It's here! Finally!
Hopped on the Greyhound bus at 12:45 am on Saturday. It was my first time on a Greyhound bus... not too comfortable. Got into LA around 7:30 am. The fleet manager at Cerritos Acura, Mitch Franklin, showed up at 7:45 to pick me up. The Bus was supposed to arrive at 7:45 am, so he was right on time. We drove to the dealership and after quickly making copies of my insurance and driver's licence, we went into the lot. They own about 7 dealerships over there, so was quite a walk through all those new cars...
There was my Redrock all the way at the end. It seems like Mitch doesn't like other sales folks to bring their customers to his car. He usually locks the car, parks is far away and holds the keys. That's good. I know no one had done anything to my car. It had 5 miles on it. We went for a short drive, where he explained some features of the car etc...
After we returned to the dealership, we filled out some paperwork, then he went thru explaining the warranty and the manuals etc. We then went to the car where he took a good hour to explain all the features. He was very through. However, after being a member of this forum for several months, I knew more about some featuers than he did
The price of the car is MSRP, $39780 + $139 for rear mud guards + $99 for wheel locks. They now decided to add the cargo mat into the required accessories. I believe that adds another $99 to the cost. I asked him if he was going to charge me for it ... he said, no, it's yours
Through the conversations I found that the cost of the mat is about $30. Total cost is $40,018
We were done about 9:30 am. The finance guy was having too much fun at home and showed up at about 10:40 am. I was really getting mad at this guy. Here's the MDX waiting for me to drive and this guy doesn't show up. Mitch actually offered me to take the car and get something to eat. It took the finance guy another 20 minutes to fill in all the information.
This was interesting. They offered me three optional equipment. First one is some kind of alarm system. It is additional to the factory one. They add it on all the cars on the lot to protect them. Not sure how that happens, but the cost quoted was $695. I said I do not need it. He insisted that a car of this cost should be protected. I told him that Northern California is a safe place and didn't need it. He tried to offer me a discount. I countered him and told him that I would let him leave this on my car if he activated it. You know the rest ... they removed it.
The second one was the Lo-Jack. Cost was $895. I declined it.
The third one was the extended warranty for $1295 7 Yrs/100K. I told him that I could get it for $895 over the internet. In reality, I didn't have a clue how much it costed, but just threw in a number. He went thru some books .. the usual stuff .. and countered with $1050. He told me that his cost was $800 and he needs a profit of $250 .. for what?? to act as a broker?? Gimme a break... We started discussing and he told me that 'cos I was a good customer, He would knock another $25 off. What does this guy think? Why am I a good customer? I declined everything he offered
... Finally, agreed to the $895 - 7Y/100K/0 Deductable. I thought it was pretty good.
Paid $45 for doc, + tax + Licence =42661.56 +$895 for warranty. Finally got out at about 11:45 am. There was another guy from the Bay Area. He bought a GG, Touring. We were planning to drive together, but waiting for him would mean not driving for another hour. Forget him, just start driving
Programmed the Navigation System, loaded up the CDs, set the seat and mirrors and off we go. The nav gave me directions to go on Hwy 5. While on 5, it asked me to go on 101. I ignored it and kept going on 5. I kept getting directions go back to 101. I decided to go with the system. It put me back on 101N, then put me on 170N to 5N. I could have just stayed on 5. Maybe the folks in LA could tell me what the deal is.
The dealer suggested that I could change transmission from D5 to D4 and alternative them as well as speed to get optimum break in performance. I did that. I was tired after a couple of hours. Took a break, folded the rear seat and slept for 2 hrs. Didn't know how tired I was. Got back on the road and did between 50 and 75 through out, varied rpm pertty much every 15 or so minutes. Got home about 7:30 pm. Got an 22 MPG average. Made the entire 385 miles from LA to LA (Los Altos) in one tank of gas. As I was pulling into my drive way, the gas light lit on. Certainly pleased with the drive.
The wind noise was pretty low. Road noise was still not as low as it should be for a luxury automobile. It seems like the material in the sunroof is not good enough to shield the noise. Acoustics were ok. Will try to post some pictures in a day or two.
Thanks to everyone for their well wishes. I hope to cherish the 'X for a long long time.
