[Eliminator]

I plan on buying a Mazda3 in a few months. This will be my first experience buying a car. How much bargaining can be done at a Mazda dealership? Are you pretty much stuck at the sticker price?

For example I want to upgrade to a MP3 player ($600), do you think I can get the upgrade for free if I bargain with them?

Thanks,

 

[Absinthe]

Not free but could be cheaper.

 

[nufsaid]

MZ3 is pretty new - dealers don't want to move on price. 600 in extras might be a go, since their cost is probably ~400 max.

 

[Black7]

Good Luck - My dealer wouldn't budge. Car is new and in short supplier (right now anyway) - besides that, dealers (especialy imports) don't make a lot of coin on new cars. Doesn't hurt to try though -

 

[Kazbaeden]

Although, it is in their best interest to sell new cars as fast as possible, because if they do, they don't have to use the hold-back money to keep the car on the lot. The faster it goes, the more hold-back they get. Perhaps that could be used as leverage by the informed buyer?

 

[Black7]

There is no margin on new cars - they are working with about 10 points M/U - dealers will rarely deal and when they do, it's to clear the previous yr models (03's) - Mazda is selling these cars BEFORE they hit the lot in many cases - they are not tying up a lot of capital with the MZ3's. The informed (or rather patient) buyer is one who waits until they are in clearance mode which, for the 2004 3's, will not be until next fall. Supply and Demand....

 

[cowtown]

Yeah not a lot of swing right now. Because they want to move these cars I was able to get out of my lease on my existing Pro5 I had 10 months early at no penalty and I got about $120 in options thrown in. I tried for the auto dimming mirror @ $340 and it was a no go.

 

[mz6zoomzoom]

Bullshit.

That's what I say to this whole thread.


Never pay more than $500 or so over invoice. Dealers get mighty compliant when you walk out on them.

 

[M3 Craz]

Bullshit.

That's what I say to this whole thread.


Never pay more than $500 or so over invoice. Dealers get mighty compliant when you walk out on them.

:?: :?:
Okay, here is the question. How can we as buyers bargin for a price no more than 500 bucks over the invoice when they are selling them like hotcakes?

They don't worry If the buyer walks out because, they can still wait for the next sucker to get the car without even asking for a bargin.

when demand is greater than supply, the dealer has the upperhand

 

[Kazbaeden]

That's why most people advise to wait until Supply is greater than Demand, so you have the upper hand.

 

[zaimon]

It's not hard. With dealerships timing is everything.

This month, especially, not many cars are being sold due to christmas shopping. Dealers are looking for a sell, towards the end of the month their desire becomes greater since they're looking to reach monthly sales goals which limits the number of cars they can order for future allotments.

Walking out after a few hours of haggling certainly helps as well.

 

[cowtown]

I didn't pay over MSRP for my car, I walked on them twice and the price came way down. Heck when I went back the numbers were actually magically back up until I said unless it's this number to told me on the phone we're going to head home now, thanks.

If I didn't have my previous lease to deal with I could have done better but considering that overall I don't have to worry about my last lease at all was worth something to me.

And at Sunridge where I bought mine my sales guy I was talking to on Thursday said that they couldn't beleive how many 3's and Pro5 they were selling in December let alone how many they were selling that close to Christmas. He said they haven't seen december sales like that in a long while, if ever.

 

[hotptato]

aimen brother.lol, here is a good site to learn how to wheel and deal.
http://www.carbuyingtips.com/car3.htm

Bullshit.

That's what I say to this whole thread.


Never pay more than $500 or so over invoice. Dealers get mighty compliant when you walk out on them.

 

[slowhand]

There is no way you should pay more than a few hundred over invoice for the car, if you are patient and disciplined about the purchase process. Note that even the invoice price does not represent the true cost of the car to the dealer--they get additional discounts and holdbacks based on deal volume.

Your purchase timeframe, "a few months" from now, helps: dealers frequently attempt to gouge (and make no mistake, asking full MSRP is gouging) on newly-introduced models, but this effect wears off quickly (at most, 6 months after launch) on mass-market cars.

The following link offers an excellent recipe for obtaining good prices:

http://www.e46fanatics.com/faq/rizzo.html

The key is to make the deal very straightforward: know exactly what you want in advance, remove any ambiguity about extra charges up front, be prepared to sign immediately if the dealer agrees to your terms, and be equally prepared to walk away at any sign of non-cooperation. The dealer gets a low margin, but in return gets a clean, quickly executed deal.

It's also worth checking whether you or a close family member are entitled to Ford-family discounts, which are sometimes a not-well-advertised part of the benefits packages at large corporations, including many which have no particular relation to the auto industry.

 

[hotptato]

that was very well put and done, good job. i agree 100% with what you said and wrote down on the link.

 

[TellyDSP]

The demand is very high and for that reason, its not an easy deal. Most dealers won't drop an S model, to below 19k. THe hard part for me was dealing on cars the dealer didnt even have. He had one on the lot, that he worked a deal on to get it off his lot, but it turns out I wanted another one he didnt even have stocked or coming. It's a lot harder to run a deal, when the dealer still has to find the car(that's not costing him anything) and bring it in. Worked out pretty well though, got a fair deal IMO, and I'm going to try to work him some more, once he pulls the car(because I have a feeling it's not gonna be 100% right). He was saying he's not making much over invoice, but I was unable to find invoice info. Where can I pull up dealer invoice info?

My .02

 

[zaimon]

TellyDSP... how many dealers did you visit before you bought your Mz3?

 

[hotptato]

got to www.edmunds.com

The demand is very high and for that reason, its not an easy deal. Most dealers won't drop an S model, to below 19k. THe hard part for me was dealing on cars the dealer didnt even have. He had one on the lot, that he worked a deal on to get it off his lot, but it turns out I wanted another one he didnt even have stocked or coming. It's a lot harder to run a deal, when the dealer still has to find the car(that's not costing him anything) and bring it in. Worked out pretty well though, got a fair deal IMO, and I'm going to try to work him some more, once he pulls the car(because I have a feeling it's not gonna be 100% right). He was saying he's not making much over invoice, but I was unable to find invoice info. Where can I pull up dealer invoice info?

My .02

 

[TellyDSP]

I went to 3, the first one actually gave me the best price. THe other two quoted me the same exact price, both higher than the first.

I just looked up invoice, and it was 18118. I got mine for a little under 18500. Sound good?

 

[zaimon]

Not bad at all. That's about $100 over what the S-plan price would have been.

The reason why I asked is that it's better to shop around at several dealers to see who would give you the best deal. On models like the Mazda3 where car buyers may be excited and demand may be high, it's easy to take the first deal without shopping around first. If one dealer isn't willing to bargain, look to the next...