A bit of a rant.

It took me 6 weeks of research/test drive to decide which car to buy. I thoroughly considered the new Si, RSX-S, base WRX, base 350Z, base RX-8 and the GTI. I test drove most of them multiple times and the dealers all saw me more than once. Two reasons why the Si fell off of my list after 2 weeks of consideration: didn't like the drive very much, it was a good car but something was missing, I didn't find the car very engaging or lively, just didn't have that special effect on me. Second reason is that it just didn't seem like the car is actually "for sale", let me explain:

I went to multiple Honda dealerships for the Si and most of them carried a disgusting rude and cocky attitude. Almost all of them did not show any interest in earning my money, one dealer simply said: "The car sells itself, so we really don't care." The two test drives I got was from an appointment on the phone and from a local dealership that I bought my Accord from 5 years ago. Among ALL the dealerships of different brands I went to, Honda dealers were the least helpful in all aspects (Acura dealers were fantastic).

Fast forward to today, I've had my GTI for a little more than a week now and am very pleased with everything, I get a lot of phone calls from various dealerships following-up with me on my car purchase, again Honda managed to do something nobody else did, here are some examples:

Acura: Hey, how's it going, still in the market?
Me: Thanks for asking, I bought the new GTI.
Acura: The new models are out already? Very nice! Congrats! Well since you are no longer in the market I'm gonna cross you off the list, good luck with everything!
Me: Thanks!

Subaru: Hello Mr. XXX, how's your car research coming along?
Me: Good, I bought the new GTI.
Subaru: Cool! Congrats I'm happy to hear that, let us know if you need anything in the future, maybe we can earn your business next time!
Me: Thank you, I will.
(This Subaru dealer is 4 blocks from where I live)

Nissan: Hi XXX, are you still looking for a blue base 350Z?
Me: Not anymore, I bought the new GTI.
Nissan: Oh that's nice! I just saw the commercial a couple of days ago, hey remember to go check out the roads I told you about on the test drive, you'll absolutely love them. Congrats!
Me: Thanks so much XXX!

Honda (this is the same local dealer I bought my Accord from): Hey there, we got a silver Si, I think I can get them to drop to 2.5k over sticker, you want it?
Me: No thanks I already bought a car.
Honda: Oh really? Which car?
Me: The new GTI.
Honda: Oh ........... is that a Mustang?
Me: No it's the new Volkswagen Golf GTI.
Honda: OMG! A Volkswagen? Why would you buy a Volkswagen?! Wow, well that's too bad, bye bye.
Me: *dial tone* ..... WTF?

I'm done with Honda, I don't care how good the cars are their dealerships are utter garbage. I'll buy a VW, Nissan, Subaru, and heck even a Toyota before I buy another Honda.

This is NOT one dealership, in that 6 weeks I DID NOT find a single decent Honda dealership.

Just wanna add that my VW dealership was very good, I carried the same attitude of not knowing whether I want the car or not when I walked into the dealer. The Internet manager I spoke with earlier was a very busy man but came out in less than 5 mins and then spent a solid 5 hours with me, fulfilling every ridiculous request of mine to test drive, compare colors and test drive again. He was literallyl running back a forth taking care of me and another customer he had before me and all the dealership stuff he had to deal with. Gave me the price I wanted, gave me better financing and gave me plenty of laughs in the 5 hours I stayed there.

This is not a VW feel-good thing for fellow VW enthusiasts, this is purely a realization that things are not usually what they seem on the surface. I was a Honda super fan for quite a while because quite frankly, that's what friends and family said, but now that I'm older and am doing everything myself I'm just finding out a lot of shocking and interesting things when I poke deeper into the society and this world.

I was checking out those same companies. The best service was Subaru, then VW. I spent more time with Subaru, that's why. Honda was pushy, and rude. They also sell Mazda which I was considering the Mazda3 5 Door, and VW pulled out of that dealership because of standards. When he called me and told me he got the car in that I was looking for, he was pretty rude then too once I told him I purchased another car. Didn't say what because VW pulled out of that dealership 2 weeks prior.

A member of vortex mentioned that location has a lot to do with dealer quality. Gotta face it, people here in California are willing to bend over backwards for their Honda, the dealers actually really don't have to do jack to sell cars. Just another reason for me to buy other brands though. :wink:

Thats too bad Kharatos, I bought a Honda element 2 years ago and had a good experience with the dealer. There are Honda dealers in my area, Nc, like yours however. Congrats on the new GTI :wink:

AlphAZender said:

Thats too bad Kharatos, I bought a Honda element 2 years ago and had a good experience with the dealer. There are Honda dealers in my area, Nc, like yours however. Congrats on the new GTI :wink:

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Thanks.

I like their cars, because cars is one of my passions. But my problem is not only with the dealerships. Honda decided to give us the watered-down EP3 that is really a shame to the Si name. Then they finally make a good car and purposefully decide to build low volume while hyping it up so the dealers can milk thousands worth of mark-up (of course, it's also the customer's willingness to pay), those things have nothing to do with dealerships. Those are purely Honda decisions.

GTI lost its spunk too for a while but European GTI was even less powerful than the 1.8Ts we got here and correct me if I'm wrong but they pay more for it as well. R32 was limited but most people were able to pay MSRP since there wasn't a lot of hype surrounding it.

I'm starting to ramble, so I'm gonna stop here. Open to arguments and discussions.

VW dealers aren't the friendliest, but they sure are better than Honda.

I am going to have to give VW Boardwalk in Richardson Texas a A++.
Highly recommend them to anyone.

This applies across all car companies, and happens on a one to one basis all the time. My worst experience was at a Subaru dealer, and my two best were at a Honda and Toyota dealer.

When I was looking for my Si, I stopped in at a newer Honda lot that had 2 Si's that were fair game. The salesman was cool, let me drive it, and said there would be no above MSRP markup or games.

After my test drive, I gave the salesman my number and explained the deal I wanted. After three days or so, he called and agreed to my terms and I picked up the car about 5 hours ago.

Again, experiences will vary, so I don't think any particular car brand has bad dealers on a global level.

Slowride said:

This applies across all car companies, and happens on a one to one basis all the time. My worst experience was at a Subaru dealer, and my two best were at a Honda and Toyota dealer.

When I was looking for my Si, I stopped in at a newer Honda lot that had 2 Si's that were fair game. The salesman was cool, let me drive it, and said there would be no above MSRP markup or games.

After my test drive, I gave the salesman my number and explained the deal I wanted. After three days or so, he called and agreed to my terms and I picked up the car about 5 hours ago.

Again, experiences will vary, so I don't think any particular car brand has bad dealers on a global level.

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Consumers in California really need to wake up, there are people in Southern California paying THIRTY-FIVE thousand pretty American dollars for a Civic Si. And I wonder why dealers don't care to work and earn money ....

Where the pics at?!?! :biggrin:

Honda: "OMG! A Volkswagen? Why would you buy a Volkswagen?! Wow, well that's too bad, bye bye."

What an awful dealer. Yet I wouldn't be turned off to a specific company just because of that one instance in poor customer service. I've had poor customer service from Audi more than once but, it won't stop me from buying Audi/Volkswagen. Besides if your done with Honda you better be done with Acura as well, since they're the same company.

mllr said:

Honda: "OMG! A Volkswagen? Why would you buy a Volkswagen?! Wow, well that's too bad, bye bye."

What an awful dealer. Yet I wouldn't be turned off to a specific company just because of that one instance in poor customer service. I've had poor customer service from Audi more than once but, it won't stop me from buying Audi/Volkswagen. Besides if your done with Honda you better be done with Acura as well, since they're the same company.

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I know. But all the Acura dealerships I visited treated me much better even though they sell much more expensive cars and don't really have to give a damn about me.

I'm not 100% absolutely positively "done" with Honda and their cars but it's dropped so far off to the bottom of my list it's not even funny. I fully realize that it's not the best thing to do when it comes to my own benefits and advantages, but this is the first time ever that I feel like I should do something as extreme as this. It's not just that 1 phone call either. It's everything I've experienced all adding up to this point.

Well I'm only getting the jest of it. You would know how they treated yourself better than I. I'm just sorry they treated you like that to begin with.. I fully understand your frustration.

Big Props to Donaldsons VW in Sayville long island NY i bought my car there Brad was the most honest layed back salesperson i have worked with ever, he answered all my questions and spent alot of time with me to EARN my business he also didn't treat me like something less than human as i had experienced with alot of other dealers like smithtown vw or any of the acura/ honda dealers

Unfortunately your story is all too familiar. My wife and I were seriously cosidering a Honda Civic EX or Element - Until we actually went to a Honda Dealership.

They tried to have us submit a credit app before they figured out what we wanted, and nobody tried to SELL us a car. Complete apathy about earning our buisness.

Just goes to show you, not even Honda is immune to bad service. It's a common problem everywhere. A couple weeks ago on the Tex, somebody posted up a thread telling people to stay away from the dealer I bought my car at. Funny, they bent over backward for me and I had a great experience.

Ish happens everywhere. Sorry for your bad experience...and I agree. That would turn me off from them as well.