Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Personally, I consider us an easy sale. So did the dealer we bought from. I am honest from the minute I walk in the door.
-My family has dealerships, I grew up around the business, I am far from an expert, but I did do my homework. I don't buy from family, I like to keep it local for service reasons (unless there is a regional offer I can't refuse, I am not stupid).
- I want a good deal. Good deal does not equal lowest price. I know you have to make a profit and I want you to- I want you to be here when I need service and I want a loaner if its overnight. Fair is fair.
- I prefer to work wholesale to wholesale. Appraise my trade as is, price your car as is. Lets please consider them 2 different transactions (they have been in many deals). No need to hide numbers. Appraise my trade and let me know ACV (Actual Cost of Vehicle- what they are really paying for it, no robbing Peter to pay Paul). this is basically the "invoice" on my trade. Let's pull invoice on the new vehicle as well. from here we will cut a deal that is fair to us both and no one will waste any time or hurt any feelings.
Not only have I always been told they respect this attitude, I usually get little incentives like "loyalty rebates", "farmers credits", "competitors rebates', etc, thrown in I didn't even know about.
One thing I uses to love when I sold cars (long long time ago, galaxy far far away, yada yada)...the guy who walked in with the past three issues of Consumer Reports tucked under his arm loudly proclaiming as he entered the showroom, "I am only here to look". This was the old me, but, he would be "just looking" alright, "just looking" at the sales contract later that evening at the dinner table while his wife shouted "I thought you were only looking!!??" :P
Even better, this is the kind of guy that has been bragging about his car buying abilities for weeks (we called them "Car Lawyers"), so all his friends, co-workers, and neighbors were just waiting for him to find the "best deal". He could never admit he caught "showroom fever" or "got sold", so he would have to send them all my way to save face. He got a $50 "bird dog" check for each one, I am sure that helped a bit.
I have to say, I do read your informative posts with great interest; However, you lose me (non auto-industry guy) pretty quick when you start taking about "floorplan", etc. To be honest, when I hear that, I think of my house! :P
Sounds like dealers had the option to purchase them (taking them off the floor plan) without titling them, getting all incentives applied, or staying at invoice minus marketing support on floor plan. If they took the deal, they are in at net-net-net and paying full interest (i.e. bottom dollar on 120+day cars they want off the lot last week).
That said, I WILL say I 100% understand comments like this:
This is as close as you will ever come to "stealing" a car without going to jail
So are you referring to the latest offers to sell for $7K off MSRP? If so, I have to agree. Again, we paid $17K+ttl for a new 08 CX-7 a few days ago. When I visit Carmax, their 'no haggle' price for a comparable USED 07 with 37K miles is more than I paid! :P link title
I appreciate all of your information, thanks again!
Whatever method they want to use, the old adage still holds true: All cars must sell. Even if it means the new car and used car lots have identical prices.
The chat opens at 8:45 pm ET and runs until 10 pm ET. I hope you're able to join us tonight to meet and greet with your fellow CarSpace members!
See you there!
Thanks in advance for help.
.
I ask because I'm in the market for one, and I'm looking for the best deal.
The best I've seen so far: $20,000...
as you say, i purchased mine for 17.3k (+ttl), which was 7k off the base @ 24.3k. this was in tx. unsure if i could have gotten this same deal @ other dealers, as a few of their offers were several thousand higher. when i mentioned the 7k off to these dealers, many said, "that's not a real offer... its probably a 1 only, teaser offer for a purple vehicle".
but guess what...it was a real offer. and i can return to this dealer & do the same deal for at least 3 more 08's i saw on their lot yesterday when i stopped by to p/u my plates.
that said, a few posts back, supershawn (or someone else) mentioned it is possible for dealers to "buy" vehicles from other dealers (via the mfr) for a significant discount ("...the only time the public can buy for this price and not go to jail..."). this can happen when another dealership closes, or stops selling mazda's etc. in these cases, the dealer can sell @ a bigger discount (ie 7k) & still make money, whereas a typical dealer cannot. while this scenario above has not been verified, it may explain why dealer A can sell for X, while all others cry "BS".
you may want to simply counter to these $3k off invoice offers, and say you need to be $5.5 off invoice to do a deal.
paid cash, so did not ask about financing. i imagine at least a portion of the total discount was "in lieu of financing" , but i do not know how much. :confuse: sorry!
One thing I have seen happen a few times is a regional manager offering either "stale" stock or remaining stock from a dealer that went over transferred to another dealer to help them move (or keep them from going to the floor-planning bank). This is usually accompanied by extra incentives either in the form of a one time payment or credit to the dealer (least common), more "select" inventory spots like nicer packages or select models - or earlier slots on the assembly line- (most common), or simply more money off invoice (remember,dealers really do initially pay "invoice", it's only "not the true and final cost to dealer" as there are marketing incentives, etc, once the vehicle is sold).
One summer in the late 90's, we had the hottest selling truck package out there as they were ordered perfect (right packages to give most bang for buck- oddly getting more can end up costing less at times) and a regional incentive hit that allowed us to sell them for an unheard of price. We were (well family still is, only I have changed careers) in a peculiar situation as our dealership fell in a separate region than others literally right down the road. That may not sounds like a big deal, but there was a regional incentive for "our" region that was giving us an additional $2500 off. We were blowing out loaded full size 4WD's for $19,995 ($50 house deal for salesmen) and $9,995 for the small trucks. We were pumping trucks out so fast that our regional rep was pulling trucks from other lots an giving us other dealers orders. They would FedEx us a new window sticker (this state was very particular on the contents of the window sticker) to and we would replace the one with the other dealers name on it. We hit #1 truck dealer for the manufacturer like 4 or 5 months straight and ended up getting #1 for the year.
Anyway, some dealers were not too happy with this- not just because they were losing inventory, but because we could literally sell the trucks cheaper than they could because of the regional special (this is rare). We actually had one dealer buy a few for their rental and loaner fleet. To appease the dealers not happy with the situation, the regional rep would let the dealers request other "non-truck" stock in return or request that we also take a few "slow moving" or "high day count" (getting ready to go to higher floor plan rate or off floor plan completely) vehicles. We were selling trucks so fast (for nothing but pride, certainly not profit- unless we "stole" the trade) we would sometimes blindly accept the extra stock without checking color codes, etc. One of these trades left us with two of the ugliest vehicles I had ever seen.
The first was a two-tone s-10 blazer, four door, aqua marine in color with a dark blue stripe for the two-tone down the sides. Then, for some reason, most likely on a bet or dare, the dealer actually added chrome lower molding (the 3-4 inch strips) along the bottom. It had dk blue cloth interior and an odd assortment of packages and option leaving it a little higher than similar blazers.
The second was a two tone s-10 pickup, bolt action 4-banger with no air, bright red and maroon. This one was also "beautified" with a chrome package down the side.
I remember first seeing this trucks and thinking these trucks were going to be around for a long time.
I have always said I learned some of life's most important lessons from car salesmen during my time on the lot, and these two trucks were the source of one of the biggest. As I stood there looking in awe at these beasts, this long time car guy walks up and put's his arm around me and say's "What's wrong, kid?". I just looked at those two trucks and shook my head. "Don't worry", he said. "There's an *** (butt) for every seat". And do you know that aqua on blue Blazer sold the very next day? They couple absolutely "loved it".
Lucky for me they ended up living on the same road I took home (when I was allowed to go home...its hard to get time off in the car business, even harder when your father owns the place). I saw it most every morning and every night. But maybe it did me some good. I no longer pre-judge or assume anything or anyone, and whenever an impossible life situation comes along, I can literally hear that raspy 20 year+ of smoking voice telling me "There's an ** for every seat", and I "know" there's a solution to the problem if I just give it a chance.
shawn,
folks are holding out for the 50% off offers -- like the dodge p/u's!
Was originally looking at a cx-9, but the prices were still outta my budgeted range. So as derrickson and supershawn have been saying, where else can you get a turbo cuv that drives nice and looks waaaaay cool for that price?
Experience with the dealership:
I've only purchased 3 new cars in my life - counting the recent buy - and 2 of the 3 have been horrendous experiences. This purchase experience ranked way up there on the bad list. The only difference between this one versus my last purchase from 8 years ago was that I caught every "mis-step" the dealer tried to pull. Everything from an extra $500 lumped into the fees to an unneccessary credit pull and an addtional "requirement" to fill out a full credit app even though I was a 'cash' customer, to the final delivery of the vehicle where they tried to get me to sign a legally binding contract ladened with high financing terms (RISC-simple interest contract) by telling me it was the standard sales contract for taking delivery - even if I am a cash customer. What a crock of BS. :mad: :surprise: :sick:
Thanks! I am really glad I didn't go the used rental route. I actually look forward to driving the new car - even the short trip to costco for groceries! :shades:
Unfortunately, I don't think Mazda has the ridiculous markup on the manufacturing end (pre-dealer) to pull it off even if they wanted.....and I think, for some of the "Big 3", it's "fire sale" mode on anything not on or headed to the assembly line. New inventory is really low at the the domestic deleships around here.
Wish I could see the same around here... Unfortunately I just saw an ad (big 3) in todays local paper for new 07's with the familiar phrase "several to choose from" next to it.
btw~ thanks for your comments/insight on the cx-7 pricing. part of my decision to purchase recently was based on the info you provided. I was not in a "must buy" situation, so could have waited until year-end if there was a chance incentives would sweeten. While this is certainly still a possibility, I also wanted to be sure the color combo I wanted was available as well. So I went ahead and purchased now.
I try not to play "car lawyer" too much and be the guy all our friends come to when they want a car. And while I can happily say my family runs a rather fair game at their place and my few years pushing them over the curb were mostly fair experiences for all involved, there were a few times we'd get a true stereotypical old-school salesman in that would have me trying to sell "the right way" ....I owe a few penances for those :surprise:
Great news, Consumer Reports now recommends 08 CX-7's!
Yikes! Just barely though...
lowest rated = 52 out of 100
highest rated = 87 out of 100
CX-7 rated....62 out of 100
owner satisfaction = 'Poor' :confuse: maybe that's a result of all the turbo/engine problems the 07's had :confuse:
had 'excellent' ratings for crash tests & braking though!
Some past, and current vehicles that are top rated by them are not always recommended....
I've been quoted two wildly different labor costs from two local dealers. Dealer A quoted $200 and Dealer B quoted $365. Both dealer service centers admitted to never having done this installation before, so should I be wary? Thanks!
Ok... I'll humbly chime in on this... Seems like this is a very subjective topic, based on many personal factors. I know for me, the absolute basic sport model has everything I need from a vehicle, and then some! I could list all the std features here, but figure you get the idea.
Considering I paid $17k, I figure I can do a lot with the $5-10K saved by not getting the other models, passing on the sunroof, navi, backup sensor, heated seats(?? Im in Texas!), etc. For me, that I was able to purchase a new 08 zoom-zoom mobile for about the price of a loaded Toyota Corolla makes my purchase plenty special!
Congrats on your GT though!
You never know, but I'm sure we've all seen that guy at the craps table, winning big, saying "just one more roll".... eventually that "just one more" goes too far and he's starting all over.
Off the subject a bit, but does anyone know if it's possible to run the window sticker with the VIN, just to see what all it is supposed to have ? I asked the dealer, but they weren't sure if they could do it.
Thanks again, and MAN am I glad I stumbled into this site ! ! !
Ahh, the buying experience. Yes, it had 6,600 miles, but no, it had NEVER been titled, but it wouldn't qualify for the 0% financing either. Mazda said they were sorry, but they couldn't help, had to stand behind the dealer, and he bought it at auction as a "Manufacturer's vehicle". The window sticker was a different story. While the dealer said they didn't have access, Mazda faxed it to me. GT with technology pkg, $30,950 sticker. The key in the smart key is loose, can almost drop out on its own. Nope, can't throw the second in because they're $300. Finally decided to split it. Oh, and in the middle of signing paperwork, "we made a mistake on the extended warranty price, it's an additional $200". Grrrrrr ......... :mad:
We have had fun the first 200 miles, though. Just topped off the gas for the wife, and it figured 18.77 mpg. Zoom, Zoom !
Regarding 08's, you can definitely see two different schools of thought around here. I will pull a couple quotes from the CX-9 board to illustrate...
On the one hand, you hear messages like:
What helps is Mazda cut back production..., and dealers have trimmed inventory. There is not the extreme need to move these 08's anymore.
On the other hand, ( and what I would have thought)...
Resubmit your offer, leave your contact information and wait.
Unless you must have a car today, time is on your side.
The car market is really slow right now and will be for months to come!
So who knows? If it truly stays slow for a long enough period of time, you may be able to get a stellar deal on a 09?
Just wanted to post as information. Picking up a new '09 CX-7 GT with Monnroof/Bose/Sirius today...
$24.5K...
Can't wait...;)
Thanks,
Eric