Topic: A Message from Honda Canada - Buy Here!

[jcon]

Its the same thing I've said before and I'll say it again. Manufactures will olnly change prices if  Canadian dealers lose enough sales to hurt them and force them to action. End of story. As we can see in many cases that action is to scare US dealers or deny warranty coverage.

How is Honda going to know when they actually lose sales? Those who were buying south of the border already "left" Honda Canada and now that same group will just go elsewhere.

[2latecrew]

Its the same thing I've said before and I'll say it again. Manufactures will olnly change prices if  Canadian dealers lose enough sales to hurt them and force them to action. End of story. As we can see in many cases that action is to scare US dealers or deny warranty coverage.

How is Honda going to know when they actually lose sales? Those who were buying south of the border already "left" Honda Canada and now that same group will just go elsewhere.

Manufactures will olnly change prices if  Canadian dealers lose enough sales to hurt them and force them to action

If you are a Canadian Dealer especially on the border you'll KNOW if your seales are down. You'll know when US purchased cars start coming to your service department.

If a dealer can go to Honda and say my sales are down by X$s that I attribute to cross border shopping and enough big dealers say the same thing Honda will listen to them. The majority of Honda sales in Canada still go through candian sealers and if these guys start to threaten to close down then Honda would lose overall " sales as well as have issues providing a service network in Canada. Canadian dealers buy cars from honda canada. if they start cutting back on orders becuse of lost sales eventually Honda would have to take notice.

I agree that Honda is not losing sales. They don't care all that much if they sell 100 cars by selling 80 in the US and 20 in canada or 90 in the US  or 10 in canada. Mostly becuase canada is such a small fraction of north American sales. But they need to provide enough sales to Canadian dealers for them to survive and provide a sales and service network.

Its just one more reason why they won't reduce canadian prices.

Right now they might sell 80 cars in the US at $10 and 20 in Canada at $15 total sales 1100

Reducing Canadian prices down to $10 to keep the ratio at 80-20  only nets them 1000. Scaring US dealers into not exporting or refusing warranty would likley keep the ratio at say 90-10 netting them 1050 in sales.

its in their interest to keep as many sales in Canada at the higher price as possible.

unless of course Mazda and Toyota drop their prices causing Honda to lose dales but we all know that won't happen.

Individual comsumers don't matter to them. Volume dealers do. Deaerls have power and can organize. Consumers can't organize themselves into a big enough  group to have any real effect its a sad truth. Writting letters doesn't matter. You'll never organize enough consumers to "not buy Honda" to have any effect.

[ghost]

Honda Canada is committed to providing the best motorcycles, ATVs and power equipment for all Canadians with Canadian-specific features and dedicated service to provide peace of mind throughout the entire ownership experience. All Honda products are engineered and manufactured to provide the utmost in quality and reliability for Canadians. In addition, Canadian-specification Honda products may also include safety and special climate-related features that are not available on vehicles built for sale in the United States and elsewhere.

Must be them French labels..... 

[gord_boyd]

Just a couple of attempts at definitions but there was no expectation
that Honda's 'divide and conquer' tactics will not work with us.

Safety to me is the attempt with 'grey market' definition that Honda uses to absolve themselves of fixing as an example VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist)
on a family vehicle that is exposed to winter black ice and the family
are extremely worried.  I do not think it right or moral for Buyers to have the manufacturer of their car deny them corrective work because of VIN number.  Now this site has responders take things personally all the time but I'm thinking it's normal everyone has different ideas and this is just by way of elaborating in case the letter was misunderstood.  What would relatives and friends say to their government(s) if half the family were wiped out some sunny morning after denials in writing from Honda.

Trust to me is thinking Honda should not cheat or screw the public.
Say I took the responsibility to provide free a four page insert for CARP
(Canadian Assoc. of Retired People ) a fool-proof procedure and itemized costs and brokers/car transportation contact list across Canada and lecture series so that seniors were not cheated by Honda any longer and we had a system of volunteer lecturers across the country, do you think we would be performing a free service or does it come down to money the sole motivator.  I happen to think there could be volunteers who are community-minded and see clearly that Honda has broken a trust.  I'll even go so far to say Kobayashi's boss in Japan will not want inordinent profits from Honda Canada, if trust is lost with the Canadian public.  Especially if Honda singled our for delaying on purpose the riv.ca 2008 listings.  (Retired people have the time and inclination to thwart Honda--they just need knowledge and the big picture through newspapers/radio/tv etc.).  Then it's not the dealers going bankrupt, it's the future of their business that's at risk because who wants to buy from someone screwing seniors.

Fair Business Practises to me is so much more than money.  Honda won my respect when full safety equipment went into lowest cost Civic.
By comaprison Toyota, until this year would not equipe Lowest Rav4s with full safety equipment.  I think that was unfair bundling to say to a Buyer of 4 cyl. Rav 4 "no, you can not have full safety for your family."
But of coarse Buyers can walk and many did or just paid more money.
Being "Fair", means not hiding secret warranty coverage until you have a problem and they tell you that they are fixing it for free.  If the warranty is there (as there was for ignitions on CRVs for years) on Quebec class action forced Honda to send out notices to owners and everyone was covered..  I'm sure Honda saved money but there were a lot of failure in parking lots late at night that were not "Fair", in my view (or apparently the courts in Quebec).

Of coarse the letter will do nothing, but the debate here has been insightful, Honda's divide and conquer' tactic will work,  Canadians most likely will not stand up for their rights (and we'll see outcome shortly of US Class Action suit--but why must Cdns roll over all the time--and be so polite they say thankyou to the ATM's!).  The real fight I agree is to get everyone thinking of buying educated on how to do it on direct import basis.  Another possibility is a protest march during upcoming Toronto Car Show because in terms of media attention, that would be a grabber if staged correctly (and only twenty of us with posters are required for national coverage).

What we really need to force change is the volume of Hondas coming in directly to go sky high and someone to document first fifty for a news release.  This means tracking of any stories because it is word of mouth
from here on in.

 

[rsxca]

Its the same thing I've said before and I'll say it again. Manufactures will olnly change prices if  Canadian dealers lose enough sales to hurt them and force them to action. End of story. As we can see in many cases that action is to scare US dealers or deny warranty coverage.

How is Honda going to know when they actually lose sales? Those who were buying south of the border already "left" Honda Canada and now that same group will just go elsewhere.

I have a friend who sells Mazdas and he said he has notice a huge drop in sales since the loonie has gone up.  He says people come in knowing they are going to buy in the US and are using the sales floor just to chexk out the cars and take test drives.  Hopefully we will hear more of this with other car dealerships.  This would put pressure in car companies. 

I also think alot of people are taking a wait and see approach to car purchasing.  My lease is up in 8 months and I'm starting to prepare to buy in NY.

[Careener]

Just a couple of attempts at definitions but there was no expectation
that Honda's 'divide and conquer' tactics will not work with us.

Safety to me is the attempt with 'grey market' definition that Honda uses to absolve themselves of fixing as an example VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist)
on a family vehicle that is exposed to winter black ice and the family
are extremely worried.  I do not think it right or moral for Buyers to have the manufacturer of their car deny them corrective work because of VIN number.  Now this site has responders take things personally all the time but I'm thinking it's normal everyone has different ideas and this is just by way of elaborating in case the letter was misunderstood.  What would relatives and friends say to their government(s) if half the family were wiped out some sunny morning after denials in writing from Honda.

Trust to me is thinking Honda should not cheat or screw the public.
Say I took the responsibility to provide free a four page insert for CARP
(Canadian Assoc. of Retired People ) a fool-proof procedure and itemized costs and brokers/car transportation contact list across Canada and lecture series so that seniors were not cheated by Honda any longer and we had a system of volunteer lecturers across the country, do you think we would be performing a free service or does it come down to money the sole motivator.  I happen to think there could be volunteers who are community-minded and see clearly that Honda has broken a trust.  I'll even go so far to say Kobayashi's boss in Japan will not want inordinent profits from Honda Canada, if trust is lost with the Canadian public.  Especially if Honda singled our for delaying on purpose the riv.ca 2008 listings.  (Retired people have the time and inclination to thwart Honda--they just need knowledge and the big picture through newspapers/radio/tv etc.).  Then it's not the dealers going bankrupt, it's the future of their business that's at risk because who wants to buy from someone screwing seniors.

Fair Business Practises to me is so much more than money.  Honda won my respect when full safety equipment went into lowest cost Civic.
By comaprison Toyota, until this year would not equipe Lowest Rav4s with full safety equipment.  I think that was unfair bundling to say to a Buyer of 4 cyl. Rav 4 "no, you can not have full safety for your family."
But of coarse Buyers can walk and many did or just paid more money.
Being "Fair", means not hiding secret warranty coverage until you have a problem and they tell you that they are fixing it for free.  If the warranty is there (as there was for ignitions on CRVs for years) on Quebec class action forced Honda to send out notices to owners and everyone was covered..  I'm sure Honda saved money but there were a lot of failure in parking lots late at night that were not "Fair", in my view (or apparently the courts in Quebec).

Of coarse the letter will do nothing, but the debate here has been insightful, Honda's divide and conquer' tactic will work,  Canadians most likely will not stand up for their rights (and we'll see outcome shortly of US Class Action suit--but why must Cdns roll over all the time--and be so polite they say thankyou to the ATM's!).  The real fight I agree is to get everyone thinking of buying educated on how to do it on direct import basis.  Another possibility is a protest march during upcoming Toronto Car Show because in terms of media attention, that would be a grabber if staged correctly (and only twenty of us with posters are required for national coverage).

What we really need to force change is the volume of Hondas coming in directly to go sky high and someone to document first fifty for a news release.  This means tracking of any stories because it is word of mouth
from here on in.

 

I agree with you on many points but why single out Honda? what about Chrysler, GM, and Nissan?