Arcane

Omi, how are the guys are Lakewood with negotiating? I'm having a hard time with Penkhus...doesn't look like they're willing to go invoice or 200 bucks over. Do you think that price is attainable for a bone stock RX-8 at Lakewood?

Omicron

Dunno, they don't make much at invoice, and so they don't usually want to sell them that way. Do you qualify for the S-Plan per chance? That'll get you invoice price, and no negotiating... be be prepared to get raped on your trade.

Last I was there to get the "L" reflash done and recalls, they had ~18 RX-8s on the lot in all colors. Didn't notice what packages tho. If they're still there (they were talking about shipping some off the lot) that puts you in a good negotiating position.

What you could try is to call Carol, the owner, at 720-449-9900 and discuss it with her. Be sure to mention the Rocky Mountain RX8 Club, it should help.

BruceInColorado

Omicron - now they have ~17 at Mazda of Lakewood.

I went there last week to see if they had any of the RX-8 car covers in stock... they didn't, so I didn't get to see how durable they were. But anyway, at $250 a pop, the car cover had better wax my car and change the oil, too!

Anyway, Arcane - it's been a couple of weeks since your post, so I don't know if you've bought somewhere else - but here's my current take on the folks at Mazda of Lakewood (where I got my Red 8 on 3/25/04): they are nice enough to deal with - I dealt with Hart. No pressure, other than the usual "well, can I write it up?" I'd like to think that they sensed that I knew a little about what I was talking about, and that if they tried the pressure tactic, I would have said "thank you very little" and gone somewhere else. I wish they had been a little more knowledgeable about the options and gizmos - but frankly, there's so many of them on these babies I won't hold it against the salespeople. I got about invoice + $500 (which was after I got them to knock off a couple grand from sticker). But that was for a fully-loaded 8, and there is less room to work with a bare-bones model.

Frankly, I only focused on the red 8's - of which there are now 3 on the lot. One of those was a base model at about $26,500. They had a Yellow, a Blue, a Green, and at least 6 TiG or Silver versions.

Look on their website ( http://www.mazdaoflakewood.com/en_US/ ) for what they have in stock. Right now they list 15 RX-8s - and they took mine off their site, so it looks like they keep it reasonably well updated.

Good luck - and let us know what you do!

COspringsRX8

I am a new member here and from the springs also..I have a black RX8 but i bought it used and it cam out of Cali. Penkus is the only dealer in the springs i know of but there may be one in pueblo. Just wanted to give a quick post to say hi and glad and suprised to see as many CO members.

Omicron

Hey, WELCOME, COspringsRX8!!! Not only do we have quite a few CO owners, but as you've probably already seen, we've also got a pretty active Rocky Mountain RX-8 Club going too! Check out our website at http://RockyMountainRX8.com , and also note that we're having a pretty good size RX-8 meet coming up this June 5th and 6th in Denver. Folks coming from CO, UT, NM, WY, AZ, and NE so far... should be quite an event. If you'd like to join us, just drop us an email at info@rockymountainrx8.com with your real name, email addy, phone number, and color of your '8 and we'll get you on our club roster and mailing list.

Again, welcome... nice ta see ya here! :D

JERCS

I use to live in the Springs! lol, though like 6 years ago

WELCOME D:D

COspringsRX8

kind of funny i think i need to go back to the dealership and get a manual rx8, i just finished reading a post that prety much says my automatic sucks for upgrades..but at the time i bought it used and it was the only one they had

DrFoster

Hey guys, I would be MORE than happy to get you a personal referral and the best deal from my guys at Mazda.

I shopped around from Sil-TerHar to Elway and back across the metro area (EVEN CHEYENNE, FT COLLINS, AND CO. SPGS) until I landed at the best dealership I could find. I paid nearly outright for my car and if I am going to spend that kind of cash, I better as hell get the best guys around...

I can't get you an S or E plan PIN#, but lets save you a few grand on the deal. Heck, who can't save money these days?

Omicron

Welcome! :D

Ok, so I give up... WHO did you get your car from? You seem to have neglected to mention that.

DrFoster

Geez, sorry! From Mc Donald Auto Group. Great bunch of guys, and like I said, I did about 4 moths of shopping around. I have gripes about the other dealers, but not even one from them!

Talk to Tom Stratton in the Internet / Fleet Sales Dept. Mention I sent you over - Robert Foster

Tom Karros Jr. is the finance Manager over there and a RX-8 pilot too. No BS and hassle over there to deal with from these two.

BillK

Interesting...

FWIW last time I did the "call around" thing Sil-Terhar and McDonald were the two dealerships that told me up front that they do not honor S-Plan on the RX-8...

DrFoster

That's a load. Talk to Tom Sletton or the owner's son Tom Junior.

Omicron

Yeah, they tried to tell me that too back when I bought my '8 in October of last year. Turns out it is "dealer discretion" to honor it or not, and they're not likely to on a new, hot-selling car. I found a dealership who was willing to partially honor it, so they got my business: Mazda of Lakewood. Saved about $1500 off MSRP with it.

DrFoster

Mine was around $26k Fully Loaded with nav, tint, clear bra, rotary accents, and on and on, blah blah. Full discounts, no delivery and no dealer fees.

I honestly feel real bad for you guys that fell into the classic car dealer routine of "hot selling car - no deals".... They make tons off of your trade, and even with E plan there is still a bunch of dealer hold-back on the car. ($1500 or so) The dealer shouldn't resort to that straight BULLSHIT line, he is still moving a car and that is how his annual bonus is based, on units delivered, not cash made.

If the dealer doesn't treat you as good as if you didn't even haggle down the price, you need to walk away. You, the customer, should be the #1 guy in the world for the 45 minutes it takes to buy the car.

Never buy into the "Oh, you're E plan..." dismal sounding droll from the manager, while you then go from fast, great, no apathy car buyer, to waiting for over 3 hours, and now you're getting the "special treatment" like some mutt and they're in no hurry to do anything with you.

A quick call to Julie at Mazda, and she verified it, "S or E have to be honored, no matter the car, and if they just gave you a pricebreak on it, your pin # went to another deal to make a ton of cash on a car that carries more mark-up." "You need to find another dealer, and don't bring your trade with you, sell it in the paper."

She sees it all of the time, she told me. They're not as "attached" to just the customer who received it as they make it sound at Ford/Jag/Volvo/Mazda/Aston Martin. In Fact, they're quite "transferrable" to just about anyone.

Like I said, I feel bad for you, and it's a shame in today's modern world, we need to revert to basic scams and word play to make money. That sucks. If I found out that I got robbed for 7K on a car deal, I'd drive the f ucker through the front doors of the dealership!

Omicron

...sniff...sniff... now I'm depressed.

Nah! this car was worth it, and for the time that I bought it, I got a better deal than just about everyone. :D

You make good points, but no use crying over spilt milk.

BTW Doc, you planning on joining up with our little club, and/or coming to our meet?

DrFoster

a: Yes! Sent you a PM - need to know dues too. Can I have a cool Rotary Club decal? LOL

b: Yes, will see you at Mc D's!

BillK

No problem; John Elway Mazda, for one, now honors S-Plan on the 8 so it's not an issue...

Rosco

I'm picking my RX-8 up at 1pm today, Wahoo... or should that be Zoom-Zoom? Since I can't concentrate on work, I thought this would be a good time to join the club.

I ended up going through a broker, though I had a bit of an adventure prior to making that decision.

So here's the melodrama: I requested quotes through a couple online services (Autobytel, etc.) and received a call almost immediately from Ray Green at John Elway. He seemed great at first, not pressuring me and seeming to be knowlegeable about the car. A couple days later, it turned out he didn't have the car I was looking for, about which I was very specific. He had been misleading me about the cars he had on the lot and the prices he could offer them for. In retrospect, I should have asked for the VIN and verified the options against their website. I figured I could trust him on his inventory at least, if not his prices.

After telling him on the phone and through e-mail how poorly I thought I had been treated, I never heard from him again. I was contacted by the general manager, Mike Fitzpatrick, but he made no mention of my experience with Ray. He was slow in getting back to me, so I got fed up with playing phone-tag and just left him a voicemail telling him how dissatisfied I was with his dealership. I never heard back from him after that.

Having no patience left for dealers, I decided to pay the broker fee with someone I had dealt with previously. I didn't get a smokin' deal, but it was much less of a hassle and got 3.85% financing through him, which I thought was pretty good.

So, would you say I was naive? Am I blowing things out of proportion? All I know is I still feel dirty. :o I'm sure I'll feel much better in a few hours.

Had I had found this forum a little earlier, I would have saved myself a ton of brain damage.

Sunlight Silver, MT, Sport package, Spoiler, Rotary accents

Omicron

No way Rosco, you totally did the right thing. There are too many dealerships to choose from, with too large of an inventory, to put up with crap from one of them. I've bought many cars over the years from brokers (not this one tho) and they are good to deal with. And it's ok if you didn't get the bestest deal out there... this car is worth FAR more than even the highest MSRP. It's a $40K car selling for ~$30K, IMHO.

So, WELCOME! Hope to see ya a lot here. Be sure to sign up on our local (Rocky Mountain) club website - link is in my sig - and join up with us! I posted details in the other thread you jumped into here in the forum.

Man, you're gonna LOVE this car! I can sure understand why you're distracted... I was like that for a coupla MONTHS before my car came in. Still am, to some degree. :D

DrFoster

I have dealt with mike and ray... I'm sorry for you...

Please guys, in the future, try to drop me a line on my cell if I can try to get you a good car deal without all of that bs. I don't get anything out of it, except for the thought it was one less consumer getting slammed straight into the tailpipe.

Dr Foster
720-434-6852

Rosco

Well, my wife is saying she wants one of her own now (I think she's only half kidding), so who knows, we may be calling you Dr Foster. Had I only known about you and this site two weeks ago. Oh, well... life is good after emtying 3/4 of a tank on the first half day.