers to agree to the exact same deal. It just came down to who got the car I wanted in first.

And CobaltForge, sounds like you got the Internet Manager I mentioned in my earlier post. He was a total dick when I dealt with him and I didn't have a good impression of him at all. Luckily, I spoke with another sales guy and his attitude was much better.

CobaltForge

CGTSX2004,

Yes... a whiny little guy who pouted when I walked out of his lot. He told me that he had to "grind" his used car manager to get me a few hundred dollars on my trade in. I go to Sierra, and right away they give me top-dollar for my trade in with no haggle.

Good thing that the service you got from that guy didn't ruin it for Power Acura. Unfortunately, it did for me. In any case, I got my car in the end and am loving every minute of it!

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Will, when I ran into him, he wasn't working at Power Acura. He was working at Cerritos Acura at the time and he was just as much of a jerk there as he seems to be now. Good to hear that you got a good deal.

CobaltForge

Yup, that's the guy.

CGTSX2004, how was your experience with Cerritos? I found that I didn't like them because they were extremely vague on the value of my trade-in.

jlukja

When I was shopping in late 2003 I visited Cerritos Acura for a test drive. The salesman (don't remember his name) only let me drive it for about 5 minutes. He picked the route and didn't want me to get on the freeway. He was not willing to go down much on price either.

However, I just got some service done there and have to give to their service department.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

My experience has been excellent (my TSX was the 4th Acura my family has leased from Cerritos Acura starting with my mom's 1993 Acura Vigor) and we always get good deals. No haggling. I went in with a price I was willing to pay, and the salesman said no problem. Unfortunately, the really nice salesguy I worked with got moved over to the Mazda side of the Browning business so .

But yeah, we're up to 5 now with my dad's recent lease of an MDX. My family likes its Acuras. My bro may also be looking at an RSX in the next year or so which would make for number 6.

Lear

POWER ACURA is under new management and is by far the best priced dealership in So Cal!!

drkangel348

I got my TSX from Keyes, was a good experience overall.
Cerritos, South Bay, and Sierra are nice dealers too.
The people at Thomas can be snobby...
Downey has some very nice parts/service people, I don't know about sales.

yeefuchew

Yeah, I got a good price from Power Acura South Bay. Dealt with the Internet Sales Manager, Jerry Ede. Was a great and fun experience. He's on top of following up the sale as well. Always answers my questions quickly over email.

sccpu3d

I went to mission viejo...... '06 model bought in early feb. (like single digit early) 500 over invoice, but included the wheel locks, all season floors, and splash guards. Everything worked out online through email. Great salesman there named Larry Freligh..... Great, and easy to work with guy =)

sam116

Yeah, I got a good price too from Power Acura of South Bay. Jerry Ede is a nice person to deal with and had a good experience buying my car through him. I had an internet quote from Jerry that out matched all other So Cal dealers, this was in July 2006.

However, I still have to see how the service department would fare compared to the sales.

Any insight there? Also the dealership is little far from my place, Downtown LA

Sam

SoCaliTrojan

Acura of South Bay gave me the lowest quote as well, but I went with my local dealer, Keyes in Van Nuys, when they had my color w/ 6mt navi and was willing to deal.

There was a thread last week where the OP was ranting at Acura of South Bay's service department...so you should avoid them service-wise (according to the OP)

yeefuchew

I don't have any personal experience with Power's service dept. yet. Actually, I live much closer to Thomas Acura and may just go there.