TurboTL311

So today I decided to head out and finally pick up my brand new spanking TL. I visisted 7 dealers and i called about 10, 11 dealers. These salesmen nowadays.... lying sacks of _ _ _ _. FYI all the dealers that i talked to and visisted were in the southern california area. I was targeting a 05 NBP w/ ebony interior, Automatic Transmission, Navigation. I did not even find ONE in the area. There was a couple of dealers that told me they were going to be recieving some in for inventory. But they were not sure when. I even had SEVERAL salesmen tell me that they could not check inventory list or they don't have one. I was seriously going to just put down a deposit down to hold a car. But no dealers could tell me an approx date. What pissed me off was that a certain dealer told me they had the car. The color and combo i wanted. I asked him if he was sure over and over. He told me "yep, im starring at this baby right in front of me". And i asked for his name and cell phone number. When i drove an hour from my home over to the dealership and met up with this certain individual. We asked for this person and they greeted us, then I asked if I could see the car. He walked us over to a NBP car and i was pretty happy. Then this person said "Oh we've got the car in quartz interior and no navigation". Thats what you wanted right? I was so outraged that i just stormed out of the dealership. I didn't even bother giving him a good yelling. Then his manager came out and asked us what was going on. I informed him of the situation and he tried to sell me a used dirty demo car that had 6k miles on it. Overall today was NOT a very good experience for me. Out of about 12 sales personel that i spoke to all day. Only ONE person was honest with me and tried to fit my needs. And that concludes my day for shopping for a TL.

PG2G

Why don't you do it the easy way? Email all the Internet managers and tell them what you want. They'd tell you if its in stock or not, as well as a price.

terse

you should've socked that guy that made you drive an hour....it would've be awesome to see you on the news...

P47ch

Try checking the stock on the dealers' web pages. Someone at the dealership where I bought said Acura forces them to keep the web sites updated regularly. Perhaps I was just lucky, but I checked the stock online before going to buy mine and there it was sitting right out front when I got there.

Dkrudop

I concur. I went through the web for pretty much the entire search process....and finally chose (Hall Acura of Newport News) a dealership after I found out 1) that their internet manager returned emails on a consistent basis, and 2) that he could provide the car I wanted. I also dropped consideration of another dealership (Priority of Va Beach) when their internet manager seemed to just disappear....and never returned any emails about locating a particular car.

Granticus

The only good reason to go to a dealership before you decide to buy is to see the car up close and go for a test drive (perferably in both an AT and a MT to compare). Just do a Google to find Acura dealers in your state (or another state if you are willing to travel that far), go to their web sites, and fill out the form contacting their internet managers. Be sure to tell them exactly what features you want and ask for their best price. Those who respond obviously want your business. Those that don't either don't want your business or don't have their technology working correctly and don't deserve your business.

In this day of the internet, there is absolutely no reason to play the "Come on down and we'll discuss price" game. IMHO any dealer that insists you come in before they'll give you a price is just plain SLEAZY. Do you hear me Courtesy Acura?

thalasseri

The online inventory _is_ pretty useful as a first level check of what's in stock at each dealership. The catch appears to be that the inventory may lag sales by a few days - so you can't depend 100% on the car you see still being available.
However, you could use it to check the VIN and run it by the person you're talking with at the dealership.
Also, working with the internet sales managers by email is pretty convenient.

Neogeek

that sucks man about your bad luck... I went through this whole proccess in May, and it was a bitch... I called up my local Calabasas Dealer, and they said that Anthracite/Camel/6MT/Non-Navi was not to be had in all of Southern California. Actualy they mentioned that there wasnt a single manual in any combination in Southern California. They wanted me to put down a deposite and have one delivered.

I thought that was total bull, so i went on Acuras website and just did a radial search for a bunch of zip codes i know. Most of the places i went to had online inventory checks, however most werent filled in right, so i didnt know if it was manual or auto, or if it had navi or not. I soon was able to translate the model number that some had, but when those were displayed, i wouldnt get both interior or exterior... It was very messy.

Well from the sites where i could tell that they had atleast manuals, i sent the internet manager an email. Got repsonses back that they did have manuals, but not in my combination.

I then started getting desperate and started emailing the dealers out in San Francisco. a couple dealers there said there werent any manuals in all of California,,,, I just chuckled and sent them a reply with a couple of numbers in California if they wanted to trade for some manuals.

While i was doing all this, i didnt call Pasadina, because they didn have an online inventory, but since it was only 30 min from my house, i thought i would give them a call. I Called, and what do you know, they had two, and one was exactly what i wanted...

I hope you have better luck with the rest of your shopping experience