Just a few things I forgot to mention:

1) According to the one KNOWLEDGEABLE rep there (from Mazda USA), production has started (as you all know) and Mazda has discussed but has not yet settled on sending some units out to dealers in May as DEMOS ONLY so that dealers will have some units that can be seen and test driven. First customer deliveries are expected in June.

2) The John Elway Mazda rep there was proudly telling people who asked that a "fully loaded" manual RX-8 would sell at their dealership for "around $38 - $40K."

(I confronted him about it and he stated flat out that they were planning on selling the "first year's worth" at $8K - $10K OVER MSRP and he didn't want to mislead people about the sticker price as "No dealer will be selling them for MSRP.")

Sigh...

 

Hmm, I hope the dealers get an example of an RX-8 before the customer's cars come in, so they can thoroughly thrash it, and get it out of their system. I don't want my car thrashed! After I properly break it in, I will at times drive, uh, "briskly", but I don't want someone else doing it.

As it is, I'm making quite a stretch to buy the car at MSRP; if the price gets inflated, (and my dealer says it won't) I'll be walking. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, (along with that other stuff you've been smoking) Mr. Elway!

 

If you have an order placed, the dealerships will not "thrash" your car. So I wouldn't worry about it. And all I know, is that the day the car comes off the truck, I will most likely be there waiting!! :D

ERIK

 

Perhaps we should throw together a listing of dealers that WILL be selling at MSRP so that those of us who are enlightened can share this information at will to potential buyers, non-enlightened reps, or anyone else that we see fit to benefit from such data?! If anyone is willing, I'll keep a spreadsheet of it that can be sent out on request...

 

FWIW, the S2000 board did something just like this with great success both for buyers and dealers...

 

I hope you told him about all the people on this forum that are buying for MSRP and how he is full of $HIT!

There is no way they will sell them for that price if so many other dealers are selling them for MSRP. Maybe he is referring to actual "stock" allocation vehicles as opposed to preorders, but that's besides the point. It's my understanding that the reason that Mazda created the preorder program in the first place was to try and avoid having to deal with dealers price gouging the RX-8 out of it's target market while at the same time producing the vehicles in a number closely corresponding to the projected demand. All good for PR, cost, and other corporate reasons.

If that guy was saying that John Elway Mazda plans to charge $8K-$10K over on all RX-8s including preorders, I have a feeling they aren't going to sell very many, if any, of their allocated units. This would probably be the type of dealer to go put some ficticious names on their preorder allocations so they can have more dealer stock to try and price gouge people with instead of having actual customers on their preorders making it harder to sell them for over MSRP.

All I can say is....what a scub bag!

 

This is a great idea that a lot of other car forums are doing. Regardless, so far it seems that the vast majority of RX-8 preorder customers are getting it for MSRP (except for apparently the "price fixing" Hawaii situation RX-Nut has mentioned).

I myself here in South Florida at Marlin Mazda am getting my RX-8 for MSRP + TAX + TAG.....that's it! No "dealer fees" or other "add-ons".

:D

 

Nah - it was clear that this was his canned speech and he was sticking with it.

Note that this same chain of dealers has had several S2000s sitting on their lots when others had none - probably due to the $6000 "dealer markup" stickers on the side windows.

Of course now that S2000s are a bit less hot they're still stuck with those same cars and smart S2000 buyers are now flocking to dealers that are selling under MSRP.

I don't suppose I need to mention that when Miatas first came out in the late 1980s Bay Area Mazda dealers were selling them for DOUBLE MSRP and people were buying them (I always felt a little sorry for those who spent $30K for a Miata, got into an accident that totalled the car and were handed a $14K check from the insurance company, leaving them with $16K left to pay on the car AND no vehicle...)

 

You would think they would get the picture and adjust their pricing accordingly. Some people never learn. It's dealers like that that need to be boycotted and driven out of business. I blame upper management and even the owner(s) for practices like that. You would think that "John Elway" would have enough money already that his dealership didn't make a practice of gouging people!

As for the Miata as well as markups on cars like the PT Cruiser....some people are just plain stupid! Even if you have replacement cost as part of your insurance on a vehicle, I'm sure it would be still be a problem if you pay over MSRP for the car. In that case even those people would need GAP insurance to cover the markup. Not to mention if you are the kind of person that will pay DOUBLE the MSRP or even most any amount over MSRP for a car, you have some deeper issues!

Anyway, it's nice to know Mazda has made an effort to keep the RX-8 affordably and reasonably priced for its intended demographic with its preorder program!