Bought a Certified 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid EX-L. I would have given a full 5 stars rating if not for a couple of issues that I experienced during this process.
The absolute good: The "Out the door price", "Out of pocket cost" was easily defined, no obscure calculations, plain and simple, numbers made sense. Honda City LI was one of about ten dealerships I researched. Honda City LI did not have "dealership fees scheme's" or "advertised price shenanigans" in which, dealerships advertise a nice price, and in small font (fine print), they state "financing with dealership with $1,995 down payment required". You walk into any of these other dealerships, you look at cars, drive test, etc and when ready to crunch numbers, the ? is "what's the bottom line price for the car?", they bring their calculator out, start punching numbers and spit a number, you have no clue how they came out with it. Don't be intimidated that you did not understand a thing about the number they tell you. When I 'peeled the onion', asked him to breakdown how he came up with that number, then I was able to see, they use the advertised price, then THEY ADD, (Yes, they add) the down payment in the fine print, then they calculate the NY sales tax, add 'dealership fees' + DMV fees. In other words, if they advertised a car for $20,000, fine print says "with down payment of $1,995" they add $20,000+$1,995, + taxes and fees. At one of the Honda dealers I visited, when I stated to the sales rep this price calculation was a 'scheme', (as when you see adding a down payment to the advertised price?), the down payment should be subtracted from this price, not added to the price, salesman response was that he understood, that it was not a scheme as it was 'disclosed' in the ad and, that every dealer advertises like that. Well, Honda City Long Island does not!! The only one of many I researched and visited. I have an MBA, of course I did a thorough research on prices, mileage, Pre-Certified values, etc. Honda City LI was the only one which did not have this down payment scheme in place and, no ridiculous fees. My previous car was a Toyota Camry XLE. Of course wanted to give a shot at a Certified Toyota Hybrid, went to their Massapequa dealer, drive tested the car. When it came down to numbers, they conceded $200, however, when I asked what their dealership fees were, $997 emissions fee!, $695 Administrative, $374 Transportation adding a total of $2,066 worth of fees to the sales price!! of course, this outside NY Sales Tax and DMV fees. Absurd!
I certainly recommend this dealership, Honda City LI in Levittown as what counts the most, is the total out of pocket cost to buy a car. APR obtained was 1.99%, although this was for a Certified car, rate was extremely competitive. Kudos to Michael Judan our sales rep and to Christina, sales manager, their courtesy and attention to customer were superb, also Marie Iacono at Finance.
What does not allow me to give a 5 star experience was related to a couple of items, a. communication I had with one of their finance people, a gentleman named Will. He knows what transpired, hopefully after this experience, he will no longer take a demeaning attitude towards a customer and instead will bite his tongue and be courteous towards them. If I was the owner or general manager, I would definitely have a chat with him. As an owner, they want to maximize the opportunities for revenues, the finance staff play a huge role in getting more revenues in. Put it this way, the hard part was already done, the customer had already entered into an agreement, put down money, then the last step is for finance staff to treat the customer like they deserved to be treated; remember, the finance staff will be the ones pitching to them the extra coverages, the extra warranty, that alarm deal, that maintenance package, etc, etc. When I got Will's attitude, I decided not to give them one more cent of my business, they lost the additional revenue, just because of his poor attitude. b. One of the Hybrid emblems, which are certainly good looking emblems, had discoloration in the letter B and totally missing the blue color in letter R (see my profile pic), so while all the other letters are this beautiful shiny blue, letter B has paint missing at the bottom of the letter and as for R its just a shinning R with no color. I tried to reason with them as checking emblems is part of the 150 point in the car certification, I wanted them to swap this emblem for the correct emblem, after all, you are paying over $20K for a product and this was a glaring defect on a beautiful car.
So bottom line, Out of pocket costs is king in this business. Don't waste your time pursuing other dealers in Long Island, Honda City LI is the one to go. The advertised price it is the actual baseline price to add your NY sales tax and DMV fees. I will certainly recommend this dealership and experience to anyone I know that is in the path to buy a certified car. read more