So I got my new car today. Yeaaaaa! That's very exciting to say the least. I will post some pictures whenever I take them. I'm definitely loving the car. I ended up getting exactly what I was trying to get all along, which was a 2007 Honda Fit Sport 5 speed manual in vivid pearl blue. It was quite an ordeal to get this point though. I had a lot of issues with a car dealer before I found this car at another car dealership. Basically, here's how it went down. On Saturday, March 31, Virginia and I went out to eat in Frankfort at Thai Smile. While we were there I suggested we goto Jeff Wyler Honda of Frankfort and see if they have any Fits in stock. I guess I should preface by saying Fits are in very high demand, they sell very quickly, and it's tough to find what you're specifically looking for. So the dealer had a black automatic Fit with aftermarket wheels, which clearly didn't meet the criteria. But since we were there I figured I may as well test drive it to get a feel for how the car handles. After the test drive I decided this definitely was the car I wanted, and the sales guy said he could probably work something out for us. After he claimed to check his data base in a six state radius and didn't find any Fits that met my criteria, he told me one was scheduled to be manufactured in Japan and delivered between the 4th week of April and 2nd week of May. I thought hmmm.... that doesn't sound to bad. So we agreed this was the route we would go and the sales person said they required a $500 deposit to be put down for us to have first dibs on the car when it was delivered. We both specifically asked if the deposit was refundable if we decided not to buy this car, and he told us point blank that the money was refundable. So we agreed on the price, which included a $900 "lack of availability fee", and our acknowledgement of the price was documented on a generic invoice. There was nothing on the invoice about the deposit being non-refundable. Actually there was nothing on the invoice period that was pertinent to a deposit. A couple days pass and I'm searching the Internet for information about Fits and discover that there are not one but two Fits in Louisville that are what I'm looking for. After calling the dealership I found out that the Fits had been there before our sales guy had checked his data base in a 6 state radius. Somehow he managed to miss these. I called up the sales guy as an FYI hoping they could trade their black Fit for one of the blue ones, but alas he had already sold it. At this point I'm irritated and start to waver on buying a car from this guy, and he immediately informs me the deposit is non-refundable and I have no choice but to buy this car. After coming to a standstill, he says he'll talk to his GM and get back with me the next day. After he doesn't call me all day, I finally call him to see what's up. Basically he says they can work with me on the deposit and refund it if necessary. But they maintain the entire time that the deposit was meant to be non-refundable. I'm very leery of these guys, but I still planned on buying a car from them. I also implored the sales guy to call the dealership in Louisville and at least lay the groundwork for a dealer trade whenever the Frankfort dealership got any Fit in. The following Monday I get a call from my sales guy, and he tells me they should be receiving some Fits the next day and they can make the trade with the Louisville dealership. Tuesday goes by and no phone call. I left a voicemail that afternoon with my sales guy since he was out for the day. I didn't get a call back until Friday evening informing me the Fits didn't arrive. As you can see, my sales person isn't the quickest guy to follow up and return phne calls. This past Monday I get a call from my sales guy again and he informs me there's good news and bad news. The good news was they got 3 Fits in, and he encouraged me to buy one of them instead of the type I wanted. I said no thanks. He then informed that the Louisville dealership had sold both blue cars. Coincidentally I had passed through Louisville the previous day while en route from South Bend, and I stopped and looked at both cars. They clearly weren't sold. I told my sales guy this and he acted all flabbergasted and told me they would call them right back to see if they could trade. I called back in 15 minutes and was told they didn't know if they could trade because the person in Louisville they needed to talk to was out for the day. I was assured they would call him first thing next morning. So the next morning around 10 am after receiving no word, I call the dealership, and at first I'm told my sales guy is out, but then the receptionist tells me he's with a guest and I should leave a voicemail. At 2 pm he hadn't returned my phone call, so I called the dealership again, and he had already left for the day. Apparently no one else at the dealership knew anything about what was supposed to be going on with the Louisville dealership. At this point I'm very suspicious and I call the Louisville dealership myself and ask for the person in charge of dealer trades. I ask him straight up if Jeff Wyler Honda had contacted him about trading for one of the blue Fits. He informs me that he has received no contact in the past few days. I am ticked at this point because it's obvious these guys are jerking me around. So the next morning I go over to the dealership to settle this matter. I ask my sales guy what Neil Huffman said yesterday when they called them. Without blinking, he told me that he was told by Neil Huffman that both of the cars had been sold, and I decide to call his bluff. I asked him who they talked to at Neil Huffman, and the name Adam comes up, which is the guy I had talked to the previous day. I decide I'm to call Adam right now and see what happens. They probably thought I was full of crap until I called the place and asked for the guy using his first and last name. When I used his last name, the sales guy's eyes got real big as he knew I had caught him in a big lie. Unfortunately, Adam hadn't arrived yet for the day, but I made my point. I tell the guy I will never buy a car from him and I want my deposit back. At this point I think he was flustered and decided I wasn't worth the trouble. He agreed to refund my deposit without any semblance of a fight, which relieved me immensely.
So later that day I'm checking another dealership in Louisville and find a blue Fit sport, and it also turned out to be a manual. After some discussion, I am quoted a price for this car that is $800 less than what I was quoted in Frankfort. On top of that, this car has some dealer add ons such as the protection package, which adds $1500 to the sales price. They actually agreed to credit the price of the protection package out of the price quote. Needless to say, this is the car we went for, and now we are proud owners of a Honda Fit.