revhappy
07-19-2003, 11:08 AM
Well it figures the very week the RX8 come out, I find a location to garage the car and the right deal. Anyways, I bought a rally red with no sunroof for $743 under MSRP. However, the dealer offers free maintenance for a year, so if you take that into account I came close to reaching my goal of $1,000 under sticker. I could have got a lower price if I was more flexible on colors and mileage on the car. In fact, another member on evolutionm.net offered to drive me down to Knoxville, Tennessee to purchase EVOs there for for $500 over invoice (or $2,253 under sticker). An approximate 24 hour round trip drive was a bit too much for me!
My experience was mixed with the Mitsubishi dealer. The salesman was a pretty good guy, but the Finance Manager was a different story. They initially offered me a 3.9% interest rate based on my credit score (i ran the reports myself the week before and had another dealer do it, but the deal fell through). While closing the deal, the Finance Manager has this concerned look on his face and says "we can't offer you that interest rate because your credit score is under 700" (I didn't believe this, but I neglected to bring a copy of my credit report) . He said we use Experion and Transunion had you at 718. I explained to him the negative factors impacting my credit was a credit card bill that I didn't pay on time by mistake (didn't know I had it since the bank on my Visa Card changed from First USA to Bank One) and that they were now paid off, but the payments aren't showing up on the credit report yet. I showed him the last 5 months of my bank statements that clearly showed I had funds to pay the bill (10-15:1 ratio of cash to "unpaid bill"). Coincedentally, he offered me the same rate as People First (4.99%). Luckily, my father was there to drive me down and he wrote a check for the difference between the down-payment and cost of the car. When we returned home, I promptly withdrew that amount from a fixed income mutual fund of mine to pay him back. I figure the Finance Manager cost his dealership $1,649 of interest income over the loan from his shennanigans.
The he tried to sell me a $160 window etching fee claiming it would reduce my insurance by that amount each year!!! I promptly called my insurance company on my cell phone right there and they told me itd be like $10/year!!!
I have only driven it home from the dealer so I will have to hold off on comments on the car for now.
My experience was mixed with the Mitsubishi dealer. The salesman was a pretty good guy, but the Finance Manager was a different story. They initially offered me a 3.9% interest rate based on my credit score (i ran the reports myself the week before and had another dealer do it, but the deal fell through). While closing the deal, the Finance Manager has this concerned look on his face and says "we can't offer you that interest rate because your credit score is under 700" (I didn't believe this, but I neglected to bring a copy of my credit report) . He said we use Experion and Transunion had you at 718. I explained to him the negative factors impacting my credit was a credit card bill that I didn't pay on time by mistake (didn't know I had it since the bank on my Visa Card changed from First USA to Bank One) and that they were now paid off, but the payments aren't showing up on the credit report yet. I showed him the last 5 months of my bank statements that clearly showed I had funds to pay the bill (10-15:1 ratio of cash to "unpaid bill"). Coincedentally, he offered me the same rate as People First (4.99%). Luckily, my father was there to drive me down and he wrote a check for the difference between the down-payment and cost of the car. When we returned home, I promptly withdrew that amount from a fixed income mutual fund of mine to pay him back. I figure the Finance Manager cost his dealership $1,649 of interest income over the loan from his shennanigans.
The he tried to sell me a $160 window etching fee claiming it would reduce my insurance by that amount each year!!! I promptly called my insurance company on my cell phone right there and they told me itd be like $10/year!!!
I have only driven it home from the dealer so I will have to hold off on comments on the car for now.