"Honda, please give me a new Fit LX. You get to keep my car and resell it after it's fixed. Do we have a deal?"
Yesterday I got an email that said:
"...now is a great time to look at our 2016 lineup. We are offering additional trade-in assistance that may make it easier to simply purchase a new vehicle and let us handle your recalled one. If this is something you would like to explore, call the number below and ask for a Product Specialist and they will be happy to discuss options with you."
Ooooohhh, additional trade-in assistance, what could that mean? So I called the dealer and had them type me out a quote detailing what they mean, and here's the result. I could get a new Fit for MSRP, and they would give me $11K for my 2012 Fit with 30K miles (and alloy wheels, wheel locks, seat covers, mud guards, body side molding, rear bumper applique, door edge film, all weather mats, and cargo tray). Uhhh, where's the trade in assistance? Nowhere apparently.
I told the dealer that their numbers were not compelling, and the salesman replied that the door is open if I want to reconsider. I replied:
"When you want to trade nearly straight up (you'll be saving $1100/month on the rental car you're providing) I'm willing to talk. You'd be ahead doing that."
Here's Honda losing sight of the long term implications of providing rental transportation for me rather than just putting me in a new car and selling mine when it's fixed. They are clearly just trying to turn some additional profit for their sales side, but in the meantime, they could lose of significant dollars on this (and other recall rentals) by not just swapping out new cars. The only thing I can think of as to why they'd not go for this is that the fix is imminent. Here's hoping that is the case.
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