GearDriven

If you have USAA -- Try their car buying service. The best I was getting dealers to do was about $700-1000 over invoice. I plugged into USAA and got an immediate offer for invoice (automated) to which a human followed up on with a $500 under invoice offer for AWD+Tech. The $500 under invoice also comes with the dealer with the best ratings on dealerratings/edmunds/etc... in my area. So give them/carsdirect/costco/sams/whoever you might have that can negotiate for your a chance....they are so low that it's not worth bickering old school style with a dealer

Hopefully I will be in one soon

couch257

I used the USAA service as well, but the closest dealer was 2 hours away. I printed off that quote and used it in my negotiation with the dealer close to me. They beat the quote by a few hundred dollars. I was happy with the deal I received.

Spearsoft

USAA, AAA, and Costco. You can't go wrong.

DrEvil777

As stated before over and over in this thread, you absolutely MUST do your homework on pricing before going to a dealership. If you don't, prepare to get screwed. The owner of a huge dealership chain is a patient of mine and he says with the modern age of the availability of pricing on the internet, a customer who doesn't come prepared is a lamb before the wolves.

USAA, Costco, AAA, Edmunds.com, consumerreports.com, etc, etc, etc.

Plan to pay a fair price, but never pay too much!

Also USAA will steer you to an "approved" dealership and salesperson who won't pull typical sales tactics on you. That's why the dealerships USAA use are not always local.

Congrats couch257! Enjoy the car!

CraigMacDTA

Wow...dealers down there MUST be hurting eh? $500 BELOW invoice...how many TL's on average do dealers in the States carry? Over 50? Over 100?

Spearsoft

Beware of Edmunds.com current pricing. They are applying incentives twice. Basically they are taking what people are paying (which already includes dealer cash) and applying the dealer cash to it again. Their formula works with rebates, not so well with DC.

Also, it's not like these programs we are talking about don't go scouting for the best dealer and refer you to them. Dealers pay them to use their services, so it's not like they're REALLY on your side, they're just lead providers, but they do have some neat policies that the dealership representatives need to follow to remain members of the program.

GearDriven

They all have a fair amount of TLs....lined up. But the AWD+Tech are a bit harder to find if you are picky about color... The good thing is that I am near the NYC Metro area, so there are tons of dealers that sell lots of the cars, so it is easy to pick and choose within a 25 mile radius who I will give my business to. I haven't closed a deal yet with anyone (just decided on the TL Friday night), but I am liking my options.

Bear in mind it's not every dealer that is doing this... I have had some dealers not go within $1000 of invoice. Of course they will all call back later and come up with something that they can do. Others will try to come close on price. But on Saturday I couldn't find anyone who had what I wanted that was going to be reasonable (well one promised invoice over the phone, then jerked the price up $1000 when I walked in). One dealer was quoting $1000 under invoice + fees....when I asked how much their fees were they got all squirmy...

So in the end, I will probably just work with the Acura dealer if they can get the car in stock in a reasonable amount of time (I totalled my car). $500 under invoice out the door (I handle registration/licensing/taxes on my own).

Spearsoft

Craig:
Our store has about 13 TL and we have 1 SH-AWD, we had to sell our Demo which was the only Tech Sh-AWD in that color combination in our zone. Right now its near impossible to find the EXACT color combo you are looking for in Tech SH-AWD in socal, which is really bad, we've had to turn customers away, because there are none and none on their way.

CraigMacDTA

So then your dealership isn't exactly dropping their pants unless it's something that you have loads of. I just can't see myself selling a 2009 TL at/near invoice.

Spearsoft

We've made some money on our TLs. We do expect that to end soon, unless our supply dwindles further.

TeKNiC3

We currently have over 90 TL's in our inventory

Spearsoft

But you probably sell 80 new Acura's a month.

Colin

Wow, that is a lot of cars. We've got about 40 but only one is a AWD and its Mayan Bronze. With nobody to trade with and no cars being built for months I don't think we have enough cars to last 4 months.

FatNoah

I went to my local Acura dealer this weekend and noticed a new '09 w/Tech package listed at $35,550 (or something very close) as a "Manager's Special." It was also offered as a lease for $389/month (39 months, 10k miles) with $3,000 down.

The sales rep I talked to mentioned that January was the "worst month ever" for the dealership. He's only been there since may so I take that with a grain of salt. He did mention that the AWD is nearly impossible to get now and that the ones that do sell are getting close to MSRP.

TeKNiC3

I think we have enough Base and Tech Package TL's. Wouldn't mind having more AWD's though.

TeKNiC3

Recently, the store does about 50-60 new. Way off pace from the 100+ we used to do.

phatbastard

Buyers are liars..

So let me get this right you want retail for your trade and you want to buy my car at invoice??

Just gotta love the car business....

lumpulus

Congrats, you got it perfect, and if you don't we'll buy somewhere who will.

Love this current economy!

tlinsc

There are a narrow set of circumstances that would allow that deal to come together which will vary between manufacturer, make, model, location, and time of the month.

It can be done (and bettered to boot) if you work in a very systematic way devoting a lot of time and energy and/or get lucky.



Good luck and I hope you enjoy your new car and/or buying experience!