RX8Club.com - Salesman tempted me to swap my 12000 mile automatic for brand new 6spd

To keepa long story short I wouldhave to pay $6000 if I swapped my automatic for the same exact car but in 6spd. I would do itif it werent for the fact that I have enough lovefor my wallet and the comfort of my automatic itself to stop me from wanting totake such a big hit. Hell I could savethe 6 grand for later and probably get some typeof F/I at somepoint andId have the same comfortable easy to drive gas guzzlingautomatic but w/better performance than a manual except w/o warranty.

Im sure you manual ownerswould probablytell me to go take the hit so I could "own the real version" of this car butI got to test drive the 6spd again and while I may love how muchbetter of a performer it is than my automatic - that increase in control and power certainly isnt worth 6 grand.

If you have time heres the whole story---

After getting my car serviced on Monday I stoppedinside the dealers showroom to seeif my salesman buddy I originally gotmy car from was around just for a chat. I foundhim and he immediately started joking around w/me about how well my "girly automatic 8" was holding up. At somepoint he conceieved some cock an bull sales pitch abouthow all the Rx8s on the lot were being sold now at near invoice since 2005s are arriving ina few months and insisted that I should consider ditchingmy automatic for a manual. Instead oftelling him to go uck himself like I normally do I went along w/his bs b/c I was curiousto see how much theyd actually giveme for my automatic which is 9 months old and almost has 12000 miles on it and a door ding on both sides.

We found an exact clone of my automatic Sports Package Rx8 in manual. My vehiclewas appraised whileI took one of their 6spd Rx8s for a spin --goddamn I was reminded again of how much quicker they are-- and before Iknew it they had another one of those dreaded sales sheets in myface. The manager offered what he claimed was a very generous $23500 formy car as a trade in w/one of those "only b/c youwere a former customer" bullshit lines. The MSRP ofmy car is $27600 but whenI bought mine they werent selling Rx8s below MSRP anywhere so I paid closer to $29000. I mentionedthis but they didnt seem to give a damn.

The 6spd Sports Package hasa $26211 invoice and $28400 MSRP so I hada grin stuck on my face for a few minutes b/c looking back atthe MSRP of my car it seemed like I would only take a 4k hit for a brandnew 6spd which I suppose isntthat bad considering the 12000 somewhat abusive miles on my automatic.

That wasuntil I realized they werent really doingme any favors at all. Unfortunately the greedy bastards didntactually give a shit that I was a former customer at all and theyhad actually computed the invoice price of the 6spd into their offer for my trade in so allthey were really giving me formy car was $21500.

The sales sheet listed $28400 - $23500 for my trade and after +++ --andhidden dealer fees of course-- the final figure shot up to over $6000. They chopped thatdown to a flat 6k and wouldnt budge.

Im very happy w/my automatic andwill not dare lose that much moneyfor it just to get thesame thing in stick so I didnteven bother putting up much of a fight. I justpointed out that they lied about giving me a "former customer" trade in deal in addition to the invoice. Their rebutal wasthat no other dealership will give me even $21000 for it and that they haveto make a little profit at somepoint. On the way out I remindedthem that they "must have forgotten" about the profit they made last summer whenI had bought the automatic from them at full MSRP.

Perhapsif I could find a dealerthat will giveme $23500 for my car AND actuallysell at invoice I could endup getting the same car in manual for only 4 grand. Eventhat is somewhat of a hit to take for a differentversion of the samething but at least its a bit more reasonable. Whenits all said and done I stillhave doubts that Id actually dosomething like this. Regardless Im still disappointed about their lack of loyalty.