Car Biz: 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid - first look

http://automobiles.honda.com/insight-hybrid/

Car Biz: Must we negotiate? Round II

Here are the two e-mails that followed from the material transcribed in the previous Blog entry, entitled Must We Negotiate? and dated 1/6/09. The same editorial changes have been made to protect the customer's identity:

Hi Will,

The exchange we are currently having is delightful. Thank you for your time & civility. That's what sells cars!

For the last 30 years, it has been my responsibility to purchase the cars for our family due to my wife's aversion to negotiating. I don't like it either, but we need transportation. In preparation to making the offer for the 2009 Honda Civic LX 4 door automatic, I have read to the ends of the internet & logged lots of computer time. At your suggestion, I visited Edmunds once again & their invoice price for a 2009 Honda Civic LX 4 door automatic is $16,727, HCL: $16,618.49. It's my understanding that the cost per vehicle to each dealership is determined by the number of vehicles ordered; the larger the order the lower the cost basis so the invoice price is somewhat fluid.

Thank you for clarifying that the Civic is available with factory tinted windows. I didn't realize it's a standard feature of the vehicle so additional tinting is unnecessary. Our daughter owns a 3 year old Honda Accord which does not have tinted windows. Recently, we purchased for her a gift certificate for window tinting; cost: $160.00.

It's not my intention for you or your dealership to lose money, but I must seek the lowest price you are willing to accept. As you so clearly explained, negotiating will not be discontinued in the foreseeable future. So, before my wife & I will drive to Honda Clear Lake, let's reach a compromise on a drive out price.

When that's settled, we will bring a check for that amount.


Kindest regards,
Mark
---------
Hi Mark,

I'm enjoying corresponding with you, too, and I'm especially grateful for your appreciation--lots of people don't want the truth. In fact, reflecting on our correspondence helped me come to a further insight about the whole issue of negotiation--I'll transcribe it from my blog here:
[see Comment appended to Must We Negotiate?, recorded 1/6/09].

Thanks for focusing my attention on this whole sensitive subject, and helping me think about it more clearly. I take reconciliation even more seriously than selling cars (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10-20).

Mark, as far as I know, every Honda dealer in the U.S. pays exactly the same for his/her Civic LX sedans with automatic transmission--there is no variation in price based on dealer volume or location. In fact, that's why the 'destination' charge is standard for every dealer, so that dealers near the factories or ports don't have an inordinate advantage over the more remote locations. My price list has $16,818.49 as the invoice for the LX, and it includes (what I was told is) a $200 increase over vehicles shipped before January 1. I have a lot of respect for Edmunds, so I'm also OK with their figure. Your daughter's three-year-old Accord did/does have factory tint--a light green tint that cuts down UV radiation, but does little for longer wavelengths of light. The darker tint helps a lot with vision, cooling, and the durability of a/c units in our area.

The lowest price I would accept is irrelevant--I'm paid a flat fee per sale, and I'd gladly provide you and each of my potential customers whatever y'all want at whatever figure you could muster. The lowest practical price is established by our General Sales Manager in all cases other than those the managing partner decides. I'll get their number for you, and send it shortly. But I have to repeat that whatever they offer, they are often willing to go lower when/if a customer is in our dealership and ready to take delivery if a price is agreed upon. No urban legend is harder to kill or to live with than the mythical 'best price.'

I can promise you that a purchase at HCL will also make available to you the services of the best sales and service staffs in this Honda-dealership-rich metro area. And I'd be blessed to meet you and Mrs. Folks. I will give you the most thorough and informative demonstration and test drive available, so even if you buy your Civic elsewhere, you'd be benefited by letting me show you the car before you make your final decision. And your check will always be welcome!

Blessings and best wishes,
Will Hensel, Honda of Clear Lake
281-217-4835 (Cell) 281-338-6666, ext. 1136 (Landline)

Car Biz: Must we negotiate?

In this transcript, the customer's name and identifying information have been changed to protect his identity. The remainder is transcribed from my e-mail records, with minimal editing and emphasis added.

'Mark Folks' and I have been corresponding about a vehicle he wants to purchase. In our last exchange, 'Mark' explained that he wants to do as much as possible by e-mail, because he lives a considerable distance from our dealership. He ended his e-mail with the poignant question: 'Why is negotiation necessary, anyway?' My response offers some facts and opinions that may be of value to other customers or vendors who, like me, share Mark's aversion to haggling over price in the sale of a motor vehicle. I'd appreciate the input of any readers who'd like to respond to Mark's question or my answer!

Dear Mark,

Great question. Negotiation is my least-favorite part of this job I've been doing since July 2003.

My opinion is: first, motor vehicle sales has been one of the few areas of commerce in which it's been traditional to negotiate in our culture; and second, our culture is changing, and one direction is toward more negotiation and haggling, as the population reflects an increasing proportion of people whose cultures of origin encourage negotiation in most or all transactions, and for whom it is a survival skill and art form.

In this particular case, you want to pay less than my GM wants to charge for the 2009 Civic LX. I'll get paid my fee only if I can faciliate agreement between the two of you.

One alternative to negotiation is offered by various third parties which provide information and suggestions about the car-buying process. For example, Edmunds.com [see http://www.edmunds.com/] has a 'True Market Value' price for any motor vehicle sold in the U.S., based on good information, a national data base, and real information about sales in every location, adjusted by ZIP code and even body color. I'd be glad to sell you any Honda at the TMV price, and probably could get approval in a heartbeat. That alone may well make the alternative unacceptable--'I wouldn't pay any price they'd readily accept.' And, of course, any such third party has its own profit motive, so their presence can stimulate further suspicion for some sellers and buyers.

Two related observations:

1. The customers who get the lowest prices are almost never the ones most satisfied with their purchase or with the shopping experience. Quite the contrary--typically, such customers are bitter and angry, and often leave the dealership staff in a similar frame of heart and mind.
2. Telling the truth and offering an honest low-cost/high-value transaction seldom is enough in itself to earn a sale in this highly competitive and highly mistrustful context. Hence, my sharing your distaste for negotiation.

So: when I responded favorably, offering to sell you the vehicle you wanted at the sellling price you mentioned initially ($16,600 plus $670 destination, to include window tint at no further charge), you replied that your 'offer' was intended as a driveout offer. And later (as far as I can read it), you decided to further reduce your initial offer by $770 and the cost of the tint.

My question would be--where did you get these numbers, Mark? Here's how I get mine. The vehicle in question, a 2009 Civic FA165 (LX sedan with automatic) costs the dealership ($16,618.49 [national invoice] - 2 percent [dealer holdback] + $870 [destination plus Houston-area consortium marketing] =) $17,156.02. Now, this car comes from Honda with tinted windows; but if you meant you wanted the darker tint applied and warranted for the life of your vehicle by our dealership, that costs us $220 => $17,376.02 in pure cost. Minimum driveout based on that pure cost would be $18,683. So when I offered to accept your figure of $17,270, I was accepting an offer that would lose my dealership about $176. If I accepted your most recent offer, the loss would be about $900. And if I accepted your offer of $17,270 as a driveout price, the real loss would be $1413.

Somewhere in all this is an answer as to why, though you and I hate it, negotiation becomes necessary. And probably, there are also some hints as to why, as you wrote, 'the economy seems to be deteriorating.'

Blessings and best wishes,
Will Hensel, Honda of Clear Lake

Car Biz: Buy Now or Lie Low?

It gave me a wry chuckle when the stock market had a great fall on the day the economic pundits announced solemnly that we really are in a Recession.

Anyone with a pulse had known that for months; some with clear minds had been saying so for much longer. The investing mavens seem more like Chicken Little sometimes than like well-educated, thoughtful, big-picture stategists.

But life goes on for regular folks. Some of my friends and customers are pondering: in these troubled times of recession and economic contraction, is it a good time to buy a motor vehicle, or not? Here are some basic points to consider:

• Interest rates are low. Real rates are in the 4.5-5 percent range for purchasers with good credit. This contrasts with rates in the 12-15 percent range thirty years ago. Irresponsible companies that were ripping off customers are disappearing.
• Financing is available. Times of stress prune away the ineffective and weak, and strengthen the strong. The healthiest banks and credit unions will survive, and they will continue to make financing available to persons who themselves are financially viable. Bad decisions, leading to bad loans to bad risks, created this broad crisis. The institutions that made the worst decisions will disappear, but there are many survivors ready to help responsible people purchase needed vehicles.
• Quality is always economical. What applies to banks also applies to motor vehicle companies. Those which persisted in producing low-quality, high-cost, low-mileage vehicles with artifically-lowered finance rates and artificially-boosted residual values are cratering. The companies that produce high-quality, high-mileage vehicles for realistic prices are gaining market share and will emerge stronger. Their vehicles can be leased and purchased at the lowest real costs ever RIGHT NOW.
• Prices are very low now. Vehicles that six months ago were selling above MSRP are selling today for invoice. This includes high-mileage vehicles like our Civics, Fits, and Hybrids. There has never been a better time to get a low price in relation to value received. The market for selling and buying new and preowned vehicles has reached low ebb.
• Prices are likely to begin to climb next month, next quarter and next year. Manufacturers have cut back production, to restore a favorable supply-demand ratio. Now is a good time to get a historically low price.

This is an excellent time to purchase or lease a quality motor vehicle--especially one like my Hondas that embody high value, cost relatively little to operate and maintain, and can now be acquired at historically low cost.

An afternoon mumble...

New Guest: Most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that label.

...So sales are down 30-40 percent from the same period last year...the advertising budget has been slashed in half...we're all hunkered down together, in survival mode...but I am four or five percent larger than during the same period last year, so I've decided to eat Total and 1-percent, and maybe some fruit, and drink more water, as long as I can stand that regimen, with the goal of dropping fifteen pounds, matching the leaner times we're in...despite all the economic woes, there seems to be a continuing level of hope and optimism around and within me...this recession is the closest I've come (so far) to experiencing what my parents and grandparents went through in the 1930s...how is it going for you?

Car Biz: Internet Car Shopping - a real-life sample

Sometimes, people ask what it's like to buy (or sell) vehicles over the internet. The correspondence below, between 'Charlie Jones' and me, provides an example, centered on issues of availability and pricing.

I have changed the customer's name to Charlie Jones and the name of his home town to Oak Hollow, TX. But all the rest is exactly transcribed from a recent correspondence. Note that the earliest message is at the bottom, and the exchange between us ends with my e-mail just below this introduction. 'Charlie' and I had recently talked by telephone for the first time, and we had exchanged several e-mails before these, including full specifications for the Honda model of interest to Charlie and his wife. "HCL" in the text refers to my dealership, Honda of Clear Lake.

At this writing, I don't know if I'll sell Charlie the Fit Sport he wants. But this exchange is real, and I'm happy to share it; we're more open and clear than many internet stores. If you have questions, or want to buy a Honda, get in touch!
Dr. Will
----------------------
Date:December 3rd 2008 12:21PM
Subject:Driveout numbers

Dear Charlie,

I enjoyed talking with you. The incoming, available Tidewater Blue Fit Sport Automatic with VSA and Navigation is VIN JHMGE88679S031608. It was assigned to HCL on November 26; with a 21-day average transit time, ETA at our dealership would be mid-December.

With standard equipment, guaranteed driveout -- including all fees, as well as HCL's exclusives, Oil Changes for Life, free service loaner vehicles and shuttle services, VIN etch with a $5000 indemnity against theft and vandalism, and the attention of the top-rated Honda service department in this six-state zone -- is $20,788.23. This contrasts with a retail driveout for the same vehicle of $21,293.79. And it represents a total profit to our dealership of less than $167. You'll be getting the best-equipped Fit, which most authorities think is the best motor vehicle value in America, from the best Honda dealership I know. I hope that will earn your business!

Please call or e-mail if I can be of further service.

Blessings and best wishes,
Will Hensel
Dr. William C. Hensel, Manager, CU/Fleet/Internet Sales, Honda of Clear Lake

Cell: 281-217-4835 Landlines: 1-800-NEW-HONDA (1-800-639-4663) or 281-338-6666, ext. 1136

--------- Original Message ----------
Thank you for your honesty, Will.
The dealer that is offering us the deal on the Fit is not as close as the Clear Lake dealership which has come under my wife’s and I consideration. We are willing to exchange distance for a little added expense, but I will need some finalized numbers on the best deal and financing you can offer.

Respectfully,
Charlie Jones

From: hcl-netsales7@leadcrm.com [mailto:hcl-netsales7@leadcrm.com] Sent: NoneTo: charlie.jones@comcast.com

Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: We can help with that!

Dear Charlie,

You wrote: Can give me the specs on the 2009 Honda Fit Sport with NAV/VSA that you plan to sell me? I already have one commitment at $19,400 (drive out).

My General Manager looked at the numbers and your message, and told me to communicate to you: 'Yeah, we can do that; tell him to come on in.' That's his message, and he's our final pricing authority.

On the other hand, $19,400 is the exact driveout for an '09 Fit Sport NAV/VSA with manual transmission, if sold at invoice. As you may know, there is virtually no markup, absolutely no holdback, and therefore minimum potential for discounting a Fit at any trim level.

So I'm guessing that two of the following are the case:
1. The other commitment refers to a dealership willing to lose about $800 or $900 (or more) to sell you a Fit Nav/VSA unit with automatic transmission.

2. My GM is saying he's willing to do the same.

3. The other dealership is jerking you around (technical term :-), and will discover to their consternation that they made an 'error' in quoting you a low-ball price referring to a less expensive vehicle than the one you want to purchase.

4. That's what my GM has in mind.

I don't know which two of the above best fit the current situation--only God knows at this point. But:

If I lived in Oak Hollow and Dealer X who gave you the $19,400 driveout quote is closer to you than HCL, I'd go see them, look at the vehicle they told me they'd sell me for $19,400 driveout, and if it's a brand-new 2009 Fit model GE8869GW (the automatic Fit Sport VSA/NAVI you have been discussing) in the Tidewater Blue you prefer, I'd buy that.

If it turned out to be a different vehicle or a different price, I'd e-mail or call me, satisfy yourself that I'll be treating you with integrity, and come and see me, and let us show you the Fits we have available, and earn your business.

If Dealer X is also a good distance from you, ask them for the VIN on the vehicle they quoted at $19,400, and if it begins with these characters, it's worth a closer look: JHMEG886 _ 9 S _ _ _ _ _ _ . The Tidewater Blue Sport AT V/N unit I would provide you has VIN JHMGE88679S031608.

Absolute cost of that model in any metro Houston dealership is $18,955.39; and at any non-Houston dealership, $18,755.39. At the lower figure, driveout in Texas, with no additional fees or costs, would be $20,150.69. And for my dealership, that triple-net driveout figure would be $20,621.54 (we pay $200 to a metro consortium for marketing on every vehicle, and add VIN etch and Oil Changes for Life--both of which save you much more than they cost, but they do have a cost).

Hence, if you can buy what you have asked for at $19,400, I'd say go for it! My owner or GM have the authority to sell a car at any price they select; but that very low number is beyond the end of my own pricing guidelines. If you cannot actually purchase the car you want at that very attractive price, please give me the opportunity to provide the car you want at the lowest price possible.

Blessings and best wishes,
Will Hensel, HCL CU/Fleet/Internet Sales.

---------- Original Message ----------

Can give me the specs on the 2009 Honda Fit Sport with NAV/VSA that you plan to sell me?
I already have one commitment at $19,400 (drive out).

Sincerely,
Charlie Jones

Car Biz: What's It like, selling cars? Could I do it?

Sometimes people ask me : What's it like, selling cars? Could I do it?


These questions come up more often in troubled economic times, like now. Inquirers usually are considering their own options, and wondering whether they could do what I'm doing.

I enjoy responding to these questions. I'm not a lifelong car salesman; I've mainly been an educator, and I was in the Air Force from 1967 to 1973, right after my college graduation. I've lived in more than a dozen states and seven other countries.

I'm interested in vocation, and have taught psychology and human development, centered in the area of counseling. I've been moderately successful in car sales. But I'm no oracle or expert. I don't have national data or controlled research on these matters. I've worked in (only) three dealerships, in Lexington, KY, Santa Fe, NM, and now in Webster (Houston), TX, and have sold mostly new cars, mostly Hondas (with a sprinkling of preowned vehicles of various kinds). For briefer periods, I have also sold vehicles from Toyota, Lincoln, Mercury, Volkswagen, and Oldsmobile (before Olds became extinct). So I hope readers will share their responses--especially folks with greater expertise or different experience than mine. A well-rounded discussion would serve people who want solid answers to these questions.
Some considerations:

• Selling cars requires a lot of time. Fifty or sixty hours a week is a relatively light schedule for beginning sales reps who intend to make a living. I worked 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week, for a couple of years; now, I have a base of referrals and returning customers to supplement the first-time clients I serve. And I've throttled back to 60-70 hours most weeks. If your time is limited, or you have other significant demands on your time and energy, it will be difficult to succeed as a newcomer in this line of work.
• Motor vehicle sales is competitive. Probably each dealership has its own unique mini-culture. but generally, newcomers have to shoulder their way into an established pecking order, and succeed as independent agents. [If you talk to a customer and sell her a vehicle, someone else loses that opportunity; don't expect your successes to be uniformly well-received by colleagues.]
• On the other hand, the field is open and very democratic. If you sell cars, you're welcome; if you don't, you won't be around long. There's room for a great diversity of styles in performing the essential tasks. One essential for success would be perseverance. Other strengths that are very important would be independence, optimism, effective communication skills and good time management. Enthusiasm, high energy, and a capacity to accept frequent rejection help a lot.
• Turnover is massive. Nationwide, the most frequent tenure for a motor vehicle sales consultant is two months. Many try, few succeed. Even among the survivors, many make frequent moves from one position to another.
• Consequently, it's relatively easy to get a first-time job in vehicle sales. It's not a prestigious profession. The gatekeepers are pragmatists: credentials matter little--current performance is what counts. A person who can be presentable, has a driver's license without excessive violations, and can pass a basic background check and drug test is likely to be given an opportunity.
• It's an equal-opportunity field. I've seen no evidence of systematic discrimination, and my own sales force is as diverse as any group I've ever seen or belonged to. Everybody is welcome, and all have to prove themselves--over and over: you go back to 'zero' at the beginning of every month! For whatever reasons, though, the sales forces I've seen have been disproportionate only with respect to gender--the field seems to attract and retain many more men than women. Without confirming data, I think that an enterprising woman might create a proportionally larger niche for success, if she were able to overcome or bypass the barriers to success all sales reps encounter.
• It helps if you can give yourself a couple of months' trial period before concluding that you'll succeed or not. Some employers recognize this by providing a modest salary for a limited time at the beginning of one's employment. Most vehicle sales reps eventually are paid straight commission: your income is tied to the profit you generate for your employer. Some newcomers have their best days, weeks and months at the very beginning of their attempts to sell motor vehicles; freshness, naivete, and simple heat-seeking focus outweigh other factors. Others take much longer to manage all the factors involved, and are lame at first, but improve steadily or even logarithmically as they develop.
• Capacity to work hard and postpone gratification clearly are positive elements.
• The most effective vehicle sales reps make six-figure incomes; they are an exceptional elite. The most typical veteran vehicle sales reps make living incomes. And many vehicle sales reps barely scrape along, without a safety net, and frequently fall away from the job. A handful nationwide probably are in the $300,000-700,000 range. A slightly larger elite are in the $100K-300K range. Competent sales reps generally earn $50-100K.
• The income tends to be seasonal. In the markets where I've worked, November and February were low-volume months; sales were usually good in March, a bit flat in April, and swelled through May, June and July to a crescendo in August, then subsided in September and October. The first couple of weeks in December were flat, then there has been a rush to and after Christmas, and for a week or so into January. This year, the economy has obliterated that pattern. The market is troubled, and no former patterns seem to apply to our present situation.
• At any time, though, successful sales reps must manage their expenses well. They are able to save up when sales are good, and tide themselves over when sales are lean. Those who live check to check are not well prepared to flourish in motor vehicle sales.
• Now would be an ideal time to start a lucrative career in motor vehicle sales. Periodic corrections, even without general recession, typically happen every 10-12 years in this market. We've had a deeper dip than usual, but the market seems to have bottomed and started recovery. And a correction typically is followed by steady progress for a decade or more. Get in now, and you could ride the escalator for ten years or more. In any case, a creative minority usually does well when everyone else is struggling, in vocational development as in many lines of endeavor associated with money.
• Motor vehicle sales rewards effort, consistency and skill. The harder you work, and the smarter you work, the more you make. I'm sure many fields might claim this, but I don't know of many where my observation confirms this principle as clearly as in this vocation. You can always improve--the learning curve is open-ended. It's a great field for men or women who border on the obsessive-compulsive, enjoy keeping score, and want to be rewarded for their focus.
• In my opinion.

Car Biz: What about leasing? Rent what depreciates; buy what appreciates.

Significant disclaimer: I get paid a flat fee-per-vehicle. I make no more (or less) on a highly profitable transaction than on one at minimum profit; and I make no more (or less) on a lease than a purchase. My motivation is to provide exactly the right vehicle at the lowest cost possible. Leasing can help with that, especially as cost of living and motor vehicles goes up.

I've been an educator most of my adult life, and an Air Force officer before that. I bought a lot of vehicles before I became a car salesman, and spent way too much buying them (based on my experience and learning since I've had some exposure to the sales side).

But one thing that struck me when I began selling Hondas in 2003 was that nearly all the long-term, successful 'car folks' I encountered were leasing their personal vehicles. That caught my attention because when I was mainly a car customer, leasing was a black hole into which many ventured and from which few returned--at least, few returned happy.

So, I wondered, were the car pros getting sweetheart lease deals that customers couldn't access?

As it turns out, they were not. In the period between my main car-buying days and my more recent car-selling era, leases have changed significantly. Some quick points:

First-generation leases were a travesty, particularly for customers. They were 'open-ended,' meaning that the customer was not buying a specific proportion of the value of the vehicle, nor was there any guarantee of how much the vehicle would be worth at the end of the lease period.

Early leases put nearly all the risk on the customer. The payments seemed low, but when the customer returned the vehicle, s/he was often clobbered with surcharges for wear and tear and mileage that made the lease more costly by far than a purchase would have been. And the ones who leased the car to the customer were also the ones who decided what it was worth (and what the customer owed) when the lease was completed. No wonder leases got a bad name!

In current leases, the company bears more of the risk, and the customer's interests are much more fully protected. In Honda's leases, there is a $1500 allowance for normal wear and tear, with up to $500 for each instance--so if a leased vehicle were returned, let's say, with a damaged windshield and a damaged side mirror, and each repair cost $480, the charge to the customer would be...zero.

Several auto companies have pulled out of the lease market since the recent economic downturn and credit crunch. The main reason: their vehicles' rapid depreciation can't be hidden in the current market, and no one would want to pay the high lease payments required if the customer were actually to pay the 60-70 percent of their inflated purchase price--the depreciation that occurs during the term of an average lease.

Hondas depreciate more slowly, and Honda lease payments, both before the current credit crunch and now, accurately defray the amount of value used in the first two or three or four years of ownership. The feature of guaranteed value is even more advantageous to customers in a bear market--so Honda leases not only have less competition, but offer even greater advantage than before.

MILEAGE is a concern for some folks. One of the sales managers in my company was leasing three vehicles, all at the minimum mileage (12,000 miles in a Honda lease). Two were driven around the allowed mileage, but one was driven an average of 23,000 miles a year. I did some quick figuring: if he completed his four-year lease with 44,000 miles beyond his allowance, he would owe Honda $6600 (15 cents per mile beyond his 12k/year allowance)! When I asked him about this, he smiled and said my math was correct, but my information was incomplete. He had no intention of turning the vehicle in at the lease's termination date. Instead, he chose an opportune time prior to the end of the lease, traded it in, took a minor hit for relatively high miles, but was forgiven any administrative fees or the security deposit (as a repeat customer), and paid no mileage penalty at all. That is assessed ONLY when the vehicle is turned in at the lease's conclusion.

You can do anything with a leased vehicle that you can do with a purchased one--and more. In a purchase contract, the buyer is obligated to buy the vehicle; in a lease, s/he has that option. You can refinance the car, pay it off and drive it, trade it in (with positive or negative equity), or sell it yourself. You can do all these with a leased vehicle--AND you can decide to complete your lease and turn the car in. The leasing customer changes vehicles more often, pays less per month (and over the period of the lease), reaches positive equity sooner, and has more options.

Probably that's enough for one post--if you're interested, or have questions or objections, let me know, and we'll go into more details and carry on the discussion.

Car Biz: Why would a professing Christian sell cars???

New Guest: Let me suggest that you start your visit with the first post, titled 'Welcome' and dated November 12.

I know that for many people, car-shopping is not on their top ten list of favorite activities. And my occupation, motor vehicle sales, has a strongly unsavory association for many people. On the other hand, I appreciate the privilege and responsibility of serving you, and will do all I can to contribute to a positive and rewarding experience for everyone I serve.

I sell (mainly) Hondas because I am convinced they provide maximum value. Honda has a remarkable record for safety, quality, and retention of value. As a veteran, I keep in mind that most Hondas are built where they're sold. Our largest production sources are in Ohio and Alabama, for example, and we just started receiving Hondas from a new plant in Greensburg, Indiana.

I chose to work at Honda of Clear Lake because it is locally owned, by a competent and ethical man who treats his employees and customers well. From my position in the Credit Union/Fleet/Internet department, I can offer people low prices and extended services that weren’t easily accessible to me as a floor sales consultant: lifetime loaner car and customer shuttle services, a lifetime oil change card at no further charge, and significant discounts on any extended service agreement or other finance or insurance products. I'm paid a flat fee per sale, not a commission based on profit; so I have no conflict of interest in helping clients choose the vehicle that best addresses their needs and charging the lowest price possible for it.

Before signing off, I want to emphasize that you are important to me, and God willing, I’ll be here to serve you whenever time and circumstances may be right. Please call on me any time I can help with information, suggestions, or a fine motor vehicle!