I asked this in another thread, but no bites. I stopped by my local DC area dealer yesterday and asked when the 05s were going to be available, and I was told it wouldn't be until December. When I mentioned that I had heard reports of 05s on dealer lots in CA (as evidenced by the numerous reports of white 8s by members here) he said that CA was different and it wouldn't be until December that they made their way out to the east coast. Can anyone confirm or refute this?

 

While I'm not sure that much lag makes sense, it does make sense that the west coast gets the cars first. They are built in Japan and boated over, then have to go via truck/rail to other destinations in the US. I could see that taking a while for the cars to propagate throughout the country.

I'm sure how fast you get new cars is based on sales numbers from the previous model year as well.

 

It's BS from the dealer.

Scions were an entirely different case - Toyota chose to only market those in a couple of states last year, before expanding the dealer network. Mazda does NOT restrict supply of models anywhere. The 05s will come to ALL dealers within a 2 weeks span, as distribution channels (ships, trains, trucks) do their thing.

What that dealer is doing is lying to you. He wants you to think that you want to buy an RX-8, but if the 05s are not available until December, maybe you'll buy one of the many 2004s that he currently has in stock. He worries that if you know he's getting a truckload of 05 RX-8s next week, you'll wait, and he'll have a tougher time selling his existing stock of 04s.

Many dealers, from all different makes, pull this same crap every year at this time. I've heard the same thing from potential Miata buyers over many years - "My dealer says the new Miata won't be out until December", when the new Miatas are already hitting other dealers' lots in September!

Regards,
Gordon

 

Soooo ... the 05's should be showing up soon then? (prays)

 

Concerning ports of entry, the early shipments came to 2 east coast ports - Jacksonville and Jersey City, and 2 west coast ports - Tacoma and Hueneme (So. Cal.). I assume that is still the case. The east coast ships go thru the Panama Canal, so they may be delayed by storms, or the Bermuda Triangle.

 

Mazda customer service can tell you when cars are coming and where (''04 or '05, on the boat or not)
A dealer can change an order that is in their database to any (within reason) configuration you want as long as it hasn't reached a certain point of manufacture
I know this because when I went to buy my '04 I asked him about ordering an '05. The dealer showed me his orders and what he could do.

 

I was just at my dealership getting the M Flash and a detail, and saw two new '05s on the lot.

 

I have ordered a white 2005 in Toronto, Canada.....

I have been told production will be in late September and I will receive my car i the last week of October or First week of November.

I have been offered a Mazda6 to hold me over if I need it.

 

When I was buying my 8 in July, my dealer said 05s come in late August - this was in MD. They'll be there within weeks, just give it time. The dealer may not put them up for sale though, trying to sell 04s first.

-arattle

 

I live in DC and bought mine at Rosenthal Arlington Mazda. it's an 04 and i bought in late july. when i went in for a test drive, they had 4 RX-8's sitting on the lot, but none in the exact model I wanted. When they told me that they did have the one i want, but it was on an auxillary lot 4 miles away, they offered to bring it up for me to testdrive. I asked if I could go down to that auxillary lot, and I did. To my surprise, they had about 40-50 8's down there! no joke, it was like a sea of 8's in every color/model. I could not believe they had this much inventory, and I took that into account in my negotiations and used it as leverage and got a great price.

BOTTOM LINE: if this is the dealership you went to, they NEED to get rid of those 2004's!