Dealer Information

Dealer's sales rep was forthright in coming forward with wholesale value of new car and the profit he would like to make. There were no additional admin fees tacked on. Price on trade-in was lower than what I was hoping but within the Black Book range (It's not a good time to trade-in an SUV).

Choose dealership for its good inventory and best offer. The wholesale report was used to verify/confirm that I was receiving a good deal.

The dealer was recommended to me by a friend. We looked at all the competing vans and liked the Odyssey best. I recommend dealing mostly by phone or email beforehand... It makes it easier to negotiate, I find, and saves you time.

I have been researching this vehicle for some time and I thought I could not afford a new Honda Odyssey. When I approached the dealer and told him that I had a Wholesale Price Report, he was very accommodating. I was pleasantly surprised and overall pleased with the process. It was quick and painless.

We have used CCC for our last two vehicles. It made the "negotiation" process simple once the sales person realizes the information you have. For our first vehicle we paid $1,000 over dealer cost. When I mentioned that during our most recent purchase, the sales person said they would give us the vehicle for only $950 over dealer cost!

When it was my time to use the car cost information for my advantage I went to the Honda.ca web site. I printed off the list of all Honda dealers in Ontario and started to make my calls. I live in London, so naturally I called both London dealers. It turns out that the London dealers have a $250.00 administration fee on top of the final price of their cars they sell. I asked for the sales department with every call and talked to a salesman to give me their price. I went through about five dealers when I finally called Stratford Honda. I talked to Alan and told him that I have an internet print out of the dealer's cost and I will offer $300.00 above the wholesale price. He said he needed to talk to his manager first and he would get back to me. About 20 minutes later he called and the deal was done. However, he did ask about a trade-in and I did offer my '94 Honda Civic. Don't worry though, I was MORE than happy to get rid of it!! He was very easy to deal with and I went the following day to sign the papers. Five days later I now own a '09 CR-V. The best part of all of this is that the CR-V I bought from Stratford Honda had to be brought in from London Honda. Oh the IRONY!!

Shop around; not all dealers are ready for discounts. Smaller dealers are more willing. Drive a few miles if you have to it will be worth your while. Most Ontario Dealers did not respond to Internet requests. Get your Invoice price and add your extra(eg. 3%-5% or just $$$ on top of Invoice) Talk to the sales manager and ask if they want to sell you at(for example) Invoice + 3%, and then negotiate from there. Ben Spatafora at CarCostCanada is very good, talk to him.