Wow.. that was a really hostile response. You asked my opinion on the pricing, and I shared. I am in no way affliated with Acura nor any dealership. I was stating my opinion based on many cars on the market. I said "I think that"..
I paid 27,700 for my 2.4L due to an issue with my previous vehicle the dealer sold me; which was their fault.. There is no reason to be hostile.
Otherwise, I am sorry you feel so strongly about the pricing of the ILX and my response to your question.
I made a genuine inquiry on this forum asking for real-world information. What you gave me not only did not resemble real-world information, it appeared to be both pro-dealership and highly inconsistent with what you had posted here in another thread. I did not feel that my legitimate inquiry was being treated in a reasonable fashion.
I am confident that in the last few days of the year, virtually anyone can negotiate virtually any dealer of any make of cars down by more than $1,000 on practically any car that's not a new, high demand model. But we're not talking about a high demand model, we're talking about the ILX, a car that is underselling by a relatively huge amount - at least a third lower sales than expected. At year's end, dealers very much want to get cars off their lot so they can avoid paying insurance, financing and taxes on cars plus try to make manufacturer's dealer sales quotas. A year ago, my local Lexus dealer had a new, prior model year IS250 (a semi-comparable car to the ILX) that they were trying to dump and had cut its price from around $35,000 to $27,000 during the last week of the year. Similarly, a friend bought a brand new 2011 Murano last summer for more than $9,000 off the sticker price. Why such big discounts? People didn't want older cars, they viewed them as less desirable than current model year cars (notwithstanding that they were brand new and essentially identical with the current year vehicles) and the dealers did not want them sitting on their lots for such an extended period of time. While the ILX is a current model year car, it also is not viewed by the public as a desireable car at its price point (otherwise it would at least meet, if not exceed, sales expectations) and my local dealer has had ILXs sitting on his lot unsold for months. Additionally, Honda has been hurting financially from loss of production from the tsunami and from declining interest in its Acura luxury division and while the plants are back in full production now, unquestionably Honda would like to see a boost in sales more than they normally would. Accordingly, it is reasonable to assume that Acura dealers in general, and mine in particular, will be willing to give very significant discounts to move ILXs off their lots in the next two week.
As for the special circumstances surrounding your discount, Trentimus, why would you not have stated those circumstances in your original post? You made it seem as if that was the price you were able to negotiate under normal circumstances. Were you threatening or implying you might sue the dealer? If not, then your special discount wasn't unique to you or your circumstances and a dealer would have sold the car to someone else at that price if they bargained hard enough. Years ago I chatted for over an hour with a car salesman (worked at Nissan, Infiniti, and Porche-Audi dealerships) who was a client of a friend and he opened my eyes about car sales practices. That salesman who treated you with such respect and made you feel like such a valued customer? He's the slickest conman on the staff and he's the one getting the biggest laughs out at the bar with the other salesmen when he talks about "this guy thinks we have a '
real rapport!' "
Additionally, Trentimus' claim that the ILX's pricing is "justified" - i.e. provides more than adequate value for the high sticker prices - is a rare opinion. I've talked to at least eight friends who are into cars and all of them think the ILX is overpriced at its MSRP. Look on any of the car magazine online forums and, ignoring the frequent posts from juvenile fanboi-types, one would have a very hard time finding anyone who thinks that Acura's sticker prices for the ILX represents a good value. And of course that brings us back to the previous point: if the car is such a "good value" at its current pricing, why is it selling so poorly? It's not all about the lack of promotion (which is somewhat to blame).
Given all of these factors, it thus did not appear to me that Trentimus took my initial post seriously, hence my annoyed tone.
And let me reiterate that despite having made some negative points about the ILX, I do like the car and it's on my 3-4 car short list of ones I am contemplating purchasing in the next few weeks. I was simply making points that I think justify why a dealer might be convinced to give a significant discount on one of these Acuras.