Well, today I made an attempt to purchase my RX8.

I drove my '95 Camaro Z28 in and figured I'd take a picture with it next to a new RX8...you know, just to admire. My camaro is my baby...but because I'm about to have a real baby, I need a car that will be more 'human baby' friendly, hence the RX8.

Anyway, I was talking to a sales guy and he seemed pretty cool. Later on, this fast talker sales guy walks up and starts to dominate the conversation. He asks me what I was gonna do with my Camaro and I told him I was going to sell it to get the RX8. He asks why don't I just do a trade-in...and when he asked how much, I randomly told him $9000 since I didn't know. So he goes and says, that he can get my Camaro for 9k and then I can drive out with an RX8.

Doing the paperwork, I was pretty picky really...nothing over $400/month for 60 mos, price of the RX8 was not to exceed $30,000 after tax, license, and certain packages.

The sales manager then came in and told me that he can only offer me $4000 for my Camaro...but he knew that the fast talker salesman told me $9000. He said that he apoligized for him because that was a huge mistake on his part...and that he should never have just told me okay for 9k.

I walked away kinda upset, but at the same time, I knew what that fast talker had tried to do. I honestly believed that the sales manager was sorry about what had happened with that fast talker salesman and he said he'd have a talk with him about it.

But man...I was $4000 away from driving home in the RX8 that I had wanted. The worse part was that it was sitting on the lot as I drove away in my own car.

*sniff*

 

You think he was really sorry? They did the hard part, they got you in there, when you're that close to getting what you want you are willing to compromise more and get less than what you want. You were the smart one for walking off

 

w3rd.

this thread is done. :D

 

NEVER believe what a salesman says... it's all part of the game. The manager was not sorry... he knew what was going on all along.
All the talking he did afterwards to the salesman was to say "damn, he didn't go for it".

 

Blue_Chameleon... was that the color of your Camaro? I had a Firebird in the same color, awesome, looks better than what they offer for the RX-8.

The paint (color) and the Monsoon stereo was the only thing that I liked better on the Firebird than on the RX-8.

I traded mine in, and I wish I had done what you did today. You're better off selling privately. The RX-8 is a good buy but it will still be a good buy for you next week. Check with Kelly Blue Book on the web and good luck!

-Peter

 

Dealers alllllways dick you around on trade-in. Which is why I'll never trade another car ever so help me God. I'm currently kicking tires on some used cars via the Internet. Dealers hate to use e-mail because it deprives them of too much control. Every one who responds to an inquiry practically screams "CALL ME!!"

NO!! You'll just dick me over. Let's make a deal, in writing, via e-mail and then I'll come talk to you.

T.

 

It's safer to research everything before walking onto the lot. Find the Bluebook Tradein value, then expect them to offer anything between their "wholesale" auction value and the KBB.

Also, if you really don't want them to be padding profit somewhere, use a couple of the various websites to "build" the car you want and calculate the invoice price. They should be willing to sell it near invoice (slightly under to a couple hundred over).

The $9,000 was likely bait to get you to sit down and work out a deal. Still, if you already knew the fair tradein value (and are willing to trade in vs. sell privately), you could play the game too, and whine and groan about them coming down soooooo much, cry, sob, I can't part with my baby, etc., lol.

It just takes all the guesswork and worry away when you already know what everything costs. Then you know how much negotiation room there is for both of you.

 

true that, i did all my negotiation over email with the internet sales manager (use the car dealer websites, like autobyte, carsdirect), none of that long wait in the room while the sales boy goes in and ask his boss if he can do it for such and such price over and over again...

as for trade-in, dont tell them this... negotiate this after you negotiate the price of your rx8, if they give u a price u dont like for ur trade-in, take the rx8 at the price u negotiated and sell the car privately... if you go in tellin them your trading-in, its like a big neon sign on your head sayin take my money please!

 

Read consumer reports car buying guide. It'll cost you about $5 and teach you how to work through the entire process.

There's a sequence the dealer wants to take you through that puts them in control, or you can take them through the sequence that puts you in control.

 

Give this a read...

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying...2/article.html

 

9k for a 95 Z28? Of course that is ridiculous. I would have asked for it too but is 4k really a bad offer? 2k for an american car that is ten years old in good shape is where it starts. I know dealers try to sock it to you, but you can't really expect to get 9k for your car.

 

I just checked at edmunds and yeah 4k was not a bad price you might see 5k.

 

Yeah, I figured 9k was a BS pitch at them and they just BSed back. No biggie...my ego's not hurt

In any case, I guess I was just thinking of all of the extra mods and add ons I've done to my Camaro. Who knows...maybe if I find a high school kid that might want to spring close to 9k if I 'upsell' it.

btw: Here is a pic of my Camaro next to the RX8 that I test drove. I'm planning to get the Titanium Gray color though :D Now, if there is some way where I can have both.....

 

If more z28's looked like that they would be worth more The general rule of thumb for mod's is that you can recover 10%. So if you did 10k worth of mod's it would be worth 1k to the value. Of course if you can find a willing buyer...

 

Blue_Chameleon,

Find a way to keep both! I miss my 89 RX-7. Sure, it had over 250K miles on it, and almost 15 years, but I was its only owner and other than a clutch at 130K, it never required any major maintenance. And I drove the $%&# out of it!

I sold my RX-7 privately for $1,680, but if I had it to do all over again, I would rather have kept it parked next to the RX-8.

 

Years ago, I looked at trading in my GMC Typhoon (0-60 in 5.3 -- loved that truck!) for a new Saleen Explorer. The sales manager is a neighbor of mine, but his priority is the sales manager part. He said, "You know, if you trade it in we're basically stealing it from you, because we need to make enough money selling it to make it worth our while." True enough, and I can't fault him for that. Either I take the time and effort to TRY to sell it myself or I let them take it off my hands.

The only time I was really offended was when I went to the local Mercedes dealer with a Lexus as a possible trade. They not only wanted full retail for the Mercedes, but they offered me $6000 less for my Lexus trade-in than the local Lexus dealer offered me for it in cash (wholesale price, obviously). I didn't feel like getting that kind of screwing.