Colorado Car Dealerships
 

I'd rather put this here than the dealership forum, but feel free to move it if need be. For those in colorado, which dealership did you buy from?

Omicron, i know you went to Mazda of Lakewood. I'm currently working with Ray Green on trying to find my Base Model Black RX-8. However, he doesn't seem too familiar with the accessories I want. (Mazdaspeed Body Kit and Interior Night Lights)

Just wondering if anyone could recommend other dealerships in the colorado area? Preferably ones that know what a mazdaspeed body kit is. :)

If I were you, I'd focus on getting the base '8 you want, then order the Mazdaspeed body kit from Trussville or Rosenthal Mazda here in the vendors section. Most dealerships won't be able to get the car that way... that's more of a parts department kinda thing.

As for finding your car, doing a vehicle search shows John Elway has one on N. Federal Blvd for $26720 sticker. Comes with nothin but a cargo net, not even the sport package. Here is the link.

Other than that one, I find John Elway also has one with a sport package and nav for $29780, Gateway has one with the touring package only for $29480, Burt has one with the sport package and spare tire kit for $28275, Penkhus has one with the sport package, appearance and rotary accent packages and 6 CD changer for $29489 and another one with sport package, rotary accent package, and front/rear splash guards for $28089, and finally, Dale Spradley Mazda in Pueblo has one with the sport package, Nav, Appearance and Rotary accent packages, 6 CD changer, and the rear wing spoiler for $31744.

Ain't the intenet wonderful? ;) I got all these off of the "Search Inventory" tool on Mazda's website found here. This inventory is always a bit out of date, as cars get sold and it takes a couple of weeks to update, and also they show on the dealer's inventory long before they arrive from Japan, but it at least gives you a starting point. Go to Ray armed with this info and he'll get you the car - or you can walk. He will always try to sell you what's in HIS inventory, of course, but will rarely let a sale walk because he doesn't want to hassle with the paperwork of getting the car transfered to his inventory. If he won't do it, let me know and I'll call the owner of the dealership for you and that'll solve the problem. :D

Hope this helps!

I got mine from Bob Penkhus in Colorado Springs, via the internet, Bruce treated me quite well, and gave me the best pricing by far of any dealership between Cheyenne and Denver. I am probably going back to them for my wifes car. Oh yea, and he delivered it to me. :D
Just my $0.02. :)
-Doccable

Omicron, I did the search a while ago and found some of the cars you listed..but I'm very picky about what I want, and am not willing to budge at all.

As for ordering it with the body kit and interior night lights, that's just so I can finance the entire thing into one lump sum instead of getting a loan for the car and putting the accessories on my visa...

doccable, i tried getting one from Bob Penkhus but Bruce didn't know what any of the accessories i wanted were nor did he think they really existed...haha..

i'll keep looking but, thanks for all your input guys..maybe i'll have my 8 before the meet and be able to go!

You could probably have your dealership's parts department order the Mazdaspeed stuff from Rosenthal or Trussville, then include it, and installation, with the purchase price of your car. Just a thought. Be sure to let us know what you do! :)

i'm trying to get them to order from them, but Bob Penkhus said "no, it's ok. we can order it ourselves." the problem with that is they charge 1000 bucks more for the kit. i'm gonna try to work the system to get me a fair price on the car...if i can't, i'll send you a pm and maybe you can use your connections to help me out!

Sounds like a plan. ;)

Hey, that dealer is near me.. did you just work with them
through the internet and then picked up your vehicle, or
did you talk with a salesman? heard hit or miss about them.

Doccable, while I was waiting for my red RX8 to arrive at penkus, I saw your car show up and sit on the lot for a few days with a sold tag on it, I am pretty sure it had to be yours since it was the only one I saw go through there with the apearance package and spoiler. My experience with Penkus was so so....The only complaint I had was that there is a serious lack of communication within that dealership and the salespeople are not trained well. I contacted Mazda about it and got all the hoo ha we're sorry jargon and that was the end of it... I kind of want to be mad at them for some of the things they did (long story, can cut and paste letter to mazda, if anyones interested let me know) but I guess that's just the way it goes with car salespeople, they'll never change.

anubis email me and I give you some details on penkus exprerience and maybe save you a little headache. All in all I would probably buy from them again, but I now am now more educated and know what to ask beforehand. Anubis If you head down there ask for Joe Daino (salesman) tell him Ben Fox recommened him because I have put him through a rigourous sales process and he can now handle any customer that comes through the door. :)

We'll I guess I have to write about my issues with Penkus at this point as your all probably wondering what the heck went on....It really was a miscomunication between me the sales manager and the salesman.....I went in january and put down a deposit of $500 to order a new loaded RX8 (every option you could possibly get with except for the trunk organizer)... I thought that I would be getting a car off the assembly line built specifically for me, and was allowed to believe this by the sales manager (Nancy) telling them that I was in no hurry to get the car and they said it could take up to 3 months, no problem I said...she said fine and then said she would place the order for the vehicle the next day to Mazda. this was Jan 7th 04.....Feb. 27 they say hey your cars here come get it, I say woohoo....head down there to pick it up and for some reason it is missing one the options I asked for, no problem the dealership says they order it and install it later. I agree give then another $6000 cash and close the deal. Then when I get home I see the production date on the door jamb is 11/03, how did the car get built before I ordered it. I contact mazda and they track the vin and say the cars been in the U.S. since 12/15/03....hmmmm.... if the cars been here then they never ordered it from japan.....and if that's the case that explains why one of the options was missing.....and the hardest part for me to swallow is that let's say I would have agreed to take this car that was close to what I wanted but not exactly, then why did I have to wait over 6 weeks for it if it was already in the U.S.?......then they say they won't install the missing option and I would have to pay for it when they wrote up a "We Owe" sheet on it when we closed the deal. I may be a little more picky than the average human and pretty anal about things and everyone reading this may be thinking that right now. but I always had this notion of getting a brand new car built just for me right off the assembly line from beginning to end....just something that would make you feel a little special for dropping $35k+ over the next 5 years for. Dashed becuase someone didn't tell me that they were going to wait to the last minute to find me a car that was close to what I wanted and already built sitting around somewhere in the U.S. for 3 months. I am also getting thank you letters and touch up Paint from Mazda north america for a grey Mazda 6,(contacted mazda n.a. and they said they'd get me the right touch paint and welcome package for my red RX8 in 6 weeks, puh!) And one last item...they charged me too much sales tax. like $1200 too much.....they corrected the problem but I had to go back down to the dealership and redo the paperwork.

Like I stated earlier, I would do business with them again, but I now know what to look for and what questions to ask etc.... so I hope this will help someone else's buying experience beforehand if they happen to be ordering one from the factory.

Wow, quite the diatribe. ;) You might consider breaking this kind of thing down into a few paragraphs so our eyes don't cross as we read... :D

As for the thing with the dealership, it sounds to me like they either got one off of another dealer's lot, or possibly got one of the cars coming to them as part of their "allotment" modified to meet your needs. The end result of you getting the car you wanted was the same, but it seems they "misrepresented the truth" to you. This may have been on purpose, and it may have been out of sheer ignorance about how Mazda was going to handle distribution of the new models like the 6 and the RX-8.

(By the way, I also have a 6S and an RX-8, as do a few other forum members here. :))

At any rate, welcome to the Mountain forum, and RX8Club.com in general. Glad to see ya here!

So has anyone talked to you about the local Rocky Mountain RX-8 Club yet? :D

No mention of the Rocky mountain club....do you guys do any track days at second creek or pueblo? I race here in CO and see the miata clubs there quite often practicing, and I have a good friend who races miatas pretty successfully locally. I am anxious to test the limits of my car in the proper environment of a race track.

Hey Fox Performance, thanks for the info! When I'm ready to go
Ill take you up on the email! Since I can get a discount on Splan,
I cant take anything lightly! I got taken on my present deal on a Suzuki Aerio, and like you said, opened my eyes wide open. I
have no problem driving to Littleton where Omicron got his if they
treat me right or any Co dealer for that matter (excuse to drive) So at the moment paying as much as I can to get
out of my current deal, and learning more about the 8 as I can.
Heck, I havent even taken a test drive yet, and I haven't been
excited about a car since my old Miata Jade!

We'll have our first track day on June 6th, which is the second day of our main Rocky Mountain RX-8 Club meet, June 5th and 6th. :D If you'd like to participate in this and other club activities, just send us an email with your real name, phone number, screen name here, and tell us about your RX-8... and you're in! Right now there's no dues, altho that will be changing. Our email address is in my sig block, as is our current website.

We'd love to have you!

We'd love to have you in the club too, Anubis - whether you've got an '8 or not. :D Instructions above.

And Mazda of Lakewood has been great... I feel comfortable recommending them. I now know the owner pretty well too, so if you have any problems, we can "address" them. ;)

Thanks Omicron, thought I had to have a "8"! :) I sure will be
envious of all of you that have one! And you got a deal when I'm
ready to get my goddess!

You're on. :D Or, you can join us now.

I purchased my car on the s plan as well and it pretty much cuts to the chase, because there is only one set price for the s plan and the dealer is not allowed to deviate from it, so it doesn't really matter where you get the car from (I checked other dealerships) the price will be the same, a very nice savings I have to say....

Like I stated mine was a special circumstance and there was miscomunication with them...but I'd by a car from them again now....especially after they corrected their own mistake on the sales tax, which they way overcharged me for....when they could have done nothing and I would have never known the better.....

I live out of city limits 3.9 % tax rate, and they charged me inner city tax 6.4% plus state tax....and I honestly am pretty much a bean counter but I had never purchased a new car, and did not know that if I lived out of city limits then I didn't have to pay the city tax.

If you want they will let you have an RX8 overnight to test drive, they let me take one for the weekend and that pretty much sold the car on me....

Joe Daino offered me it and at first I was hesitant but then said what the H*** if there offering why not.

not sure what they have in stock right now or what your looking for but they had quite a few to choose from.

Take it easy

ben

Nice, Ben. I too bought my car on the S-Plan... sorta. Turns out the dealerships don't "have" to honor it, and when I bought my car in October, the '8 was so new I was lucky to find anyone who would sell it below MSRP, to say nothing of the S-Plan. But they split the difference with me, so I still saved ~$1500 off MSRP.

are you sure they don't have to honor it?....I was under the assumption that if they didn't it would be discriminating.

I'd have to say that there was no way there were going to turn me away considering most of the dealerships I went to in Jan when I started looking, all had no less than 15 cars on the lots and we're probably ready to make a deal no matter what.

oh by the way I signed in on your guest book on your web site

Yup. I checked with Mazda corporate when I initially had a hard time finding someone to honor it, and they told me it's "dealer discretion." But you're right, with 15+ RX-8s sitting on the lots now, they'd be crazy to NOT honor it. Timing is everything.

Oh, and you're all signed up for the club too. :D Welcome!

Thanks Omicron, you beat me to it. The Dealership doesnt
have to accept your Splan, so definitely looking for a good
dealer with solid maintanance history, and customer service.

After I get my 8 plan to have it for a loong time unless the 7
comes out.. but that depends!

Well so far, I've got nothing but good things to say about Mazda of Lakewood in all the areas you mention.