tasteslikechicken

Mazda is offering a $1500 customer rebate and a $2500 additional rebate if financed through MAC.

For those of you who got the $2500 rebate, what interest rate were you given and how (generally) is your credit?

I'll almost certainly pay off the loan pretty early but would like keep the option open if the rate is low enough.

TIA.

subduedracer

You need to get your financing some place other than the dealer! Thats also how they make money on the deal. If your credit allows you to go to your credit union or personal bank, do so! The dealer with add one to three points in % to your loan. For example. If you have a 650 FICO score and they can go through one of there lenders at 5%, they will add 2% to that and charge you 7%. They make more money on the deal besides on the front end profit on the car.

tasteslikechicken

In order to qualify for the $2500 rebate you must fincance through MAC.

I can get 4% through my credit union, but that don't get me the $2500 rebate. How soon could I refinance the MAC loan?

Kewlb

my FICO was 698 and I got a rate of 7.1% (pretty much the same rate Bank of America offered me.)

You can always get your loan, ensure all rebates go through, and just refinance with another company a few months later.

subduedracer

They same week. I would go for the $2500 rebate and then refi with you credit union.

subduedracer

I am at 4.625% ON MY 8.

dwynne

I don't see where they have $1500 customer cash. On the MazdaUSA web page it says "up to $3250" - $2500 MAC money and $750 customer cash. It does not ask for a ZIP code or anything - that is what comes up. Maybe there is $750 factory to dealer money on these left-over cars and than adds up to the $4k number everyone is quoting?

Others have reported that the financing is simple interest with no pre-payment penalty, so if they stiff you with a bad rate you can get a new loan and pay it off. Rates in general are high right now, so I would bet MAC would be close. Also keep in mind that if you DO refinance you will not likely get the "new car rate" - so might end up paying 1% or more extra to re-do it since you will getting the used car or refinance rate.

Dennis

MrMethane

I did the MAC to get an extra $1,500 off my car. They said I only had to stay with it for 3 months then I could pay it off without any penalties. The lowest rate they said they could give me was 6.9%. I have near perfect credit and I know I can get around 4% eslewhere but the difference in paying 6.9 for 3 months as opposed to 4.9 is still low enough to make it worth it for another $1,500 of the car. So I did it and I'm waiting to make my first 3 payments then I'm going to refinacne through a separate credit union.

dwynne

Contrary to what the MazdaUSA page says, I did find that:

Mazda is doing:

$1500 Customer Cash or 3.9% APR for 12-60 months
+ $2500 Customer Bonus Cash if you finance with Mazda America Credit

So you finance with MAC for 3.9% and get $2500 off the car

Take their other rate (maybe 7%?) and get $4000 off the car.

Or take $1500 off the car and do your own financing.

Say you get a 6mt w/NAV and GT for $26-27k, so we will say $29k out the door.

At 4.89% (Captitol One online rate) this is $545.81 or $32,748.33 total payments. But since you didn't do MAC, you have to borrow $31,500 so this is $592.86 and $35,571.46.

If you go for the 3.9%, then you have to borrow $30,500 since you took the discounted rate. This would be $560.33 and $33,619.71.

So we can cleary see, bringing your own financing is not going to cut it.

So you do non-promo MAC and get 7%, so you only borrow $29,000. This would be $574.23 and $34,454.09

If you are not going to re-finance post MAC, you are better off getting the 3.9% and paying $1500 "more" for the car.

If you do 7% MAC and then refinance - I used the 6.05% online C1 rate. Then you do 3 payments of $574.23 and then borrow $27,777.71 (payoff assuming no penalties after 3 payments to MAC) which would be $537.67 and $32,260.02 . Add the $1722.69 (3 payments) to the $32,260.02 = $33,982.71 .

Not that much difference between this and just taking the 3.9% rate.

Obviously, if you have a credit union that will do a refinance cheaper than 6% then this would change - or you have a higher FICO and MAC gives you a better rate than 7%.

You just run the numbers and see which way works out best.

IF they were offering me 7% MAC and I was doing the deal (with no credit union) I would take the 3.9% and let them keep the $1,500. But everyone's deal will be different.

Dennis

Rxcler8tion

dywnne where did you find this information?


Or take $1500 off the car and do your own financing.

dwynne

That is supposed to be the South East region promo right now. The MazdaUSA page does not mention the cheap money and has the customer cash at $750. Edmunds no longer keeps up with "old" incentives, and KBB is out of date.

Someone should confirm what I was told their their dealer and let us know.

Dennis

Rxcler8tion

i'm in the south east and would definately be interested in finding that information. that would save me some $$$$. any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!!

dwynne

I was just going by what I was told - $1500 for not taking the cheap financing. It COULD be if you asked them about 3.9% of some other discounted rate (and let them keep the $750) that would have worked as well.

Where did you get your Gerber "proof" to show them? Or did they just not realize they were supposed to ask for it? I see folks posting they were turned down, and the Gerber form says to bring the ad with you to redeem the $500 coupon, so I am thinking it would be a huge YMMV to get the $500 off w/o the ad. Over in the Gerber ad thread folks are asking for a scan of the ad for just this reason.

Dennis

Rxcler8tion

i didn't go through mazda financing as the'yre rate was much higher. i ended up getting 4.9% for 60 months. not bad but my credit is pretty good too.

dwynne

On a left over 04, not doing MAC will cost you $2500. Surely their rate was not THAT high? As someone said, you could always take the MAC and refinance after 3 months.

On an 05, it would not matter.

Dennis

dutinsimms

I went thru mac in Jan 05 on a 04 rx8. i recieved the rebate $2500 and approved @5.9 thru MAC

MrMethane

See that's what I thought originally but when you do the math your actually losing out. I got a $2500 rebate for finacing through Mazda, I had to take 6.9% but I can pay it off in 3 months. In 3 months I'll refinance for 4.9% through a credti union. So I'm actually only paying 2% more interest for 3 months. A little math tells me that I'm actually saving money this way because I get the rebate.

I'm financing about $18,000 after trade in and down payment. So 3 months interest on that at 4.9% is about $220. 3 months at 6.9% is about $310. There for its only costing me $90 more to fincance through Mazda for 3 months at 6.9%, but I got a $2,500 rebate which I wouldn't have got otherwise. In the end I'm actually paying $2,410 less than I would have if I didn't fincance through Mazda at a higher interest rate. Also keep in mind that my principal is lower because I got the $2,500 rebate, so I'm actually paying less interest as well right from the start.

dwynne

Edmunds has a discount finance VS take the cash calulator here:

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/calc/Cal...intro_calc.1.*

It sort of works in this case, but you have to put the high rate in for market rate and the credit union rate in for the low rate. In this case, it says "take the cash" (6.9% w/$2500 off VS 4.9% with $0 off on $20,500 or $18,000 borrowed). The difference is $30.34 per month for 60 months, which is $1,820.40 over the life of the loan.

If you are going to refinance it is a little more complex. You do 6.9% for 60 months the payments are $355.57 per month. At the end of 3 months you owe $17,239.43 . You borrow this amount from the credit union at 4.9% for 60 months. This makes your payments $324.54/mo for 60 months or $19.472.40 over the life of the loan. So doing it this way means you pay: (3 x $355.57) + $19,472.40 = $20,539.11 total and take 63 months to pay off the car. The refinance saves you $795.09 over the life of the loan.

One thing to keep in mind: The credit union may offer you 4.9% for a new car from the dealer, but may not offer you that rate on a refinance - even 3 months down the road.

Also a lot of banks and credit unions say that after the end of September or October any left over cars now fall under the "used car rates" .

For example, Capitol One (used to be PeopleFirst) will do 4.89%/60 months on a new car and 5.29% on a used car - but only offers 6.09% on a refinance. At this rate, you would only save $32 to refinance - so not worth the trouble.

Dennis

jaguargod

I got all of the rebate cash on my '04 (sticker was in the low 31's and the price I got was in the high 26's), and financed at 7.1% with MAC. The Mazda finance manager told me that no one would even finance the RX-8 except MAC. When my credit union got the payoff on my trade-in, they called to inquire why we had not gone through them. We told them that the price was only valid if you financed through MAC. He said that sounded pretty shady. Anyway, he refinanced me at 4.625% before I even got my first bill from MAC. Plus, my insurance dropped to about $373 for a 6 month policy.

dwynne

I have read the MAC loan contract (since I have not done the deal), but others have posted there is no prepayment penalty as long as you keep the loan for 3 months. If you paid it off right away, sounds like MAC could hit you with a penalty......

Dennis

jaguargod

Even if they do try to charge me a penalty, I will fight it, because the finance manager lead me to believe that I had no other option but to finance through MAC. He told me that the only people even financing the RX-8 were MAC. Not to mention that I haven't even gotten a copy of my contract yet. My dealership had to send my paperwork to a parent dealership for final approval, and I have yet to get a copy, and they neglected to tell me in the paperwork session that there was a penalty for an early payoff. They are more than welcome to try and make me pay, but me actually doing it is another thing altogether.

AvatarQAZ

60 months. 5.9% rate (talked them down) with the FULL warranty included. 756 credit score surely didnt hurt my bartering chips.

scottmhr1

uhh, 4.49% through credit union, good credit rating, no need to haggle

dwynne

First off, he is right in that the only way to get the discounted deals is to finance with MAC. Maybe that is what he meant ?

Of course, if you really thought that no one would finance an 8 why would you buy one? If that were really true, it would be time to look at different car - I would think.....

Dennis

dwynne

No MAC financing on the 04, no $2,500 discount.

Dennis