We are about to order an RX-8! Anyone have any positve or negative dealer experiences in the Seattle are?

Also, is there any way to avoid Washington sales tax? (I suppose if you buy it out of state, you'd have to pay it when you register the car, right?)

Thanks!

Yeah, don't go to Appleway Mazda. They had 5 cars on the lot and refused to take off the Dealer Mark Up. They tried to tell me that the $1,700.00 fee was to deliver the car to the NW. I called bs and went to Post Falls Mazda who ordered the car I wanted with all the features I was looking for. Treated me well in the process. I also hear good things about Foot Hills Mazda. Appleway has a poor reputation and I know that even when I sent some people their way after buying my Audi from them my referrals were not treated with respect and were given crappy deals. Oh and Appleway tried to come back with a 16% interest rate on a 6 year loan. We got a better deal at PF Mazda.

i didn't by from foothills but when i had some trouble during the pre-order they helped me out. good people there i think.

I got mine through the Costco Auto Program at Lee Johnson Mazda. When all was said and done I paid exactly MSRP for the car. Don't let the dealer do you financing though. I'm a member of Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union. My rate 5% and I have almost no credit history. My previous experience with dealer arranged financing (totaled the last car I financed) gave me a considerably higher rate on a shorter term lower principle loan. The folks at Lee Johnson were helpfull, but they did get a little side tracked at one point. My initial intent was to trade my Malibu for the 8, but since I owe more than the Malibu is worth, I would have needed to finance more than I was approved for. Tom Thoenson (internet sales mgr) kept trying to help me get the extra financing for the trade. I finally had to call him say forget the Malibu, I can afford both, just get me the 8. Once that was out of the way, I had the car the same evening. Tom didn't have any drivers available, so he drove his personal car from Kirkland to Puyallup to pick-up my 8, leaving his car there and rescheduling his appointments for the afternoon.

Hi,
I spoke with University Mazda when I had decided on the options, color, etc. that I wanted. They only wanted to sell me what they had and were not interested in doing much more for me. So I went over to Parr Ford/Mazda with the same requirements. I gave them my requirements on a Tuesday and they had my car for me Friday the same week. I learned afterwards that they did some "horse trading" with a dealer in Eastern, WA., but I was very happy that with the end result.

Well I got mine from Doug's Mazda in Lynnwood and I got it only 100 dollars over Invoice.(No trade in) but I spent about a week to negotiate with them and I did my finance via credit union before getting into final deal.
Anyway, overall they have some room to negotiate. and my experience was good enough to recommend them to you.
BTW, Mine is manual with GT option.

I am actually a happy appleway purchaser. I came in and said I want 1000 off msrp with these options, (no markup),and they gave me 1500 off. I also told them I have been shopping around and found similar deals, to see if they can beat them.
Transaction was smooth, no BS, Nicest car purchase Iv'e made in a long time.

I guess it comes down to the salesman you talk with.

There are Credit Unions offering 3.3% on new and used cars. Atleast thats what I picked mine up with. ;) CJ

I got mine at Ron Tonkin Mazda. I have had a "mixed" experience with them so far. Not good enough to jump for joy and click my heels, but not so bad as to advise folks to stay away from there either. Your mileage may vary.
As for the rate, I got 3.6% and couldn't be happier about it! The Credit Union has been great to work with and the whole process was quick and painless, granting me more time behind the wheel! :D

Portland Teachers? That was my lender. Infact, I've had nothing but great experiences with them. I've used them to buy all of my vehicles that I could'nt afford to buy outright. I'm glad I could go through them again. CJ

Nope. I used Electra Credit Union. Great Bunch of folks there!

100$ over invoice? OMG how did you do it?

Bought mine at Vancouver Mazda/Dodge. GT with Nav AP, and Spoiler. $3,500 under MSRP.

I had a bad experince with skagit mazda in burlinton, WA I went in to see if they had recieved any rx8s in yet(this was awhile back) and a lady i talked said she would call me when they got one in so sounded good to me so I was out of town in oak harbor on whidby island going out of town and went by the mazda dealership and there was a rx8 sitting right next to the road so i stopped to take a look but it was a automatic and was already sold so i couldnt get in it or anything like that but i figured skagit mazda must have one there a bigger dealership and there right next to I-5 so i call them to see if they do and sure enough the did so i go there but the car was still wrapped in plastic and whatnot so i really couldnt check it out so the lady said that she would call me when i could come check it out so im like ok so the next day in the evening i stopped buy figuring it would be unwrapped by now and it was and sitting right in front so im like great so i go to check it and the lady i had been dealing with was busy with a other customer so this other guy is helping me and looking at everything talking to the guy and i ask if i can take it out for a test drive he says no because its the only one they have i would have to work out some numbers first to show i was serious i was like ok lets go work out some numbers so we go in and he puts down 36,XXX and i was like no I want a base model differnt color blah blah blah and they would not work with me on any other numbers other the that 36,XXX a base model is like 26,XXX theres a little bit differnce there and i told him i dont want that car out front and he told me that it would be six months before i could order one since they where so hard to keep on the lots. and all this other bullshit so i just left and went back to OAK HARBOR dealership and got excelent sevice we went and looked a rx8 they had it was the base model and they did not have a msrp markup,but the skagit mazda place did and i was taking a look at it and the dealer asked if i want to take it for drive and wasnt pushy at all and even invited me to come over to the dealership the next day because a mazda tech was going to be there and i could ask him questions and what not so i was very impressed with the service i recieved in OAK HARBOR MAZDA or what ever its called and recieved terrible service at SKAGIT MAZDA

That's quite a sentence.

thats how i do things