Infiniti FX50 / FX35 Prices Paid and Buying Experience

wibble

"Do you think that there is any flexability in the price or should I be greatful as it stands?"

It never hurts to try!

"Also, the tires seem very worn for the miles on the car. Any input from those with the 20's? I was thinking of making this a point since the price is low. I'm not trying to be greedy, but this is a major purchase for me."

OK. Been looking though the certified pre-owned stuff. As far as I can see, the tires must have more than 50% of the tread left to qualify for the certification program.

I also made a mistake on my previous post. The warranty on pre-owned certified is now 36 months from the date of purchase or until 100,000 miles on the odometer. Details of the program are at;
http://www.infiniti.com/content/0,,sctid-52029,00.html

quattro

I'm a little confused. I guess you must be talking about a FX45 and not a FX35 for the used one. How can a FX35 no matter how loaded have a MSRP of 49600?

fastlyf

Hello all. I am the type who thinks about big purchases for a while before making a deal, and I knew that I wanted an FX35 a few months back. The current plan is to get one around XMas time and I am getting ready now. Your help would be appreciated on the price: I am looking to spend about $34,000 out the door on an FX. Will it be possible to get an '04 at the end of the year for that price. I'd like to get the Tech Package but that might be out of reach for that price range. I was hoping that the need to get rid of '04 models would help. --- I guess that brings me to a second question: Would you all rather have an '04 with more options or an '05 with fewer options. That's the likely choice that I have. Dealer experiences within 200 miles of Atlanta would be helpful, but any help at all would be great. This is the most expensive car I have purchased and I need to get the best deal possible. --- Finally: Give it to me straight on ride quality. Is it as bad as everyone says?

clpurnell

Jpiller

If it has 18k on it expect to purchase new tires in the next 8-10k. I have 23k on mine and I will have to replace in the next 6 months.

The price is good but it doesn't hurt to ask for more off. What color is it. If it is Orange or Red you may have more bargaining power.

Quattro It could have a MSRP of 49k

Mine stickered at 44300 add 1600 for awd + 1600 for chromes (?) + 300 for roof racks + 400 for XM or Sirrus. Add some pinstriping or mop and glow and we have a 49k FX35. a fully loaded 04 will almost be 50k now.

wschee

Hi, All

I live in Austin, TX.
Does anyone have experience of Infiniti of Austin.
They quoted me "firm" $500 "above" invoice of a '04 FX35 with tech package. It seems to me that the one had sat on the lot for a while since its MSRP is based on old base price.

My first impression of the dealer is sloppiness even though the internet manager did her best.

I wonder the quality of service.

Infiniti of Austin is the only dealer within 100 miles.

wibble

Looking at this one question at a time;

1. A 2004 FX35 with touring might be achievable at that price later in the year. A lot depends on the prices announced foir the 2005 model. If the price is pretty much the same then the 2004 models will have to be discounted. If there is a significant price increase then the 2004s won't be discounted as much. For comparison, last December it was pretty easy to pick up a 2003 FX35 for $5000 off sticker.
If you do want the tech then have a look at certified pre-owned.

2. The differences between the 2004 and 2005 models are mainly cosmetic. The actual car is identical. Personally, I would take a 2004 at a good discount over a 2005.

3. Sorry, can't help as far as dealers in Atlanta goes. Hopefully someone else can. You can always ask them about their CSI (customer satisfaction index) scores for sales and service. Anything below 95% and I would steer clear.

4. The ride! Bear in mind that this car is basically a 350Z with a bigger body shell. It's designed as a sports car and rides as such. The 18" wheel ride is significantly smoother than the 20" One thing to watch out for is the tire pressures. When the cars are shipped, the tires are inflated to 40-45 psi. Some dealers forget to check and lower the pressures to the recommended 32-35 psi. Also, on the 20" cars especially, the ride does smooth out after 10,000 miles or so as everything beds in. Make sure you take a decent length (10 mile plus) test drive in the car you're interested in and see what you think.

Good luck and have fun

Gischpel

I bought a used '03 AWD with Sport and Touring packages and 11,000 miles on it for $33,000. It is Beryllium with Brick interior.

dinosf

Sorry for the delay. I've been out driving my new FX (AWESOME!).

Rules discourage specific names. Suffice to say that I said I had an internet offer in writing, which I did, for $4,000 under invoice. In fact their own internet sales rep had agreed to match that price. Salesman hemmed and hawed, but ultimately I was willing to go check out the offer from the other dealer. I actually got to the door and he called me back to make the deal. One thing I think is important in negotiating is never to start with your bottom line. That's how they do it. Don't worry about insulting them with an absurdly low price. I think it's more important to show some willingness to move. I started at $700 below what I paid. But as we moved up, I had them add little things too (cargo protector, splash guards) to end up with what I wanted.

dinosf

Infiniti of Serramonte. I dealt with a salesman, but I really like their fleet manager. I also spoke previously with the internet salesman, so I had a good price in my back pocket (but was able to improve on it). I love the car. It is everything I was looking for and more. What a blast to drive!

quattro

Thanks dinosf. I will definitely go talk to them. I'm planning to get mine in October. Will let you how it goes.

wschee

The only dealer in Austin told me that their CSI score is 93.8. It is definitely below 95.
How bad is this? Do you happen to know national average of CSI of infiniti dealers?

Since this is the only infiniti dealer within 100 miles, I need to rely on them even though I can buy one from Dallas.

Thanks in advance, wibble.

wibble

Interesting. I was planning on picking up a 2004 Jaguar X Type this weekend but I'll get in touch with this lot. If they can sell me a 2004 FX35 AWD with tech and touring for $35940 cash then I might have a second Infiniti!

wibble

To be fair, if that is their service CSI then it's not terrible. The place I used to take my Infiniti to averaged 98.5 on sales and 97 on service. The lowest I saw in the Southern California area was 92 for service and 94 or so for sales.
100 miles isn't bad. I have to take mine 130 miles to get to the nearest. After that its over 250 miles to the next one!

rose2

Have you thought of driving to Houston where there are 2 dealerships to choose from? Since Austin only has one dealership, you are at their murcy.

clpurnell

There are four in houston and 3 in dallas. Two in houston are owned by the same people (Clear Lake and SouthWest).

Dallas has Grubbs, Sewell and one more. I would e-mail all 7 and go from there.

wschee

Thanks rose2 and clpurnell for the advices.

engin555

Hi guys,

I am an international student ,so I am not familiar to buying a car in US. I need a little help on pricing :

I am not sure when the 2005 FX's are going to be on the road, does anybody know ?

Also, a dealer offered me $ 38K for a 2003 FX 35, 8K miles, and with everything (except chrome wheels) .. is it a good deal? considering new one is MSRP : $ 47 K ??? bt if 2005 comes out soon..I do not think so ?

Also for a new 2004 FX , with tech package ( MSRP $ 44K), they tried to mak e a deal for $ 42K ????

can anybody help on these prices ?

Thank you very much in advance

Engin , from Wash, DC

engin555

hi there

r u sure 2005 will be out in September ????

the dealer in VA told me it's to be out in December ? I was looking at a fully loaded 2003 FX 35, which he said 38.750 was the bottom price ?

If 2005 comes out in Sept, it should go down another 7-10% ???

regards

engin

wibble

The officila word is September BUT I wouldn/t be surprised if the new cars were held back for a while if there are a lot of unsold 2004 cars on the lot.

mrclean

I'm looking at the FX 35 and noticed that my dealer has a lot of them in stock with the $35,850 base MSRP. I guess these cars have been sitting on the lot since before the price change in April. If I buy one of these will I be expected to pay the Marketing Assessment? If not any reason not to go for one of these? Thanks.

wibble

The marketin assessment will be on the invoice that the dealer got from Infiniti NA for the car. You can always as to see it for the car you're interested in. You're not going to pay more for one of these. When Infiniti scrapped the MA, they raised the invoice and sticker price by 1.5%.
Because these cars have been sitting around for a long time, you should be able to get a really good price on one. I would be looking at $1500 under invoice minimum.
I assume these are true base, as in cloth seats and no sunroof? If so, make sure you really don't want to pay the extra for the touring package. You get a huge amount of extra equipment for not much more money.

mrclean

Sorry if I mis-communicated, the cars themselves are not base models. They have touring/sport packages etc. which I want, I just noticed that the Base MSRP at the top of the list was the old price. Wow, $1500 under invoice sounds crazy! I'm being offered $100 over which I thought was good...

wibble

No problem. I think I misunderstood a little too. Anyway, you won't get that much off a leather model but you should still be looking at $500 to $1000 under invoice on a 2004 FX35. There are dealer incentives on it this month. What part of the country are you in?

toulouse

I am negotiating on a FX35 2004 in Houston and have been offered

$500 below invoice and a wood package at no charge. Is this a good deal right now?

Also, should they be charging a $500 maintainence fee for scheduled maintainence of the car for 2yrs??? It was my understanding that should be included in the price.

Here are the numbers on the deal:

Invoice- $36,307 (Touring, Sport, Cargo Mats, Splash Gds)
+500 Maint.
+174 Tint (they tinted the windows even darker than factory - I didn't want that)
+63 Wheel Locks
-500

$36,544 + TTL

Thanks for any input!

wschee

Hi, All

First of all, I appreciate many of you for posting advices for me.

Since I was so busy near 09/07, I could not buy one.
The last offer from Infiniti of Austin was $250 below invoice. The invoice was for Black exterior, Black and Brick interior and Tech package. (Half of the stocks are black. Sure, black is not a good color for Texas.) I was kind of curious that the MSRP is $ 200 less than the one computed from Infiniti website. $43,640 vs. $43,840. Is $200 suggesting the vehicle is pre-april model?

Recently, I found from Infiniti.com that the dealer has more FXs on stock. Around 09/07, they had 39 Fxs, and now, they have 43 Fxs.
Is Infiniti still shipping 04 models?

I feel that fever of FXs is getting over.
How do you think?

toulouse

Hi,

I am in Texas too (Houston). I was just wondering if they are adding a Maintenance fee to your deal also? It's suppose to cover their 2yr "free" maintenance program.

wibble

"$36,307 (Touring, Sport, Cargo Mats, Splash Gds)"
I make invoice out to $36277 but $30 is neither here or there.

"+500 Maint."
Infiniti don't offer scheduled mantenance at the moment so I guess it's a dealer thing. Based on my local dealership prices, it looks like a break-even proposition.

"+174 Tint (they tinted the windows even darker than factory - I didn't want that)"

Fair price for tint (I've seen some places add $600+ for a $150 tint job. If you don't want it though you shouldn't have to pay for it.

"+63 Wheel Locks"

$25 at my local place and they throw them on for free. If you want the car it's not worth losing it over $63 though.

There are incentives for dealers on FX35s this month so this isn't a bad deal but it could be a little better. I'd ask not to pay for the tint and wheel locks and ask for the maintenance at $250 personally.

wibble

The price of 2004 FXs was raised by $200 on May 14th so it looks like the car you're looking at dates back to before then.
Check the label on the door jamb for the build date. You could always ask them to show you the invoice too.

toulouse

Thanks wibble!

That's a great idea regarding the maintenance fee.
I wasn't sure if it would be the same as just taking care of it as the need arises. It doesn't really make sense to pay for the maintenance up front. It seems like a strange feature to me.

I am looking at 2 cars. The one I really want is Berrylium/Brick but the dealer will only take $500 off and doesn't seem that interested in selling the car. It's surprising since they have so many FXs. They are the only dealer in TX that has that color combo so I am considering just getting Berrylium/Graph from the other more accomodating dealer. The deal is the same as the one above but no free wood package.

Any thoughts?

clpurnell

hey there,

I would say go where you get the best deal. I would take the Brick over graphite interior as the brick seems to wear better. (my 24k mi FX makes the leather in my 10k mile pilot look like plastic wrap). I live in houston also but bought my car in Dallas. Back then they were blowing out FX's got roughly 4k off sticker and a crazy high trade in. We are having a Houston FX owners meet tomorrow. send me an e-mail and I can fill you in on the club. there were 7 FX's at our last meet should have 8 or nine this time.

wschee

Does anyone have brick interior?
If so, could you post the picture of texture of the leather?

The one I was about to purchase had brick/black interior. However, the brick leather had a lot of darker dots all over the surface. That reminded me of a skin of elderly people (I don't intend to humiliate elderly people. I cannot represent it otherwise since my mother tongue is not English.).

However, the dealer representative told me that is normal. I wished I could have seen other brick interior, but that one was the only one with brick interior.

Thanks in advance.

wibble

"Does anyone have brick interior?
If so, could you post the picture of texture of the leather?"

Here is a very large high resolution picture from Infiniti. Maybe it will help;

http://www.infinitinews.com/multimedia/infiniti2004/fx45/colour/0- 92003fx45naiasvehicle.jpg

wschee

Thanks, wibble.
It helped a lot!!!

bobp7

Hi:
looking at an '04 FX45 with tech and premium packages. List is $52,265. Cap cost is $47,153 (less than invoice). money cost is .00194. So with $4,200 down (2,900 cap reduction and the rest is bank, doc fees and other bs), monthly is $539.
this seems like a good deal but am i better off waiting until the '05's arrive? can i do better on an '04?
thx in advance for your input/
bobp7

wibble

Looks like they're bumping up the money factor. It's 0.0179 at the moment. What's the term. mileage and residual?
Cap reduction is not really a good idea on a lease. It does nothing to reduce the final buy out on the car at the end of the lease. Also, if the car is totalled or stolen during the lease, the gap insurance will cover any difference between the assessed value and the buy out. Your $2900 goes up in smoke like it never existed.

quattro

>> Looks like they're bumping up the money
>> factor. It's 0.0179 at the moment.
Wibble, any clue when that might happen. Can't imagine Infiniti bumping up the MF on the 04' when the 05' are arriving. I'm planning to lease a 04' FX35 in Oct or Nov. Should I get it sooner rather than later? Thanks.

bobp7

Wibble, etal:
I need the assistance of experts so I can make a decision. Looking at an '04 FX45 with the 2 major option packages. List is $52,265, invoice is a bit over $49,000. Cap cost for the lease is $47,453. They want over $4,250 down which includes a cap cost reduction of $2,900. I want to make the cap cost reduction go away but they want to roll it into the lease if I don't want to pay it up front. What are my chances of getting the cap cost to disappear via negotiations?
Aren't there lots of 45's still around? Isn't that why they are holding up the '05's?
Look forward to your response since I want to get to a decsion by the weekend

bobp7

Wibble:
lease is for 42 months. believe residual is 55%. mileage is 12k per year.
just emailed with the internet person and got a "new" cap cost of $46,800. starting to get interesting...
bobp7

goral

Itlooks like we may be joining the (hopefully) happy crowd of FX35 owners... Yesterday, I won an eBay auction on '04 FX35 (23K miles) with Touring Package. Still haven't seen the car (local wholesaler has it), but the price seemed right (under $29K). The car does have some "minor" scratches and bruises, but at this price I THINK I can live with them

msu79gt82

I got a similar "deal" from that dealer and I did not take it because Southwest Infiniti did better. In essence they are selling at "invoice" and including the maintenance (I suppose they think it sounds better with their wording).

I paid just below Invoice for a FX35 Tour+Tech+Sport with several extras (including tinting the front window) including the 2-yr factory recommended maintenance. By the way Infiniti sells wheel locks for $29 - so wheel locks for $63 and tinting for $174 are extreme markups.

wibble

The residual is right on the mark. The cap cost is looking good. There are dealer incentives on the FX45 at the moment so under invoice should be the norm.

wibble

Let us know how it is when you get it because that is a really good price!

wibble

"By the way Infiniti sells wheel locks for $29 - so wheel locks for $63"

There's a certain dealer in the L.A. area who puts these on all their cars and charge $199. I used to buy them out of my own pocket ($24 with discount) and fit them free of charge as a thank you for all my customers. Then again, I'm just a nice guy!

socalbob

I was watching that auction; I think you saved yourself 4 or 5 thousand dollars. The dealer is fair; I know someone who bought from them before. I have the 04 2WD FX 35 with the tech package and I love that. Enjoy the car. SocalBob

goral

I picked up the car today... The seller is a wholesaler who was quite easy to work with. As I was waiting for them to show up (9:30AM) at the office, imagine my facial expression when I saw them come in with '04 Rolls-Royce Phantom (being auctioned off right now), Maybach 57, Lambo Gallardo, and couple other lower end cars (Porsches, MBs, etc...).

The car is FANTASTIC! My wife actually took it for a drive - at 11pm!!! Just for the heck of it! She's still smiling
I just wish they offered manual transmission... We would be buying another one as soon as my Audi A4 dies.

mia

I've received the following offer on an '04 FX35 AWD with Tech & Touring Packages:

36 mos./12K per year lease
.00179 MF
56% residual

Monthly payment =$599 incl. 8.75% NYS sales tax.

Upfront $ = 1st mo. + DMV fees + $795 Bank fee.

Based on my calculations the dealer is selling this vehicle for approx. $1k over invoice. Needless to say he's in a rush to close this deal ASAP as he says that once the month is over so are the low rates.

Can I do better than $1K over invoice?

Thanks so much!

wibble

The money factor and the residual is spot on. The bank fee looks high. Should be $550 if I recall correctly. There are dealer incentives at the moment so invoice to $1000 under should be achievable before the end of the month.

socalbob

If you decide to lease, you might want to go for 15K miles per year for a few dollars more. These cars are fun to drive....

quattro

Wibble, do you know if it's true that the MF will go up next month? If so by how much? Thanks.

clpurnell

Is right on he is in new york all major manufacturers are charging more for new york residents on leases. I think 795 is right. that does not look too bad of a deal my 03 ran 625/mo But I also have the sport and dvd on the 03's.