Olorin2

iTrader: (6)

Well, after about 2 months of serious searching, I finally have my new RX-8. I picked it up early Saturday morning. Some of you read my posts about buying an '04, but the dealer who had 5 of them here would not haggle on the price below the $4000 rebate from Mazda. So, I found an '05 in my favorite color, Titanium Gray, at Darcars Mazda in Silver Spring, MD. The car is a 6-spd with the Touring package with 6-disc changer, cassette player (woohoo!), spoiler and Navigation. I really did want leather, but I was having a hard time finding a GT in Titanium around here. Besides, I now really, really like the fabric on the seats. If I grow tired of it, I can always get leather installed.

To my knowledge, they were one of the few dealers in Maryland who had a 6-spd in that color. The price was right, and they gave me no problems when I presented them with the Gerber rebate. I was already driving a Mazda, so I also asked them for the $500 owner loyalty rebate. The salesperson I dealt with was unsure about it at first, but when he looked up Mazda's rebate programs, he saw what I was talking about. Apparently, the current deal is called the "2005 Mazda In-Market Owner Campaign." I don't know why, but it says in my documents that it's only good until July 2005. I thought Mazda always had this, so maybe they just renew the campaign every so often. The only stipulation is that I have to get my Customer ID from Mazda DealerLink... whatever that is. Anyone have experience with this? Luckily, I do have a phone number that I plan to call tomorrow. Overall, I had an excellent experience at Darcars.

I love this car. It is such a joy to drive, and my only regret right now is that I can't really bury the gas pedal just yet. I drove away from the dealership with 5 miles on the odometer, so I have a while yet. One of the first things I noticed about the car was how smooth the engine feels. I've driven several Mazda V6's and I always appreciated those smooth-revving engines. In fact, I still forget to shift sometimes in my MX-3 if I don't glance down at the tach. But the Renesis sounds so effortless from gear to gear, and I just can't wait to take it up to the redline to see what she can really do.

I've put a couple addresses in the Navigation, as well as zipcodes only, and for some reason, it can't find any of them. I think it's too ironic that all of these places wouldn't be in the database. I've looked over the booklet without finding anything, so I'm a little stumped. I plan to play around with it some more tomorrow. Any suggestions are appreciated, of course.

Sorry for the long post, but I have a hard time being short-winded about this car. If anyone has questions about my buying experience, or anything else, please feel free to ask!

cgrx

Congrats !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8is>enuff

Welcome to the club.
As for the seats, If you wind up wanting the leather there's a vendor on the site who may be able to get you the stock leathers cheap, check Mazmart on this site. They part out Mazdas and you may find a cheap set.
As for the navigation, check to make sure you're in the right geographic area - there's different ones (northeast, south, etc).

MazdaRich

Let me know if you figure out how to get the loyalty rebate. Mazda has not helped me with this at all. They just tell me I'm not eligible because I didn't get something in the mail. I did get something in the mail, but it expired a couple months ago.

dwynne

Congrats on the new ride, Hank!

I have heard that Darcars is aggresive on price. Care to share with us how much discount you were able to get?

Also, who is the dealer with the 04s - and are you saying they were doing MSRP - $4,000 or invoice - $4,000? I have talk with a few dealers lately with 04s still, and it is easy to see why they still have them - they are not dealing even on an 04!

Love that titanium!

Dennis

Olorin2

iTrader: (6)

Sure thing. Most dealers I went to agreed to just give me $500 off because I drove a Mazda. They didn't require me to give them an ID or anything first, which is the only negative thing about this particular dealer.

Olorin2

iTrader: (6)

Thanks Dennis! Yeah, Darcars is very competative. MSRP on the car I got is $33,465 and Invoice is $30,529. I paid around $1800 under invoice, assuming the $500 owner loyalty discount can be applied.

The dealer with the '04s is Perry Hall Mazda. They are doing $4000 under MSRP (which Mazda gave them in the first place) and the manager wouldn't negotiate much less than that. The salesguy at Darcars told me that when they had some '04s left, they were selling them at $7000 below MSRP.

dwynne

Perry Hall sounds like a lot of the dealers with 04s still on the lot - stupid

Did you lease or buy? I was not aware there are any incentives on 05s except for the MAC lease ones. So they went $800 under invoice and you added the $500 Gerber and $500 loyalty to get the $1,800 number? $800 is more than hold back, so it would seem they are losing money selling you the car....

Dennis

Olorin2

iTrader: (6)

I bought my '05. If you'd like, check out http://mazdass.darcars.com and look at their new RX-8 inventory. They have (or had) 3 identical Titanium Gray 8's as of last weekend, and I bought one of them. There's a special Internet price on the site of $29,699, and I will be getting a total of $1000 in rebates from Gerber and owner loyalty. This would make it about $1800 under the invoice price for this car with its options. But doesn't Mazda just give the rebate money back to the dealers anyway?

dwynne

Yes, that is correct - but even with the rebates that leaves the price at $800 under invoice which is more than hold back .

The other thing I was going to ask was this a "0 mile" car or a demo? I have seen some well below invoice prices on demo cars.

Anyway, I have a call and e-mail into them to see wassup.

Congrats again.

Dennis

Sigma

There are rumors, and judging by the deals people are getting there must be some truth to it, of some factory-to-dealer cash floating around out there, which is why people are getting anywhere from $1000 to $2000 off invoice depending on purchase or lease. It's probably a regional deal right now.

He mentioned that the car only had 5 miles on it when he drove off the lot. So it wasn't a demo.

Olorin2

iTrader: (6)

Actually, I thought I read that people on the forum were getting fully-loaded '05s for less than what I paid, which kinda surprised me. But around here, it seems like others were paying more than those on the West Coast, for example.

And as Sigma mentioned, there was only 5 miles on this car, with plastic still on the seats and on all the plastic interior parts! The other two Titaniums had less than 10 miles.

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

congrats on the new car! excellent price!

and uh, your name is Hank too? what a coincident, my name is also Hank! also with a Titanium 8!

we may have some double identity issues in the future if we meet lol :D

- the *first* Hank with a Titanium 8 :D :D :D

dwynne

They e-mailed me back and said "This price already include all incentives" which I thought sounded strange.

Did you bring your own money (cash, check, or financing somewhere else) or use MAC? It seems strange they could do that price if I brought my own money. That is what I e-mailed them back to ask them since I can normally do a better-than-MAC rate elsewhere on a loan. No reply, yet. I also asked them what about the $2k in MAC lease cash - since their price less $2k would make a SWEET lease. Somehow, I don't think that will fly

I saw some ads when looking around where dealerships will list incredible prices, then in the fine print it says you have to finance with them, be a recent graduate, and maybe even quality for the owner loyalty rebate. Kind of deceptive advertising since the words "college" and "recent" do not belong in the same sentence where I am concerned. For $500 off, I may have to get mine in my daughter's name

Dennis

Olorin2

iTrader: (6)

Well, something needs to be done, because I'm used to being the only Hank in a car forum. :D

That's quite a coincidence about the color too! There's a good chance we'll meet at some RX-8 meet in the future, since we're in the same general area... at which time we'll deal with the double identity issue.

Olorin2

iTrader: (6)

I had my financing ready when I walked in, and I brought a check from the lender. Mazda offers $1000 cash if you go through them, but I declined because I got such a good rate through another bank.

They also asked me when I graduated, but since has been almost 7 years since then, I couldn't get the rebate. Oh well!

By the way, I had my first conversation at a stop light with someone about the car. A guy yelled from his BMW 5 series and asked if "those were actually doors in the back". I happily confirmed it for him and he was very impressed with the rear seat room... and said "Enjoy the car, very nice!".

I imagine I'll be getting stopped often about it. :D