I wanted to share my experience with Honcker. I was looking for a Honda Pilot EX-L and it is not easy to get a good lease.
I found the car I wanted using the app and was approved – just to have the lease cancelled shortly after. This looked like the experience some others on this board have had. Since this is a startup I decided to email them to understand what was going on and it was explained the lease was going through a credit union that had residence restrictions and the app did not capture the limitation; hence the lease was not available for me based on where I live. I was able to validate this independently through the dealer so while it was annoying I understood. Fred, who I had communicated with, wanted to make this up to me and he went ahead and found a deal through Honda Financials that was as close as possible. Some of the extra cost was offset by reduction of turn in expenses as I was turning in a Honda and the deal was vastly better than what I had been able to get from local dealers.
There were a few hiccups throughout the process cause by the dealer but Honcker/Fred stayed on top of this and took care of the communication with the dealer. This ended up being more of a concierge service as oppose to a 100% automated process but I have not met anyone in the automotive space who is better at following up and I would not hesitate to consider Honcker again.
App doesn’t work for me. 94043 area code. Only shows Acura leases.
Update:
Talked with Abe at Honker. Says Northern Cali is limited right now, but adding more. If change zip to southern cali it works. I did that and can confirm get a nice list.
Haven’t leased yet. I know some or many dealers in the app will deliver. Having prices is tremendously useful. Also able to filter for 3 row vehicles. Found Atlas VW that way that has some very good deals. Never heard of atlas before.
Just leased 2 cars in the last week through the Honcker app and thought I would pass on my experience. In short, the app and service is amazing. Also, they had the best prices by far. On one car, the monthly price was $70 less than my lease broker.
Not sure if this happens always, but I added a few cars to my showroom and then a few days later some of them had time limited offers which lowered the price even more.
I jumped on the offer, uploaded my documents and then was contacted shortly thereafter by the dealer to schedule delivery. From clicking “Lease” through delivery, the process took around 24 hours. Would highly suggest it if any of you are on the fence.
I wish I had the same experience, I had 2 deals that they cancelled on me 1 right before I was supposed to get delivery, they didnt even bother to help get another car
Since Honker is just a platform and various dealers participate on that platform, the user experience will depend on the dealer’s business practices/customer service. Hopefully, Honker can put in place a robust dealer rating system based on actual user experiences so that when a new user downloads the app and is serious about pulling the trigger on an app-based lease, they have a similar experience to @shaytmg by knowing that the dealer they are connected to is a highly rated participant in the Honker platform.
Honker is in the initial growth phase so they most likely aren’t that strict on which dealers they allow onto their platform. If enough users complain about an existing dealer, I’d imagine they would step in somehow and right the ship for that dealer or ask them to leave.
Once the lease is approved it is relatively easy to find out which dealer the car is coming from since they give you the VIN. Although, I think this is after a hard credit pull.
Also, according to their FAQ you are only legally bound after signing the agreement.
I wish this was true:
I had a vin # and than the dealer cancelled, (aka they already pulled my credit)
Honcker didnt even bother following up just left me hi and dry
Yes, even Socal is limited on certain Brands. Ford for instance isn’t on it at all, as well as a few other brands. Also it can vary week to week what brands and models are listed.
I’d keep an eye out as the NCAA tournament winds down. If I remember correctly they did some kind of promo last year, and I asked about upcoming promos last month and they just got back to me saying that they don’t comment on upcoming deals, but to “stay tuned”, so something might be in the works. Maybe another first payment waived kind of offer?
Very annoying that Honcker FIRST take all your personal info, and first after that tell you that they don’t serve where you live. So unless you live in a Metropolitan area it is absolutely useless. You give out your personal information and waste your time trying to register. How hard would it be to first tell what areas of the country that they do serve, or at least first ask you to enter your zip code and verify before having you to sign up?
Trying to give them an address in a served area doesn’t help either, then the app asks for your SSID. No way I will give that out to an app I have very limited reason to trust…
Hmmm. Didnt ask me for social dont know why but i never see more than 3 brands… sucks. Btw im now gonna uninstall it as its absoultely useless. Last month it was showing me deals on the encore at 199 a month with 1100 due at signing, while i had em in group by for 150 with 300 lol
