DFW RX-8 buying experience
11-13-2003, 12:10 AM
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DFW RX-8 buying experience
Please excuse my somewhat random swapping of tenses as some of this was written before I bought a car, and some of it afterwards.
A quick history:
I lurked around the forum for a bit at the beginning of the year when I had first stumbled over info about a new RX. After a couple months of reading I filed my new info away and drifted off. Then about 2 months ago, when my Honda had paid it's dues and need for a new ride mounting, I came back for more lurking. Way back in my high school days for a short while I owned what I think was an RX-3 or MX-3; not sure but it did have an rotary and what a beater it was. My only other experience with rotary Mazda's are through a couple car nut friends, who in turn have car nut friends that are big 7 heads who probably spend way to much money over at Rotary Performance. I've also been to a couple drag racing events with said car nuts and seen quite a few of their FD’s run.
Cars I initially considered:
RX-8, IS300, G35C, Mazdaspeed Protege, S2k, 330 coupe w/ performance Package, CL Type-S, SRT4, WRX, and EVO
Ultimately cars like EVO, STI, and MSP got the cut pretty quickly, as they are just a bit more sport and boy racer than I want while generally lacking a few interior aspects. The S2k and similar cars (Z4/Miata); while I have no doubt are a ton of fun to motor around in, a small 2 seater is just a little too unpractical to be my only car. I had planned on driving the 330 but having friends with similar BMWs I have had enough experience with them to know the price to value ratio just isn't there for me. Plus there really are enough bimmers driving around north Dallas.
Town North Mazda (Richardson):
I stop in Thursday night, talk to a salesman for a couple minutes, and setup a time to swing buy on Friday. I tell him I'm interested in driving the Mazdaspeed Protege and the 8. I show up next day, and quickly am behind the wheel of an MSP. In hindsight I believe that I only really wanted to drive an MSP to use as a baseline to compare to the rest of the vehicles I'd be driving this weekend. Perhaps this was a mistake as the salesman was really interested in moving one of those off the lot (even over the 8 which I made clear up front was the car I was more interested in). The actual drives were not great as the standard route was very simple, short, and I really sensed that the sales man was nervous about pushing or tossing the cars at all. The MSP isn't a bad car in the price range, and I think I could get one for several thousand off MSRP as it really seems like they are trying like hell to close out inventory on those. The salesman did ask several times if he could sell me the MSP today and did the old "there is someone else about to close on one now", routine. We shake hands, tell each other we'll be in touch and I head back to the show room to check out the floor model 8. While the experience wasn't bad, it really wasn't great and left me wanting as I just didn't get enough quality time behind the wheel of the car.
Crest Infini (Plano):
Walk in maybe noon or 1pm and am greeted right at the door. With in a couple minutes we're taking off in a G35C. The salesman is obviously much more open to me really testing the car out, so I open it up. I was able to choose my own route and got some quality miles in. After the drive I stop by his office to get the pretty color printed stuff and go through the stay-in-touch routine. Only asked me once at the very end if he could sell it today, and qualified it with "hey, I gotta say it once". A much more relaxed and less hurried experience. The car definitely is a luxury sport car. Since I don't aim for this text to be a full fledged review of every car I drove, I'll surmise by saying I felt overall it is quite a good machine and wouldn’t be making a huge mistake buying one. In the end I don't think it’s the car for me since I just didn't feel as comfortable in this as some other cars I end up driving. Finally the starting price plus the options that most of the dealer stock carried in these parts easily push the price to 36 or 38k.
Park Place Infiniti (Plano):
Head over to Park Place Infiniti walk in, and the 2 receptionists simultaneously ask how may they help me. With in a few minutes I'm with a salesman driving the demo IS300 around. Before I say anything about the car the whole dealership has that energetic euphoric feeling you see in car commercials where everyone is relaxed and smiling while shopping for cars. After a second though that was a little scary. It was defiantly the busiest dealership of the day and the sales experience was very relaxed and no pressure. The service angle and the availability of loners seem to be a strong point. Behind the wheel of the IS I felt quickly comfortable and the route we took while not quite as good as the Infiniti route was much better than the Town North Mazda route. The salesman didn't seem to have any problems with me opening the car up and actually testing it out either. While both the 8 and the IS on paper are similarly priced and would appear to be direct competitors I feel they are fairly different cars. As summed up on another tread the IS is an entry-level luxury sedan with some sport added. And the 8 is a sporty car with some practicality added. While the ride was smooth and the engine a competent performer the IS really doesn’t seem a car that will really excite an enthusiast driver. That said, I did return for a 2nd test drive.
I come home and start really thinking about the IS more, it has the level of practicality I need while having some performance and comes in at a price I like. It also feels like a safe buy from the service and depreciation angle. However, it keeps nagging at me that I really haven’t had enough time with the 8 to make a decision. So at 6pm on a whim I head out to...
Freeman Mazda (Irving):
I get to the dealership, it's pretty slow now and I have to wait a few minutes until a salesman is available since it seems most everyone has gone home already. What had started as warm sunny day perfect for car shopping has turned into a gray, windy, quiet-before-the-storm evening. I start to have this feeling the whole trip is going to go badly since the first couple questions sound like he's checking me out and trying to decide if I'm even worth a test drive. So I skip the small talk and ask to drive one. 30 seconds later we're pulling out of the dealer onto the highway access road where he proceeds to redline through the first 3 gears and pulls off to a less busy street to trade to swap seats.
Oh - thank you.
We take a moderately long drive around some really rough residential streets, some curves (as much as you can find in the DFW area) and some very low traffic straights. I push the breaks, the turns, and while I don't get it going stupid fast I do get a chance to test out acceleration and high-speed feel. Afterwards we spend some time back at the dealership going over the interior and talk about the current inventory. This guy, while I wouldn't call him an expert on the 8, certainly seems to be more interested about his respected car than any other salesman during the day. At this point I've realized just how different the 8 is from something like the IS300, and while I had planned to stop by the BMW shop to try a 3 series with performance package, I don't think I will at this point since I don't see it beating the 8 or the IS compared to the price premium. I'm excited about the 8 again, as it returns to my 1st choice spot. After the lackluster experience and a day to think about it I was worried that the car I had previously been most interested in wasn't going measure up.
To cut all this baloney short I ended up getting an 8 from Freeman. After TTL I walked out of the dealership spending well under 30k total. While I feel that Mazda has made an ugly mistake or 2 with the execution of this release, I just don't feel there is much better out there right now in the price to performance ratio, as long the 1/4 mile time isn’t your number one priority. Over time the forum was certainly a huge resource in learning about just every problem upfront.
As mentioned in other threads Freeman did a pretty good job in not trying pull a fast one as I only paid the purchase price and state mandated taxes, not even a destination fee. The finance department was very willing to take my e-loan paperwork, but I let them try to beat the interest rate, and they did find a loan from a union at 1/2 less points.
Canzoomers work and thread on the ECU has alleviated my worries, or least explained where the missing power has been lost, that it should recoverable. I'll be buying one of the piggyback modules as soon as possible. The cost of that is also factored into my pricing of the vehicle.
A quick history:
I lurked around the forum for a bit at the beginning of the year when I had first stumbled over info about a new RX. After a couple months of reading I filed my new info away and drifted off. Then about 2 months ago, when my Honda had paid it's dues and need for a new ride mounting, I came back for more lurking. Way back in my high school days for a short while I owned what I think was an RX-3 or MX-3; not sure but it did have an rotary and what a beater it was. My only other experience with rotary Mazda's are through a couple car nut friends, who in turn have car nut friends that are big 7 heads who probably spend way to much money over at Rotary Performance. I've also been to a couple drag racing events with said car nuts and seen quite a few of their FD’s run.
Cars I initially considered:
RX-8, IS300, G35C, Mazdaspeed Protege, S2k, 330 coupe w/ performance Package, CL Type-S, SRT4, WRX, and EVO
Ultimately cars like EVO, STI, and MSP got the cut pretty quickly, as they are just a bit more sport and boy racer than I want while generally lacking a few interior aspects. The S2k and similar cars (Z4/Miata); while I have no doubt are a ton of fun to motor around in, a small 2 seater is just a little too unpractical to be my only car. I had planned on driving the 330 but having friends with similar BMWs I have had enough experience with them to know the price to value ratio just isn't there for me. Plus there really are enough bimmers driving around north Dallas.
Town North Mazda (Richardson):
I stop in Thursday night, talk to a salesman for a couple minutes, and setup a time to swing buy on Friday. I tell him I'm interested in driving the Mazdaspeed Protege and the 8. I show up next day, and quickly am behind the wheel of an MSP. In hindsight I believe that I only really wanted to drive an MSP to use as a baseline to compare to the rest of the vehicles I'd be driving this weekend. Perhaps this was a mistake as the salesman was really interested in moving one of those off the lot (even over the 8 which I made clear up front was the car I was more interested in). The actual drives were not great as the standard route was very simple, short, and I really sensed that the sales man was nervous about pushing or tossing the cars at all. The MSP isn't a bad car in the price range, and I think I could get one for several thousand off MSRP as it really seems like they are trying like hell to close out inventory on those. The salesman did ask several times if he could sell me the MSP today and did the old "there is someone else about to close on one now", routine. We shake hands, tell each other we'll be in touch and I head back to the show room to check out the floor model 8. While the experience wasn't bad, it really wasn't great and left me wanting as I just didn't get enough quality time behind the wheel of the car.
Crest Infini (Plano):
Walk in maybe noon or 1pm and am greeted right at the door. With in a couple minutes we're taking off in a G35C. The salesman is obviously much more open to me really testing the car out, so I open it up. I was able to choose my own route and got some quality miles in. After the drive I stop by his office to get the pretty color printed stuff and go through the stay-in-touch routine. Only asked me once at the very end if he could sell it today, and qualified it with "hey, I gotta say it once". A much more relaxed and less hurried experience. The car definitely is a luxury sport car. Since I don't aim for this text to be a full fledged review of every car I drove, I'll surmise by saying I felt overall it is quite a good machine and wouldn’t be making a huge mistake buying one. In the end I don't think it’s the car for me since I just didn't feel as comfortable in this as some other cars I end up driving. Finally the starting price plus the options that most of the dealer stock carried in these parts easily push the price to 36 or 38k.
Park Place Infiniti (Plano):
Head over to Park Place Infiniti walk in, and the 2 receptionists simultaneously ask how may they help me. With in a few minutes I'm with a salesman driving the demo IS300 around. Before I say anything about the car the whole dealership has that energetic euphoric feeling you see in car commercials where everyone is relaxed and smiling while shopping for cars. After a second though that was a little scary. It was defiantly the busiest dealership of the day and the sales experience was very relaxed and no pressure. The service angle and the availability of loners seem to be a strong point. Behind the wheel of the IS I felt quickly comfortable and the route we took while not quite as good as the Infiniti route was much better than the Town North Mazda route. The salesman didn't seem to have any problems with me opening the car up and actually testing it out either. While both the 8 and the IS on paper are similarly priced and would appear to be direct competitors I feel they are fairly different cars. As summed up on another tread the IS is an entry-level luxury sedan with some sport added. And the 8 is a sporty car with some practicality added. While the ride was smooth and the engine a competent performer the IS really doesn’t seem a car that will really excite an enthusiast driver. That said, I did return for a 2nd test drive.
I come home and start really thinking about the IS more, it has the level of practicality I need while having some performance and comes in at a price I like. It also feels like a safe buy from the service and depreciation angle. However, it keeps nagging at me that I really haven’t had enough time with the 8 to make a decision. So at 6pm on a whim I head out to...
Freeman Mazda (Irving):
I get to the dealership, it's pretty slow now and I have to wait a few minutes until a salesman is available since it seems most everyone has gone home already. What had started as warm sunny day perfect for car shopping has turned into a gray, windy, quiet-before-the-storm evening. I start to have this feeling the whole trip is going to go badly since the first couple questions sound like he's checking me out and trying to decide if I'm even worth a test drive. So I skip the small talk and ask to drive one. 30 seconds later we're pulling out of the dealer onto the highway access road where he proceeds to redline through the first 3 gears and pulls off to a less busy street to trade to swap seats.
Oh - thank you.
We take a moderately long drive around some really rough residential streets, some curves (as much as you can find in the DFW area) and some very low traffic straights. I push the breaks, the turns, and while I don't get it going stupid fast I do get a chance to test out acceleration and high-speed feel. Afterwards we spend some time back at the dealership going over the interior and talk about the current inventory. This guy, while I wouldn't call him an expert on the 8, certainly seems to be more interested about his respected car than any other salesman during the day. At this point I've realized just how different the 8 is from something like the IS300, and while I had planned to stop by the BMW shop to try a 3 series with performance package, I don't think I will at this point since I don't see it beating the 8 or the IS compared to the price premium. I'm excited about the 8 again, as it returns to my 1st choice spot. After the lackluster experience and a day to think about it I was worried that the car I had previously been most interested in wasn't going measure up.
To cut all this baloney short I ended up getting an 8 from Freeman. After TTL I walked out of the dealership spending well under 30k total. While I feel that Mazda has made an ugly mistake or 2 with the execution of this release, I just don't feel there is much better out there right now in the price to performance ratio, as long the 1/4 mile time isn’t your number one priority. Over time the forum was certainly a huge resource in learning about just every problem upfront.
As mentioned in other threads Freeman did a pretty good job in not trying pull a fast one as I only paid the purchase price and state mandated taxes, not even a destination fee. The finance department was very willing to take my e-loan paperwork, but I let them try to beat the interest rate, and they did find a loan from a union at 1/2 less points.
Canzoomers work and thread on the ECU has alleviated my worries, or least explained where the missing power has been lost, that it should recoverable. I'll be buying one of the piggyback modules as soon as possible. The cost of that is also factored into my pricing of the vehicle.
11-14-2003, 09:35 PM
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Nice post Phook and congrats on your new 8! I purchased mine from Freeman as well and have had no problems with the dealer and it's service department. It was interesting to see how you short-listed you original car list down to a few and then to a purchasing decision. I followed pretty much the same list and conclusions. Enjoy your new ride and please post a few pics! Since you are in the area, please join us at club RPMs on the first Wednesday of each month. You can search this section of the forum for all the details on that.
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