JeRKy 8 Owner

To keepa long story short I wouldhave to pay $6000 if I swapped my automatic for the same exact car but in 6spd. I would do itif it werent for the fact that I have enough lovefor my wallet and the comfort of my automatic itself to stop me from wanting totake such a big hit. Hell I could savethe 6 grand for later and probably get some typeof F/I at somepoint andId have the same comfortable easy to drive gas guzzlingautomatic but w/better performance than a manual except w/o warranty.

Im sure you manual ownerswould probablytell me to go take the hit so I could "own the real version" of this car butI got to test drive the 6spd again and while I may love how muchbetter of a performer it is than my automatic - that increase in control and power certainly isnt worth 6 grand.



If you have time heres the whole story---

After getting my car serviced on Monday I stoppedinside the dealers showroom to seeif my salesman buddy I originally gotmy car from was around just for a chat. I foundhim and he immediately started joking around w/me about how well my "girly automatic 8" was holding up. At somepoint he conceieved some **** an bull sales pitch abouthow all the Rx8s on the lot were being sold now at near invoice since 2005s are arriving ina few months and insisted that I should consider ditchingmy automatic for a manual. Instead oftelling him to go uck himself like I normally do I went along w/his bs b/c I was curiousto see how much theyd actually giveme for my automatic which is 9 months old and almost has 12000 miles on it and a door ding on both sides.

We found an exact clone of my automatic Sports Package Rx8 in manual. My vehiclewas appraised whileI took one of their 6spd Rx8s for a spin --goddamn I was reminded again of how much quicker they are-- and before Iknew it they had another one of those dreaded sales sheets in myface. The manager offered what he claimed was a very generous $23500 formy car as a trade in w/one of those "only b/c youwere a former customer" bullshit lines. The MSRP ofmy car is $27600 but whenI bought mine they werent selling Rx8s below MSRP anywhere so I paid closer to $29000. I mentionedthis but they didnt seem to give a damn.


The 6spd Sports Package hasa $26211 invoice and $28400 MSRP so I hada grin stuck on my face for a few minutes b/c looking back atthe MSRP of my car it seemed like I would only take a 4k hit for a brandnew 6spd which I suppose isntthat bad considering the 12000 somewhat abusive miles on my automatic.

That wasuntil I realized they werent really doingme any favors at all. Unfortunately the greedy bastards didntactually give a **** that I was a former customer at all and theyhad actually computed the invoice price of the 6spd into their offer for my trade in so allthey were really giving me formy car was $21500.

The sales sheet listed $28400 - $23500 for my trade and after +++ --andhidden dealer fees of course-- the final figure shot up to over $6000. They chopped thatdown to a flat 6k and wouldnt budge.

Im very happy w/my automatic andwill not dare lose that much moneyfor it just to get thesame thing in stick so I didnteven bother putting up much of a fight. I justpointed out that they lied about giving me a "former customer" trade in deal in addition to the invoice. Their rebutal wasthat no other dealership will give me even $21000 for it and that they haveto make a little profit at somepoint. On the way out I remindedthem that they "must have forgotten" about the profit they made last summer whenI had bought the automatic from them at full MSRP.

Perhapsif I could find a dealerthat will giveme $23500 for my car AND actuallysell at invoice I could endup getting the same car in manual for only 4 grand. Eventhat is somewhat of a hit to take for a differentversion of the samething but at least its a bit more reasonable. Whenits all said and done I stillhave doubts that Id actually dosomething like this. Regardless Im still disappointed about their lack of loyalty.

Lock & Load

jerky 8 Owner

The salesmans advice to go with a manual isnt a bad one as your automatic 4 speed will soon be replaced with a 5 speed Automatic when this happens the residual value on the 4 speed auto will drop like a bag of potatoes .

Maybe the sales guy was indirectly telling you to save you money in the long term .

Every magazine article thats been written about the rx8 here in Australia has told buyers to keep away from the 4 speed Automatic RX8 .

cheers
michael

Yanje

quite true. the 4spd auto would be worth less than that next year. so if u wanna stick with that car, its all fine. however, if u do wish to get a manual some point in the future, then it just might be worth it

jonny

I"m going to hold on to my automatic until its paid for--or nearly so--Yeah the 6spd is wonderful--but not worth the extra $$ if you can't afford it (myself). I'll wait until I get my doctorate to get something faster.

Green Thunder18

Since your dealer suggested it, maybe he has a customer that wants an automatic, and he only has 6spds left??? He could sell your auto to that customer for a slight discount due to the miles, and sell you another 8. Maybe he'll still call with another offer.

Arnaud

If you like yellow, this fella wants your auto:
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=29182

Todd Green

if you could see my budget you would say i practically cut my ***** off and gave them to the salesman when i paid an extra grand for the 6 speed... once again... this is a performance car... i just dont see the point in automatic, but thats just my $0.02

cortc

I always tell everyone who is planning to buy a car when it first comes out, don't! It is the worst time to get a deal... I saw people walk into our dealership and pay 2-3k over MSRP only to see the car worth 2-3k under invoice 6 months later... You over paid for the auto and already took a big hit so you are better off just keeping it and calling it a day...

beachdog

The same rules apply to this potential transaction as any other. Negotiate one point at a time. Go into a different dealer. Don't even drive yourself there in the 8. Pick out the car you like and negotiate to buy it. Leave. Go a different day and negotiate your trade. Like the deal? Go for it. Don't like it? Walk.

Never negotiate the purchase and trade-in at the same time.