Xenophanes

The Mazda people are jerking me around with financing. They are telling me one thing one day and something completely different another week.

How much did you guys put down?

eclps0

i put 2000 down in cash for ordering the car and then paid cash on the rest of the price of the car . so i have no payments on my car i just have to pay for insurance.

Xenophanes

Ok... I know someone is going to post and say, "It depends on how much you want your payments to be."

I know this..... what I mean is.... how much (minimally) will they let someone walk out of there with a new RX-8?

Genom

Hate to be the one tot ell you, but depends on your credit history. I have a very small credit history since I just moved to this country 5 years ago, and my largest credit card was only 5 grand. but I put 14 thousand down for the car. If I had tried to walk in and put down 2 grand they woulda laughed me right out of there.

8th1der

I put zero money down here! Gonna pay it off in a few weeks though.

tribal azn2

just buy the car straight up.

TuPaK

why didnt I think of that? <insert sarcastic smiley here>

Boccelli

I did a 10,000 trade in and a 250 down payment. Spending the next 60 months making my 380 a month payments, joy joy.

RX-8 Zoomster

In all due respect, am I missing something here for me to understand why you don't know the answer to this?

The answer is 0 dollars.

Whether you walk in with 100% cash or an approved loan for 100% of the purchase price, the dealer will get their money. They will give you the car. I know of no car dealer that will hold your car for ransom for more than the purchased price as long as they have their money.

Now if you financed, the loan terms with your finance company, along with what you want your payments to be, will determine how much your down payment will be with them. Which you already stated you know. Don't want to put nothing down (if your loan company approves it), then naturally your payments will be higher.

Xenophanes

See... this is what I thought.

WTF?!?

I think that the sales people are making judgments about my finances. Arg!

I worked for a credit company for a while and I know that I have a MOP1+ credit history.

These F-in' bastards. That's it. I'm going to another dealership.

Squidward

why don't you shop online for a loan first?

then you'll have some numbers for them to beat..

that's what I did.. I found a loan for 4.2 off Etrade Bank.

Mazda offered me 3.8 at the signing to get my business.. At that rate, I was perfectly happy to oblige...


btw, to answer your question, I put down 13000. My car was around 38k out the door (GT+Grand touring+7/100k EW+taxes&fees). My monthly pmt is 459.99 x 60.

mmjames

I had just walked in when it had been discovered that a mistake on a pre-order had happened on someones order. So I told them I wanted it, and I put down $500.00 to hold the car. They held it for two weeks until I had all the cash. I signed one contract for one payment minus the 500.00. Credit was not an issue, because I was not financing the car. I guess it depends on how you are financing it, also.

OmegaBob

My car is supposed to be here by teh second week of Sept. I'll be putting down 21k and will prob finance the rest through Mazda or my credit union (which ever gives me the lower rate)

Xenophanes

So.... I went back again. (Yeah... stupid me .... I know).

We ran the numbers. They said we didn't need a downpayment with my credit history, however, the payments are friggn crazy (600something). Also they insulted me with the financing rate 6%!!!!!!!!!! 6%!!!!!! WTF!!!!!! That is insulting.

Also they were going to screw me with my other car. They were going to try to give me 7000 for my trade in!!!! ONLY 7000!!! WTF!!! They are going for 10-11 easy.... not to mention my mods... which could fetch me another grand or so from some kid wanting a soup'd Mustang. I'm pissed off..... I guess I'm not very good at the "car game".

So.... I walked out of there. Arg! I think I'll go to another dealership and see what happens.

devMan

You have to be careful when doing this though. If you apply for too many loans on-line your credit score will drop because you will have so many inquiries against your credit file.

Squidward

[QUOTE]Originally posted by devMan

You have to be careful when doing this though. If you apply for too many loans on-line your credit score will drop because you will have so many inquiries against your credit file. [/QUOTE

Yes, this is probably true..

That's why I said, "shop around".. Not apply for every loan you see..

But being approved for 2 or 3, even 4 loans isn't going to affect your credit rating... It's being rejected by too many (more than one) that will affect it negatively.

First and FOREMOST, consider your credit rating.. If you have excellent credit rating, assume you will get the BEST possible rate from the loan vendor, otherwise knock it up half a point. If it's really bad, maybe a whole point or even two.


Anyway, here's how my shopping went:

1. First, I did the logical thing--I went to the bank that I had my previous car loan with (Chase Manhatten). That way I am currently already set up in their online banking system and can monitor/pay my loan with ease, along with the rest of my Chase accounts. Anyway, the lowest rate offered on their website was 5.29. I made a phone call to the loans department to confirm this and they discovered an error with their website, saying the lowest they offered was a 5.44. (They adjusted their website a couple of days later). 5.29 wasn't bad considering my previous loan was at 7.99% for my Audi TT back in August of 2000..

2. I then visited FirstEnt.Org (credit union) on a tip from a co-worker. They were offering 4.75. Not bad at all.

3. Then I thought let's do a Google search for "low rate auto loan". First link that appeared was PeopleFirst.Com (Capital One). I found they offered 4.49%. Even better than the credit union! (Note: You only get the lowest rate with the condition that you set up automatic payment with them).

4. Then I thought, how about my brokerage trader, Etrade Bank? They are internet based and should offer excellent rates right? They offered 4.2%. Great!

5. I checked a few other sites, and found the Etrade site was the lowest. After 3 hours of loan shopping, I reached the point of diminishing returns. It was eTrade all the way.. I applied and was immediately approved.



So... I did all of this a day or two after I made my first visit to the dealership to see the car. I knew I wanted the car, so all I need to do was get my loan. Another two days pass and my car arrives. I come in on Saturday to fill out papers, and pay for the car. I tell the finance manager up front that I was approved for a 4.2% loan at Etrade Bank. He said since I have excellent credit, he can beat that by a significant margin, and offered me a 3.8% rate offered through Mazda Finance.. I asked who underwrote the loan, which he replied either through BofA or Chase. I okay'd the deal and had him run the loan through Chase.

Should I have continued to call eTrade and do a bid war on the loan? No way. Not worth my time.. They bested my shopped price by almost half a point.. That was good enough for me

ViviMiamiRX8luv

OK...I walked in the dealer just to "look" at the RX8 because I've been WAITING to see the car live & in person. MISTAKE...I fell in love with the one in the showroom. I still had a leased car with 7 months left on my lease. I've been leasing cars for years, but I guess I had never returned one earlier than a month or 2. (This will become clearer towards the end of this.)

My credit is 758. I gave them $2600, they paid for the last 7 payments of the leased vehicle. Basically, I viewed what I did as getting the car w/no downpayment. I considered the deposit equivalent to giving them the $ to pay the remaining payments of the lease which came out to the same. (I had to pay the 7 months anyhow.) The car was financed, and I'm paying $550/month at 48 mths/12K miles, and they had already offered me the free oil change for the term of the lease.

Was I "had?" Should I return the car to get a better deal? Let me clarify, I love the car!! It is using more gas than I had anticipated...twice as much as my previous car..but I am having fun with it.

Remember the leased vehicle part above? Well.. the dealer will not let me return the car without a major penalty for early termination. Mazda has agreed to hold onto the original car until I can return it "at maturity" which is within 5 months.

I am still responsible for the previous car until Jan 2004. I'm concerned that it's just sitting in the Mazda lot, but if it gets stolen or "whatever"...I'm responsible.

YES...I was ignorant, impulsive, and "blinded" by my DESIRE for the RX-8. I KNOW...I KNOW... but now what? Any comments?

I thought of asking the dealer to pay for the insurance on the car that is sitting in their lot (would be about $800) or somehow give it to me in writing that they are responsible for it - OR - I return the RX8.

Is it really an issue for the actual dealer for me to return the RX8? I know they are not buying it back anyhow... but I get "the feeling" they would prefer I keep it.

Thanks for any help!!

I still haven't decided what I'm going to do, but the fact that I'm stuck with Car #1 is disturbing...

Xyntax

Here's a good Calculator/Simulator for your car loan financing plans:

http://www.myfico.com/myfico/CreditC...s/AutoLoan.asp

very useful tool!

racerx7

All the new cars I ever bought I put zero
down. Most car loans have always been
cheaper than any other kind of loan
(home, credit car, personel loan, etc..)

2002 wrx
1999 4runner
1994 rx7

Just go to your credit union or bank and
by pass Mazda all together.

Babbler100

I just put a post about this on the thread on dealers in the DC area but thought I would mention it here too.

Xeno was mad about 6% I was offered 6.9%!!! My credit card has better rates than that! I have an excellent credit rating and can't believe they tried to convince me that was a good deal. They also gave me a totally insulting trade offer for my '93 626. Granted this car is 10 years old, but it has new tires and breaks and Kelly says I should be getting about $1300 for it. The dealer offered me $700!!!!! What a joke. What about brand loyalty? They even had the cheek to say to me, "wow your car is running great"! The dealer I went to was really priding itself on selling at MSRP but hell when they gouge on everything else they have nothing to be proud of!

Evilrulz

I went with the lease option myself. I was trading in my MX5 (clear title, 96 w/ 45k miles) and they offered me 369 a month lease for 12k miles. I had no intentions of buying the car then so I told them no thanks. I wanted to wait and shop around. He asked if there was anything they could do to make it happen today. I said no, but make 1 final offer and ill hear it, no more BS or haggleing just a damn good offer. After several minutes he said, 1000 down and 299 a month. I jumped on it, so will be picking up my new RX-8 with GT package and Nav on wednesday. Blue book on the car was 4400, they gave me 6k in trade and dropped the car price some in the end. MSRP on it was 33.1, I believe im paying 32.1 for the car and gettting 6k trade in.

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

For those who do own a house and can do it: why not get a home equity line of credit and use that money to finance the car? The rate is usually very good and the interest is tax-deductable. It certainly seems to be better than paying even 4.25% and not being able to deduct the interest at all.

BillK

This is, IMHO, stupid, stupid and oh yeah, stupid unless you are 100% certain that nothing could ever, ever affect your paying off the loan.

Why? If you fail to pay a conventional car loan, they will repo your car. If you fail to pay a home equity loan, you get a lien put against your house and you could conceivably lose it.

This is standard financial wisdom; never jeopardize your home for a car...

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Thank you for this enlightening post and calling me stupid.

Had you understood and read properly what I wrote, you would see that what I meant is exactly: if nothing could ever affect your paying off the loan. I said: if someone CAN do it. For me, this is not someone who is stretching to be able to pay off a 30K loan. I was merely talking about making a loan more worthwhile by deducting the interest.

I, for one, will use this method (in case of deciding to finance at all) because even though I could pay for the car in cash, I'm better off investing the money elsewhere and after interest deduction, pay maybe 3% net interest for the loan. I'm sure I can do better than 3% profit by investing.

Oh well. This might not be for everyone of course.

And I do agree with your statement that one should NEVER jeopardize their house for a car.