Hi.
The dealer I test drove with called me last night and we talked for a bit. Basically I told him that I want to buy the car from him since he's in town, it's convenient for me and give him a sale - win-win for both of us; however I also told him I will be shopping around at various dealers within a few hundred mile radius for the best price, and if he can't match the best price I find, I'm going to go elsewhere. He explained to me the following two things, on which I look to this forum for advice:
1. He doesn't have the color combo (anthracite/ebony) that I'm looking for and he thinks the next 6MT Navis coming in are red and green. Because he would need to try to find the car I want and do a dealer swap, if I were to go to another dealer and get a written quote of some sort, that would reduce the chances of my dealer finding the car I want (I guess because the source dealer would take it out of their available inventory). So probably the easy solution to this is simply to seek a written quote on a color combo that I'm not actually interested in, then use that quote to bargain my dealer down, but I'm curious if what he's telling me is really true, if dealers are likely to not accept a written quote from another dealer if the colors are different, and if anyone has suggestions on a better strategy to deal with this situation.

2. He next explained to me that if he cannot find the car I want on another dealer's lot he would have to order from the factory. He told me at this point the order to delivery time could be 3 months. I think he's kind of new at either this dealer or at selling cars in general, so I don't totally trust his estimate, not to mention he keeps telling me he is warning me on the 3 month lead time just so he doesn't tell me it will be one month and then he can't deliver. So my question is what are people experiencing for delivery times on 6MT Navis from the factory? As I understand distance from the Ohio factory matters somewhat, I'm in Richmond, VA - probably 500-600 miles away.

Finally, he also mentioned that when I order it, whether it is to be for a dealer swap or direct from the factory, they want a $1000 non-refundable deposit! I didn't get into it with him on the phone, but I'm not about to commit $1000 to him when I could potentially get a better price elsewhere. Should I just tell him to F off on the non-refundable unless he will commit to a price I want? Anyone else have experience with refundable/non-refundable deposits?

Thanks
Scott

 

Unfortunately, you are buying a car that is in very high demand right now. If you were willing to buy w/out navi, you would have more bargaining power. I ordered by car in Nov. and expected delivery is in Feb so the 3 mos. is probably pretty accurate. As far as a deposit goes, you don't have to put one down, but you probably won't get the anth/ebony/navi until late summer or fall if you don't. Just my $.02

 

If the car is not already on the dealer's future delivery list, then 3 months wait is about right. A lot of time, the dealers can do a swap with each other, so the wait time may be shorten.

In my opinion, anthracite/ebony is a very popular color choice, so Acura makes a lot of that, but the problem is 6MT (~15%) and NAVI (25-30%), so effectively, only a 1-2 % of the total TL made this year will be exact match to your preference. Do you have a second color choice in mind ? This will help to speed things up.

You can always degotiate the purchase price before puting down the deposit. But remember that if it is 3 or more months before the car shows up, the negotiable price may have gone down by then, so you should bargain hard before commiting.

Hope all these info is helpful.

 

thanks for the info.
Actually according to my dealer navi cars are only 18% - not sure about the % of MT cars though.
Point taken though - small percentage of what I want. I'm actually starting to open up to other color combos, like Black/Ebony, Black/Camel, Anthracite/Quartz, Anth/Camel. I guess about 5-6 different combos I'm interested in so hopefully that will up my chances...

Thanks again for the help
scott

 

My dealer said approximately 10-15% were 6MT's.....I'm sure depending on who you ask, you would probably get many different answers.

I do think it's best to open up your color combo, like you said. Hopefully, now with 5-6 different combos you'll find what you're looking for and soon!!

Good luck!

 

I currently have a 6MT/Anthracite/Ebony on order at Scottsdale Acura in AZ. I was there on Mon. for a service on my CL and saw that they had a 6MT/Black/Parchment available. I was dealing with Glen Davis (great guy) over there and it sounded as though they were trying to get it off the lot.

Not sure if it's still avail, but it's certainly worth a try.

 

Hmm.. I think Scottsdale is just a bit out of my geographical range (I'm in Virginia).
Thanks for the info though.

scott