[ed'98]

Stopped at the only Honda dealer (unfortunately they are the only Honda auto dealer within 100 miles, heck we have 3 Honda MC dealers in town) Saturday, saw a Premium Pearl White lude without window sticker. I would like to trade my SS for a SH, maybe stock 5-sp, but don't want to bite for new. It was locked, I couldn't tell mileage, maybe 3700? Grab salesperson, they tell me that it IS new, need to get window sticker back in.
They allowed someone to drive it over the weekend, accumulating 377 miles, then return it, unable to get financing. The salesperson that I've dealt there wasn't in yet, I didn't ask anyone else for details regarding price.
I'll bet that they still want to sell it as new, instead of used or demo. I wouldn't go near that car with $2000US off sticker unless they could convince me that weekend driver was responsible, not some kid who was doing 7000 rpm holeshots.
Actually, this returns to a response that I made to thread regarding strong/weak engines, and most people wanting to credit that to how it left the factory. I posted that proper break-in was important. Nobody responded to my post, either agreeing or disagreeing. I suspect that is because most of the people on his bb did do 7000 rpm holeshots as soon as they left the dealer's lot. As bulletproof as Honda engines are, even they require proper break-in.
Well, I'll just keep looking for my 5-speed. I still have 12,000 miles and over14 months of original warranty on my 1998 (don't know how it didn't get sold until June 1999).


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1998 San Marino Red SS
1998 VFR800
1991 2.0Si "first 'lude love", was still great at 146k miles

 

[thewedge3]

Don't worry. My car had over 200 miles on it when I bought it. It was driven in from Pennsylvania because they could not locate any red base 5 spds. within that radius. Or so I was told...

 

[K i o n]

assuming that you meant to say 370 miles instead of 3700, FORGET IT, the dealer will always try and screw you over when it comes to dishing out demo cars, dont believe a damn word they say cuz they are all out to screw you.. just think, putting the car on the transport carrier, moving it around the lot, blah blah, i say 5 miles on the clock is acceptable, 10 at MOST, don't accept anything more or you're just a sucker..

i knew a guy that bought a brand new IS300 with 300 miles on the clock at MSRP, after hearing this i couldnt believe how braindead he was, he said the dealer told em it was hardly driven and they just had to transport it from a few dealers because a buncha people wanted it but didnt have the money to put up for it... i was like, WTF? thats beyond bull$hit..

think of it this way, assume that for every 5 miles past 10 another person will test drive it, and you do NOT want a car thats been test driven... 370 miles assumes that 72 people have test driven that car, but lets PRETEND for even a second that each person takes the car for a TWENTY-mile test drive which almost never happens, thats 17 different people gunning it to redline, tossing that suspension, slamming those brakes and flying through corners... do you still want the car now? hehe, the engine shouldnt be redlined or even pushed to 6/10s during break-in.. but what do we all do on test drives? redline the engine, take it around turns REAL hard, stab the brakes every few seconds, and why not? we have to get a good feel for the capabilities of the car, right?

that said, i test drove my car with 5 miles on the clock, put another 5 on the test drive and took it, before doing that i looked at maybe 10 other civics with varying mileage, and discounted EVERY one with mileage over 10-15... dont give up, im sure theres a limited supply where you are, but still, dont settle for a car that is much more likely to give you problems in the future, unless of course you're one of those people who believe that break-in periods are stupid ideas.. to be honest, i would rather buy a used car through a dealer or private party as opposed to a demo car, because at most, at least those have had only 3-4 people that have had their shot at trashing the car, but with a demo you really cant tell

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Regards,
Kion (2001 CivicEXCoupe)
AIM - Kion821

(my car on the left, my girl Aishwarya Rai on the right)

[This message has been edited by K i o n (edited April 01, 2001).]

 

[aklucsarits]

You should be able to get a BRAND NEW Base 5spd for $2000 under MSRP. I bought one last summer for $2000 under MSRP with 8mi on it. Brand new off the boat. It had only been driven from the distribution center to the dealer lot.

If you find a demo with a few hundred miles on it like you described, it should be *well* under invoice price... SH models should have even deeper discounts because they don't sell as well...

Andrew

 

[Cruxader]

hehe not true about the SHs...most dealers don't stock them, and if they do they only have one so they're not in much hurry to get rid of it...

 

[aklucsarits]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Cruxader:
hehe not true about the SHs...most dealers don't stock them, and if they do they only have one so they're not in much hurry to get rid of it...</font>

I'm sure it depends on the region and the dealer and their allotments and promos... But when I was shopping, I found the SH's even more heavily discounted than the Bases... I found the Base Sport Shifts and Type SH's were plentiful, but I had a pretty hard time tracking down a Base 5spd with no dealer-installed options.

Late last summer, in my area, bases were going for around $21800, while SHs were around $23000 even ($3000 *under* MSRP)... All the dealers were tring to push their SH models on me because they had so many... Also, I was shopping towards the model year end in late summer 2000... So that factors in too.

Andrew

 

[thewedge3]

Have to agree with aklu. My dealer had one SH on the lot when I went to order a base. He REALLY wanted to unload that car and would cut an amazing deal for me. But I said no--I want a base cuz I'm gonna tear out the suspension....

 

[malken00]

Moving to OT.