Groo

Here's my RX-8 purchase story. I figure it might serve as fodder for those ready to buy, and possibly mild entertainment to the rest of you. :-)

I was planning on getting a speed 6. In fact, I've had a deposit on one for 2 months. Since mazda kept delaying the finaly delivery of the US version with no explanation (it's been at port for 6 weeks now), I got tired of waiting. I saw people were getting '05 RX-8s for about the same price the speed 6 was going to cost, so I figured why not get an 8. It's not the practical family car I was going for with the 6 (I have three kids), but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make :-).

So Saturday morning I looked online to find a car with the options I wanted (MTX, red/blue, touring model), then went to the closest dealer with one in stock (Morries Mazda, for those local to MN). I showed up at 5:40 pm Saturday, they close at 6.

I had been to this location previously looking at MPVs with a salesman named Scott. Or Dave. Honestly I can't remember right now. So I walked up to the front desk and had him paged. He came up and I told him I was looking at RX-8s, and we walked over to the one on the showroom floor and poked around at one and talked for a few minutes. I asked about the one I saw on the website, and he went and got their inventory book. They did not have the car I saw listed, but they had two manuals left, both the same options- red GT. Close enough, I was still interested.

I asked what they were doing on price for the 8, so he pulled out his sales incentive sheet, which showed no incentives for an RX-8 purchase (there was one for a lease). "Are you sure you don't want to lease?" Ya, I'm sure I said.

We went to his desk and he said they would work with me on the price to be sure I got a good deal, even though there were no incentives. "We want your business" he told me. I told him I wanted $4500 or $5000 off. He immediately brought a sales manager over - her first offer was $29.5k splan price (about 2k off). That's all they can do, she said. There weren't any incentives. She showed me their "internal discount sheet" which showed no rebates for the rx-8.

I said no good, needed to be $4500 or $5000 off. I mentioned people on the forums were pulling them in at that price. I also brought up the website of a dealer who was advertising $4000 off. She asked if I wanted her to match that and I said no, I wanted her to beat it. So she left to talk to someone and came back 2 minutes later. (the other dealer did not have the car with the options I wanted, otherwise I probably would have been there instead).

When she came back she first asked me if we could come to an agreement if I was going to really buy tonight (she even extended me a handshake apparently to make sure I was serious - "Shake on it?" ). I said I was ready to purchase and that I had a blank check with me. She offered me $4500 off, because $5000 off was "just crazy". I said I'd like to drive the actual car I'd be buying- I wanted to make sure it was in decent shape- after all it had been on the lot for quite a while now. They pulled the car off the showroom floor and I was pleasantly surprised to sit down in the vehicle and see it only had 17 miles on it.

I drove it for about 5 miles, and was comfortable with it. When we got back at the dealer he said something like "If you like it, drive it up to the detail shop door and we'll drop it off there, since it's close to closing time so they can get started on it, and also fill the tank." I wasn't 100% sure I was going to buy, and thought it was a tricky way to make me decide, but I went ahead and drove around the corner to the detail door. Then we went back inside to his desk.

I liked the car, and was ready to make a deal. I gave them by citibank check (I had pre-arranged financing). Two minutes later the finance guy showed up and told me they don't accept bank drafts (which that was). He said it's possible the check could not be cashable if I didn't meet citibank's requirements. I told him that seemed a bit absurd considering I went through the application process with them before they sent me the check. Can't he call and check? No he said, they just don't accept those. I've heard of dealers pulling this scam before to get you to finance through them instead. If for no other reason than not wanting to be pushed around, I told him it was really unfortunately he couldn't accept it and started collecting my things to leave. Somehow the converstaion turned around and he said they would have to write up a sales order, and hold the check until Monday when they could call citibank to verify. I asked directly two or three times "So you will use this check then". Yes, he said. Even though not 30 seconds earlier he said they don't accept them. He went back to his office to work on the papers.

While he was off, I pulled out my Gerber and Zoom Zoom Live rebates. I wanted to be sure and bring these out after the final price was settled. The sales manager got upset when I showed these to her, and couldn't believe I wanted MORE money off. She said the $4500 included all rebates. I explained the gerber and zoom zoom live were Mazda rebates, on top of the final sale price. She acted like she didn't really know what they were. The gerber was rediculously absurd for her to try and include, because that's something I have to mail in directly to Mazda. Then she brought out that the $4500 was contingent on me financing with MAC (there is a $1000 MAC rebate). WHAT?! I told her she had not said that (she didn't). She was sure that she had. I said I would have certainly remembered it. (and the whole convo with the financing guy would have gone differently if that had been the case). Also, she specifically told me there were NO rebates or incentives. When I mentioned this she said when she had gone back and looked she "found" a $1000 MAC rebate that wasn't listed on their sheet. How convenient was that?

At this point I knew they were just screwing with me. I needed a minute to collect my thoughts, as I was getting frustrated and was ready to walk. I stood up and said I had to make a phone call, and headed for the door. She said "wait, before you call.." but I kept walking and just said "I'll be right back". I made a call and didn't really get any advice about the car, but it let me cool off a bit, and hopefully let them realize they were close to loosing the whole deal. By this time it was 6:30 or maybe even 7:00. I wasn't paying that much attention to the clock, but the dealership had been closed for some time.

Not knowing if I was going to walk or buy, I went back in to see what they would do. They greeted me with a smile and "Are we going to have a deal?" I told her it all depended on her. I mentioned again I could go to this other dealer for $4k off, plus probably get the $1000 MAC on top of that for $5k off. Another sales manager got involved at this point, I couldn't tell if it was her superior or if thy had just arranged this good cop/bad cop scenario while I was out. She said "ok, how about this- we'll do $5,000 off, including the MAC rebate, and just be done with it". I made sure the zoom zoom live/gerber rebates were on top of that, and slowly agreed that I was ok with the deal.

I sat back down to fill out the MAC finance form, and waited for the finance guy to enter it in the system. I could tell they were anxious to get out of there. Interestingly enough, I was never offered an extended warranty, rust proofing, or any other gimmicks (I would have declined anyway, but it was nice not having to go through that whole thing with them).

When I went back to the financing guy's office, he had all the paperwork lined up, and I made sure I read each paper I signed, even though he was clearly in a rush to get out and get home. I put a small downpayment down (about $3k) and financed the rest through MAC. I had a 9% rate with MAC, and he told me after three months I could refinance with another company at a lower rate. I've heard others on the forums talk about this before- apparently dealers get some sort of kick back when you finance through MAC, which they loose when you refi. It stated as clear as day on the loan papers "No Prepayment Penalty" and there was no fine print about 3 months. So I just let him ramble, and plan to refi immediately. I should have called him on it, but I didn't really care at that point.

We signed all the papers, then the sales guy did a 5-10 minute walk through of the owner's manual with me, explaining a few things about the vehicle. Then I got my keys, and was on my way home! I left my geo in their lot and went back to pick it up the next day (Sunday, they were closed).

So end the end I think it turned out ok, but was a lot of hassle. Especially considering I had negotiated $4500 off with a 5 minute phone call to a different dealer an hour away on the same model earlier that day. Although that particular car had 350 miles on it, so I wasn't too fond of it- but I'm sure I could have gotten a good deal from one of the other 20 dealerships within 200 miles of me with a lot less hassle. However, the frustrations of the ordeal are fading away as I happily zoom zoom around town in my new RX-8 :-)

Scrapula

Interesting story. The MAC rate is 9%? That sucks. I have a Capital One blank check for 6.0% over 60 months. I'm probably not going to take the $1,000 MAC cash. Capital One said my rate goes up to 7.5%, if I use it to refinance the other loan.

Groo

Scrap - very good point on the MAC rebate. The $1000 discount may not be worth it depending on your financing- especially considering the refinance rates are higher than purchase rates.

Cool Blue - it ended up being $6k off MSRP. I *wish* it was off invoice

Scrapula

I ended up getting 7.15% through MAC and took the $1,000.

fredw1

Thanks for the story. This is just one of the many ways dealers can try to screw you over. They like to get you very interested in a car by making everything sound so good, and then change the rules. By then, you are so in love, you are blinded into acquiescence.

Each time I buy a car, I do better in getting the deal I want. Stories like this remind me of all the angles, most of which I have witnessed first hand in buying ten or so cars over the past 25 years for my wife and me.