My “rant” on the current affairs pertaining to stores, and the market.

[OGGsr]

I bought my Pilot from there a coupe years ago (West Broad). Place looks like a ghost town when going for servicing as in no cars in lot. But they do mark ups on cars. They had a CTR LE marked to $58k during early fall in their showroom. No idea what it sold for but it was there a while, as in a month or two.

I haven't been to West Broad in a long time as I live in Mechanicsville but I bought my Si for MSRP at the Mechanicsville store. 58k does seem very high for what was a low-mid 40's car.

Sponsored

 

[Lynch]

Thanks for the inside info and I do feel bad for both dealerships and folks who are looking to buy a car. A free market society unfortunately can create the situation we are seeing now in the auto industry. I understand SOME markups on automobiles as dealerships need to make money by moving limited volume and there isn't enough supply right now to satisfy demand. However, some of the practices I've seen posted here and other places are down right shady. BUT the consumer isn't forced to buy a specific car for a specific price. I was VERY fortunate to find my Civic Si at a local dealership close to me for MSRP with no add-ons or strings attached. I would happily recommend the dealer I bought my car from as well as the sales rep who helped me through the purchase process.

that's awesome. If the dealers in my area were not marking the si up $2k -$8k, I would have a si. I'm glad there you were able to to to get your si at MSRP.

 

[Stryxx]

I use to sell for Honda, did it for about 2 years before I got out (Loved selling cars, especially Honda, but the new car sales manager was just oof). I was one of those few that learned every possible thing I could about the cars, all of them, to the point where everyone knew to come to me to ask a question if a customer wanted to know something about new or used vehicles we were selling. The down side to this, is I sold less cars, even though I usually grossed more (Not that Honda has much gross but still). I knew so many sales people who learned just enough to impress but nothing beyond that and I agree, there should be more effort put into knowing the vehicle, as well as follow up and support after purchase. Hard to do when they want volume over gross, which means spending less time with the customer, and skipping small yet potentially key details so you can move on to the next sale. Hated this and my doing what I wanted to do made my work environment hostile with the new car manager, but I feel at least my customers were happy with their cars.

Just leased my 22' Hatch Sport, I know the sales manager from the previously mentioned dealership, and both he and I worked on 90% of all my deals together. They still messed up (Installed the Sport badge in black instead of just ordering the H and Civic badges in black for me to install, no way to get that back, but I didn't have to pay full price for the H and Civic due to the mishap). The sales person didn't deal with me directly but he knew I worked for Honda previously, so when I went to pick my car up (4mo+ wait for production), he was adamant we go through the car because its changed so much since 10th gen, and I would need to know these things (Much to his embarrassment, I taught him some new things, and find it annoying how they wouldn't just let me do my own thing). Attention to detail is lacking in the industry as a whole, customer service is hard because literally its not a friendly environment (not an excuse, just more effort required), people have grown up hearing how car sales only wants to rob you and associates are greasy money mongers (Its better than 10+ years ago but its slow changing). I digress, the point I'm trying to make is I wish car sales was more how I went about it, but the way commission and how most managers want it, it makes it hard to achieve without effort which most don't want to give.

Markups are a thing, especially for hard to get cars (Especially with the chip shortages and reduced production), and its no different in the car market than it is anywhere else. The average markup for Type R's in Washington (I sold 7 total myself in the span of just over a year), was $5k ($40,360 or so), which of everyone I got leads on who wanted it, I'd say 80% swore they'd never buy it unless I sold it for MSRP or invoice (The 80% who didn't get a Type R while I was there), and the other 20% were fine with it. Look at the STI, you had to buy all the extras, and they were commonly marked up. Not surprised with the Supra either. The new Type R will likely be as bad if not worse for the $40k and $60k variants, I'd say the $90K one is order only, or will be the worst of the 3 for markup. The Si shouldn't be so bad but these are the times and its indeed sad. Everything is going up in price, which sucks overall across all markets, and hopefully the chip shortage and all the backed up operations chains effecting everything starts to pick up speed so this stops being an issue ($5 says prices don't go down or at least not by much).

 

[Lynch]

I use to sell for Honda, did it for about 2 years before I got out (Loved selling cars, especially Honda, but the new car sales manager was just oof). I was one of those few that learned every possible thing I could about the cars, all of them, to the point where everyone knew to come to me to ask a question if a customer wanted to know something about new or used vehicles we were selling. The down side to this, is I sold less cars, even though I usually grossed more (Not that Honda has much gross but still). I knew so many sales people who learned just enough to impress but nothing beyond that and I agree, there should be more effort put into knowing the vehicle, as well as follow up and support after purchase. Hard to do when they want volume over gross, which means spending less time with the customer, and skipping small yet potentially key details so you can move on to the next sale. Hated this and my doing what I wanted to do made my work environment hostile with the new car manager, but I feel at least my customers were happy with their cars.

Just leased my 22' Hatch Sport, I know the sales manager from the previously mentioned dealership, and both he and I worked on 90% of all my deals together. They still messed up (Installed the Sport badge in black instead of just ordering the H and Civic badges in black for me to install, no way to get that back, but I didn't have to pay full price for the H and Civic due to the mishap). The sales person didn't deal with me directly but he knew I worked for Honda previously, so when I went to pick my car up (4mo+ wait for production), he was adamant we go through the car because its changed so much since 10th gen, and I would need to know these things (Much to his embarrassment, I taught him some new things, and find it annoying how they wouldn't just let me do my own thing). Attention to detail is lacking in the industry as a whole, customer service is hard because literally its not a friendly environment (not an excuse, just more effort required), people have grown up hearing how car sales only wants to rob you and associates are greasy money mongers (Its better than 10+ years ago but its slow changing). I digress, the point I'm trying to make is I wish car sales was more how I went about it, but the way commission and how most managers want it, it makes it hard to achieve without effort which most don't want to give.

Markups are a thing, especially for hard to get cars (Especially with the chip shortages and reduced production), and its no different in the car market than it is anywhere else. The average markup for Type R's in Washington (I sold 7 total myself in the span of just over a year), was $5k ($40,360 or so), which of everyone I got leads on who wanted it, I'd say 80% swore they'd never buy it unless I sold it for MSRP or invoice (The 80% who didn't get a Type R while I was there), and the other 20% were fine with it. Look at the STI, you had to buy all the extras, and they were commonly marked up. Not surprised with the Supra either. The new Type R will likely be as bad if not worse for the $40k and $60k variants, I'd say the $90K one is order only, or will be the worst of the 3 for markup. The Si shouldn't be so bad but these are the times and its indeed sad. Everything is going up in price, which sucks overall across all markets, and hopefully the chip shortage and all the backed up operations chains effecting everything starts to pick up speed so this stops being an issue ($5 says prices don't go down or at least not by much).

I doubt things will change much. The dealers are making to much on each car to change the situation. I went into a hands dealer to buy a 2022 si. I found out that all dealers in my area have a 3k-8k mark up on the si. I have wanted to get andi for a while. I was finally in a position to buy a car I wanted, not settle for. The mark ups put the si out of my range. I have to go for the settle for option.

Sponsored