Going in to dealer to sign off on RX8 tomorrow. I need your final approval.
 

After running around like a mad man for one week, the best deal I was able to find was to lease the car for 2 years and do a buy out after that. According to the salesman, lease incentive is about $4500 and dealer is putting in $1000 to get rid of the 2005 RX8 models.

Here is the break down :
RX8 is stickered at $31500 (GT with spare tire)
Initial payment including first month payment =$1600
24 months x $335.24 per month = $8045.76
Buyout after 2 years = $18285.00
Tax on $18285.00 = $1508
Finance for 5 years($18285+$1508) x 9%APR = $1781
Total cost after 7 years = $29592

I am ready to go with this and sign the car tomorrow unless you folks strongly disagree. I don't have alot of cash to make a deposit nor wait around god knows when for 0 APR or $5500 cash back incentives on RX8.

I just read somethinga bout Zoom Zoom rebate. How does that work and how can I get one?

Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appriciated.

Thank you in advance,

Nedor
(I must have spent 1 week of research on Mustang vs 350Z vs RX8. I am going with RX8 because of its uniqueness and among many others.)

LOL, I ran around like mad for 8 weeks and turned down about 20 deals before I bought.
I never considered how leasing means paying less sales tax when you buyout at the end. Hmmm.... shrewd.
Interesting. I got a Mazda incentive on a 2004 of $4000 off invoice, not off MSRP, plus the dealer threw in extra $$ too. I'm sure Mazda has some nice incentives on the 2005s now. I'm sure you'll find a good deal, but if the dealer says he's pissing blood he's lying.
I can't make your numbers add up:
$31,500 MSRP/sticker
-$4,500 lease incentive
-$1,000 dealer cash
= $26,000 final price
-$1,600 (signing fee and 1st monthly payment)
-$7,710.52 (23 additional payments of $335.24)
=$16,689.48 remaining buyout cost

Somehow my estimated buyout cost came out ~$1600 lower than yours even though I only counted 23 payments of $335.24 (because you said the $1600 due at signing included the first payment and I still assumed a 24 month lease).
You must attend a Zoom-Zoom event and they're all past. I didn't get a Zoom Zoom or Gerber or any other special program rebate. However, most of the people on this site bought their RX-8s before Mazda started offering discounts off MSRP or selling below invoice so don't worry about not being able to use old rebate programs. You'll be able to do well enough without them.

I still say not a bad deal at all.

if you work on the dealer im sure you can get the $500 off for the zoom zoom rebate.

From reading this forum I thought the Zoom Zoom rebate was a certificate the buyer filled out and sent in to Mazda and you could only get this certificate by attending a Zoom Zoom event. How could anyone who has not attended a Zoom Zoom event get the dealer to provide it? Do you mean just getting the dealer to throw in $500 more dealer cash?

I think there is an error in this calculation involving finance charges.

Initial Payment $1600.00
24 months x $335.24 = $8045.76
Buyout after 2 years = $18285.00
Taxes = $1508.00
Finance over 5 years = $4859.20
Total Cost after 7 years = $34297.96

Monthly payment for loaning $19793 over 5 years is $410.87 using a loan calculator.

( $410.87 * 60 ) - $19793 = cost to finance

Hope this helps.

I don't come up with the same numbers as you do, but I'm willing to accept that your numbers are based on what you've been shown/told by the dealer.

In general, buying out the car after leasing it is ONLY advisable if you know that the resale value of the car at that point in time is going to be MORE than the buyout price on the lease. Even then, you have to be able to secure decent financing on the purchase price of the buyout, otherwise you're just paying more money on the interest and losing the difference between the buyout and the resale value (and the whole point behind buying the car at the end of the lease). 9% APR financing for 5 years after the two year lease is up is awful, if you ask me.

Just lease the thing for four years, have your fix with this RX-8, and then get something else at the end.

You actually get hit twice with sales tax with a lease- once when you lease, then once when you buy. When you lease a car, the leasing company is basically purchasing the vehicle and then renting it to you. They have to pay sales tax on the initial purchase- it either comes out of the down payment you make, or it gets figured into the lease price. So I'd say the shrewdness is on the side of the government ;-) (that's another topic- I hate sales tax on used cars!)

Nedor- $339 is definitely a cheaper monthly payment than you would get if you purchased one at $5k-$7k off MSRP with $1600 down. Your plan is definitely one way to go about it, it just depends on your situation and what you are more comfortable with doing. Also, you can still find zoom zoom coupons- they are worth $500 off. I hate to say go to ebay, but it looks like they are going for about $50 there- probably worth your time & trouble to go get one (search for Mazda 500).

Thank you all for the reply.

I went and made the deposit today and I am due to pickup the car tomorrow.

I was at the dealer for more than 3 hours and Eric whom first quoted me the price answered all my questions. I know I got a great deal but if I didn't, Eric's professionalism, courteous service and customer's respect makes up for everything. For some reason, the old tv show 'American's Greatest Hero' theme song was going around my head when I was walking out of the dealer.

I was originally considering a silver GT with spare tire package but I got brave and took the blue GT with spoiler that was sitting in the show room. I also upgrade to MP3 player, alarm system and tinting for $752.12. Eric kindly threw in mats and cargo net. I also upgraded 12k per year mileage to 15k per year. That drove up the monthly payment a bit but buy out price went down by $200.00.

Summary:
6 speed, GT package, spoiler, spare tire and 15k miles per year lease program with $4500 lease incentive and $1000 dealer incentive.

23 months x $362.40 = $8335.20
Initial payment $2503.95(first month payment, upfront taxes, MP3 player, tinting and alarm).
Buy out price = $18056.50
Tax on buy out = $1489

Total = $30383 plus finance charge after 2 years for buy out.

Insurance with Gieco at $1450 per year(considered very cheap for Queens NY)

I just have to wait 18 more hours to insert the key, warm up the car and drive out of the dealer's parking lot. Thank God Eric gave me the owener's manual to keep me busy until than.

/salutes
Nedor

Dude you got ripped off. Of course the dealer was nice to you. You were a "soft sell"

Hey, that's uncalled for. If you really think he could have done better at least break it to him gently. However, I think you're completely wrong. His grand total of $30,383 includes NY state (plus county and city?) sales tax (8% total in my county) plus calculated interest in his loan. If you back those out his actual purchase price is closer to $26k which is quite a good deal for a car that loaded - especially since he dropped in a few last minute options he wanted.

nedor - Welcome to the club. Get some pics of you and the car for this thread and an avatar then do your homework (read *all* of the sticky threads about oil, gas, tires, etc). I'd also recommend getting the PoLak graphics RX8Club.COM window decals too. Whenever you take your car for service you'll want the dealer to understand you're 'one of those damn forum people' and that you'll rat him out to 21,000 fellow RX-8 owners if he gives you and your car bad service. :)

damn you guys pay a LOT of tax. if the cars actual price was 26K its ok then I guess. But I was assuming a TTL of about 1.5K in which case his deal isn't that great.


All those last minute options jack up the price too like the car alarm etc.

Yeah, try 3.0k TTL. 8% tax plus fees *sigh*. I bought three brand-new cars during the years I lived in Oregon (no sales tax, all vehicles paid $40 to license for 2 years - none of that value-based registration b.s.). Then I only bought super-cheap beaters during the 8 years since then. Finally decided to bite the bullet and pay the extra for the car I really want.

Remember, he's got interest figured into his final cost too - that's additional thousands of dollars, but it's not tax.

I don't think anyone's ever posted tax and interest in their price because those figures vary from state to state and from person to person (financing vs. cash). However, most people are so vague about their pricing and discounts ($$ off invoice or $$ off MSRP and incomplete options explanations in their pricing boasting) that I just ignore it.

I'm sure Nedor had a tough time sorting out all of those incomplete price-boasts and probably took on some extra anxiety thinking he left a lot of money on the table.

Nedor, dude, you did fine. You'll get more than $362.40/month worth of enjoyment out of yours. 7 years to pay it off seems long, but if you plan to keep the car the whole time and you have gap insurance then it doesn't matter at all. I'm not well enough off to swap cars every year or two myself. I wrote a check for the TTL and financed the final price of the car for 6 years. I'm happy with my payment and my car.

I recieved a phone call from the dealer today asking me to drop by tomorrow around noon because the MP3 player they received was not for RX8. Sigh...

Nedor

Patience my friend, patience. I was crushed to have a deal fall through on a used RX-8 on September 10th because another buyer turned up with his checkbook just before I did. Then it turned out I found a brand new RX-8 for only slightly more than the used one. Good things are worth waiting for.

However, I do recommend to watch your dealer carefully. If they clown around getting the MP3 player and don't do a good job with providing a service record for the car (check for replaced plugs, etc) then you may want to find a different dealer to service your car after the sale.

I live in Oregon. I love not having the sales tax. Makes it a lot easier for me to afford this car and do all the other stuff I still like to do, assuming I have time. Right now you have to do a four year licensing when buying a brand new vehicle and I beleive I was quoted $96 for that.

hemanrulez, how come you seem to think everyone is getting ripped off??? What kind of deal did you get on your car including your sales tax, since I see you live in Seattle, about three hours north of me, and I know you have sales tax, which (lucky me) being from Oregon I don't have to pay taxes on anything I buy in Washington. It seems like you think the dealer should be taking a loss on the car or something so you can get a good deal. They do have to make a living too, cover expenses, pay the utility bills, all that good stuff. They aren't doing this for free.

Yeah everybody gets ripped off at dealers. Its very very tough not to cos in most cases ppl dont even know how to negotiate a price down cos they dont even know the deals going on.

Read this nice story on Edmonds.
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying...2/article.html

You for example paid more than you should have cos you went through Costco. You could have saved a couple of grand or more on the car you bought. I thought I did post on another thread how you were overchared. Now that may not be a ripoff for some (for me paying 3 grand more on the same car is a ripoff) but if a dealer can overcharge $3000 off every car sale he can make a nice profit. Remember car sales are hurting and dealers are happy with the holdback they get and trust me they are not starving. The salesman are the ones who are starving. All they get it maybe $100 per sale or something like that. I know cos my roomate is a car salesman. Money for dealers is not made on the front end (car sales) these days, they make money on the back end (service, finance, bad rates, extended warranties, underpaying employees)


I'll also try to post something nice I found on another site about car sales.

About the deal I got, I havent yet bought my RX-8. Im gonna get one in 2-3 months when the 06's come out. I also just got outta school and am on my first job so I'm still repaying all my credit card debt.

OT: I was in Portland last night, just got back to Seattle at 3am today morning. Was there for the U2 concert which was freaking awesome. :)

I wasn't eligible for any discounts because they were all for 2005 models and I have a 2006 coming, which is why I was very happy with what I could get. I might be able to get a first time buyer discount, though, but I am not overly worried about it.

Yeah the 2006's arent expected till March-April or beyond and Mazda will def. have some dealer cash on them at that time. Right now all the RX-8's on the lots are 05's.

So long as you are happy with the car and the price, thats all that matters. I've heard lots of horror stories rip-offs from my roomie so I know it happens all the time. If ppl are happy spending 3-4 grand more on a car then good for them.

I was happy with my $5,200 off of MSRP. It doesn't matter to me if I could possible save another $3,000 by waiting until March. I'd be losing out on the time I have driving the car. I can't believe that I waited until November to buy. I'm so totally in love with my car, I wish that I'd have bought it sooner.

I was told actually that my RX-8 is being built right now and I should have it around the end of January or early February. Have the order number on it and everying, just not the VIN number which is not available until it is sent out for shipment. Ordered it November 22 and was told 8-10 weeks from Mazda headquarters barring any further plant catastrophes! I had been told that Dec. 14 was the production date. I guess I will just have to wait and see. I hope it is the end of January date since it is my b-day present. I don't want it to be an Easter present!

Yeah I've never seen a car salesman/dealer lie in my life too!! :)

BunnyGirl, I understand you are new to this forum. Look around, there is a thread regarding the 06 RX-8. Trust me you will not be getting any new 06 RX-8 on your birthday

I've read all the threads here. I know what people keep saying. This was the information I was told from Mazda headquarters. I started out with an email to customer service to ask when they were coming out and how to do a special order. They referred me to someone else in the company to talk to. She filled me in on all the holdups and what not, and then provided me with the information for my sales manager to contact a specific person to set up and arrange my order. The dealer did not give me the specific dates on when my car would arrive, just that they were hoping it was soon. It was the person I spoke to a headquarters who gave me the dates and the building schedule. I figured they would probably know a lot more about it than the car sales people. I also thought it was a good sign that on the two cars the dealer was alotted as a first shipment for being a MAZDASPEED dealer that one of them was too late to change the specs because it had gone to final build order and was a done deal basically and the other one (now my car) went into that state two days later, as I was since informed. After my order I was notified by headquarters of the Dec. 14 date.

I don't know if they are full of it or what, but this is the information I was given from headquarters. Maybe it was wishful thinking on their part??? I just don't know. I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens.

BunnyGirl, that sounds like too much detail for them to bother making it all up. Hopefully it's all/mostly true and your car is on its way.

Thanks! That was what I was hoping!