weekendwrench

Has anyone recently purchased an 04 for better than $4000 off invoice? I was hoping to do a bit better since the cars are now over a year old.

Any experiences?

LawFitz

I bot an '04 in CA for 7400 off sticker, which amounted to about $5K off invoice.

New - but it had 400 dealer (a.k.a. test drive/transport miles).

BUT, I failed to consider the additional fuel costs so keep them in mind.

I think I got a very good deal, but I've seen others on here that were even better if they were actually legit. I can promise you that my deal was very legit. Bad mileage and all.

1. Use Mazda's website to check out the inventory of all local dealerships.
2. Find the exact car you want. Flexibility is an advantage if you have it.
3. Call and ask for any one of three people: a. internet sales person/manager b. fleet sales person/manager c. general manager... DO NOT try to negotiate w/a regular sales guy.
4. Negotiate the entire deal over the phone before you visit. Make sure this is the car you want by test driving and working ALL the numbers in advance - DON'T FORGET THE GAS MILEAGE.
5. Walk away with a sick deal.

Remember, it's all about supply and demand. Demand has been low for this car. Supply of '04s will be low soon too if they aren't already. At that point you lose an edge as a buyer, so I suggest you get off your *** right now and act if you want to get this car at that price.

Good luck bro.

BTW, I bot mine about three weeks ago and I luv the thirsty little b*tch.

sdrx8

Bought an '04 last weekend for $7K off of MSRP.

New, with almost 250 miles.

I don't remember exactly what the '04 invoice price was, but based on the MSRP increase for the same package in '05 (manual, touring, accent, rotory badges) it looks like it was about $4600 below invoice, which is right in line with the numbers from LawFitz (I want my $400!).

She is thirsty, but $4.6K will buy a lot of gas, and she is a lot of fun.

BTW, to get that price we had to finance through Mazda to get a $2.5K rebate. The rate is not great (6.9%), but the trick is you are only required to finance $7K and there is no pre-payment penalty after three months.

(edited to add): I just looked up the invoice price as $28474. $7000 off MSRP was $24109, so that was $4365 below invoice.

Damn, now I am down a full $635 to LawFitz!

buweet

Bought my '04 RX-8 on St. Patrick's Day.

GT, spoiler, spare, accent package for about $7,600 below MSRP. I had three other prices on loaded '04's that had discounts from $6,300 to $6,800 (obviously these include the customer cash back and rebate money). The service bulletins on the Rosenathal Mazda website were invaluable to me, got the larger battery, made sure other updates were current. The service manager explained restart procedures in the event of flooding and showed me the fuse to the fuel pump. Regarding mileage, the 190 mi return trip home netted 25 mpg. I hope solid numbers hold in the city.

This site has provided me a world of insight to this purchase. Thanks to all who the enthusiasts on this site.

VikingDJ

You are ony lucky dude to get 25mpg highway. I can barely break the 20mpg mark highway even driving 60-65mph, but it's not my year round daily driver, so it doesn't really bother me.

dwynne

I would say so. I have been offered cars for less then invoice then take off the $4,000 in rebates. LawFitz pretty much diagramed what to do - find the cars you want to deal on, find that dealer's web page and get eith the sales manager's name or the internet sales manager's name and deal with them. There are lots of 04s left if you are willing to travel a bit to get one, so play one against the other for the best deal. You will have to do the MAC thing to get the best price. I think you can go ahead and apply and get pre-approved at the MazdaCredit web page. Then once you decide on a deal, one less thing to do.

Dennis

MrMethane

Mine was more than $4K below invoice after rebates. 2004 MT GT and about every option you can get except the naviagtion system. The sticker was round $33,000 (I don't remember the actually cost so I'm rounding) I got it for around $26,000 after rebates. I think invoice was close to $31k.

sidekick

Got a 2004, yellow, grand touring package for $21k (charged tax on 26k - 5000k in rebates). Had 170 miles on it and built in 7/2003.


I brought it 12th in ny.

Gilley

I was looking for used RX-8's but with rebated like this, it might be better to buy new.

dwynne

You think?

:D

The dealer cost for an 04 with just sports pack would be about $26,400, so less $4,000 in dealer money you should be able to get one for $22,400 or less. A touring pack car would be about $23,500 or so and a GT would be $25k or so.

Some dealers are doing invoice - rebates/money, some are doing invoice - discount - rebates!

So yes, why would you buy a used car?

Dennis

Aseras

got my yellow april 1st, 5900 under invoice.