No, I'm not bitter about the car. It drives well, it got good mileage on the way home last night, and I've always liked Honda (my other car is an Acura). I'm bitter because what should have been an enjoyable experience was 11 hours of hell. And that was *after* I found the car and decided I wanted it.

$5000 over sticker? Because it had navigation? Personally, I would have walked away, but we were buying it for my other half, so I could either go along or we could have an argument. I'm still torn about whether I should have just settled for the argument. It's absolutely inexcusable that Honda Motor allows their dealers to rip people off like this.

 

In a market driven economy, the final product price is that agreed to between a buyer and seller. You agreed to pay what the dealer wanted, which was well over MSRP (for whatever reason). As you said, you could have walked away and possibly found a better price. Honda Motors had nothing to do with your final price. IMHO, the person with whom you would have had the argument is the one you should be bitter with. I find it inexcusable that the person would force you to let the dealer rip you off.

 

You will love the car and will eventually get over the buyer's remorse.

However, I have to agree that Honda cannot be held accountable for your purchase price. If a dealer could sell every car for $10K above MSRP, they would. The buyer always has the final say regarding the sale.

If you read through the posts in this forum, the purchase price for a 2006 HCH runs the gamut from well under MSRP to over MSRP (I paid $800 under in MA). Several members have driven long distances (or even flown) to get a great deal. Unfortunately, Southern California appears to be a problematic area for getting good deals on hybrids due to HOV lane use.

 

That is an exhorbitant price, but hey . . . at least the tax credit will ease the pain of your decision. Just an FYI, the carsdirect.com target price for the HCHII with Navi in Orange County is $26,200 ($2,000 over MSRP) before TTL.

Other than the transaction, I hope you enjoy your hybrid as much as many of us do.

 

If your purchase of the hybrid was to use the HOV lanes with a single rider, you may want to stay on top of the DMV process and get your plate number as fast as possible to send in the completed application.

As posted previously, we just got our California HOV stickers and the number was 66,4XX out of 75,000. We bought ours in late May, waited for the plates, sent in the app in June and just received our stickers last week.

We noticed our dealer (Norm Reeves) even charged us an additional $28.00 to electrionically send our registration into the DMV. I called the lady who does their DMV and asked why so much and what does it do and she said without doing it electronically, it would take up to two months to get our plates (we got them in less than a month).

Maybe since your dealer charged you so much over MSRP, you can demand they do the DMV ASAP!

You'll enjoy the HCH II though, it's an awesome car!

 

MSRP is just Honda's suggested price. If I do not feel sorry for them when they sell one for below MSRP, I guess I cannot be angry at them when they sell for above MSRP. MSRP is an arbitrary number, but it is usually set high enough that transactions occur at a lower price. The Civic Hybrid was the closest I've come to paying MSRP, but it was still just a little bit under. Buying a car is a mutual decision between the buyer and the seller.

Does this dealer have a return policy? You could check around for a better deal (even in other states). If you find a better deal, you could return the car. I think my dealer charges a mileage fee for a return within a certain time or number of miles.

 

Yea, that does seem like a rip. That's why I bought out of State. You did the right thing though. Someone said when you're married, "you can be happy or you can be right." Hmm, maybe that's why I'm single

 

I actually bought HCH II with Navi last June for MSRP, only because I complained to American Honda about dealers pricing their cars way over MSRP. They directed the dealer to sell me the first one that they get and I was even given a choice in colors since they had several coming in. I had to wait 3 weeks but it was worth it. By the way the dealer surmised that Honda isn't "making" any money on the hybrids yet since if they were, they would have increased production by now. At least you will get the full tax credit $2600. I would have been worse if you bought the Prius at 5K over MSRP, Toyota reached the 60,000 unit in June, and from wat I can gather any Prius sold after June only qualifies for 25% of the listed tax credit (3,100) or less than $800.

 

Try buying it in a small college town. I bought mine in Lawrence, KS. Those kids want muscle cars, not a wimpy gas saver.

 

Call me young and stupid, but I would have taken the argument! You sure she isn't getting kick-backs from the dealer? Maybe laundering money for a surprise vacation or something? $5k is an insane markup on a ~$25K car.