If you had to choose between a Camry and an Accord

[JulesMaximus]

We kinda just went through this with replacing my moms 1999 I30 which finally shit a brick.

Had her drive an Accord, Camry, Prius, Jetta, Passat, Mazda 6, CLA, A3, 320i, Fusion (Fuck you Ford your dealers are complete utter shit, you basically lost the easiest sale of your lives).

She liked the Fusion the most, but 15 minutes of "what can I do to get you in this today" said by every single person at the dealer was enough for me.

Came between the Passat and Accord with me preferring the Accord but VW came down to 26k OTD on a fully loaded 1.8 TSI SEL which beat Honda by about 1.5k so that ended up winning. She actually preferred the VW to the Honda so ended up working out for the best.

I probably would have bought a Fusion Hybrid were it not for precisely this. Last time I test drove a Ford was 2 years ago and I had exactly the same experience. I practically had to punch someone to get out of there. It will be a cold day in hell before I set foot in a Ford dealership again.

 

[squarecut1]

We

Came between the Passat and Accord with me preferring the Accord but VW came down to 26k OTD on a fully loaded 1.8 TSI SEL which beat Honda by about 1.5k so that ended up winning. She actually preferred the VW to the Honda so ended up working out for the best.

So the OTD for Accord was 27.5 K. Which trim was that?

 

[PhoKingGuy]

I probably would have bought a Fusion Hybrid were it not for precisely this. Last time I test drove a Ford was 2 years ago and I had exactly the same experience. I practically had to punch someone to get out of there. It will be a cold day in hell before I set foot in a Ford dealership again.

Dude I shit you not it was almost a joke how bad their sales environment is. I went to one of the biggest dealers in OC and was basically treated like I was in a turkish flea market. Honda....wasn't too far behind but somewhat tolerable.

VW was stupidly easy compared, gave them a call and asked for a quote on a specific model they had in stock, gave them the stock number. He called me back in 10 minutes with an offer!! Faster than anyone else. Basically undercut honda by a few hundred bucks. I countered with a complete low ball, and he said hold on....then said ok sure a few seconds later. Drove over, car was already detailed and sitting out front. Signed the papers and drove off. Took literally an hour and a half from first contact to driving off. Super friendly sales team. Basically as good of an experience as I would have gotten from BMW/Mercedes.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

So the OTD for Accord was 27.5 K. Which trim was that?

It was a little more than 1.5k but I forget how much exactly, was about a month ago. EX-L with navi. I think it was closer to 28k even for the accord.

 

[squarecut1]

Dude I shit you not it was almost a joke how bad their sales environment is. I went to one of the biggest dealers in OC and was basically treated like I was in a turkish flea market. Honda....wasn't too far behind but somewhat tolerable.

VW was stupidly easy compared, gave them a call and asked for a quote on a specific model they had in stock, gave them the stock number. He called me back in 10 minutes with an offer!! Faster than anyone else. Basically undercut honda by a few hundred bucks. I countered with a complete low ball, and he said hold on....then said ok sure a few seconds later. Drove over, car was already detailed and sitting out front. Signed the papers and drove off. Took literally an hour and a half from first contact to driving off. Super friendly sales team. Basically as good of an experience as I would have gotten from BMW/Mercedes.

Wow, that is an incredibly easy buying experience! Good for you!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Dude I shit you not it was almost a joke how bad their sales environment is. I went to one of the biggest dealers in OC and was basically treated like I was in a turkish flea market. Honda....wasn't too far behind but somewhat tolerable.

VW was stupidly easy compared, gave them a call and asked for a quote on a specific model they had in stock, gave them the stock number. He called me back in 10 minutes with an offer!! Faster than anyone else. Basically undercut honda by a few hundred bucks. I countered with a complete low ball, and he said hold on....then said ok sure a few seconds later. Drove over, car was already detailed and sitting out front. Signed the papers and drove off. Took literally an hour and a half from first contact to driving off. Super friendly sales team. Basically as good of an experience as I would have gotten from BMW/Mercedes.

I had the same experience when I bought my Toyota, although I've heard their dealerships can be hit or miss. I went through USAA and had exactly the same experience you did. Sent out a few e-mails to local dealers, I had already driven the car so I knew I liked it, the one that came back with the best offer happened to be 5 minutes from where I work so I drove down there during my lunch break and they looked over my car. I told them what I wanted for it, he called me back about an hour later and asked me if they gave me what I wanted for my car if I would do the deal. I said yes, drove over there after work and an hour and a half later I was driving home in my Camry Hybrid at the price they quoted me through e-mail (which was $4k under msrp-$28k for an XLE Hybrid with leather, power moonroof, nav). Probably helped that I was dealing directly with the fleet manager and not some shithead with a quota to meet.

Lexus dealers are also top notch when it comes to the sales experience. No pressure at all.

Fuck Ford. :thumbsdown: They make some decent cars so why do they have to try so hard to sell them?

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Honestly, Ford isn't even the worst. The absolute worst possible one I've ever consistently experienced was....Cadillac.

1st dealer (Florida): Walked in after clinic (so in a dress shirt, tie, pants) parked my 335i right out front. Asked to look at an ATS (right when they came out). Was flat out told we don't do test drives or demo anything if you aren't interested in buying something from me today. I walked out.

2nd dealer (SoCal): Walked in to check out new CTS with my dad, throughout the demo all the guy did was shit on BMW/Merc/Audi by saying how the CTS was better than anything they have ever put out. This was supposedly the head of fleet sales too, figured he would have a bit more sense than that. Basically said, this is what it is, take it or leave it at MSRP. Ended up with a 2014 E350 for less than the CTS anyway.

There's a reason their sales are mediocre.

 

[eng2d2]

Honestly, Ford isn't even the worst. The absolute worst possible one I've ever consistently experienced was....Cadillac.

1st dealer (Florida): Walked in after clinic (so in a dress shirt, tie, pants) parked my 335i right out front. Asked to look at an ATS (right when they came out). Was flat out told we don't do test drives or demo anything if you aren't interested in buying something from me today. I walked out.

2nd dealer (SoCal): Walked in to check out new CTS with my dad, throughout the demo all the guy did was shit on BMW/Merc/Audi by saying how the CTS was better than anything they have ever put out. This was supposedly the head of fleet sales too, figured he would have a bit more sense than that. Basically said, this is what it is, take it or leave it at MSRP. Ended up with a 2014 E350 for less than the CTS anyway.

There's a reason their sales are mediocre.

Should not take things personal when it comes to dealer. They are just making a living in other words a sale.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Should not take things personal when it comes to dealer. They are just making a living in other words a sale.

That is not a valid reason for putting up with bullshit. I have zero tolerance for that nonsense. I had my son with me at the time so if nothing else I taught him how to walk away from an idiot trying to pressure you into a sale.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Accord because of 6MT and like most Hondas it should actually be somewhat fun to drive.

This. Neither is particularly athletic, but the Accord is still more engaging than the Camry, plus it has the option for a manual.

ZV

 

[Imported]

You guys have some horrible Ford dealership experience.. My one and only experience was quite pleasant. Never felt pressure to buy and test drove a Focus, Fusion and Fusion Hybrid. The Toyota dealership across the street was way more pushy and turned me off completely to that dealership so much that I bought a Toyota from the town over.

 

[Brian Stirling]

I think it's mostly the management of the particular dealer and that could be for any brand.

The last car I bought I knew what I wanted before I went to the dealer and I also knew they were unlikely to have what I wanted on the lot or nearby so I'd already figured on having to order and wait. Sure enough the dealer tries to talk me into one of the cars on the lot, they all do this by the way, but I was firm in my specs and after a few minutes they/he figured out that he was either going to give me what I wanted or I'd leave.

I ordered the car exactly as I wanted and about 6 weeks later had exactly the car I wanted. This was a Ford dealer if that matters...

Dealers count on buyers being anxious to get into a new car and exploit that by talking you into whatever they have on the lot because the number one rule of car dealers is: make the sale NOW...


Brian

 

[Scarpozzi]

I've not done an apples to apples comparison of the two. I can say that Toyota pricing is lower. You can almost always find a deal on a base Camry for $18.5k or maybe less... Accord will run you $2k more, I believe...unless incentives have changed.

To spec leather seats and sport upgrades, etc...it'd be tough to say who'd win pricing.

I found that all my local Toyota pricing was more expensive than hopping to another state and buying from a different distributor network. I saved about $2k because they had no room to negotiate due to the distributor network sucking profits from the dealerships. I suggest doing a search using whatever car buying tools you can find and see if you can leverage a lower price by a dealership simply wanting the sale to move a unit.

 

[Midwayman]

Still missing the point, I think, unless you can only afford one car. I own a vehicle that I take out mostly by myself when I want to Drive, but for taking the family to town on Sunday, the Accord is the far better choice. Wanting the right tool for the job does not mean one is not a 'car guy.'

I'm not the one saying you can't be a car guy by owning a camry or accord. That was someone else. I'd think a car guy would prefer the accord over the camry, but whatever. I'm not sure where you're getting that I have a problem with the accord. I mean we can take a step further and talk about which minivan I'd pick if I were buying one as a car guy. I mean there is zero pretension of sport in those things, but handling feel would still be on my list of things I'd be looking for if I was going to drive it regularly. Only time I could see tossing that out the window is if I were using it as a livery car. Then passenger comfort would be at the tip top of the priority list.

 

[Midwayman]

I remember one time at a Subaru dealer I started to talk to a salesman to attempt to make a deal. They took my keys to evaluate my trade in while we negotiated. After a hour they weren't moving at all on the price of the car and I had enough I demanded my keys back so I could leave. They wanted to go over the 4 square one more time and it went on like this for 5-10 minutes before I stormed over into the managers office, snatched my keys off his desk and walked out.

 

[squarecut1]

Question: Has anyone drove a recent model Accord on roads which are bumpy and/or have potholes? How is the ride in such conditions?

 

[tortillasoup]

Pardon my ignorance but why aren't you people using truecar.com? You guys seem to be wasting a lot of time haggling just to have the opportunity to overpay for your cars.

 

[NutBucket]

Because truecar is rigged. They used to be independent but that changed a while ago.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Because truecar is rigged. They used to be independent but that changed a while ago.

Plus you can easily do better.

 

[NutBucket]

No haggle pricing is for suckers IMHO.

 

[tortillasoup]

Plus you can easily do better.

Yeah but weren't the prices listed in this thread WORSE than truecar? I know a bunch of people who have purchased cars and their after haggling price was always worse than the truecar listed price. I know truecar's price isn't as good as it used to be but that's because if they had kept it up, the company would have gone under as the dealerships weren't making any money. I think the truecar price is a great place to start haggling if you really think you can do better than that.

 

[foghorn67]

Costco used to be a good option. Not sure how it is now days.

 

[NutBucket]

I'd say Costco is a good starting point for negotiations.

 

[Imported]

Use Truecar as your base and work it down more.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Pardon my ignorance but why aren't you people using truecar.com? You guys seem to be wasting a lot of time haggling just to have the opportunity to overpay for your cars.

I have USAA insurance and I used their car buying service.