Hello, thinking about a new HHR.
Listed in the online portion of a local dealer's new car inventory, I found an '07 LS for 13,9. Can that be right?
We took the family out last night to try and find it. On the lot there were two LS's total, a grey one and a blue one. Online it lists the dealer as having 7 LS's, 5 of them in orange (my wife's favorite color). We asked if that's all they had, and the SP said yes. He had no intention of trying to find the one we were looking for though.
Thoughts?

 

My first thought is find a different salesperson/dealer, one who actually wants to make a sale.
Second, I'd check if there was a catch to that price, they might be quoting employee pricing on the car and then socking you with retail when you come in. For the record, I haven't even seen employee pricing so low on the '07 LS, the lowest it'll go is in the $14,500 range.
You have a right as the customer to ask the salesperson to locate the exact car you want, or if they can't find it, to order it. The first suggestion I have, though, is to skip that dealer and find one willing to work with you.

 

We have a dealer in our area who always advertises cars at unbelievably low prices. He did advertise an HHR LS in the same price range. Read the fine print.....they slip in the rebates, plus cash or trade of a substantial amount, sometimes even your first born.

Like my momma used to say "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is"

 

to the site! I cannot agree with Desert Coyote on finding another salesperson/dealer! Let us know how you come out though and if you have any other questions about the car be sure to ask!!

 

I'm not sure if they even have it. While we were there, the SP looked it up online, then called the manager, who he had to guide to find it online as well. I completely understand that they didn't believe me. The manager apparently looked it up, and found it in the system, but also had no idea where it was.
Keep in mind that this was at 8:30PM last night, and they were closing in 30 minutes. So I kind of understand the lack of enthusiasm, but still.
I do believe this is too good to be true, but would like to solve the mystery.
The other mystery is why they show so many orange ones online, but there were only two on the lot, both LT's. Maybe their inventory is just goofed up.
As far as the pricing... all it said was $13,906. Nothing about rebates, incentives, special financing required, etc. Not even a little "*" after the price.
We got a call today from them (I had called yesterday afternoon about an orange '06 they had and left my number, oops) so my wife explained the sitch about the '07. She gave him the stock number and we think he's trying to track it down. This was about 45 minutes ago.

Thanks for the welcome, btw. :)

 

Lack of enthusiasm at any time would just be a red flag of what to expect out of them as a whole. If it was me I would look elsewhere!

 

Actually i would say thats about right b/c i got my 07 1LT for 14,500

 

There has to be more to this story if you got a 1LT for that price. It just isn't possible for a dealer to stay in business by selling vehicles at less than cost. Invoice on a 2007 1LT is 16,617.20 with NO options. Even if the dealer gave you his entire holdback he couldn't sell it for 14,500 and stay in business. Same with the LS...either a misprint in newspaper ad, or a slimy dealer luring people in with lowball pricing on a vehicle that was "already sold" or some other such nonsense. This isn't fantasy land...

 

Actually, several dealers here in Arizona do sell their "in stock" HHR's for slightly less than "factory invoice". The "small print" states that all rebates and incentives are assigned back to the dealer, which makes it several hundred less (to you) than the invoice (a friend purchased a truck, this way).

Their "catch" is the financing that they arrrange. They get at least a 1/4 point for that. Another is the "documentation fees"....some as high as $400. Another is license plate fees, which we all pay. For instance, again here in Arizona, they write the amount of the plates into the contract and "bank it", giving you a temporary plate for 45 days. Just before the temporary expires, after 30 days maybe, they have the permanent plates issued. Dealers who do large monthly sales make nice interest on the plate money.....700 vehicles a month X $300 plate fees (average) = $210,000 @ 5% interest = $10,500 a month. Oh, this is all legal, by the way.

Also, many dealers recognize considerable revenue from parts and service....sometimes as much as 60%(as some on these forums have found out).

I know some dealers that indicate they make very little, if anything, on the sale of the vehicle (for real). They make their money on service and parts and aftermarket products. My dealer is one of them.

Oh, and I purchased a 2000 S-10 truck, from my dealer, under the advertised less than invoice price. It was approximately $300 less than my Employee Price.

One final thought....sometimes manufacturers offer special pricing(reductions)on carefully selected vehicles to certain areas of the country. This encourages market expansion in those areas.

BUT, the bottom line is beware of false, phony, misleading, embellished advertising....as well.

 

We never heard back from the dealer, and we didn't like them anyway, because of the way the whole thing went down Saturday night. We're still looking around. We're actually looking at a few different cars (HHR, xB, Mazda3 5-door, Matrix XR). She asked if I wanted to go drive an HHR, and I told her we'd have to find another dealer to go to.