Drumm09

I want to get some of the member's opinion on what is better when buying an rx-8, or any car for that matter.

Monthly payments or final price of the car? go into the dealer wanting the monthly payments you want or for the (low) purchase of the actual car?

I have purchased several Mazdas and VW's and I always shoot for low monthly payments for no more than 60 months. I always end up paying my cars earlier.

But some people say NEVER to buy a car based on monthly payments-instead always shoot for the actual purchase price.

Opinions/advice?

Thanks

EDZRIDE

iTrader: (1)

Best advice in the world!

Hidef1080

Total value of the car never monthly payments.

Go in knowing how much the car is worth and work from there.

adamwzl

iTrader: (3)

Always shoot for actual purchase price and what Interest rate you want depending on your credit situation. Then your monthly payments will always be lower. Haggel the sale price at the dealer, make sure nothing else is added in. Such as delivery fee's etc.

Most of the time when you say I want this as my monthly purchase price the dealer will always try and shoot up the int rate so they get more money, but keep you within your respected monthly payment.

Best way to go about this. Is to either pay for taxes, tags, title yourself and receive your own financing from whomever credit union, bank, private investor, etc.. Without dealing with the dealer besides the purchase price.

If you take care of taxes/tags/title all on your own and if you even have enough to spare put that down on the final sale price of the car also. Once doing that you can contact your finace people and tell them the exact amount and they will cut you a check. Less money you have to borrow for the sale and even a less int rate because your dealing with the bank/CU on your own (no dealer scam involvement).

kvndoom

Yeah, dealers now ALWAYS try to sell you on payment amounts. Once you give them a number, they will **** you 8 ways till Sunday and you won't even know it. You'd be surprised how much padding room they have once they know what you can afford each month. You'll wind up with undercoating, paint protection, extended warranties and interest rates that would make kung-fu jesus cry, and still be paying the same amount per month that you quoted.

When I got my new car last week, I told the salesman and his manager the ONLY two numbers I cared about were the final amount to be financed and the APR. They saw that I had my BS shield up pretty high, and that mutual understanding helped a lot with getting it all done with minimal friction.

Drumm09

Thank you so much for the responses-especially to kvndoom and adamwzl

Looks like I have been purchasing cars the wrong way. Oh well, live and learn.

When you say "Know the final amount to be financed and the APR" where do you know exactly what the correct price for the car is? You go to the Mazda webpage? Or look at some of the deals that they are having?

APR is no problem-always easy to find. But the actual price I wouldn't know where to look?

BTW- I got my 40th anniversary 8 for 160 a month for 60 months. 5% APR, which in retrospect I could have gotten a lot less.

Oh well-thanks again

Kevin McMahon

For starters on prices look here for new cars http://www.edmunds.com/ (work family safe)

and used www.kbb.com (WFS)

To add to what has always been said, negotiate selling price only. Dont mention a trade-in untill after you have determined a price. The undercoating and all the other "necessities" that they charge you for are BS. If they ask you about a trade-in, say you arent sure or that you dont think you will. Once you get them locked down on a price thats when you say you want to trade your vehicle in, which you can find the trade-in value on the kbb site listed above.

There are a lot of articles out there right now on buying cars but these are the main tips. Also when negotiating price, dont ever bid against yourself. Once you make an offer, wait for a counter offer, before making another, and go up in 100-200 dollar increments and not 500.

Lastly check your credit score and or see what your bank will give you for financing, at the very least youll know where you stand and you can bargain a little with apr, that being said the dealers almost always can get you better financing than your own personal bank.

adamwzl

iTrader: (3)

If you rather go the Dealer route with financing be careful of the dealer. If you have good Credit then you have nothing to really worry about. Tell the dealer I only want them to send the request to 1-3 of their BEST well known banks.

If you dont state that some dealers will send your information all over the place. I once had a dealer send my reqeust for a loan to 30+ banks in 10 minutes. My credit score hurt after that month.

IMO I think getting your financing before visiting the dealer is the best way of haggeling with the sales rep. Depending on your relationship with your bank and your Credit Score/Income you can receive a good APR.

The only other time I would go with Finacing from a Dealer is if the manufacture was running a special such as 2.9% APR for 60 months with X amount required for down payment. No bank's/CU can match that offer.

kvndoom

You're doing right by overpaying every month anyway. Any little bit extra you can afford will help, and the more extra you put out, the less the APR really matters (unless it's some crazy astronomical number). I know when I got my VW back in 2004, I was hell bent on paying it off in 2 years, so every month I sent in at least 1000 dollars. I got nice chunky tax refunds because I was a student back then, and I was working mad overtime, so at least twice I actually sent in a check for over 2 grand. I wish I could do that now. Things were much simpler back then...

I have 2 nagging bills that just won't seem to go away. I intend to pay them off once and for all by the end of the summer, then start sending in at least a couple extra hundred every month on the 3. Probably won't pay it off in 2 years, but I think 30-36 months is a reasonable target.

Drumm09

[quote=kvndoom;3081611]You're doing right by overpaying every month anyway. Any little bit extra you can afford will help, and the more extra you put out, the less the APR really matters (unless it's some crazy astronomical number). I know when I got my VW back in 2004, I was hell bent on paying it off in 2 years, so every month I sent in at least 1000 dollars. I got nice chunky tax refunds because I was a student back then, and I was working mad overtime, so at least twice I actually sent in a check for over 2 grand. I wish I could do that now. Things were much simpler back then...))

Aaah yes. Things are always a lot simpler back in the days

With the monthly payments I got with the term of 60 months, I plan on paying my RX-8 in 12-13 months unless some kind of catastrophe happens in my life (job loss, family member illness, whatever)

I didn't pay too much attention to the APR (got 5%) at the time as long as I could get the monthly payments I wanted for only 60 months w/ my trade-in and down payment. After reading some of the responses here I realized I should have negotiated purchase price instead. But all in all, I feel like I didn't get a bad deal all together.

Naturally I will hold on to the 8 after paying it off this November/December, save money for the next car.... either a new Mazda RX (if there will be one), maybe an MX-5, or something else.

At which point I will look into that purchase price instead.!