Lute Riley Honda

Got the usual round of emails (not true "quotes," but rather rapid-fire solicitiations with no prices), after going through Edmunds. Returned a call to Lute Riley and they said they would be doing a swap w/ another dealership and could get the Accord with the trim package (without the dealer-added crap) I wanted. When I asked for his best price, he offered me $1000 OVER MSRP! I told him that was too much and said thanks. He called back 3 minutes later and offered to meet me somewhere between his "invoice" and his first offer. (I find it unbelieveable that given the availablity of actual dealer cost data online, he still thought I was an uninformed idiot.) I told him I needed to review my numbers to make an offer, and I could hear his boss in the background gruffly telling him to inform me that I needed to decide withing the next 15 minutes, otherwise it would not be available. (I guess he decides how many Honda actually produces.) I called back after 2 hours once I could prepare an educated offer. After he rejected my first offer, I asked him what he thought was a fair profit margin, and he stumbled around and kept trying to convince me that the invoice price was his actual cost, but wouldn't answer my question. When I pressed him for a fair percentage margin, he said "8-10%." I laughed. He realized the absurdity of his statement, and then said 4%. I told him my initial offer to him was actually just under 5%. He quickly lifted the price $250 more than my offer AND removed the window tinting. I guess they just get put out when the customer is not enough of a moron to pay $1600 for $180 worth of add-ons ON TOP of a 6% profit margin.