I think Terry did take a lenght of rope and a clear trash bag with him to cement / take the air out of that deal.

Congrats Terry

As for the Honda driven by a Chevy dealership employee.
The salesmanager at the local Chevy trash depot also only drives Hondas. They have a Accord, Ody and Pilot. I was wanting to look at a new Cobalt SS. Not that I would ever buy one. And when I mentioned that the next car ,, 99% chance was going to be a Civic, thats when he spilled his guts in his office. lmao He point blank stated GM cant build anything to Honda standards and he will not own GM. He did state that Selling GM has made him a better living than selling any other brand of car made in 30 years in the car game. Knowing that he wasnt going to flip me on a Cobalt he relaxed on a Sat. afternoon and got quite candid about GM products and the type of folks that buy them. It was quite intresting and didnt bowd well of Gm custmers. lmao

he liked our Accord alot! And knew there was no way in hell we would drive GM. We both thought it funny GM has to bolt a blower on a 4 banger to get 200 hp out of it with great torgue. We both agreed that the Civic with a blower would be a lethal weapon.

You meet the nicest people when you drive a Honda. Even in Chevy junk depots.

 

The 4cyl Malibu is a pretty decent car with fuel economy as good as a 4 cyl Accord(best in class real life FE).It doesn't have the slightly sporty ride of the Accord,but it is one of Chevrolets better products.The QC isn't great however.Charlie

 

Hi Charlie; I have the V6 engine model; Yipee !!!

Terry

 

Excellent work Terry! Glad to hear a success story. The whole loaner car deal is the first time I've heard of such a thing! They must have had a list of buyers waiting for an 05 and wanted to turn it quickly. For whatever reason, you got a great deal. If I didn't love my 03 so much I'd be in line for the 06 as well. I can only imagine what the 2011 Civic will be, since that's when I'll be in the market.

Funny story about the Chevy dealer. Between my parents, myself and my brother we've owned just about every brand of car over the last 30 years (except the exotics of course, and Ford for some reason). We've been burned by every American car we've ever owned. My friends are routinely burned by theirs. So what do we collectively own today? Honda Pilot, Odesey, Accord, Accord (with 250K miles no less), Civic.

 

Well GM (Chevy, etc.) is of course widely hated around here, but I've heard fewer complaints about Fords here or anywhere else... a number of people here have the Ford Escape Hybrid, which was indeed designed and built in the U.S., so I guess we'll see if they ever develop major problems with them, but I'm not expecting them to.

 

Congrats on getting the great deal. Competition is a great thing! I have to disagree with your assessment of "greed". The other dealer is charging what they perceive to be market rate for the car. If they have people lining up to buy from them at that price, then they are charging a reasonable amount. If they start losing enough customers (like you), then they will be forced to change their strategy. It's all part of the game of being the first on the block to own one.

 

Hopefully the '06 will have as much North American content as the '04. My '04 was 60% North American content, which in my book makes it an American car, even if it was assembled in Japan. It is also my FIRST "foreign" car, having owned a new '97 Dodge Ram Van 5.9l, a used '89 Jeep Cherokee 4.0l and various and sundry GM's going all the way back to a (used) '64 Chevy II Nova wagon, and my first new car, a '77 Chevette. I got tired of waiting for one of the world's largest producer of hybrid vehicles to finally build one for the highways instead of just for the railroads. Now that I've had my HCH for 19 months / 50,000 miles and the only problem I've had is a burned out bulb in the cruise control dashboard switch;

I'LL PROBABLY NEVER BUY GM (or US) AGAIN!

The quality, comfort, ride, and reliablity of this vehicle far surpasses anything I've bought new or used from GM or Chrylser, as well as anything my family has ever owned from either them or Ford. That isn't to say that the American workers don't assemble a good product. What it does say is that they aren't allowed to build a good product. Obviously, since more than half my HCH was made here in the US or Canada, our workers CAN build world class products. If they are given world class designs and factories. GM, Ford, and Chrysler spent too many years paying huge executive salaries to people whose only goal was to drive up the stock price and / or dividend in the short term, not ensure the long term health of the company. Honda has clearly taken a position where the long term health of the company is more important, to the point of not making as much corporate profit on each HCH as each regular Civic, to drive the R&D and gain the experience to be way ahead of the curve when costs start to drop and profits can improve on all hybrids. And it shows in the products offered by each of these companies.

Now if only Honda would offer either a CRV Hybrid, Odessey Hybrid, or the European Honda Civic 5 door diesel as a hybrid in the US.
Honda, ARE YOU LISTENING?

 

Hi grayhawk; you are so very right in your assessment of the first Honda Dealer. Demand dictates price but it's (IMO) alot cheaper in the long run to retain the customer base you already have as a dealer versus having to start all over again with new clientele. So maybe my choice of a word (Greed) is out of place here but to me it seems like the best choice giving the situation revolving around me as a loyal customer and purchasing vehicles from that dealer over the past 10 plus yrs., not to mention all the friends and co-workers that I brought to that dealers door step.

Once again (IMO) dealers are able to set their own prices on their vehicles and I Hope through this Forum I have shown
(GreenHybrid-Members & Guest) that just as Dealers can set their own prices without regard to "Old Loyal Customers", we as the consumers are (Free) to shop other Honda Dealers for the best price with (NO) Loyalty to any particular Dealer.

While I'm on this subject I just hope that the different people reading this Thread realize that I have the ability to handle my own personal car deals. The reason for me doing this Thread was and is not to help me, I already have taken care of my situation. It was done in the hopes that it would (Help) others that get jerked around at dealers and show everyone that you have other choices if you want to pursue them. This was just one example of one Honda Dealer that Does not care about their Loyal Customers and cares more about the All-Mighty-Dollar with No-Regard to their customers.

I hope in some small way that this Thread has helped someone out in the purchase of their vehicle, if it has then it has been worth all my effort.

Terry

Terry

 

I have always felt American workers can assemble and manufacture with the best. Case in point: Foriegn cars assembled in the US are just as successful in terms of quality. My issue with the GM cars I've owned had nothing to do with assembly. It had everything to to with shoddy engineering and inadequate components. Motors that burned out, poor integration, design flaws that resulted in things breaking prematurely... My favorite was our 92 Caravan with a transmission that had a KNOWN engineering defect that would cause it to destroy itself after 50-60K. We (fortunately) had the 7/70 warranty. At 65K the first tranny went out. They replaced it with a refurbished tranny of the same kind (yes, thank you GM, for putting the same flawed tranny back into my car). That one lasted 5K before it went. The third lasted 2K, but as it was failing I dumped the car and bought a Subaru. Sad thing is that the odds of GM getting another dime from me is absolutely zero.

 

I thought Dodge (Chrysler) made the Caravan? Why you whipping the snot out of GM?