Experience with Honcker - Audi A4

Signed Deals & Tips
1

Hi All –

First, I want to say how helpful this forum has been. I wanted to relay my experience using Honcker in case anyone was curious about the app. In short, I was looking for an Audi A4 and I wasn’t getting very far with the nearby dealerships. I came across the Honcker app and found a fairly good deal and decided to pull the trigger (MSRP of 48,050 – Sale Price of 40,745 with $3250 down – Monthly payments of $430 for 36 months… I probably could’ve done a bit better, especially in comparison to some of the deals on this site, but it was better than anything I could negotiate outside the app).

Here’s the rough timeline of events:

Morning of 10/13 – I select the car via the app and provide all necessary information, including going to Audi’s site to run a hard credit check.

Afternoon of 10/13 – I get a call from an Audi dealership ~300 miles away saying they received my credit application and asked what car I wanted. I was confused because I assumed they would’ve known what car I selected and that I went through the app. When the dealer was able to find the car within their inventory, I told him about the app (he had never heard of it) and the above agreed upon price (which he had never received). The dealer mentions that the car has 250 miles on it and that he’ll see if he can match the figures provided.

Later that afternoon – Dealer says the lowest they can go is $473 a month ($43 higher than what was in the app). I ask them to provide me the quote in email and I send a note to the Honcker team (below).

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Afternoon of 10/15 – I get receive an email from the Honcker team, mentioning they’re working with the dealer to see if they’ll honor the agreed upon price

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Afternoon of 10/16 – I send a follow-up note and receive a call from Honcker within an hour or two. They said that the dealer isn’t going to agree to the offer, that the dealership is 300 miles away and the dealer is no longer working with Honcker. The rep says that if I want to get an Audi, they can use the same hard credit check they ran on 10/13. And if I get see another car I want within the app, that they will offer me a discount on the car. I eventually get the below email.

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So, in short:

  1. Agree to a deal within Honcker and a hard credit check is ran
  2. Dealer has no idea about Honcker and deal is not honored
  3. Honcker rep apologizes and wants me to try and lease another car through the app

All’s well that ends well, as I ultimately leased an Alfa Romeo Giulia via Justin and the guys out of Erie, PA (it was a great, straight-forward experience and I never would’ve found them without this forum). Unfortunately, I now have two credit inquiries on my credit report instead of one. Not sure if my experience with the application was an anomaly, but wanted to at least share the story (and yes, the difference was for only $43 a month!). Thanks again to the community!

1 Like
2

Interesting story. I considered using Honker but at times it just felt “too easy” and I figured something would go wrong.

But hey you avoided a pretty poor A4 deal so it works out.

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Good to know. Thanks for sharing your story. I’ve been pretty skeptical of Honcker, so this doesn’t surprise me at all.

4

Tried the app and they had only a few makes in the DC area. Was utterly useless to me. Your experience solidifies my opinion of this being a half-baked product. I think once they get a better foothold, they could present a realistic alternative to the status quo.

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5

It seems that a problem Honcker may have is dealers sign up to show a low lead in price and then for whatever reason they decide not to honor it, and they don’t honor it. What can Honcker do? Unless they start charging dealers a fee in advance for each car and keeping it if dealers bail out, not much they can do.

6

What was the discount they offered you? Also, how exactly would they have offered you the discount since they’re only displaying the price a dealer is willing to offer?

7

I had a similar experience with honcker. Twice. So your experience is definitely not an anamoly. Will never use the app again. I’m glad you got a better deal in the end.

8

Got a Audi Q5 last August through Honcker. It couldn’t of been an easier experience. 36 month lease with 10k per month at $364 (Los Angeles taxes included) and $1724 due at signing.

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Multiple credit checks for a car loan in a short space of time is viewed as one pull. It’s not a problem.

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Yeah viewed as 1 pull by other lenders but it still lowers your score for roughly 6 months to a year. I’d try and get honcker to remove the hard pull. Don’t let them tell you they can’t becuase they most certainly can.

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11

I don’t see how Honcker will be successful with experiences like this…

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12

That’s a frustrating experience… I agree that Honcker has to be more strict with the dealers that list cars through them, and find ways to keep dealers from backing out of the deal after you’ve clicked the “lease now” button. I had a good experience with the app, and the dealer that sold the car was great to work with as well, and said they sell/lease a lot of vehicles through Honcker. If the dealer lists a vehicle and price, they need to honor it, and should be “cancelled” by Honcker if they don’t.

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I think in this specific case, it was probably a singular sales manager that signed the dealer up to work with Honcker and then later the rest of the management cadre decided against it.

Is this a plausible scenario?

14

This app will never work if this continues to happen.

In lending – the lender and borrower agree on loan then sign the loan agreement – the last step is the hard pull.

Its a pretty big deal that they reneged after a hard pull. Honcker already do a soft-pull

15

Thanks for writing this.

Honcker isn’t available in my area, but it’s good for them to know that if things go wrong, people let other people know about it. I agree there needs to be some type of serious cost if a dealership backs out. I would encourage @audia4 to leave poor reviews on dealerrater and google regarding the dealership that wouldn’t honor their price.

16

Perhaps the dealership is part of a larger chain or group? I think it might be more plausible that the mothership signed up for Honcker and it wasn’t properly relayed to the sister dealerships? Especially since the car in question was so far away from the OP.

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Wouldn’t they still require the input of the dealership management to establish the deals offered on the app?

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You would think so. It’s possible that there was some kind of miscommunication I guess.

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I do think Honckers customer support is severely lacking. How can you let this happen and then say oh well bye

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Probably the same way Carvana ran into a VIN issue with a car I tried to sell them and after not being able to move forward because of a weird technicality, they just say “k, bye, can’t do it.”

If they didn’t want to buy, they don’t have to, I get it. Just seemed weird the turn the customer service took at the point that they perceived it to be too difficult to handle.