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You replied before I deleted it seems.
nevermind. I was one VIN off. Another orange car.
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Where are all the Production deliveries ??
- Thread starter thunderNSX
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You replied before I deleted it seems.
nevermind. I was one VIN off. Another orange car.
From Jan 1991 Automobile Magazine
You would think it was written sometime last year...history having repeated itself?
You are correct....History is repeating itself with Acura and the NSX.
In Canada (GTA), Dealers would not let you sit or touch the NSX, it was roped off, and if you want to test drive the NSX, they require you to make a $10K deposit, ie buy the car, and if you did not like the test drive, you were required to write a letter outlining your dislikes, before they would let you out of the contract. Therefore, no test drives for you!
Fast forward to 2017/18, dealers have NSX's sitting in their showroom, roped off, no one is allow to sit or touch the cars, and of course no test drives. The dealers that support our Club will only let me open the doors and the engine compartment, no sitting in the car, and of course no test drives. These cars are 2017 models and have been sitting for over a year at these dealers.
Bram
And then.......in 2005 the $89K MSRP NSX could be purchased new for $75K.
Even in 1999 the rare "Zanardi" cars had $5K back from the factory + whatever
the dealer contributed.
Dealer /Acura gouging Karma is repeating itself even though the NSX's are/were great cars.
Even in 1999 the rare "Zanardi" cars had $5K back from the factory + whatever
the dealer contributed.
Dealer /Acura gouging Karma is repeating itself even though the NSX's are/were great cars.
Are you kidding me?
That is ridiculous. No wonder they aren't selling cars.
McLaren is a breath of fresh air in that regard...
If you want to see price gouging, wait till you see the premium dealers attach to the C8 Corvette (the "good" one, not the base model).
These dealers are only hurting themselves. The best thing we ever did was participate in the Exposure program and go to shows every weekend we possible could. I've probably done 60+ NSX test drives at this point. Now even that the Exposure program is gone we continue to bring NSX's in for clients to see and drive.
Took some convincing for our management to realize that at the end of the day the NSX is a car. Car's don't typically sell by being roped off and locked up. They would never expect me to sell an MDX without a test drive, why would the NSX be any different?
Ultimately the test drive is more important in a car like the NSX than any sort of commuter car. You buy the NSX or a supercar for the experience. How can you buy into that experience if you weren't given at least a taste of what it's like?
Price gouging happens anywhere there is a limited product with a high demand. It is very common in the supercar world. Certain brands are more well known for it than others and certain brands can get away with it while others can not.
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Gouging is a symptom of greed.....no way to sugar coat it with the supply/demand justification.
Either you do it or you don't
Either you do it or you don't
Except with the nsx what dealers should have learned is that price gouging killed the demand. Until the rebates these were attractive dust magnets on dealer floors and and this year is on target for only 14 units per month average. I was so turned off by my dealer in 1991 asking an extra $30,600 “adjusted market value” that I took my $66k cash offer up the road and bought a Mercedes and didn’t get an nsx until 1999 (from a different dealer). Now I wonder if Acura will still be making nsxs in 7 years.
Yeah it’s pretty ridiculous. But you see the “no test drive” stuff with dealers that aren’t mainly selling high end stuff. Look at Honda dealers with type R. I was considering one as a DD until I was so turned off by The local Honda dealers and wanting to rope off their $35,000 civic and I said screw it and bought a Buick.
Now Compare that to my local McLaren dealer who hosts events where anyone can test drive the cars. They let me drive far more expensive cars even after they found out I bought an NSX.
MC
Now Compare that to my local McLaren dealer who hosts events where anyone can test drive the cars. They let me drive far more expensive cars even after they found out I bought an NSX.
MC
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Acura's own training module said that supercar buyers want cars with no mileage.
Ok great. They also want to drive the car they're going to buy.
Acura dealers dont understand this buyer. Most will buy a car from out of state for the right deal.
My regional manager doesn't like it when I tell them that the market is soft on this car.
If you have a warm body willing to pay you money, take the deal. I had a guy willing to pay a few thousand over invoice and my GSM didnt take the deal. GSM said he can take that deal a few months from then. Buyer bought a huracan.
Ok great. They also want to drive the car they're going to buy.
Acura dealers dont understand this buyer. Most will buy a car from out of state for the right deal.
My regional manager doesn't like it when I tell them that the market is soft on this car.
If you have a warm body willing to pay you money, take the deal. I had a guy willing to pay a few thousand over invoice and my GSM didnt take the deal. GSM said he can take that deal a few months from then. Buyer bought a huracan.
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Not that I was justifying it, just stating that on supercars its very common as by nature they are sought after with low production especially when you get into special editions etc.
Were there that many dealers asking over MSRP for the NC1? I know most of the first ones were just at MSRP but I don't know of any places that were marking up prices at all. These were sitting on dealers floors because the dealers were doing little to generate excitement around the car. As much as I would love to be Porsche or Ferrari and sell cars over MSRP at will to guys that don't even care to drive the car, Acura is not one of the brands that can pull that off.
We need to put the car in front of buyers that maybe never had it on their radar in the first place. Your average Joe that just landed his first big deal isn't going to walk into Acura to buy a $150,000 car. We need to go out and earn that guys business. He is not going to walk in and give it to us otherwise. If you let the NSX sit on the showfloor and don't do anything to put it in front of people, it will stay sat on your showfloor collecting dust.
Every NSX I brought to shows and put guys behind the wheel sold withing a month. The NSX that was sat on our showfloor, say for idly for 8.
Most were in the northeast. One sold to a doctor for $118,000. For the first several months the ny time classifieds (this was before the internet and autotrader) had many listed in the mid-high 90s. 6 months after I walked out of my dealership he called me to say he would take my $66k and I said no thanks.
They say a picture's worth a thousand words...so I had googled Acura of Lawrenceville, NJ (referenced from the mag article posted earlier) just to see if they were still in business and Google showed me this...
Next, I decided to goggle the local Porsche dealer and saw this...
and then the local Ferrari dealer and saw...
Notice anything different in the Goggle photos?
Next, I decided to goggle the local Porsche dealer and saw this...
and then the local Ferrari dealer and saw...
Notice anything different in the Goggle photos?
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They say a picture's worth a thousand words...so I had googled Acura of Lawrenceville, NJ (referenced from the mag article posted earlier) just to see if they were still in business and Google showed me this...
Notice anything different in the Goggle photos?
Nice open Porsche and Ferrari showrooms, cars appear accessible, yet your ‘friendly’ Acura dealer has just one car and that is behind ropes to keep you away ...
They really needed to take lessons from Audi in marketing IMHO, this was clearly the nearest to a mainstream producing a Supercar. They have marketed an OK car very well and sold a lot of them ... Acura have a much better car but the ship has sailed ... (and don’t even look at the UK performance even though they claim all cars sold)
Good point...and to no ones surprise googling Audi Lawrenceville NJ, one in Princeton pops up and...
Which really begs the question, "What exactly is Acura's real motive/logic for roping off their halo?"
Do they think because of their market demographic too many JDM fanboys would be showing up in droves for test drives? That is NOT a valid reason (newsflash, they lost that demographic awhile back during the buck-tooth/beak era). And the sheer amount of sales they will lose (have lost) compared to the amount of people you just have to be trained to just say no to (without saying the word "No", aka the art of being a car salesman) is just not worth it imo.
It is a terrible rule and a bad business model. Whatever research they are referring to that indicated to them that "supercar buyers want low-to-no miles" cannot just be turned into a hard and fast rule to be followed blindly. That is the problem with Honda/Acura is that the nerdy engineering side of them just loves formulas too much and forget (or even ignore) that selling within this price point is an art; and that they have to give their sales people the proper training and flexibility to exercise that art in order to move cars! They fall too easily into the trap of just making a rule (Do Not Touch), to solve a problem (Keep Low Miles), all at the cost of ignoring brand is an art form and as a result NOT being able to move cars easily off the lot compared to say an R8.
We know the opposite model of open showrooms can be done since several Lambo dealers in the same Princeton vicinity (just keeping the comparison in the same area) all have them both inside and out!
How are they able to protect their in and outdoor inventory from not just JDM fanboys wanting to sit in them, but just plain ol' sportscar fanboys wanting to test drive them?! Is there a way Acura can take a page out of their playbook?
It is pretty obvious to anyone reading several posts on this board that owners of the second Gen who have (or have had) Lambos, Ferraris, Mclarens, Lotus, Audi's etc. have all easily gravitated towards the practical daily drive-ability, comfort, and reliability it has to offer unlike any other car. And perhaps most importantly, that to them it feels like the same category!
I think the answer would lie in investing in properly training their sales staff and showing them that this is really an art form that is experientially-driven and not some 2+2=4 equation that grossly oversimplifies the process. Sales is always an art form, but at this price point it's a whole'nother world they lack experience in...and this is something Honda/Acura should admit they know very little about. They can't keep operating with the belief that if you just make a great car it will automatically sell itself. If they could somehow get rid of the ropes and allow for test drives, imho that would be much cheaper than hosting big driving events (which have been proven to sell by the way, and they could still have them). And instead invest in your staff by training them on how to say "no" to any wannabe's, and how to correctly sell to this select buyer, and how to be able to recognize them as well...just like the competition their aspire to be is able to do so well.
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I'm really curious what Acura is thinking when they all sit in a room and talk about the NC1. I don't think I've ever seen a situation such as this where for every 1 good comment there are at least 10 negative ones. It's coming from all angles too, not just at specific aspects about the car itself. I don't recall even the R35 was this bad and that launched with mixed reviews.
SIGH.............
SIGH.............
We have 4 Acura dealers nearby in the Seattle area. Friend had called me from Portland, OR & had just purchased
one - said I needed to drive one.
This was in 1994. Went to the dealer closest to home.....Car (red) was roped off & do not touch signs. Salesman was indifferent.
Was driving a 1994 E400 MB, just finished running .....Saturday morning.
On to the next closest - had 4 parked out front 2 red, 2 black....salesman came up to me and said "which one do you want to test drive?"
Test drove a black one...traded the MB - drove it home after a few hours of BS back and forth.
Had never set foot in their store before.
After that we've purchased around 24 Acura's from this dealer over more than 20 years.... all flavors including multiple Gen 1 NSX's.
1st wash job:
one - said I needed to drive one.
This was in 1994. Went to the dealer closest to home.....Car (red) was roped off & do not touch signs. Salesman was indifferent.
Was driving a 1994 E400 MB, just finished running .....Saturday morning.
On to the next closest - had 4 parked out front 2 red, 2 black....salesman came up to me and said "which one do you want to test drive?"
Test drove a black one...traded the MB - drove it home after a few hours of BS back and forth.
Had never set foot in their store before.
After that we've purchased around 24 Acura's from this dealer over more than 20 years.... all flavors including multiple Gen 1 NSX's.
1st wash job:
But not really though. I've casually counted 3 owners w/o have kept their cars for a short time, decided they didn't want it, and sold/selling it. This could be statistically insignificant, I accept that but i'm sure there are more owners such as them but have no desire to speak their opinion perhaps? I know 2 of these owners personally.
I just find the backlash towards Acura a bit unfair sometimes. I just can't put my finger on exactly why.. probably because it's a cocktail of multiple phenomena crashing together.
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Its not unfair when its earned.
they make boneheaded decisions across all product lines, so its not exclusive to the NSX.
the latest one? slow production of the 2019 RDX. lets make a great vehicle, but not make enough to support demand. you cant use the pull-ahead lease program on it either.
theres no passion on the acura side, though the RDX is a step in the right direction.
they make boneheaded decisions across all product lines, so its not exclusive to the NSX.
the latest one? slow production of the 2019 RDX. lets make a great vehicle, but not make enough to support demand. you cant use the pull-ahead lease program on it either.
theres no passion on the acura side, though the RDX is a step in the right direction.
Acura's own training module said that supercar buyers want cars with no mileage.
Ok great. They also want to drive the car they're going to buy.
Acura dealers dont understand this buyer. Most will buy a car from out of state for the right deal.
My regional manager doesn't like it when I tell them that the market is soft on this car.
If you have a warm body willing to pay you money, take the deal. I had a guy willing to pay a few thousand over invoice and my GSM didnt take the deal. GSM said he can take that deal a few months from then. Buyer bought a huracan.
That's truly sad. Is that why there was a $10k ADM tag on your dealership's NSX not too long ago? Talk about turning potential buyers away...Oh well, at least it's nice eye candy for people to look at when they come in to buy the other Acura models (and it's not behind ropes.)
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because my gsm is dumb.
i get it. you dont get what you dont ask for. especially in an area like silicon valley where there is $$$ like no tomorrow.
the only reason they took off the ADM sticker is Acura corporate came through. smh.
ours isn't unlocked, but i'll let prospective buyers play with it. one thing i worry about is beating up the side bolster.
i get it. you dont get what you dont ask for. especially in an area like silicon valley where there is $$$ like no tomorrow.
the only reason they took off the ADM sticker is Acura corporate came through. smh.
ours isn't unlocked, but i'll let prospective buyers play with it. one thing i worry about is beating up the side bolster.
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