I've been doing a bit of background reading on the new Civic Type R GT and popped into my nearest Honda dealer to look around their Demo car on the front forecourt.
The guy who came over a few minutes later introduced himself as the DP and asked if I was genuinely interested in buying one if it was the right car for me or if I was just looking for general information. Either way, he said was happy to help.
I said I was a potential buyer and he said, "come on, lets take if for a blast" and off we went for about 40 mins of him hammering the car / safely demonstrating the performance of the car on the back-roads. Fast car. Nice guy. Good driver. Really fast car. 2 litre vtec turbo, 316bhp, 400 torque things, lots of buttons and switches and stuff. Oh yeah, and red seats!!
Back at the Dealership all the salesmen were still with customers and he joked that he was probably too rusty to try and sell me one and he had a couple of meetings to attend but said if I could come back in the morning he would have the car fully fueled up and suggested that I take it away for the weekend and speak to a proper salesman when I brought it back. So, I did
I appreciate all Dealers can't do the same thing and I guess if I ended up not buying one then it's probably not a great way to do it anyhow, but it certainly led to a warm fuzzy feeling about the Dealership.
After returning the car, even the bit sitting opposite the salesman at his desk discussing the price was as straightforward as it could be and couldn't even be described as "haggling" since the DP joined us and said the price that they lost money on the sale... so I've come away knowing that "the deal" is as good as it could possibly be.
Anyhow, I've gone for a red one with the optional additional tailgate wing, and got the full 5 year service plan, the illumination pack to give the red glow interior and Type-R mat set for the front, back and boot. Should get it on the new 2018 plate on 1st March.
It does seem a bit odd getting one of these as a "sensible" car for days when 4 doors and a boot are needed, and maybe I'll need to get a baseball hat and wear it back to front... but hey.. I like it
General pic
... (admittedly it was a McLaren Honda one) 
