Attempted to trade my 6 for an automatic 8 with nothing on it
 

My Mazda dealership called me today (Labor Day) and informed me that a blue automatic 8 came in Friday night with nothing on it. I went to look at it, and it was stock as can be: 16" rims, no foglights, and no traction control system. It even lacked a spare tire. Talk about a poor man's RX-8.

Then came the fight. The sales team wanted $9,500 to swap my 6 (only ~6500 miles) for the 8. Then I pleaded with the guy and asked, "This is how you treat someone who bought a car from here in CASH eight months ago?"

After hearing that, the sales guy went into the manager's office and came back with a sheet of paper that had a circle with $8,500 on it and I was still unhappy. I got up and told him I didn't have time for games and to tell his boss the price better be lower than that or I am leaving. Three minutes later, the sales guy comes back, the manager is with him and he tells me all this crap about how my 6's trade-in value has considerably gone down thanks to more rebates that came out and then he commented on my "terrible" 6,500 miles. Finally, he got to the point and said to me: "Realistically, the best I can possibly do for you is 8 for the 8 (he sneers), and that is only because you were a former customer. So how do you want to do this? Finance or cash? "

I did not share his enthusiam and I was outraged. This car's MSRP was only $25,700 and had NOTHING on it, while mine was almost fully loaded and the sticker when I bought it was $23,570! We're talking about a little over two grand based on the stickers and they added six more to that! According to my dealership, my car's value has dropped down to an amazing $17,500 after I paid $21,800 almost eight months ago..

At $5k...maybe 6.. I would have swapped for it but he told me there was no way he could go below 8. "Why should I lose two or three grand on this car when someone else is going to come in here and buy this car for the full MSRP because of how inexpensive it is? There won't be any other base auto RX-8s around town for months, and even if you do find one, I guarantee you no one can even touch this deal I'm giving you. We have to make a little profit here you know or this place would be shut down."

I gathered my things, got up, and responded to that last statement with a very angry tone. "Look, I know you're going to mark up the price of my used 6 and you're going to get a lot more than $17,500 for it. (He tried to interrupt with No we ca...) This blue 8 is nice but it is stripped down and I think you're going to have a very hard time selling it since it has nothing. Here I am, I'm interested, I have the cash ready, but I don't think you're giving me a good deal at all. When you still have this car sitting here two weeks from now like the rest of them (I point to the six other RX-8s they have sitting out in the lot around the 25 or so Mazda 6s encircling them) and you're wondering why it's still there, it's because you didn't swap it for a very generous six grand on Labor Day. Goodbye."

Well I gave it a shot, and it failed. Now unless I win some cash from a radio contest or get some amazing type of bonus at my job, it doesn't look like I'll be getting an 8 anymore.

Sigh...there goes my shot at boosting my sex life.

Believe me, I know you're upset. Everyone is upset when the dealer comes up with a trade value for their car. But it doesn't really sound that bad to me. You're talking about only $4000 depreciation in 8 months and 6500 miles. Maybe I'm weird, but that doesn't sound that bad. There's the old saying, "As soon as you drive it off the lot, a car loses thousands of dollars in value."

You've done considerably more than drive it off the lot. I hate to be a party-pooper, but they were probably offering you a reasonable deal. I would hope they'd be nicer, considering you were a customer and all, but sounds like they weren't willing to deal a lot.

Buying a car and turning around and trading it within one year is not going to be a wise financial decision unless the car is just no good and is costing you lots of money. That's just a fact of life. Sorry.

Find another dealer. There will be one out there somewhere that will do the dead.

If you were smart (not saying that you aren't) you would sell your car outright, then purchase the 8 afterwards...

There is some truth to what the salesman above said. With the rebates, financing, college grad and other special deals they were offering on the 6, (around $4k total) also the fact it isn't selling as well as they had hoped. There isn't much incentive to give you a better deal. A friend of mine just bought a loaded 5sp (hard to find) Mazda 6 with the sport pkg and only 4k miles for $18,000.
Good luck in your quest to find the 8 and the deal you need to swing it.

sell outright
 

I agree...that does not sound that bad....driving off the lot your car loses around $3000 in value. And with 6500 miles...it's sounds about right. In the first two years you buy a vehicle the value goes down quite a bit.......it's tough I know. Sell your car outright....you will get closer to the amount you want! I am doing that wit a 2002 Protege5 w/35,000 mi.(it's 2 years old!)

Sell your car outright.If your msrp was at 23kish invoiced rebbates and holdbacks realisticly putsa it at right around 20k maybe little less for cost.Now subtrct at least 10 to 15% just for being titled and cant be sold as new puts u at 17k ish.He didnt give you a bad deal from a dealership standpoint.sell your car outright for 20 to 21k then youll be where u want to be.

Another way to see how your offer stacks up to reality is to got to edmunds.com, go to the used car area and go through the pricing wizard. You'll really see what your car (and all other like yours) are worth.

I agree with others here that you likely were looking at a pretty decent price for the deal, all things considered, but this will help prove that wrong or not. As others have said the worst thing you can do is buy a new car and then pretty quickly (within a year) turn around and trade it in.

Automatically you'll lose whatever the dealer took as profit on the original sale. After all he has to make a profit and stay in business, and the only way to do that is make a profit on EACH car sale. If we all went back after a year and said, gee... can't I have my money back and get a new one, just take out only depreciation, but I want you to give your profit back 'cause I'm a nice guy, there soon wouldn't be any dealers to go to.

I'm not a dealer, just someone who is a small business person and can appreciate what dealers must have to put up with from people and trying to break then down on pricing.

Good luck anyway, hope you get your 8 eventually. Maybe get one of the buybacks!!

Repeat after me....

A car is not an investment.
A car is not an investment.
A car is not an investment.

Don't think of a car as something you're going to get a return on (you won't), or that you'll get back what you put into it (you won't). Cars depreciate very rapidly (but you already knew that, right?)

I hope you'll be able to get your RX-8 eventually, but don't expect a dealer to just *give* you something because you're a repeat customer. I don't have any great love for car dealers, but they're most definitely out to make a profit on anything they can, and they have every right to expect to.

Sell the car through a private party.. Private sales almost always will get you a better deal than through a trade-in.