Stockton Honda (positive experience)

[MJRaposa]

I posted the following on another thread about buying experiences. I wanted to follow it up in this forum on dealer experience.

Posted back in mid November:

"We purchased our Pilot yesterday and will take delivery later this week. It is a Sagebrush pearl EX-L with Navi. We drove over from the bay area to Stockton to deal with Stockton Honda. I must say they did a great job and I left feeling satisifed that I got as good or better of a deal than I had hoped for.

I had done my research and had a CarsDirect.com quote with me. When I ran it through yesterday CarsDirect was quoting $100 below MSRP. I showed that quote to Stockton Honda and asked why I should purchase the Pilot from them. Their answer was, "Because we can beat that price", and they did knocking several hundred dollars off the MSRP. We talked options and I had with me a price list from www.hondaacuraworld.com. They matched the internet price for each option, (wood steering wheel, wood shift knob, CD changer, mud flaps, cargo tray, cargo cover, etc.) I can install everything except the steering wheel so we negotiated an installation price that is below Honda's suggested price for installing the steering wheel alone, and Stockton Honda offered to install ALL the options for that one installation price. That wasn't a big concession cause most of those install easily, but hey, they did me a favor and I appreciated it. For the trade-in, a 97 CRV, I had the kbb.com quote for trade in value and I had chosen excellent condition. They weren't too keen on accepting the excellent, wanting instead to use "good" condition, which took ~ $700 off the trade in value. We split the difference in the two trade in values, plus they knocked another hundred off the Pilot. We signed the papers.

I have the VIN and the Pilot is sitting at the port, (about 75 miles away). It should be delivered today or tomorrow, and they need one day to install the options. Then we'll drive over and drop off the CRV and pick up the Pilot.

I've got to tell you, I've never had such a car buying experience."


As I said, this was the first really positive car buying experience I've had in the past 20 years. It was awesome. I now have ~1,700 miles on the Pilot and it's awesome.

By the way, I don't work at Stockton Honda, don't know anyone there other than the sales team I worked with, (Sammy and Alan), and have nothing to gain. I'm just a satisified customer!