“$500 off and no administrative fees”

In late 2024, we were thinking about looking at SUV’s soon for Karen. Her Accord was 10 years old and she needed something that was easier to get in and out of. In December, 2024 we were worried that the new presidential administration was going to implement tarriffs and cause vehicle prices to increase. Most of the Hondas we purchased in the past were assembled in Canada. We started looking at Honda SUV’s. We test drove a Pilot, CR-V and HR-V. The Pilot was too big, the HR-V was too small but the CR-V was just right (Hmmm…. like Goldilocks!).

We were interested in only Front Wheel Drive to save gas mileage. Karen wanted heated seats for her back. So, that narrowed it down to the FWD Honda CR-V EX. In the past, we always got the LX trim for our Hondas, but we were ready for an upgrade this time. It included a moonroof that we didn’t care about, but we won’t have to use it. The MSRP for this was $33,700 for base model colors (navy, gray) and for upgraded colors (blue, red) was $34,155. We were only interested in the navy “Canyon River Blue” (base) and the bright blue “Still Night Pearl” (upgraded).

I made my spreadsheet and started looking on line at Honda dealers in a 400 mile radius of Kansas City. CR-V’s were popular, and since COVID there wasn’t an excess inventory of them. I called several dealers about discounts and deal making. Cannon Honda said they have fixed pricing except they can reduce it about $200. Some said they can pass on a $200-$500 rebate if we finance it, but we didn’t want to do that, even if we paid it all off right away. Two dealers also had a “protection package” (+pp below) automatically added to every sale ($900-$1200) so you have to make sure you ask about the “out the door” price. Here’s an example of what I found for availability and pricing, many had + documentation/administration fees:

• 12/12/24, Blue, $34,155 + none, Olathe Honda, KC
• 12/12/24, Red, $33,655 + none, Olathe Honda, KC ($500 disc)
• 12/13/24, Navy, $33,610 + $399 = $34,009, Cannon Honda OK (265 mi)
• 12/17/24, Blue, $34,155 + $599 = $34,754 +pp, Schofield, Wichita (168 mi)
• 12/18/24, Navy, $33,700 + $599 = $34,299 +pp, Schofield, Wichita (168 mi)
• 12/21/24, Navy, $33,280 + $899 = $34,179, Jonesboro, Arkansas (381 mi)
• 12/21/24, Navy, $33,200 + none, Olathe Honda, KC ($500 disc)
• 12/21/24, Blue, $33,655 + none, Olathe Honda, KC ($500 disc)

There were other dealers (not listed above) that were priced at MSRP plus their documentation fees. Olathe Honda was the only dealer with discounts and no documentation fees. They were also close, so convenient for us to take a trade in.

On 12/21, we made an appt to talk to Nick Umholtz, Sales Manager at Olathe Honda. They didn’t have the car we wanted but we liked what we saw about their pricing on line, some have $500 discounts and no vehicles have documentation fees. I asked about their business model since I noticed they have no commissioned salespeople. He said they went to a new business model with no doc fees and some discounts resulting in high volume. They sell 150-160 vehicles per month and are #2 in the region (including the KC and St Louis areas).

We told him we were interested in the navy or blue CR-V EX models. We noticed that they had $500 discount on some models but not others. They had the blue model in stock. He said they can offer us a $500 discount on any model that we want. If they don’t have it, they can get it from another dealer, but it might take awhile. I asked about a higher than $500 discount on the blue model since then they won’t have to spend time finding a vehicle from another dealer. He said they can’t offer any additional discount since that wouldn’t be fair to other customers. He said that above all else, he wanted us to be happy with our purchase. He said we should decide which color is our first choice and which is our second choice, or if there is a color that is our only choice and they will find it for us, regardless of how long it takes. Since it was 12/21, I asked if the sale had to be completed in 2024 to be entitled to the discount. He said since they have no commissions there’s no incentive to sell in 2024 and they will honor the price into 2025. We said we need to think about our color preferences.

We also asked about the trade in value for our son’s car, a 2005 Honda Accord purchased here at Frank Ancona 20 years ago. I ran some numbers and found that fair trade in value was about $1400. He said they can give us the auction value for it. He left to run a report and came back with a MMR Breakdown that had $1250 for the auction price. We said ok, we’ll bring it in when we’re ready to settle.

We thought about it and told Nick on 12/23/24 that we wanted (only) the Navy FWD CR-V EX. Their price on that one was $33,200. We made a $500 deposit and he sent us confirmation that the price is honored into 2025. He said the FWD vehicles are more popular in the southern states so it will probably come from somewhere there. We kept in touch in Dec and none were found then.

On 1/3, Nick called and said they found the CR-V and we made arrangements to pick it up on 1/4/25. We went in to finalize the purchase. It’s all electronic now. He gave the tablet to Karen to sign first. I said I want to check the price. It was wrong. It didn’t include the $500 discount. He was gone for a few minutes and came back with the correct pricing. Also, he allowed us to pay $5,000 (I tried for $10k) on credit card. This earned us a $100 rebate from our bank. This CR-V came from Norman, OK and it had 349 miles when it arrived for our delivery. It was assembled in Ontario, Canada.

We sold our 2014 Accord with 78k miles to our son for trade-in value. We took his 2005 Honda Accord with 191,800 miles with us to Honda of Olathe to trade it in. We didn’t tell them what they said before for the value. He didn’t keep any of that. He did some calculations and said they’ll give us $1500 for it. We said that’s ok (hehe). We reminded him that we bought this from their predecessor at this location, Frank Ancona Honda in 2005. He said, “So it’s come full circle!”

In July 2025, we checked the prices of the new 2026 Honda CR-Vs. The FWD EX’s MSRP went up about $900. For most of 2025, there were none or very few available on hand anywhere for sale when I checked occasionally.

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