Chicago North 'burbs

[gewf631]

Here's my experience with 4 dealers in Chicago's N-N/W 'burbs

• Mueller (Highland Park)
  MSRP + $4,000 package (mats, running boards, mud guards) the remainder is a paint/exterior treatment
  - do the math!
• Pauly (Libertyville)
  MSRP (and some really nice folks)
• Rosen (Gurnee)
  MSRP (no demo-vehicle)
• Crystal Lake Honda
  MSRP

[vellinga]

Curious, have you ordered or bought your Pilot yet?
If so, from which dealership?

Rob
NW 'burbs

[gewf631]

Rob,
Ordered from Rosen, with 'production window' of 8/23 - 8/27.

Would have rather ordered through Pauly, but their lead-time was 2.5-3 months, versus Rosen's 1-1.5 months.

So far, experience has been good, but still waiting for delivery.

Send me a private message if you need more info.

Ed

[vellinga]

Thanks for the reply.

What dictates the lead time/delivery time per dealer? Do you know why this time frame would be different for each dealer?

Rob

[torrys]

I drove out to IN. I got tired of dealing with Chicago dealer BS. Found one on a lot at Harbor Honda and he didn't charge me oversticker. Bob McDermitt one of the best car dealers I've ever dealt with.

[motrawy]

Living in Southeastern WI, we originally put a deposit down at Rosen over a dealer a bit closer to us in Racine. In late July, however, neither could promise delivery before October.

I was quite surprised that less than 6 calls later we had no less than 3 dealers in Milwaukee promising a vehicle by the end of August. We happily picked up our EX-RES on the 17th and were able to land it at $500 UNDER MSRP. Needless to say, we're thrilled.

[kbleicher]

I went to Castle Honda (Morton Grove) and Mueller Honda (Highland Park) yesterday (9 Sept)....

Castle didn't have any demo models. They only had 2 Pilots in the service bay getting ready for delivery. The salesman let me check them out the best I could (very nice of him). Obviously I couldn't tell much this way.

Mueller had a dedicated white demo EXL. Other models were on the lot, but they were already purchased. I took the demo for a spin; I'm ready to take the next step now

I haven't tried to negotiate a price yet. Per other postings, I may try Pauly (thanks for all of the good info in this thread!)...

[kbleicher]

Pauly's asking for a $200 deposit to order (refundable). Very nice / low pressure salesman. But not very clear on when I should expect it to arrive.

Muller's asking for a $500 deposit to order (only refundable after you test drive the vehicle after it arrives).

Both are asking MSRP for the base model.

BUT. Both are asking quite a bit more for accessories. And they vary quite a bit in those prices. Muller's asking $100 more for the CD changer, and Pauly's asking about that much more for the roof rack rails. So, it's a wash. In both cases, they're not happy with the prices quoted from Honday's web site. Perhaps Honday's quoting from a region with lower labor costs? It's not as bad as the earlier post (another $4000 at Muller). Rather, you can expect a 20% increase from the Honda-quoted prices.

Some examples:
CD Changer
Honda: $582
Pauly: $595
Muller: $697

Roof Rails:
Honda: $184
Pauly: $ 350
Muller: $ 179

Wheel Locks:
Honda: $ 63
Pauly: Free
Muller: $ 129

I have more examples if you want them.



Muller offers free loaners when you get service.

Pauly's demo is a silver EX-L WITH NAVI.

[gewf631]

One week after forking-over my 30-G's, I'll follow-up on my original impressions.

Rosen Honda in Gurnee
Dealt with a Kevin Winters (found out later he is a nephew of "Rosen").

Not a good experience.

Didn't offer anywhere close to what I was expecting on our trade - not even when I used the argument that they were making such a wide margin on the Pilot (vs any of the margins on any of their other dealerships). Basically, could care less. OK, so they want to make money, next issue...

Test driving the new vehicle, I pulled it into a local gas station, where I proceeded to put $10 worth of gas (in a vehicle with 6 miles). When I showed the receipt (with a time-stamp) to Kevin, he basically could care less. Call me petty, but the sticker and the sales-document talk about a full tank of gas, and 6 gallons makes almost a third-down!

I asked several times, in several different ways, if he could throw-in anything extra (locking lugs, matts, etc), and this is where we started laughing at him (literally) - he said, "The owner will fire me if I did something like that." Let's see, they're making at least $5K on the sale, never had to worry about excess inventory, and they've (essentially) made interest on my depost for almost 8 weeks. Not to mention that we warned-him up front that we'd also be replacing our 4-year old Accord next spring. In my mind, VERY short sighted.

They will change my oil the first time for free (yippe), and then they'll give me $90 in 'Rosen Dollars', so we'll see how much they overcharge for accessories, and that will probably be the last time I see them. By the way, when I threatened I'd sue for false advertising (for the full tank), he threw in a previously opened set of locking wheel nuts.

Maybe the dealership is OK, but certainly avoid this salesman (yes, we've written a letter to his uncle).

Ed F
H-Blue (with 400 miles)

[kbleicher]

For what it's worth, Muller offered $4000 less than the Blue Book for my trade... Both Muller and Pauly told me to take it to CarMax.....

My trade: 1999 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Manual

Odd... The "black book" shows a trade value of $20,000, and the blue book shows a trade value of $16,000. Not sure why there's such a difference.

yes, they're both the trade value, not the private sale value...