Prime Honda

03/05/09

Great new car buying experience

by henli at Citysearch

No car buying experience is perfect, but Prime is a great place to buy a Honda. I shopped at Prime and at Village Honda in early 2009.

At Prime, they are direct, they don't waste you time with a complicated dog-and pony show like Village Honda, they have a very comfortable show room and loads of cars right there to pick from, and the sales force is knowledgeable, helpful, appropriately pushy ( this is car sales we're talking!) but they have a no BS approach I liked. I had Lillian, very intelligent, helpful and capable, and the manager was Greg. Both were excellent.

The showroom is large, there is a neat bowling / air hockey game for free for the kiddies, and they even let me bring in my golden retriever! I can honestly say I never had as much fun buying a car as I did at Prime.

The price you get here includes "destination" fees and there are no nickle and dime extras tacked on later. The document fee is 295, it could be as low as 250, but that's a minor point. The fee for the plates is standard, basically the same anywhere in the city. They did not tack on a "lease initiation fee" which Village said was mandatory ($690 of "mandatory" - right). So the price you are shown is close to complete. Naturally, MA 5% sales tax must be added at some point.

Once you get the price, they will negotiate, and they are direct, honest, and competitive. All in all I felt I was treated fairly and got a good price. At Village I had a hard time even getting them to reveal the price, and then I felt like I was trapped in a bad 3-card monte game with the fees and the pressure. Not so at Prime. They treated me with respect, and I felt they were honest and forthright. Very refreshing.

• Pros: Big, comfortable, friendly, dog-friendly, nice showroom
• Cons: All cars purchases require tough negotiations