$1000 for the 7 year, 75,000 mile warranty? You could get it for $820 at http://www.hondawarranty.com and they probably have a discount promotion that would make it around $760 or so. Back in April I purchased a 7 year, 75,000 mile warranty with $50 deductible from hondawarranty.com for $735. It was a bit more expensive because I purchased it after the car had been in service two years (about $60 more).Will M said:
My car purchasing experience.
I just got my Insight yesterday. Parked next to my red 1992 Civic, the Civic is redder. The Insight is more orange. Meanwhile, much to my liking, the Insight's red is quite visible. I've seen fire engines in colors I'd consider to be more subdued. Anybody that hits THIS car is BLIND.
I'm not trying to insult people or whine a lot, but I am wistful about the contrast between the purchasing experience and the way it OUGHT to be.
My first complaint is that I ordered the car early last March and the dealer could not estimate to the nearest month when I'd get it. I was told it would be in mid April, then I was told late May to early June, then late June to early July. Until the truck rolled into the dealership, the dealer had no way of knowing where the car was.
UPS tracks things better than this. Why can't Honda? :?
My second complaint is that the dealership as an institution handles salesmen in such a way that there are no experienced salesmen. Something about the job is bad enough that people quit and new people are hired all the time. The salesman I ordered the car from quit about a month after the order. This contrasts the service department, where I've worked with the same service manager for 10 years. I've bought four cars from this dealership and never had the previous salesman still working for the company by the time I bought the next car.
My third complaint is that the salesmen do not see themselves as part of at team, supporting each other. I had to wait more than a half an hour on three occasions now to get to the next step in getting this car because the sales manager had assigned a specific salesman to me for the purchase of this car, and since this salesman was busy with other customers, none of the idle salesmen could help me. They work on commission, so they are basically predatory, looking for prey. I was already "caught", so nobody else had any interest in me.
My fourth complaint is that I've never had a car salesman who knew as much about the car I was buying as I did. I've never had one offer me any useful information about the cars I was looking at. None of them have actually helped me know what was available to promote my values in a car. When I go to Lowes to buy plumbing supplies or carpentry tools, the people there know their stuff and give me the information I need to make an informed decision. The car dealership apparently can't do this. :roll:
My fifth complaint is that buying the car is like arm wrestling with a con man. He clearly sees his job as trying to talk me into spending as much money as possible. He seems to have no other purpose. It is stupid, dishonest, insulting and it SHOULD be unnecessary. Any dealership who took on a less adversarial, predatory attitude toward his customers would quickly become very popular.
As a side note, during my talk with the guy who successfully talked me into the 7 year, 75,000 mile warranty for about $1,000, I found out that I'm due back about $630 for the balance of the 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty I had on my 2000 Insight that was totalled at about 45,000 miles. I had pretty much decided not to get the extended waranty until this surprising discovery. I didn't realize I'd get a refund if the car was totalled. With the refund, it makes more economic sense to get the new extended waranty.
My sixth complaint is that even though I had already ordered this car, so there was no need to select the car I wanted, and I had the money in my checking account, so there's no paperwork for financing, it still took almost three hours to buy this car. These people do this for a living. It would seem like they'd have the process a little more streamlined. :roll:
To his credit, my salesman was friendly, attentive, and polite. He apparently had a lot of checklists to follow and he did go over all the points on his checklist. He did his best to personalize a very impersonal, form-letter structured process, even if he knew nothing about the car. Most of our conversation consisted of me explaining the car to him.
Most human systems are short-sightedly structured because the people who create the structure do not empathize with those inside it. I don't think the dealership empathizes with the salesmen and I don't think the salesmen empathize with the people buying the cars. The result is that salesmen don't last, and customers get bad service. The dealership exploits the salesmen who exploit the customers. The service department seems to have a clearer recognition that they can make money helping people and earning trust in an ongoing customer relationship.
I'm not trying to insult people or whine a lot, but I am wistful about the contrast between the purchasing experience and the way it OUGHT to be.
My first complaint is that I ordered the car early last March and the dealer could not estimate to the nearest month when I'd get it. I was told it would be in mid April, then I was told late May to early June, then late June to early July. Until the truck rolled into the dealership, the dealer had no way of knowing where the car was.
UPS tracks things better than this. Why can't Honda? :?
My second complaint is that the dealership as an institution handles salesmen in such a way that there are no experienced salesmen. Something about the job is bad enough that people quit and new people are hired all the time. The salesman I ordered the car from quit about a month after the order. This contrasts the service department, where I've worked with the same service manager for 10 years. I've bought four cars from this dealership and never had the previous salesman still working for the company by the time I bought the next car.
My third complaint is that the salesmen do not see themselves as part of at team, supporting each other. I had to wait more than a half an hour on three occasions now to get to the next step in getting this car because the sales manager had assigned a specific salesman to me for the purchase of this car, and since this salesman was busy with other customers, none of the idle salesmen could help me. They work on commission, so they are basically predatory, looking for prey. I was already "caught", so nobody else had any interest in me.
My fourth complaint is that I've never had a car salesman who knew as much about the car I was buying as I did. I've never had one offer me any useful information about the cars I was looking at. None of them have actually helped me know what was available to promote my values in a car. When I go to Lowes to buy plumbing supplies or carpentry tools, the people there know their stuff and give me the information I need to make an informed decision. The car dealership apparently can't do this. :roll:
My fifth complaint is that buying the car is like arm wrestling with a con man. He clearly sees his job as trying to talk me into spending as much money as possible. He seems to have no other purpose. It is stupid, dishonest, insulting and it SHOULD be unnecessary. Any dealership who took on a less adversarial, predatory attitude toward his customers would quickly become very popular.
As a side note, during my talk with the guy who successfully talked me into the 7 year, 75,000 mile warranty for about $1,000, I found out that I'm due back about $630 for the balance of the 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty I had on my 2000 Insight that was totalled at about 45,000 miles. I had pretty much decided not to get the extended waranty until this surprising discovery. I didn't realize I'd get a refund if the car was totalled. With the refund, it makes more economic sense to get the new extended waranty.
My sixth complaint is that even though I had already ordered this car, so there was no need to select the car I wanted, and I had the money in my checking account, so there's no paperwork for financing, it still took almost three hours to buy this car. These people do this for a living. It would seem like they'd have the process a little more streamlined. :roll:
To his credit, my salesman was friendly, attentive, and polite. He apparently had a lot of checklists to follow and he did go over all the points on his checklist. He did his best to personalize a very impersonal, form-letter structured process, even if he knew nothing about the car. Most of our conversation consisted of me explaining the car to him.
Most human systems are short-sightedly structured because the people who create the structure do not empathize with those inside it. I don't think the dealership empathizes with the salesmen and I don't think the salesmen empathize with the people buying the cars. The result is that salesmen don't last, and customers get bad service. The dealership exploits the salesmen who exploit the customers. The service department seems to have a clearer recognition that they can make money helping people and earning trust in an ongoing customer relationship.
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
Well, my Insight experience is getting on for three whole months now, so I'm not the best one to answer, but if you want my $0.02 worth, I'd suggest buying a used Insight, and finding someone you trust (not necessarily the dealer) to do the service. That way you aren't always dealing with warranty issues, and if it does break, it is, as you say, disposable
As far as battery issues, my impression is that in the worst case where they go out completely, you're left with a three-cylinder car with about Geo performance.
As far as battery issues, my impression is that in the worst case where they go out completely, you're left with a three-cylinder car with about Geo performance.
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
