I'm not taking my personal experience as being the rule throughout the land, but I thought I'd share what I saw a few weeks ago. I still own my old Honda, and I needed some work done. Ended up at the dealership with an hour to kill. As they hope you will do, I ended up walking around the showroom. They had an Insight on the floor. It had the red "sale" tag hanging from the rearview window, and I was curious anyway so I went to take a closer look. Well the "Sale" price of this Insight approached $28,000 dollars. That floored me. I thought Honda had released the Insight with the idea that it was suppose to be more reachable for a larger audience than The Prius? I looked at The Insight and it is seemed considerably smaller to me. I took a closer look at the sticker, and noticed that it was actually a $24,000 dollar vehicle WITH A $4,000 dollar "market adjustment" increase. If I had wanted to purchase, and I wanted to haggle I have no idea how commited to that increase the dealer would of been. If I was serious about buying it might of vanished in a puff of smoke. But they were Red Tagging advertising it as on "Sale" at $28,000. Sorry, but for the size of the vehicle no way I would pay that much. I've seen and been in The Prius and it is far superior from a back seat standpoint as well as I think offering a much more advanced Hybrid system. You could talk me into paying $28,000 for a Prius but $28,000 for The Insight? no way. Just seems to me like Honda is screwed. They can advertise The Hybrid for everyone and even produce them at a lower cost, but if dealers can and will tack on $4,000 dollar increases then a lot of "everyones" are going to be disappointed when they get to the dealership. This was closer to the end of Cash for Clunkers, and inventories of economical cars were depleted. So perhaps I was just seeing the exception and not the rule. Perhaps the high price on The Insight was just to encourage walk in's that may not be so commited to the idea of a hybrid, to look at The Fit, or The Civic. I don't know. But I can't believe that an upwards of $28,000 dollar Insight is what Honda wants, or was ever invisioning with their entire Insight release.
The Insight is not selling well and should be able to be obtained at a discount to MSRP. This is backed up by Truecar showing average prices paid below MSRP. New Honda Insight Prices and Honda Insight Dealer Invoice and Cost
In Canada, we only get two Insight models - LX and EX. The EX is basically your EX-L (i.e. with nav and bluetooth) so we don't get an EX model without nav. This means if you want TCS and VSA, you're shelling out extra for nav and bluetooth too. LX - Cdn$23,900 EX - Cdn$27,500 For comparison HCH-II - $27,350 3G Prius - $27,500 2G Prius - $27,710 (or $27,400 prior to the Jan '09 price increase) Also what's interesting to note is that on Honda Canada's site, all the representative vehicles are the top models (Civic Si, Fit Sport, Odyssey Touring, Accord EX-L V6 etc etc) yet when it comes to the Insight, they show the base LX model instead of the EX which has alloys. If I remember marketing correctly, you want to display your best model, not the worst.
I bought my wife one before I bought myself the Prius. Hers is an EX (w/o nav) with a ton of options (trunk tray, wheel locks, tint, etc.) I walked out door after tax, tag, and title at $23k. So those dealers must be looking for idiots. If my wife didn't buy that vehicle I never would have even looked at a Prius, much less buy one.
I have looked at several vehicles to compare price/fuel economy benefits. Hondas did not even make it into my spreadsheet. Not that I'm bashing Honda. Nice cars, but not even close to my new P2010.
Don't confuse what the manufacturer charges with what the dealer charges. Honda intended for that Insight to cost $24K (MSRP+factoryoptions). The dealer chose to mark it up to $28K. And since that car was sitting in the show room, as someone already pointed out, there's about a 99% chance it was a top of the line model with optional features on it. The biggest irony here to me is that it had a $4K "market adjustment" yet it said "sale" on it. (laughing hysterically) what the??? Take a photo of that one and mail it in to the Jay Leno show. The idea of placing such a car in the show room is to get the consumer to think 'wow,' and then the sales man [pounces] on the consumer and if the consumer seems hesitant about the price, the salesman can then [while sticking to the consumer like gorilla glue] inform the consumer of the less expensive models. (Anyone with a slight bit of eduction and technical know how, would have at least performed basic research on the internet before stepping on a dealer lot. You should have looked at the sales man and started laughing histerically and when you have the attention of everyone in the showroom, you say "the commercial says those are only $18K. How the heck can it be on sale if you are charging TEN grand over that?" and then just keep laughing until they escort you out of the building and the sales manager [attempts] to complete any pending sales. )
I didn't know we were arguing. But you did say: The term bottom feeder refers to the lowest form. I was referring to price in this case. I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the "worst" model would have the lowest price.
Well I wasn't so much arguing but just trying to get a reason as to why Honda would display the LX model for the Insight but the top model for everything else. When you said bottom feeder, I assumed the folks looking at a Fit/Civic not because they want a fuel efficient car but because that's all they can afford or want to pay. It's true but what relevance would that have when you have, say the EX-L V6 Accord shown and the price "starting at $24k". It's already stated at what price it starts with. However I think I get what you're trying to say. You're saying that because someone looking for an Insight, could potentially be someone that is looking for the cheapest hybrid and nothing fancy, Honda wants to show the Insight LX so that they're not turned off by the fancy alloys and thinking it's a more expensive car??
I saw a couple used (each with over 35k miles) gen2 Priuses in a dealership for $26k and $24k, what's your point? I always wondered if anyone actually accepts the prices listed on those signs - I figure they were there so that the dealership could put a high number to set the bargaining/negotiation range high.
amen...well i did pay $28,000 for my Pri and its expensive but still worth it. i still consider it to be in class of its own. and you are right, i would not pay that much for the insight
