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May I also suggest that you use the internet to contact the internet managers from several dealerships? That way you can cut out the greasy, desperate, ignorant salesman and immediately communicate with someone who has the authority to give you real numbers. With little effort you can solicit multiple price quotes. I had a firm price before I ever visited the chosen dealer on my Mazda3, and I had already eliminated my local dealer as a shifty slime ball.
Thanks,
Stacy
kirstie_h
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The car in question is this one:
2004 MAZDA3 s 4-Door $17,135
160-hp 2.3L DOHC 16-valve I4-cylinder Standard
4-Spd Auto $900
MOONROOF & 6-CD PACKAGE $890
SPORT PACKAGE $490
CARGO NET $40
COMPASS/AUTODIM MIRROR WITH HOMELINK $300
REAR WING SPOILER $350
Total MSRP: $20,105*
So I asked the salesman what the discount was that was mentioned in the add. He asked to run my credit etc... and I said No, I'm wanting to know the discounted price of the car before I even begin to consider negotiations. So he went away for about 15 mins and come back with an "invoice" and said they would do $100 over invoice ($18,200) PLUS an additional $1000 off. So he said $17,200 if I buy tonight. Of course I didnt buy, and I said I would think about it...(he acted suprised) Sticker price $20,105
I thought this was a good deal, but didnt want to jump on anything as I am not in any hurry. What do you guys think? I have no idea what these 2004's should go for in early 2005 and I really liked the ride and reviews.
Let me hear from ya! And thanks in advance...
xenon and TPMS, Sport Pkg, Moonroof and CD stacker, ABS/SAB/SAC Pkg, Leather. The sticker price was 25,079. I told him that was too expensive so I was going to go look elsewhere. He then told me not to worry about that price but "the other" sticker price that said 21,700. He then told me that they were offerring 1500.00 off rebate on 2004's. So this now made the price roughly 20,000. I called another dealer who said he'd beat that and offerred me the same car @ 19k. I called the other dealer back and he said he'd beat that and add a spoiler. So with the spoiler and all the other pkgs does 19k before taxes sound like a good deal?
kirstie_h
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But I would bet that is not the deal you will get - first of all the dealership is obviously a bunch of dishonest crooks. First they show you a sticker price of $25K - then pull out another (more realistic) sticker.
I bet they have all kinds of additional charges that they will add (or at least try to add in) before the deal is done. Maybe make the deal - but you need to use their financing.
Good luck.
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Just got back from the dealer here in Wayne, New Jersey. Here's what I paid:
Mazda3s/ABS Package/Moon Roof Package/Moon Roof Deflector
18700.00
Vehicle Etch - 159.00
Tax - 1131.54
Motor Vehicle Tire Fee - 7.50
Registration/Title Fee (4 years) - 239.00
Doc Fee - 199.00
TOTAL - 20,436.04 Out the door
Did I do OK?
Thanks.
example....right now, there is no consumer rebate on the 2004 mazda3...but if you finance thru mazda credit at standard rates, mazda credit offers a $1000 MAC cash consumer rebate. if you opt to finance from another source you don't get the $1000 rebate.
If the rebate was coming from MazdaUSA, then I would guess you could re-finance it right away. But, with the rebate coming from MAC, I would guess they have some sort of minumum time requirement?
regards,
kyfdx
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All I can say is read the fine print - I have never seen a CAR loan that you could not pay off early - but you never know - maybe today they would make you pay back the rebate.
Ford and Chrysler credit have these same rebates... and, I see others ask the question all the time.. So far, no dealer has had a definitive answer.
regards,
kyfdx
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I bought a '04 Mazda3 hatch auto, ABS/SAB, Moonroof/6CD in April '04, currently with 13,000 miles, garage kept/washed and waxed frequently(basically excellent condition).
My current financial situations being what they may, I am seriously entertaining trading the car in for cheaper car to bring the montly payments down.
How much would my car have depreciated by now?
Is this even a good idea?
This is my first new car and I'm unsure on what to do.
Any suggestions/comments would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks.
lot's of folks say they will pay it off or re-fin early....but the stats show very few people do.
I agree... I doubt many people would..
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Most dealers are looking to move 04's, so the deals can be pretty good.
They can throw in the nets, mats, and other dealer installed options at low cost to nickel and dime the cost down those last few dollars.
PS see if they will throw in free oil changes for 1 year. That is a nice dealer giveaway that can sweeeten the pot.
Hope this helps.
Automatic
Xenon/TPMS pkg
Moonroof/CD pkg
ABS pkg
Leather
$21,700 out the door ie including 6% DC sales tax, title/tags the lot.
Have you test-driven this car yet? You are looking at a Mazda3 with the same options I am looking for.
Anyway, it looks like the MSRP of your set up is 21,545 including destination charge. Adding 6% sales tax gives a price of $22,838 (assuming destnation charge gets sales tax added to it). So your car is $1100 below this AND you get all the other fees included.
Invoice + 6% is $21,122. Six hundred over invoice OTD sounds like a good price. I hope I can get a deal like that when I go to the dealership tomorrow.
I'd take the deal.
Jason
Why does this matter?
If this is the first price then chances are you can (without much effort) get a lower price. Most dealerships will follow the same formula -
The first price is (almost) never their best price - during negotiations they slowly lower it down - hoping to get the customer to agree to buy before they get down to the lowest price that is acceptable.
My argument for financing is so I can keep more $ in the bank and let it earn interest or find other investment opportunites. All about opportuniy cost. Most ppl tell me that the interest is actually rolled up into the price of the car or they will try to get me to buy the ext warranty. Or I could be simly denied, but my credit is good. No late payments on any of my accounts. Ever.
I would appreciate any feedback that you guys have. Thanks.
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A few other things -
The rate should be adjusted for any income tax impact - I know 0 about Canadian tax system - but I assume you would pay income tax on the earnings - if your tax rate is 20% then take the % return you think you can get by investing and multiply it by (100-20) = 80% because that is what you get to keep. I assume you can't deduct imputed interest on the loan.
Lets assume you are financing $24,000 - then the rate on the loan is really 3.07%
If you finance $20,000 then it is 3.69%
$18,000 - 4.12% ; $28,000 - 2.62%
One more thing - maybe obvious - but if you ever pay the loan off early you lose the benefit. So if you trade cars after a year - or total the car you will lose.
I would second that!
When in doubt, take the money. Short and simple by kinda makes sense!
The 0.024 is the interest you make in savings per year which is why it is divided by 12. The 24 is the number of payments and then the 25500/24 is your payment amount.
Now if I was looking for an investment and wanted to buy your loan and make the 2.4% interest I would pay 24,873 for it. So it would be paying me 627 dollars interest over the two years.
So unless you are going to make more than the 2.4% interest I would take the money.
Corey they accountant
This loan has an imputed interest rate of 2.88%. Since this is a higher rate than you are earning -even before income tax- you will be borrowing money at 2.88% to invest it at 2.4%.
Just to make the example easy to understand - if you put $24,873.40 in a savings account earning 2.4% and drew the money out of this account to make your payments the amount of interest you would earn would be $626.60 (24,873.40 + 626.6 = 25,500). So after you make your last payment the account would be down to zero.
So your choice is to set aside $24,873.40 in savings or just pay cash for the car today in the amount of $24,750.00 -
You will be $123.40 ahead if you pay cash!
If you pay income tax on the $626.60 of interest you will come out even worse.
Take the cash.
Automatic
ABS Pckage
Sport Pckage
Moonroof/CD pckage
After some negotiating the lowest I have gotten it to is a price of $19,700 Out The Door. this price includes 7% tax, $55.39 doc fee, $143 for plates, etc.
I also received $500 off as part of an auto show incentive. They are also going to throw in a free cargo mat per my request.
I value your input/thoughts on this price. I have learned a lot from your past comments and opinions.
P.S. The salesman is telling me that I am getting it for below invoice. Originally he wouldn't bring it down to the price I wanted and so after thanking him for his time I hung up. But lo and behold he called back 10 minutes later... $19,700 out the door.. I thought it was good at first but now I'm not so sure..what do you think?
Options:
Just like yours, grant4 -
Automatic
Xenon
Moonroof/6 CD
ABS etc.
Leather
Sunlight Silver
Price:
invoice +
$300 +
$249 doc fee +
$30 in other fees +
7% sales tax
I live in Augusta, GA and am stationed here at Fort Gordon. I searched the Mazda website and it just so happened that the car I wanted was at the closest dealership.
I have been looking to replace my 2000 Kia Sephia bought used in 2002 since last April. The Kia was only a stopgag measure for my wife (then girlfriend) and me. She went to Hawaii and bought a New Beetle which she adores. I got the junky (but CHEAP) Kia.
Thanks to this website and the many forum contributors I was much more knowledgable and confident than when my wife and I went to get her Beetle.
Called the dealership up on Friday. Asked if the car I was looking at was still there. He said it was and that I could come by tomorow and look at it (don't they always...). He was cheerful in a creepy way - like a dog that is too eager to please. I said I would.
Heeding the repeated advice, I called my credit union and secured a loan for 17,500 at 2.9% interest BEFORE I went to the dealership.
After reading the horror stories from isellhondas and others about people making appointments and not showing up, I actually WENT on Saturday eventhough we didn't set a time. Test drove the car and tested the car out making note of the plusses and minuses that all of you have noted.
My sales droid looked into getting financing through Mazda while he let me take the car for a solo spin. He played the "What kind of payments are you looking for?" game but stopped after my reply. He forthrightly told me that it was unlikely that he could do better. He couldn't as the best he could do was 7.9%.
Walked into the GM's office and this is where things turned strange (in a good way). I could see, upside down, a buy order on his desk. He said that he used to work up in Norfolk, VA and dealt with lots of Navy people and he had just come down to Augusta recently. Augusta has an Army base (but I'm in the Navy...) and he had introduced a price plan for military people - $300 over invoice. Thanks to Edmund's I could see that was indeed the price on the sheet. I confirmed that the $249 I saw on the sheet was the doc fee. It took me less than 5 seconds to say yss.
Stunningly painless.
I mentioned to the GM what I had told the sales droid at the outset. I had secured the loan but I didn't actually have the check yet. Plus, while I had enough for the remainder, I didn't actually have it readily available. They didn't care. They said I could write two checks. One for 17,500 and one for $4400. They would swap checks when I brought in the loan check and they would deposit the other check when I had the money. They acted so much like eager to please puppies it was creepy.
Jason
I love the car, by the way. It is exactly like the reviews and all the owners here have described it.
Congratulations on a great buying experience, and I hope you love your new car.
kirstie_h
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Most of them appeared to be arriving in April/May.
Jason
Here in Boston it was pretty HARD to find one. Saying I got a deal... well it is hardly the case but, the car looks just great. Anyhow here you go:
Mazda 3Sp 3 hatchback
leather burgundy interior
moonroof
security package
MSRP $21,545 got it for $20,995
on top of this I had to add:
1. Sale tax $1049.75
2. DMV place exchange $65
3. Paper handling fee $140
This for a grand total of $22,249.75 (ouch!)
I got a trade in so I had to discount that but this is a pretty accurate figure.
Hope this help. Good luck!
:-D
Max
I built my car on the website, then did a dealer search with the max radius. Then I chose a different ZIP & built it again. Did this four times from Clevelan to Minneapolis, and found 4 cars that worked for me. Called the dealerships directly, asked "is this car...vin# xxx still for sale on your lot" One was actually still on the boat from Japan, but listed as inventory with a Chicago dealer!! No middleman dealerships...just sell me the car you've got for the cheapest price. Guy in Minne offered at $1000 below MSRP, and another in Milwaukee matched it. Minneapolis was ready to sell it to me with a credit card deposit over the phone! If not for the extra distance, I would have gone there.
Just thought I'd pass this along
A local dealer is offering 2k off msrp.
MSRP 17650.00 inc dest.
Invoice 16539.00
That puts it around $900 under invoice. So there is factory - dealer cash obviously as there doesn't appear to be customer cash anywhere I can find.....
Am I missing something here? Where are they getting the money from and is there any more I can negotiate with?