Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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My guess is, given the popularity of the Passat that they can get away with a small increase. But I SERIOUSLY doubt more than 1-1.5% or so.
The 4yr/50K is the truth
Bill
My only thoughts would be that:
A)The whole MSRP/Invoice thing does not really apply to a car that is last years model. Even though your car had never been sold it does not qualify as "new" in most consumers eyes.
B)Even though those guys at niello threw everything but the kitchen sink at me to get me to buy one of those "old school" passats there was no way I could make four years of payments on yesterdays news.
C)Resale will be less on the old style since is outdated looking. IE "Pay me now, or pay me later". When it comes to cars, sooner or later everyone pays.
Cliffyb - all your points are good ones. Fortunately for me, it just fit my situation perfectly. a) I didn't have much of a preference for the new styling over the old, b) I tend to keep cars for a very long time - this was replacing an '88 Toyota with 230K miles on it. I guess what i t boils down to is I felt like I was getting a new car at a used car price.
Pics from a proud owner who doesn't wear a dress <g>.
http://home.pacbell.net/spellbnd/pstinitfrtqtr.jpg
http://home.pacbell.net/spellbnd/pstinitrear.jpg
Bill
Silver 01.5 GLX in driveway
First, let me say "thank you" to all of you who have taken time to post to this board. Your comments and insights were extremely useful as I came down to make my final decision as to what car to buy and where to buy it.
If I may, I'll share some lessons from my car-buying experience. Perhaps they'll help some of you, in return.
My decision came down to a 2001 Maxima SE (or 20th anniversary SE) or a 2001.5 Passat. I loved the exterior of the new Passat, but I thought the interior styling was quirky, even cluttered, and I'm not partial to the wood trim. The Maxima was very sporty inside, but the exterior couldn't escape the "blah" styling that is common with Japanese sedans.
I settled on the Passat. (If you're still undecided, test drive the Passat after sunset. The nighttime gauge and console lighting will seal the deal. It's very cool, almost 3-D like. The brochure doesn't do it justice.)
I visited 3 dealerships in the Dallas area -- Park Cities VW, Metro VW and the VW Store. Treated very well at all 3 stores. Specifically, I can recommend Phil at Metro, and the Jack/Lisa internet sales team at the VW Store.
I'm thankful I live in a large market with 6 dealerships overall in Dallas and Fort Worth. That ensured a free-market competition to win my business, as well a decent inventory of cars on the lots from which to choose. Still, even though there are lots of new Passats on the lots, finding cars in the bright colors is somewhat difficult, given that we're near the end of the model year. (Lots of silvers and beiges on the lots down here. And, has anyone actually seen an Ink Blue Passat? No one around here has.)
The day before I planned to buy was a Sunday, and most dealerships in Texas are closed on Sundays. (State law prohibits dealers to be open *both* weekend days, so most close on Sunday.) I drove around to each of the 3 above-named stores, and took inventory of what they had on the lot. From my list, I chose 10 cars whose color-combinations I would accept. (One nice thing about shopping for GLX's is that they were all exactly alike - there are no options on a GLX except M/A transmission and optional dealer-installed CD equipment.)
My plan was to start at the dealership with my #1 favorite color combo. If things didn't work out there, I'd regroup and move to the dealer with the #2 and #3 cars.
First on my list was the pine green/gray GLX at the VW Store. I showed up at 9am on a Monday morning, and asked to test drive the car. (I had driven other Passats before, so this was simply a test of how "this" car ran.) When we returned, I made an offer of $200 below invoice. He said the going rate was $500 over invoice. We settled at $250 over invoice. (Edmunds TMV is about $800 over invoice.)
Tried to haggle on an extended warranty, but the F&I guy didn't want to negotiate their $1,000+ list prices, so I declined for now. (Salesperson at the VW Store says you can buy extended warranty from VW anytime up to when your 2/24 warranty expires.)
I drove the car away 3 hours later, and I've enjoyed it the past two days. Rides firm, steers great, the stereo rocks, looks cool.
Thanks again, and I hope these comments help someone out there.
Regards from Texas,
TexasShopper
(now TexasBuyer, I guess).
congrats on your new car! I hope you enjoy it.
was the $250 over invoice including all the advertising and regional fees? i am trying to see what the final price actually was.
thanks.
When the sales rep and I discussed pricing, we started at the invoice price for the car (GLX w/auto, $27187). He added only destination charges ($550), plus port ($25) and floorplan interest reserve charges ($92). (Edmunds doesn't mention these fees, but I did see them listed on cars.com, so perhaps they're legit.) The sales rep did not add any advertising fees.
The only thing left to add was the $250 that we agreed upon, and that's how you get to my final price.
The entire negotiation on price took about 5 minutes, and the person I was dealing with had the authority to OK the sale himself. I didn't get passed along (TO'd) from sales rep to sale rep, or any of those other stupid sales tricks. Very professional.
Hope this helps. Let us know how you fare.
texasshopper
Alternative is wait for a 2002, especially if the warranty is 4/50 and includes CD. These are the two main problems with this car as I see it. Overall seems quite overpriced compared to Subaru cutback where I can get 6 cyl., CD changer, AWD at a good deal. According to the TMV, the subaru BB LL Bean and the Passat GLX wagons should be almost the same price. I'd probably pay $500-1000 more for the passat, but not $3000 which is what the difference would be at MSRP.
Any help is appreciated- do I just need to be a tough, hard-nosed negotiator on a Passat, or get the Subarus that are available at a good price?
leather or black. The BBS wheels make it awesome, they must have cost a fortune. Is the rear window tint a film or stain. I'd love to do it to my GLX, indigo w/gray. My car is leased, think I have to ask the dealer before making changes. ENJOY!!!!
right ahead and do anything that you want...if you are planning on
returning the car at the end of the lease DO NOT do anything that
does not have UNIVERSAL appeal, ie. your taste is not mine(figuratively
speaking). A lease return should be clean, not customized, unless you do
things that you can undo, and bring the car back to the way it looked when new.
If you want to see the basis for the TMV calculations, click here: Edmunds.com TMV Home page. You will find links at that page for each of our TMV calculations (New, Used, Finance).
Hope that helps.
kcram
Host
Smart Shopper and FWI Message Boards
I think there are some silver ones in GLX in the area
Silver and Whites GLS are pretty much impossible to find IMHO. Might want to wait for the 2002 but you'll pay more.
btw, luv the car.
Jason
Really consider a trip to chicago or contact a dealer up here. I went to a local small vw lot and they had 35 2001.5's in stock they also had a couple 2001's left. I didn't talk numbers just drove but you can bet with all those passat's on the ground they are ready to deal. I probably won't buy till christmas and it's still a toss up between passat and Acura TL. But the supply here is good. They had about 5 or 6 wagon glx's also.
Chris
to locate cars for their customers...
A couple of months ago I was contacted by a Customer from New Jersey who
was looking for a specific Passat...Dealer "could not find it"...In two minutes
we found the Exact Passat in Laurel, MD...The Jersey Dealer either didn't
look or lied...
Passat GLS 20,863
Automatic, Black Exterior/Black Velour Interior
Luxury 1369
Monsoon 287
Homelink 115
Cold Weather 287
Destination 550
Phila Advertising 150
Floor Plan Interest Reserve 92
Port Prep 25
PA Inspection 100
Total Invoice 23838
Their offer: 23938 (100 over invoice)
Most importantly, they pressured me heavily to take a car from their inventory. My color choices were 1) Indigo Blue, 2) Blue Silver, 3) Reflex with grey interior. I will not buy the beige interior regardless of the price. They were not at all interested in finding one of my color choices but gave what I think is a good deal on the black (which I would put as my fourth choice anyway). I hate all of the fees, but what can you do realistically about them? I also didn't really want the Homelink but I can live with it looking down the road to where I might have a house to actually use it with. So what do you think?
It also took two plus hours and talking with a salesperson, the sales manager, and the "owner" to get to this point. I actually started my offer at 500 over invoice for an Indigo Blue. They were hardly interested in that, since it wasn't on the lot.
-tvsfrank
I can't think of the last totally base car we got in. But that's the southeast.
Only GLS 4-cyls we have are, like ffxvw said, more well-equipped cars.
ffxvw: Did you guys pick up Volvo? And do you know Frank Gomez?
Bill
Jason
Tell him Bill Weismann from Montclair says Hi and I hope all is well. I lost his e-mail. Give him my best regards!
Bill
1. On June 25 in Phila. suburb, purchased 2001.5 GLX Auto Passat, blue silver, black leather(beauty!). Total cost with tax, etc: $26,829.74. This was with $700 over invoice of $28,004, trade-in of '94 Ford Explorer XLT 4wd (86,200+ miles)of $3,500 (it needed some mechanical work). Good deal? Honest invoice price?
2. Should I purchase an extended warrantee through VW or elsewhere-- via the internet?
3. Should I have the 6 cd changer installed by VW or go elsewhere?
Any opinions or personal experiences welcome!
PS...I absolutely LOVE my car and hope to drive it for MANY years! After 30 years of driving wagons, vans & suv's...I feel like I'm REALLY driving now!!
2002 Acura TL 3.2 Std
24 month: 66.0%
36 month: 57.0%
48 month: 50.0%
60 month: 44.0%
2001 New Passat (i.e. 2001.5)
24 month: 57.0%
36 month: 49.0%
48 month: 43.0%
60 month: 37.0%
2001 Nissan Maxima GLE
24 month: 55.0%
36 month: 48.0%
48 month: 41.0%
60 month: 36.0%
24 month: 40.0%
36 month: 34.0%
48 month: 28.0%
60 month: 24.0%
Passats are now being discounted quite a bit more than they used to be, so its' affecting their values (Same thing with the TL).
In reality, Passats are still doing better than roughly anything else in their class.
A 98 GLX V6 can still do $17-18K at auction if its' nice and with low miles and not in a stupid color combo (I.E Black/Black in Miami)
That's off of a $28K or so MSRP back then IIRC. The car are still retailing for $20-21K or so.
A 99 GLX is worth about $20K, about what a 99 TL is worth.
GLSs are doing much better.
Bill
In theory(using things like clpurnell's tables for instance) the Passat seems like it will do very well on resale. But in reality, if you want people to be ready to box in your driveway over your used car it had better be a Honda or Toyota.
Same is true if you are like most people and you trade in. Dealers simply cannot look you in the eye with a straight face and say "Well there is not much demand for used Accords or Camry's".
I hope you are right and that I get top dollar for my Passat after four or five trouble free years. But had I bought an Accord, TL, Camry, ES300, or other boring Japanese offerings the odds of that happening would have been stacked more heavily in my favor.