My salesman was fired. My Pilot is gone!

[PJ27]

Talk about a streak of bad luck. This post may just be more of a rant than anything else. As I've posted in the past, my wife and I are looking for a Sage Brush Pearl EX-L w/ Navi. We were dealing with 2 dealers both of whom charged MSRP.

Dealer #2 was the one dealer we hoped would come through. After a few phone calls, our salesman at Kolbe Honda, Steve Shamoo (great name, eh?) said they had the exact color/model coming in for their October shipment. It was in "pre-ship" and they are expecting it on their lot by the end of the month. So we drove on down to the dealership and plunked down our $500 deposit for the car. "Do you have the VIN?" I asked. "Oh, we should be getting that soon. The manufacturer hasn't released that to us yet," he replied.

Do you see where this is going?

Well, after reading all the posts in this forum, we all should know that a dealer knows the VIN number before the car has even finished building. Definitely even before the car has shipped. So the sales manager calls me today and profusely apologizes and says that there is no car being shipped. In fact the car was never built!!! The salesman lied to us. He straight up lied right to our face that the car was on its way!! Apparently we were not the only people he lied to. The sales manager was very apologetic and said he was doing damage control for all the mess the salesman had made. Needless to say, that salesman was fired.

The sales manager said the car I want was being built on Oct. 27 and he will get me the VIN ASAP. I want to believe him, but after being lied to it's kind of hard to trust any more. If he gets me the VIN, I guess I will have to wait another month (sometime in November) for my Pilot.

Of course I will be calling all the dealerships in Southern California and beyond to see if my car is somewhere out there. This experience has definitely left a horrendous taste in my mouth. If CarsDirect wasn't charging $2,000 over MSRP, I'd definitely be using them.

Did I mention I don't have a car now since I just sold my old car? Yah, can this day get any worse?

-pj

ETA is now sometime in November

[xyzzy]

Hang in there buddy, we're all rooting for you! Keep the search options open and hope for the best. Hope it gets better soon.

Chris

[03pilot]

pj27. sorry to hear about that. i will check with one of the local dealers in the Bay area and see if they have any on their lot.

Last time he called me when he had one and I immiediately notified a friend of mine who picked it up the same day.

Keep the search going. Good Luck.

[gopilot]

Get your money back now! don't matter what the dealer says now, you have been lied too... get your money back, and if the Pilot comes in, then you might buy it... other wise you will have your options open to get one somewhere else..... (you never know if the dealer might screw up again and you might wait 90 days or more)


just my thought
rob

[ontheverge]

The natural segue of that conversation is, " Some accessories at cost would help me feel better."

[chiquita]

I agree about the accessories. If you decide to stay with Kolbe Honda, then I would absolutely make them agree to some kind of compensation for the time and inconvenience that you have been put through. Get it in writing. You probably wouldn't have sold your car if you knew that your Pilot wasn't coming until November, would you? Having said all that, the sales manager did come clean with you when, in a lot of other dealerships, you would still be getting the run around.

From everything that I have read, the Navi's are in short supply and hard to get, so if you can wait until the beginning of November for your car and they can absolutely guarantee you that one is coming in (I would make them show you their allotment list from Honda) then, if it were me, I would wait.

You have the dealership in an excellent negotiating place right now. It sounds as if they are in "damage control mode". Take advantage of it.

I am truly sorry that this has happened to you, but you will really love your Pilot once you get. It is really worth waiting for.

[djs]

1. The Pilot is worth waiting for. It is one of the best SUVs on the market today.
2. If you are dealing with the Sales Manager you are one up on everyone else. The Sales Manager does not want you to be a headache. He knows that he can only put you off for so long.
If he did not know that he was getting the vehicle he would simply give you your money back to solve the problem. He also can be more precise about exactly when he will see the vehicle.

All that said. This is why my wife wanted to see and touch a vehicle on the lot and then bought it. She was in the imported car business for many years and felt there were just too many variables. However, we took delivery on June 26. There were a few vehicles around then and many dealers had not sorted out the MSRP+ thing. We simply found a dealer that had a few vehicles and convinced him that we were buyers now and that he had 8 other available Pilots to get over list on. My wife was Sales Mgr. at a Honda store (1987-1989) and the Sales Mgr. at the store we bought at and she had some cohorts in common so we used it to our best advantage. It also was the end of the month (always good time to buy and take delivery- dealers will take a shorter deal to improve their numbers).

Hang in there.

#09131 SS EX

[Jasper]

You might try calling Vista Honda at (800) 954-3111. I know that they have a Sage Brush Pearl on the lot and it's available (as of yesterday at 3PM) - don't know about EX vs. EX-L or Navi... give 'em a call!

[tady]

Wow, pj27. I could have written that story after all that I have been through. I ordered a Sagebrush EX-L RES back in July but after a month of waiting and being told it was on the way, we found out at the end of August it didn't exist. The dealer promised he'd get us a Pilot in September but, as you know, it's now October and I'm still Pilotless. I was even given a build date of 9/9 and received the VIN over a week ago but when I drove by the dealership today I found a Silver Pilot on the lot with my VIN number. It was all prepped and accessorized waiting for someone else to pick it up. With this luck I may have to give.

[chiquita]

tady--

Did you give them a deposit? Do you have any signed documents such as a P&S?

If it were me that was going through that situation, I would notify both the local Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General's Office of Consumer Affairs. This dealer is being deceptive and if they have any of your money, fraudulent.

Don't sit back and take it.

[gap4jason]

PJ -

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I don't know who Steve Shamoo is.....I dealt with Tom Cervelli - again, he is straight-up, honest man.

One of the guys here, Jasper, mentioned about Vista Honda in Ventura. This is closer to where I live (Oxnard, CA) and about 1 hour away from you. I've purchased 2 Accords from them. I know the General Manager's name (Tony Fiori). I say give 'em a call if they have your SBP in stock. Try Honda of Oxnard as well - 805-973-1000, ask for Ron/Ronnie. They were dealing MSRP, no forced options, but the Pilot that we wanted was not built at the time.

I don't blame you if you want to look elsewhere, if you choose to stick with Kolbe, then I would talk to the Sales Mgr. and get something to compensate for your loss (time)! Write a darn letter. Letter always seem to get their attention - trust me on this.

The Pilot is worth the wait, don't give up now. IF SBP is what you want, stick with it......good luck buddy!

[Sage]

PJ... What a bummer for you but it looks like a few of the California Pilotheads have a couple of possible answers for you.
Hope they work out! Hang in there... it'll happen and be even sweeter for you when it does!

[PJ27]

Well, our ordeal may finally be over. We had to sacrifice though. No, I'm not paying over MSRP. My wife and I originally wanted a Sage Brush Pearl EX-L with Navigation. We were hoping for a October build date and November delivery date, but after calling the dealer to touch base, they told us that the build date was pushed back into November (possibly because of the port strike). That would mean we would not get our Pilot until possibly December. I don't know about you, but three months without a car is too long for me.

The sales manager was very polite and apologetic and said he would do all he could to find one for us. He then asked if we had a second color choice. My wife have been discussing that this may be an option. So we decided on the Starlight Silver Metallic as our second color choice. The sales manager said there are expecting delivery of a SS Pilot with Navi on Oct 14 (1 week!). My wife and I agreed that this was our best option. There was no way we were going to wait until December.

So the sales manager said that the Pilot was ours and gave us the VIN. Quite frankly, the silver color is really nice and my wife likes the gray interior more than the Fern interior of the Sage Brush. The sales manager also said he would sell me accesories at cost if I wanted them.

I will keep you all informed!

One week to go!

-pj

[chiquita]

Good for you--you made my day!! I like to hear of happy endings (or in your case, almost happy endings). It sounds as if the dealer is trying their best to correct a bad situation. Take advantage of their offer for accessories at cost and enjoy your new Pilot!!

BTW, you are going to love the silver Pilot. Yeah, it may not be as distinctive as SageBrush or some of the other colors, but it is not trendy and will never go out of style.

[Jerry]

Originally posted by PJ27
The sales manager also said he would sell me accesories at cost if I wanted them.

PJ27 - This sounds like the biggest hustle since the last sale of the Brooklyn bridge.

Check with hondacuraworld.com for actual cost on accessories before you buy more beach front property in Florida. "Cost" in the sales department is much higher than actual dealer cost. Compare the sales manager's prices with hondacuraworld.com and you'll see what I mean.