Subaru Crew - Dealers & Pricing

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Comments

  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    It varies by region, so from Edmunds home page follow the link that says "Incentives and Rebates", then type in your zip.

    Though I don't think there are any yet. The 2003s just arrived in dealers.

    On the other hand, the 1998-2001 Forester never got a rebate. Only the 2002 did, and just in the months before the redesigned 2003 arrived, so that was an exception. The 2003 may not see rebates, but it's hard to say for sure.

    Legacy and Outback probably will, Impreza too. Last year the Legacy got a $500 rebate at first, then later it was upped to $750. I timed it nicely and got the higher rebate on our 2002 Legacy.

    Try fitzmall.com to get a quote. I see Foresters for as little as $19.3k, and as much as $400 under invoice. They're basically giving you back the entire holdback. Can't do much better than that. Do you live near DC? They have one location in Florida, too.

    -juice
  • texan5texan5 Member Posts: 23
    Frankly I found Edmunds TMV inacurate at best. It seem to be biased toward MSRP. I live in Austin Texas, so perhaps the pricing would be somewhat less than in California, where Edmunds resides.

    I feel that I can order me a Forrester for Invoice + 300 right now. However the financing is not as good as it can be. The 60 mo rate is at 3.9. Considering that the sales are down and not looking to go up anytime soon, I figure subaru would have to kick in with better financing soon. WHat's your feel on that?

    texan
  • texan5texan5 Member Posts: 23
    FWIW, juice,

    Edmunds invoice and Fitzmall invoice deffered last time I checked. It looked to me like fitzmall was inflating the invoice prices somewhat...
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    $19.3k for a Forester X is a deal, any way you look at it. Fitz may be including advertising fees or something, but at least they are showing it up front.

    When we bought our Legacy, invoice prices matched. Dunno.

    Do any Texas dealers do the no-haggle thing? It's just a much better experience. Seriously, we were treated very well, no surprises, got the car we wanted delivered flawless to us.

    -juice
  • texan5texan5 Member Posts: 23
    I've got good vibes from Austin dealer here. The salesman was very accomodating and we played no games once he understood that I've done my research. I'll probably order the car from him as "build to order" with all of my options at invoice + 300, unless subaru kicks in with a rebate. The question for me is not wherther but when. Things are not looking up economy-wise, and something tells me that the deals are only going to get better come january/february. Perhaps subaru will bring forth better financing once current promotions expire in january...

    texan
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    The dealer probably is not inflating the invoices prices since they vary by region.

    In NJ for example, some of the packages that are listed are not available from the regional distributor. I had to purchase a few items separately because of this.

    -Dennis
  • outback_97outback_97 Member Posts: 130
    Does $15,000 sound reasonable for a used automatic 2002 OB Sport w/ 20K miles? Miles are high for one year, but 20K on a Subaru is almost new as far as I'm concerned. I'm in SLC, UT, where Subies are very popular and have a high demand.

    Someone posted a few months back from UT, inquiring about pricing; I've found that prices tend to run high here, in spite of a large supply, because demand is high. Take a drive up Little or Big Cottonwood or in the REI parking lot and try to count the Subarus. When I was shopping for mine three years ago, the first car I test drove was sold to someone else before I even brought it back; they were working up a deal when I was mistakenly allowed to take it out. While I was negotiating the price of mine, other folks were milling around it, wanting to buy it, so it was hard to move the price down much.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    That's an $18k car new, so the price is reasonable, though not a steal. If it's in good condition and a hard fine, then maybe it is.

    -juice
  • dsattlerdsattler Member Posts: 135
    You know, a few years ago you would have killed for 3.9% financing for 60 months. (I think taking a car loan for 60 months is insane, but that's another story.) By the by, if you're expecting better financing rates (doubtful from Subaru), please note that $20,000 @ 3.9% is $367.43, @ 2.9% is $358.49, 1.9% is $349.68, while 0% would be $333.32. You're really not saving all that much per month.
  • sneezy2sneezy2 Member Posts: 20
    I bought my 2003 Forester X two and a half months ago from Gillman Subaru in Houston for 3% above Edmunds' invoice. I was pleased with the service and felt that I got a fair deal. Another dealer offered at 2.5% over invoice, but because of two personal references, two good test drive experiences, and a pretty good no-hassle deal with the internet manager there, I chose Gillman.
    Also, the 1.9% financing (x24 mo) really helped.
    They did not try to offer me any add-ons or unusual fees; it was a straightforward deal.
  • texan5texan5 Member Posts: 23
    Not quite. The total interest from 3.9 financing over, say, 60 mo is, from the top of my head, around 2000 dollars. In this economy, paying later is much better than paying upfront, so 60 mo is not such a bad thing...and 2000 dollars would pay for maintenance even at the dealer prices. The monthly payments can be very deceptive...

    As an aside, I do not see why furniture and apliance makers can offer no interest financing while the carmakers cannot.

    texan5
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    Financing...

    It's all rolled into the price. On appliances they are just rolling it all into the price. I've learned you never get something for nothing in this world. Someone somewhere is paying for everything. :)

    -mike
  • dsattlerdsattler Member Posts: 135
    Furniture and appliance dealers can eat the cost of 0% financing because their mark-ups aree much greater, as much as 100% and occasionally more. (I've had clients who were furniture stores, and the usual mark-up was 100%.) The average new car mark-up is a fraction of that. Some manufacturers do offer 0% financing, generally the same ones who need large rebates or other incentives to move vehicles. (How much incentive would you require to buy a Pontiac Aztek?)
  • texan5texan5 Member Posts: 23
    From my personal and perhapse short sighted perspective the cost of 20K car with 3.9% financing is the same as the cost of a 22K car with 0% financing, which can spell a diference between X and an XS.

    In this market and economy there is nothing that one can possibly loose by waiting. I can only see upside. The prices at subaru are not going up and the financing just might come down some more...or are we in disagreement on this?
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Financing is a funny thing. I paid cash, and people kept telling me to finance and then invest. At the time I was thinking of buying Ciena shares. They tanked, and I would have basically lost $10-15 grand!

    Careful.

    -juice
  • dsattlerdsattler Member Posts: 135
    No disagreement. Unless the Fed suddenly decides the economy is so strong that rates must be raised immdiately (joke) interest rates will stay low for months to come. It is always possible that Subaru will slightly alter prices, but that's not terribly likely. And, if it was me, I'd prefer the XS to the X, especially if I was going to be driving it for years, as I'm guessing you will.

    Really, my main point was that the economics and dynamics of the auto industry are diffferent from any other retail industry.
  • texan5texan5 Member Posts: 23
    by upside i did not mean the market. You would be crazy to play it right now. All I meant was that the deals on subarus are likely to get better while the chance of them getting worse is considerably smaller, IMHO.

    We have here a deflationary economy.

    texan5
  • ivestorparkivestorpark Member Posts: 31
  • ivestorparkivestorpark Member Posts: 31
    Oops I hit the enter key by mistake...

    I live in Carson City, NV and in anticipation of purchasing a '04 Forester in late summer, I'm doing my preparatory work now. What are the dealers who offer the lowest prices via Internet or otherwise. There are three dealers within 30 miles or so: Hohl (Carson City), Lithia (Reno), and South Shore (Lake Tahoe). However, I will travel (CA, Las Vegas, you name it) for the best price, if I can't get it nearby. In your reply please state how much you bought your Subaru over/less invoice. I have also always purchased a special order car and have never bought a car off the lot, so it's immaterial to me about unpopular colors, etc. Sure a dealer may discount a little more for a model held in inventory for some time, however if he has it sold as soon as it rolls off the transporter it saves him including it in their floor plan. Thanks for any recommendations.
  • subkidsubkid Member Posts: 94
    Any Canadian care to share buying/price experience here? Does anybody know what invoice price might be up here for Forester X?

    kid
  • svcraigsvcraig Member Posts: 4
    I just bought my second new Subaru, an '03 XS Premium, from Ron Price Subaru in S. San Francisco. Both times they went below invoice for cars on their lot to beat out other dealers in the area.

    On this latest one, I used Consumer Reports to find out the invoice price on base trim model + options and worked the area dealers from there. I found the $12 I spent for the pricing report to be worth it and the prices quoted accurate. Armed with the info, I searched inventory of local dealers from subaru.com site to identify who had the model & options/colors we were interested in. Then I called each dealer to get their best price and then played them off one another.
  • outback_97outback_97 Member Posts: 130
    We're looking at Impreza wagons, either TS or OBS. I posted a month ago, inquiring about '02 OBS w/ 20K miles and priced at $15K... that price was based on a conversation with a salesman over the phone, and seemed reasonable but not exceptional based on feedback here. Went to that dealer today, and they still have four '02 OBS's with mileage in the 20K to 27K range... all window sticker priced around $17900! Ouch! We talked to a salesman for a while, drove the car, liked it, but they didn't seem willing to budge below $16900. We left and went to dealer #2...

    The only new(er) Impreza was a clean '02 TS with 20K miles... for, you guessed it, $17,900. I realize this is only the window sticker and is negotiable, but dealers don't knock off 3 grand from the sticker on a <$20,000 car... do they? We were about to head home, but started talking to another sales rep in the "new cars" area... they had "manufacturers incentive" type deal on a brand new TS for $16900... the auto trans (which we want) would be about $17800. Based on Edmunds TMV and the fact that dealers in this city seem to be inflating the prices on most other cars we've seen, I think this sounds more reasonable. Any opinions or feedback? Do I negotiate down based on the fact that we've been told they're getting a special incentive? Do these cars depreciate this minimally in other cities / markets? Thanks for any opinions, sorry this is so wordy. It's been a long day!
  • ken_from_njken_from_nj Member Posts: 105
    i too ordered the CR usd 12 report however i found it didn't provide me with any more details than i could get off the www.edmunds.com site for free. the only thing the CR report did was to calulate the dlr holdback to get the 'true cost' so i didn't have to do the math myself which anyone could easily have done. - ken
  • timo43timo43 Member Posts: 23
    Hi Subkid,
    I looked for invoice prices before buying our Forester X, and found the only options in Canada involved paying $50, and then hitting the dealer for that amount (the site said the dealer would re-imbourse the $50 fee)... did not seem like a way to make the best deal. So I used some of the U.S. invoice prices available on line just to get an idea, and then trusted the dealer (Ha!). At any rate, having only purchased Toyotas (two) in the past, I can say that the experience was much, much better at Subaru. I do not know if I got a deal, but I do know that the sales were much, much less pressure, and thus much much less disagreable... and there did not seem to be some of the semi-dishonest stuff I have seen in the past. The list price was on the car (as it must be by law) and the sales person said they were cutting about $1800 profit from that. So we split that, and got a really good dog / pet barrier thrown in. They said that was worth about $400 (Canadian). I'm pretty sure we did not do the best deal possible, but hate fighting over a couple hundred of dollars. It was exactly the car/mini SUV / big station wagon we wanted, the right colour, and the right stuff without all the stuff we did not want. So, very, very happy...so far.
  • subkidsubkid Member Posts: 94
    Thks timo43,

    they are asking Freight/PDI $1350 and $400 doc fee here. Is it what you paid?

    kid
  • timo43timo43 Member Posts: 23
    Well, I don't have the papers right in front of me-- the whole deal came to $33,700 including the 14.5% GST and Prov. taxes.
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    DO NOT BUY FROM THESE PEOPLE!

    They have the worst customer service in the world! During the 48hrs of Tri-state we stopped by there to pick up some parts for the trip. So 8 subies show up and we go inside to buy wiper blades and lug nuts and studs. They didn't have impreza studs nor lug nuts in stock. How bad is that? Then we realized at 11am that one of the guys had a flat tire, so we took it off the car and brought it into service. They explained to the service guy that they were on a trip and that they needed it patched. They said "oh sorry we are going to lunch now, we can't do the tire til late this afternoon" I'm no expert but to throw a plug in a tire for a subie owner would take about 3 minutes, and they'd be on their way. Nope these guys had to be hard headed that it was lunchtime @ 11am.

    This is a VERY poor reflection on Subaru and most Subie dealers are unfortunately like this. So in the spirit of Capitalism, may no one buy from New Country Subaru!!!!

    -mike
  • lark6lark6 Member Posts: 2,565
    Tell us how you really feel, mike! ;-)

    Where is this dealership? Are they a union shop? Sounds like. If they are have Imprezas on the lot they should have parts for them. Did you get the plug done elsewhere?

    SoA should really start to push for Subaru-only dealerships. That may make them fewer and father between but hopefully more dedicated to their customers.

    Ed
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    We took it to a gas station and had it repaired within 20 minutes.

    This dealer is 20 miles north of Albany. I actually need to write to SOA about it, it really got me torqued up!

    -mike
  • lark6lark6 Member Posts: 2,565
  • joybelljoybell Member Posts: 275
    I was never able to get any "deals" when purchasing my Subies (Chaser and Loyale Wagon), and I am unable to get any deals on the new Impreza wagon either. I also tried to get a price on a new 04 model coming in April but no one can give me a price yet. I want to wait until the snow/salt is gone before I purchase. However, when I bought our new Chevy 3/4 ton truck I was able to knock off almost $6000 by calling around. It seems that the domestic car manufacturers/dealers are much more likely to offer cut down pricing in order to move vehicles out of their lots. I guess the Subaru dealers don't have as much trouble selling their vehicles!
  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    It's the law of supply & demand, plain and simple.

    Bob
  • jfljfl Member Posts: 1,399
    Instead of calling, you might consider emailing dealers with your requirements. Don't give a phone number and you won't be pestered by all the return calls.

    I got my Subie this way several years ago.

    Jim
    Good luck.
  • joybelljoybell Member Posts: 275
    I did that too!
  • nygregnygreg Member Posts: 1,936
    that is pretty bad. I could never understand how a shop can act like that. I amazes me that the 2 most expensive purchases in one's life, houses and cars, have the most unprofesional people who many times really don't know what they are doing. I am glad it worked out for you.

    Greg
  • ken_from_njken_from_nj Member Posts: 105
    greg -
    in my opinion it is probably the large profit margins per sale which attracts the incompetent masses to work in those industries - it attacts the 'get rich quick' thinkers of the world - again - that's just my opinion & not based on any sort of fact or statistic - just logical thought.
    - ken
  • outback_97outback_97 Member Posts: 130
    We got an '03 TS Wagon for 17,500 (US$) last week, with auto and some options. Nice car... in Savannah Green it looks like a shiny scarab beetle. For Salt Lake City it seemed easier to get a decent deal on new than any of the used '02's we looked at, plus the full warranty instead of leftovers. Supply and demand is quite right, in this region there seems little room to work dealers down.

    I've had less than stellar experiences with the service departments here also. Maybe it's a weakness of Subaru's, but I guess that's better than good service and bad cars, IMHO.

    O/T: The farther / father comment reminded of the movie Goldmember... "His Fahza?" :)
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    Their sales manager adds to some of the "noise" on nasioc:

    http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=3189310#post3189310

    -Dennis
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    What's wrong with that post? Doesn't seem that bad, impreza.net is a bit lighter in nature, also he isn't posting in any official capacity under that sign-in.

    -mike
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    Taking a jab at someone's employement is pretty messed up IMO.
    So since he's not posting in an official capacity, do you think I should edit my post?

    -Dennis
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    I'd leave it, it's not that bad. He was probably taking a jab at Big Elm cause Big Elm has been trying to raise money (kid on the way, possibly no job) and apparently Big Elm is in the market for an STi? dunno the exact situation.

    -mike
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    Just bought an Outback from Flemington, and is hoping for a Legacy turbo. ;-)

    -Dennis
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    I know I was gonna hook him up when he was shopping for a Sorento.

    -mike
  • ken_from_njken_from_nj Member Posts: 105
    any experience w/subaru of morristown?
    - ken
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    But you can go over to nasioc.com and do a search (excellent search feature).
    Use Morristown for a keyword and search in the Tri-State forum (any date).

    IIRC, there were a few people that had issues with them.

    -Dennis
  • ken_from_njken_from_nj Member Posts: 105
    thanks - i bought my 03 forester xs from lynnes in bloomfield but i live in western morris county so the nearest dealers are
    1. subaru of morristown
    2. loman subaru in parsippany
    3. salerno up in newton
    4. flemington
     
    listed from closest to farthest w/flemington about
    50 min drive away - trying to pick the best of the most convenient. not sure which way to go.
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    Town Motors in Englewood. I haven't been there, but one of their techs has a good rep on nasioc.
    paisan - Have you been there?

    I'm within about 20 minutes of:
    Bell in Rahway
    Somerset
    Hillside Subaru

    I've been to all three but I make the 35 minute drive to Flemington. Better prices and better techs than Hillside and Rahway. I do oil changes myself, so I just go there for the 15, 30K, etc.

    -Dennis
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    I'd have to say flemington as well. I've had great service and it's worth the 40+ mile trip there. Haven't been up to Town, but Booster works there from NASIOC, he's a good guy but not sure how their service writers are.

    -mike
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    Good point. Flemington recently got a new guy. Very nice, but he's a nOOb. :-) I try to speak with Don or Diane when I call for service.

    -Dennis
    P.S. - Elm came out really harsh on his response.
  • bat1161bat1161 Member Posts: 1,784
    Just chiming in on my support of Flemington for service. I have found it worth the 50 min trip. Don and Diane are really nice people to work with. They even called me to say they overcharged me for something that was SOA covered under warranty, and they were crediting me back!

    Mark
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