I have a situation. I'm looking at '05 Touring 6mt no options for 28,063 which is 100 over invoice. I still owe 4,860 with the trade in. Tax/tag/processing fee about 1,600. Does this mean that I have to make a down payment since I'm over the MSRP?

 

no that means you're getting NEGATIVE EQUITY in this deal, NOT GOOD for you financially unfortunately

 

Whether or not you have to put something down depends on the lender that your dealer finds that's willing to cover that much negative equity. 15% (which you're below) is generally about the most negative equity a lender is willing to cover without really bending you over on down or interest.

I put almost exactly the same amount of negative equity into a $20,000 Mazda3 loan and didn't have to put anything down. So you'll probably be alright if your finance guy is good. I was knocked a couple points interest because of it though, so you should expect the same thing.

Be careful what you're getting into. That's a lot of negative equity going into a car that has pretty bad resale values. You're paying $34,000 for a car worth maybe $24,000 when you drive off the lot. You're going to be upside-down on the note for probably 4 years out of a 5 year financing plan.

 

tell the dealer 30K out the door with taxes tag and title and pay off your trade. Tell them you want to keep the car too and walk if they wont take it. wait for them to call you back. Once that is done sell your car or keep it as a second car or whatever. They can eat a few grand on an 05 and like it.

Note this'll only work if you have very good to outstanding credit. which you should if you have a trade in. Don't let them fudge the interest rates either in F & I later. If you can get preapprivals from local banks and credit unions first. They usually have the best rates.

Also I find the best time to buy a car is show up at the dealer 1/2 hour before closing and keep them there, drag your feet. wander off any time they turn their back to you can get lost somewhere good so they have to hunt you down. the more work they have to do the more you can push them around. Be totally undecisive. you will walk and leave any time. I walked out on my local dealer several time before they caved on my deal and I pushed my 04 to 5900 below invoice.

 

You're suggesting that the dealer eat over 4 thousand dollars. Invoice + TTL is $30K. You want them to just eat the entire negative equity on the trade-in when dealers can't even sell the used RX-8s they already got. No friggin' way a dealer is going to do that.

Well, in other threads you said $4900. But that's really neither here nor there.

When you bought your car last month there was $4,500 in rebates on the car. So the dealer really only ate $400 on it. Mazda took the hit on the rest of it. There are no rebates now. A dealer might go a hundred, maybe a couple hundred below invoice right now, but there's no way in hell they're going to eat over 4 thousand dollars.

What are they giving you for trade-in, sllygirl? You can't save too much more on the new car, but perhaps you can get some more on the trade. It's usually easier to get money there than negotiate on the car when you're already near invoice. Or, better yet, look at privately-selling it. You'll get an extra couple-thousand over what a dealer will give you, but you'd have to cover the rest of the negative equity yourself in order to clear the title.

 

19k for trade in

 

Is that with all your mods, or did you put everything stock back on?

/gC

 

They're not gonna pay me a cent for the mods so Im taking them off before I trade it in.

 

They might charge you something for the holes on the sideskirts if you choose to take them off. Since it's considered "damage" if you do take them off... which means more money.

1) Only do this if you have lots of expendable money... otherwise it's going to cost you a lot to trade to MT.

2) Have some good-great credit. At least in the 650+ range or your interest rate could look really bad... more money.

3) Since dealerships are still selling 05 and some 04s still, you're most likely not going to get a killer deal on a 05. Don't expect to get that 4k+ discount below sticker on a 05.

4) Best bet is to sell the car to a private party, then use that money to get the new car. Don't trade in.

 

I've always said 5900. it's actually a little more than that but that a nice round number. Invoice on my car was ~29k. I fought hard but hey 2 days of stressfull work for $6000 is worth it. I know the dealers can eat it on these cars right now. even more probably. AS i write this there's apost in here of 5,000 off 05 rx8 just below this post. The dealers have the final say. Invoice pricing still isn't what the dealer actually pays for the car. This car has some nonpublic incentives I'm sure too.

 

Yes, it's $5,000 off MSRP, which is a few hundred below invoice pricing plus every possible rebate out there that most people don't qualify for like Military and Student (a common newspaper trick). Not $5,000 off invoice, as you were suggesting she demand. You only get those kind of deals with manufacturer rebates far into the next model year, just as you did with an '04 last month. You can't do that with an '05 just one month later in May of '05. If that was true and you can get loaded '05s for $24K like you say, then when Mazda starts giving rebates on them, you would be able to get a 2005 6MT GT for about $19K in a few months -- obviously that's not going to happen.

And non-public incentives are called Dealer Cash, and there is none out there right now. Not in most areas anyhow, there may be a few hundred available in a few regions that are way overstocked like the area giving $5,000 off all right now.