[david]

I put down a deposit on November 8th for my dealer (Colonial Honda of Glendale California) to get me a Silver 2004 manual transmission Insight.

They said it would take about three months. I checked on December 8th and they had no news, but said They couldn't actually order it, but rather they put in a request and if Japan makes it, they get it.

Now it's January and they email me that they want to return my deposit as (and I quote) "none have been planned for production". HUH!?!

Does anyone know if this is crap or not? I must say I'm a tad miffed!

There are a couple of Automatics floating around, but I want a manual. Doesn't it seem that if there were a confirmed buyer they would just make it and send it along?

Has anyone gotten or seen a 2004 manual? What the hesll's going on?

 

[dan]

We have a 2004, manual, a/c (silver) #101, made in Nov.
Some dealers try harder than others.
Maybe it has something to do with the planned shift in factory location.

 

[Tim Maddux]

Some dealers are fantastic sources of bad information about the Insight. An example would be "there is no Insight for 200x" where x is any number greater than 0.

So I suggest finding a different dealer. I had a good experience with Vista Honda in Ventura. There was an Insight owner posting to Yahoo! that was a dealer/salesman somewhere in the valley. I want to say he was in the Canoga Park / Woodland Hills area but I'm not sure about that.

 

[david]

To add insult to injury I contacted the Pasadena Honda dealer in an email and humorously said, "Don't make me buy a Prius"

I got this response:

Dear David,
Help youself to the Toyota!
Sincerely,
Michael Sanchez, Internet Sales Manager
Honda of Pasadena
1965 East Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, Ca. 91107
Direct Line: 626-304-4312
Cell: 626-975-1834
[email protected]

Can you believe that? What the hell is going on?

 

[RickM]

The dealer in Boston, where I bought my 03 last month, has two silver 04's (one five speed)and one red 03 leftover(five speed),a dealer in Rochester NY has a red 04 five speed and a dealer in Providence RI has a blue 03 five speed.
There are plenty of them out there. Find a nice Honda salesman and ask him to search the states you are willing to deal with.
You can save more than $6,000 buying the leftover.
Rick

 

[opal]

To add insult to injury I contacted the Pasadena Honda dealer in an email and humorously said, "Don't make me buy a Prius"

I got this response:

Dear David,
Help youself to the Toyota!
Sincerely,
Michael Sanchez, Internet Sales Manager
Honda of Pasadena
1965 East Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, Ca. 91107
Direct Line: 626-304-4312
Cell: 626-975-1834
[email protected]

Can you believe that? What the hell is going on?

Call Honda's 1-800 number and raise hell. That's what I did last year (as close as a Canadian can get to raising hell, anyway ), when no one would talk to me about an Insight in Ontario, and it got them hopping.

That guy's being just plain rude to you - a paying customer. If nothing else, HQ should know what's going on.

Good luck getting your Insight, David.

 

[boogetyboogety]

How ruuuude...

By all means, let Honda corporate know. That idiot salesman just asked you to SPEND MONEY ELSEWHERE... that's a hangin' offense in my book... but hey, I'm the kind of hardnosed guy that imposes a $100 fine if a cell phone goes off in one of my sales meetings... maybe I just take the business of business too seriously (it's only money...)!

 

[LAinsight]

My feeling is that the dealer never ordered it!

I had similiar problems getting a 2003 in the colour I wanted. (The dealer offerd to re-paint one that he could get a hold of and sell it to me for less) I put down a deposit and signed what I thought was a contract. Several weeks later the dealer came back and asked for a much larger deposit. I was reluctant but wanted the car, and my only other alternative was to try another dealer. (This one was close to home and so it was where I expected to service the car) I could still not get a firm delivery date after paying all that money. I was assured it would be in the next lot coming out of Japan. I read thru this web site how others were getting their cars and eagerly called my dealer. They said no, not yet. 6 months after I thought I ordered it, I finally got my car. I poked around to try and find out the cause of the delay. What I heard was that the dealer never placed a real order with Honda until I coughed up more money, and so I missed the earlier batch of cars.

Honda coporate may only build the cars for dealers who are serious and show them the money.
Your dealer enjoyed the interest free use of your deposit. (it beats bank capital)

...Leo