[buckeyesi]

I'm curious to know if anyone has used an internet car buying service such as Autobytel, Autovantage, Carsdirect, etc. to buy their TSX? I've had great success using Autovantage with my past 2 cars and recently we used Autobytel to buy my brother's TL.

I'm specifically interested in those who bought their car in the midwest (Ohio). What kind of price did you get? Not including taxex, etc.

 

[sixspeed]

I've used Autovantage to get a Camry for my father a few years ago. Very painless experience :thumbsup:
On the other hand the various prices offered to me when buying my TSX were ridiculous. So I just went to my local dealership, told them what I was willing to pay, they said yes, and that was the fastest and easiest way I or anyone in may family has ever bought a car.
It really depends on the dealership.

 

[HondaMan]

I bought my '02 Civic Si via carsdirect.com and it was very painless as well, especially considering I could not get dealerships to give me a reasonable price. The exact opposite happened with the TSX...carsdirect.com was not a good enough deal, so played all my local Acura deals against each other to get the price I wanted...all via emails and a few phone calls.

 

[Dr Gong]

I couldn't get any competitive prices through these sources. I ended up buying at Lindsay Acura in Columbus OH (Highly, Highly recommend this dealer. Great to work with and good service department). Tried the dealer in Dublin and they were too "snoody" and the dealer in Marysville had very little inventory and wanted me to wait weeks for them to locate one.

I looked at the Edmunds pricing forums to see what people were paying (didn't know about this site at the time). Ended up negotiating with the dealer and used the lowest forum price ($25,200) as my target - got a non-navi for $25,300 which was close enough for me, plus they split the price of the rear spoiler and included mud guards and wheel locks. Surprisingly, Lindsay would only come down to 25,800 when I first tried dealing with them on the internet (June 04). I also negotiated $5,400 for my '98 CR-V w/ 120,000 miles up from their initial offer of $2,000. If you go to the dealer, you have to be tough. They all want to make you think that there is limited supply of these vehicles, but if you do your research you'll learn it isn't true. Some dealers have limited supply due to the way Acura "Honda" disperses vehicles, but larger dealers like Lindsay have plenty and can get you a non-stock color within 24 hours.

Not having to hastle with the dealer may be worth $500 to some people though.

Sorry this was so long, but thought the information may help since you're also looking in Central Ohio! By the way, the TSX handled beautifully in the ice storm a few weeks ago - that traction control w/VSA is awesome - I justed laughed as I sped by all the struggling rear-wheel drive Beamers!

 

[buckeyesi]

Dr. Gong: Yeah, Acura Columbus blows. Actually, I am going to deal with Rob Ralston at Lindsay Acura since my bro bought his TL through him; he's a really nice guy. Was he your salesman, too?

Wow, I'm pretty surprised you got them to go so low on the price. Edmunds is still showing sticker price for TMV for our area so I wasn't sure how much negotiating room I had. I'm not so sure I'll be able to get as good a deal as you did since the 05's have only been out a couple months now. I'm really hoping that since this is practically repeat business that he'll be able to hook me up.

It's like I said in a post in another thread, it sucks I live only 10 minutes from Acura Columbus while Lindsay is clear across town.

 

[Dr Gong]

buckeyesi - My sales rep was Ginny - she was very helpful. Rob was actually my rep when I quoted online, but he was unavailable when I went to the dealer, so Ginny helped me. And yes, it sucks that Acura of Columbus has to be so bad because I'm about 5 minutes aways vs 30 to Lindsay, but it's well worth it, even for the service. I just looked at Edmunds again and it looks like you can still deal to where I was but remember the 05's are $500 more, so 25,800 would be the price today.