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Monday, April 29, 2019

Honda of Illinois Deceitful

We have been searching for a new car for several weeks.  We test drove a number of very nice vehicles and my wife decided she would like to drive a Honda Odyssey.  It has many good safety features we like and passenger seating is very comfortable compared to other vehicles we looked at.

We first test drove one at Roy Schmidt Honda in Effingham.   The nice young man we talked to was up front and said we would get the internet price.  We were travelling at the time so we went on our trip to Indiana.

On our return on Monday, my wife checked the Honda of Illinois  website and found the exact same vehicle for $500 less.  That evening we went and test drove it and indicated we would take it.  The nice young salesman in Springfield named Dustin Morris brought  us a price that did not match the internet price, I asked him if it was correct and he said yes, so because of the fact that dealers play with numbers and we thought the price included dealer prep and other stuff and that we were still getting the internet price.

He took us to the "closer"  whose name escapes me.  When the closer told us the payment, I said it was higher than I expected.  He also pressured us to get the extended warranty which I did not want,  It turned out the the extended warranty also committed us to dealer added extras.  I did not realize this.  The closer used the tactic of lowering the payment by extending the term.

It has been so long since I purchased a vehicle from such a deceptive dealer that I was not cautious about what I was signing. Over the next weekend I reread the paperwork and found that they had cheated me out of the internet price by about $2500.  That is not to mention the warranty and the extras.  I stopped by Honda of Illinois on my way home from a job on Monday and raised the issue with them.  They offered me 5 oil changes which I refused.   I have since been promised $1000 and $750 which I have not received. 

I am a little embarrassed to post this, but I decided that since they did not own up to their deception with at least a partial refund, I would put it out there as fair warning. I promised I would do this if  they did not give me a refund, so here it is.  It has been 3 weeks. 

We do like the vehicle, but if you want a new Honda, beware. 

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