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Looking at a GLS with leather, esp, automatic
Dealer MSRP shows 27,225
Will sell for 24,500 and provide 1.9% financing. This saves about 1K for me.
Trade value for my 2003 honda LX v-6 coupe with 11,110 miles is 17,000
Any impressions on this deal. I am in hawaii, but looking for advice on how favorable this deal is to mainland customers. Usually cars are about 1000-1500 more here.
2 more short questions, edmunds invoice seems lower than stated elsewhere, anyone else find this to be true.
Car I selected has brown painted pinstrip on it, is this standard? seems odd to see on new car (80 miles)Wondering if something is odd about this car..
Mahalo for the advice.
,J
2nd question is: I'm a legal resident of IL, where my sister and I share the same address- hence the owner loyalty rebate. I was wondering if I can purchase the car in Va or MD, apply the the loyalty rebate and list my IL address without applying for tags in Va, but just get by on temp tags.
Second question - has anyone had experience in buying a VW through the COSTCO Auto Program??
Thanks
i'm thinking about purchasing a new VW passat 1.8t auto GLS. this is my first new car purchase and i'm wondering if you all had any useful advice for me - i haven't decided on the passat yet, but it's at the top of my list. i spoke to a dealer (who could probably tell that i was young and hadn't ever done this sort of thing before) and he quoted me a final price (after taxes, fees, and incentives) that was right at the MSRP. i figured that was too high, and i've seen here that a lot of you are paying at or below invoice on your new cars. what's your secret?
i'd be more than happy to listen to any advice you all want to give me.
thanks,
chris
I guess that you will get a number of suggestions on how to buy, some at variance with others, because we all go at it in different ways.
From my experience over many years, I would say the first thing is to know exactly what vehicle model you want, and exactly what options you wish to add to the car. If you keep changing your wants during the negotiations, it is going to be hard to keep track of the changing prices.
Next, I would go to a source such as Edmunds and get the MSRP (the manufacturer's sticker price) and the dealer invoice price and print them out. When you are at the dealers don't hesitate to have the sheet in front of you so the sales person knows you have some knowledge of their prices. Edmunds will also show you a suggested purchase price, which can be helpful, but which at times I have found to be high.
I live in the Chicago Metro area where we have good libraries so I usually go to one of them, get the latest Automotive News (a weekly) from their shelf and look up current dealer incentives and customer rebates. These are usually shown in every issue on the last page or two of the publication. Edmunds also has a section showing "dealer incentives" and our Chicago Tribune each Sunday publishes similar figures, and so your newspaper may do the same.
I usually start bargaining at invoice less incentives, realizing that I will have to move up over that. Lots of time you will find that people tell you they paid a lot less for their car then they really did, for it's an ego thing.
I realize that each state handles their taxes and other charges differently. In Illinois the tax, depending on the country you live in, is about 7.5%, and then there is a document fee, and a license application or license transfer fee, and these three add up to a substantial amount.
You should also decide to yourself, before entering the dealership, whether you are going to pay cash (few young people can afford to do that), or how much you are going to finance and for how long. You can even ask your local bank what they would charge you.
Since you are young, it might be wise to take an older person with you, if you are comfortable with that, when you go into negotiate this first car purchase.
It surely would be advisable to get more than one dealer's price if you have a number of dealers in your area. There are some locations where you can send an email to nearby dealers for a quote. I have never done that, prefering face-to-face bargaining, so I don't know how well that would work.
Lastly, and many here may dispute this, go in dressed up to the hilt. You want the playing field as level as possible, and looking like a slob only gets you sloppy treatment. Appearances can impress the salesperson contrary to what others may think.
Good luck.
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Share your vehicle reviews
I've gotten three quotes from the dealer on my desired passat (GLS 1.8, auto, leather w/ wood, ESP) and the best i've found is 24,700 after all taxes and fees. that's less than the TMV, but i don't know whether to get the car when i plan to (end of june) or wait until closer to the end of the year to try and get a better deal. does anyone know what kind of incentives VW will offer towards the end of the year?
thanks in advance
Hope this helps. I dont think prices will go down much more, depreciation on an 04 will more than makeup for a couple of hundred in extra savings. just my two cents,aloha jason
By the way its a great car, more fun to drive than my 240hp accord coupe by lots! Knock on wood it will remain reliable. will be getting the GIAC engine and tiptronic chips for about 1K more to increase HP/torque by 40/50 and increase tip shifting time.
Another question, when the dealers quote an "on the road" price is this really the final, absolute price of the car? I don't want to arrive at the Dealership with a check for 24.3K only to find out that there are a slew of "final costs" or "prep fees" that weren't mentioned over the phone/internet.
Glad to hear that the Passat is more fun to drive than the Accord w/ 240hp. That was actually my 2nd choice. Are the modifications you mentioned easy to do? Expensive? Whom would you recommend them to?
As far as fees go: you may also be hit with a Doc fee. The dealer I was working with included a $398 Doc fee and tag fee which was around $30 all of these fees were NOT included in the initial $ work up. Good Luck.
Is 24,300, GLS,leather, ESP, AT total cost in addition to tax,title and doc fees. If no other fees are icluded thats a pretty fair price if it goes a long with 1.9 financing. 18,800 for a stripped model GL is a GREAT price. every dealer has a few loss leaders on the base models to offer. essentiall the leather, GLS package and ESP add about 4 grand. if 1.9 financing also available on the 18,8 than it is awesome price. 1.9 financing saves between 1-2K over regular financing 3.5-5.5%.
Factor all this plus trade in into your purchase decision. good luck
does anyone know what reasonable transportation costs are? should i be willing to pay them at all?
is it still possible to order from the factory this time of year?
thanks in advance
-chris
jason, those mods sound nice. how difficult are they to install?
Keep us informed how your purchase hunt goes. I am interested to hear what on the road price really means!
As for transportation costs to get you a specific vehicle, it's a legitimate cost to them to send/hire a flatbed to go however many miles to get the car. If they send a driver, they have to pay at least one if they trade cars or 2 if they don't.
The question is how much are you willing to pay for the service. I paid $75 many years ago to have dealer personnel bring a vehicle about 100 miles from their other location - to me it was worth every penny.
The list on the GLX is over 33,300. It seems that you have gotten a decent offer but these days there are, according to VW inventories, a lot of Passats.
does anyone have any advice on final questions, points of interest i should be aware of?
btw, i think i'm getting a good price. 24,000 "on the road" (after TTL, etc.) for a 1.8T auto w/ leather&wood. does this sound about right?
if you all can let me know what sort of things i should be watching out for i'd be very grateful.
thx
chris
http://www.quirkcars.com/specials/ads/vw.jpg
First rule...forget MSRP...it's a useless number to a buyer. Try to determine the cost. When communicating what you paid in this forum, so is "on-the road/out-the-door" pricing because each state has different fees & tax requirements. Stick to the selling price before taxes & fees so we can compare apples to apples.
Thought I did OK until I read some of these recent posts. 04' GLS, 1.8T, 5-spd, leather, ESP, invoice is $23,856 if you believe Edmunds + NADA. Mfg to dealer cash of $2K reduces their cost to $21,856, but info on Edmunds says it can't be combined with the 1.9%. According to several dealers, I was told that a max of $1,000 was available in order to get 1.9% financing (and this seemed to agree with the statement on Edmunds)...this is the one spot where I may have made a mistake. I viewed their cost as $22,856, and picked up my new Passat for $23K even. I beat Edmunds TMV of $24,246 by $1,246 so I figured I had a pretty good deal.
I suspect some of the folks providing the previous numbers are either living in a fantasy world, or just having some fun throwing out numbers. I still think I got a reasonable deal.
The car ?...I've only got 200 miles on it, but it is S-W-E-E-T.
Next time I'll be able to take advantage of the $1K owner loyalty too.
Thanks all!
No question in my mind that Edmunds saved me at least $800 on this car.
When I bought my GLX it was in March and at that time the incentives included $500 loyalty, $500 if you bought a Passat, and up to $1000 that was dealer potential discount IF you took the VW financing. If you chose not to finance through VW, there was a potential additional $1000 reduction. so the best deal could be:
Low APR + $2k discount from negotiated price OR
NO financing from VW and $3k potential discount from negotiated price.
I was lucky and was able to get my GLX at dealer cost (without any of the advertising and port floor plan add-ons) less $2k with VW financing -- my timing at the time was just right.
Since then, VW has restricted the low APR if you take the discount.
Very happy with the GLX...BTW, I kept my 2000 GLS turbo (now my commuting car).
I am currently shopping for a Jetta Wagon (thought about passat) with loaded options and manual- of course manual is rare so I have to order it from the factory. I found out through this process that VW is no longer producing the old body style cars. So you have to wait till September to order a 2005- most dealers will not tell you this so they can sell the older models. Destination charges are around $400-$600 depends how far a ship. The Jetta wagon and TDI have 0% financing and I may wait for the new models to purchase as having the outdated body style decreases value.
What you're being told is that any order for any VW that can't be filled in the current pipeline is going to be an '05 model - that doesn't make it different in any substantive way from the '04s.
All Jettas and Golfs will be sourced from North and South American sources for the next go-around [that's mostly true now - only the Jetta/Bora wagon/variant is German-made for our market currently]. The Passat, I assume, will continue to come from Europe, even after the new car is introduced - and that introduction keeps getting pushed back. The next Paris show?
Good luck!
Thanks!
Yes, I thought as much as well as requesting a Carfax report. The thing that does make me feel somewhat comfortable is the fact that the vehicle is Certified and carries a 2 yr, no deductible, warranty. I have owned Volkswagens in the past and although they are great when they are running, they can be very expensive to fix!
What do you think of the deal? ($14,700) Seems very reasonable when researching pricing on the internet. The car is loaded up being a GLX. It is also an automatic Tiptronic.
Thanks!
Steveo1
Also, I heard that the 2005 engines are bigger (200hp and above). Will they be available in the wagon version in September 2004?
Thx
2004 GLS 1.8T FWD Passat- Black/beige leather/wood trim, cold weather pacage (i.e. heated seats) Sunroof, ESP and OnStar. Price $26,000. Is this a good deal???
I'm opting for "Drivers Option" has anyone financed this way? And if so, what is your take on it? I put $4,000 down and will have a total monthly payment between $330-$350. for 48mo. with a baloon at the end of the 4 yrs. Desperate for reply, finalizing purchase in 2 days when car arrives to the dealership!!
If I were you, I would go back to them and haggle some more.
Check what the full edmunds reports for your area. Should be less.
Good luck.
Invoice on the car you are getting is $25,813. MSRP is $28,249. Thats actually not a bad deal, but I do believe that you could get the car below invoice. Most dealers are really wanting to rid their lots of Passats. So, stick to your guns and get them below invoice. I almost guarantee that you can negotiate a better deal.
Do you currently own a VW. On my deal, I also received a $1000 owner loyalty rebate on top of the $2000.
I am also not familiar with the Drivers Option choice. When talking to the dealer a couple of years ago about my current Jetta they sort of steered me away from the drivers option. Not sure why!
Secondly, I would avoid Driver's Option. Either buy at today's excellent low interest rates, or do a standard lease. If you lease, negotiate the price of the car before you begin haggling on lease terms.