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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Subaru Outback Prices Paid and Buying Experience
1644 messages, Last post on Oct 09, 2008 at 10:12 AM
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Replying to: hoople (Mar 14, 2006 1:36 pm) Thanks for the feedback. I am hoping to hear from the Central Mass dealership towards the end of the week to see if they get any good deals on used 2005 OB Wagons at auction on Thursday. If they acquire anything they could sell in the $17,000 - $18,000 range that's probably the way to go. At that point I'd be saving about $3,500 to $4,000 off of a comparable new 2006. That money is probably better put towards the new roof we need and the new windows we want for the house. If the saving is $3,000 or less a new one is more tempting. I checked Mapquest and Becker in Allentown, PA is about 6 hours from me. The closest Fitzgerald Auto Mall is Annapolis, MD, about 7 hours away. So, if Becker can meet or beat Fitzgerald's best price(including "delivery"), assuming my husband and I are willing to deal with the logistics, then that might be something to think about. But I'll need to wait and see if they respond to my request for a quote. I did check Becker's inventory. They only list MSRP and as far as I can tell they don't have any "Specials" or any sort of new car promotions with an actual list of cars. Although after poking around a bit I did find one notation regarding their car specials due to dealership construction. I guess they need the space. That notation did refer me to their specials page, but all I found there were Maintenance specials. It may be that they've thinned down their inventory to a point where they don't need to price their cars as competitively, or at least not to advertise it as prominently. I seem to recall your saying something about the salesman "holding" the price for you. Was there a time limit on the ad you saw? By the way, did you have a chance to check out Stacy Subaru's Warranty price on a 7 year / 100K, $0.00 Ded? If memory serves correctly the price I was quoted over the phone was $1,530.00 but the price he faxed me was $1,430.00. So you'd be saving approximately $400.00 off of the "Becker" warranty and you wouldn't be faced with the dilemma of whether to actually use the warranty for minor items. Just something to think about. in any case, before you are committed to the warranty I would request a copy of the actual contract and review it thoroughly, for whatever my opinion is worth. At any rate, it looks like you're in good shape now. I'm sure you are relieved. But again, keep us posted. If nothing else I'll be interested to know how smoothly your out of state buying experience goes from here. It could be instructive for me. Good luck. ~Cath
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Replying to: cathmac (Mar 14, 2006 2:43 pm) Hoople, how do you like you Outback so far? Did you have to pay any doc or processing fees at Becker??
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Replying to: steve98 (Mar 15, 2006 4:43 pm) So it looks like a solid deal! I had that quote as well, but the car I got had the HOmelink/compass mirror ($119 cost addition) I pick up the car on Friday. The additional fees are $65 for temp tags and doc's, $10 PA. tire tax. I need to pay my sales tax and registration fee in New Jersey. Hey Cath: I called SOA and asked them to run the VIN for me. Came back as not titled. When she asked why I was checking I gave her the speal about "Price was too good and I wanted to get extended warrenty....yadda..yadda! SOA gave me a big pitch about how great the Subaru xtnded warrenty was, all the features and such. When I told her that I was a 3 time subaru owner (incl the 2006) and that the warrenty was a bit too high a price....she offerd to give me $200 if I send her a copy of the Bill of sale and copy of warrenty. So I again want to thank you for that heads up! This is going so well!!!! I will report back after I get out of PA with my 2006 Outback! Hoop
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Replying to: hoople (Mar 15, 2006 5:31 pm) Refresh my memory, did you get a sedan or wagon? This is the price quote I got from Becker on an Automatic Wagon: "I do not have a low emission vehicle here so I would exchange with a northern tier dealer to get one. The price is $20,999 plus $100 for expenses to swap the car, plus $208 for the price of the (New England) emission gear plus $55 for the documentary fee, and $5 for PA tire tax." Did your price include these incidentals? Also, did you try calling Stacy Subaru on the warranty? If the quote I got is accurate you can save 40% or so which can amount to about $1,000, which is substantially more than $200. Thanks, Cath
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Hoop, So, if I understand you correctly, you can save an additional $200.00 off of the best deal you can find on any genuine Subaru "Added Security Plan"? This would only be my second Subaru but I've had the other one for about 6 1/2 years; does that count? I wonder if SOA warranty would give me the same deal. Regarding your question about what I'm going to do. That involves a very elaborate cost / benefit analysis. I'll try not to bore you with too many details but my beloved 1997 OB Sport fell victim to a flying slab of granite and is a possible constructive total. I'd simply repair it but I have a toddler and a baby on the way and while I've always felt safe in it the thought of getting broadsided with one kid against a rear door really scares me. Now might be the time to move up to a larger car since we'd never get as much money in trade as we would in "actual market value" (ACV) on the insurance claim. If you understand auto claims you'll know I'm using the term "ACV" loosely; nevertheless it is more than "trade- in" value. It pains me to do it since I'd planned to drive the vehicle into the ground. However, I still need to come up with the difference between the amount I get from my insurance company and the cost of the new car. So I'm torn between buying a newer used one and biting the bullet and spending another $2000 on a deal like this. If I simply had the money hanging around it would be a no-brainer since the 2006 has side curtain airbags and it would have another year or so of original Mfr warranty, etc., etc., etc.; but I'll have to give it some more thought after taking a hard look at the budget. Did I mention the house needs a new roof? One other thing does make me think twice. I don't mind a 6 or 7 hour drive to and from to pick the vehicle up but in the extremely unlikely event I wind up with the rare lemon I'm a long ways away from the selling dealer. It would be ideal if I could get a Massachusetts dealer to come close to Becker's price but I suspect that's unlikely. The quoted price of approximately $21,300 is about $600.00 less than Consumer Reports (CR) $21,935 "Bottom Line Price" which is based on "real dealer invoice" and which reflects the $2,000 Rebate and an estimated $774 hold back. Essentially CR has cut out any add-ons such as advertising. As far as I can tell the only charge it seems to include is the "destination charge". I can't imagine there are many dealers able or willing to match that price. If anyone is aware of Massachusetts dealer that might be willing to come close to the $21,300 figure --perhaps a high volume dealer-- please reply to this post. In any case, I hope to make a decision in the next week or so. If only so I can get on with my life. Thanks for the feedback. Whatever I wind up doing, this has been a good learning experience. I'll be checking back to see what you wind up doing on the warranty. ~Cath |
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Replying to: cathmac (Mar 16, 2006 6:50 am) If you don't mind another opinion, do you have a Subaru dealer you are dealing with now? If so, take your quote from Becker and call them up to see what they can do for you. Back in October when I was looking to buy my LLBean wagon I had gotten (what I thought was) a pretty decent deal from a dealer I found through the internet. When I contacted the dealer I go to for all my service in NJ, he beat that deal by $200. It definitely pays to shop around. As several other people have mentioned, Fitz is a good comparison point. I had even considered going down to them, only problem was the dealer I wound up buying from gave me a better trade-in value. I guess that's because their service department did all the work on my old OB. Let us know how things go! Mark
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Replying to: cathmac (Mar 16, 2006 6:50 am) You have a lot on your plate!! Funny, except for the babies!..we are going thru almost the same issues! We are getting estimats for a complete teardown and rebuild on my 1872 farmhouse,we are also getting new windows all around. My lovely bride had a major accident with our 1997 Outback back in October. A slimey SUV ran the stop sign, broad sided my wife and knocked her into a the telephone pole. Wife is fine, car held up well,,,,but insurance considered it a total wreck. I know full well what that means as far as what they are willing to pay. Take it from me, do not accept the first or second offer from the Insurance company. Make a big point that your car was in excellent condition and to replace it with a comparable vehicle would be considerable more that they (insuraNCE) is offering. I addded a considerable amount over the first offer. It helped ofset the price of the new car! FYI Hoop
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Replying to: bat1161 (Mar 16, 2006 11:04 am) You make an excellent point. My problem is time constraints. However I think I may have figured out an efficient way to contact virtually every Massachusetts' dealer by email. Via the official Subaru site I can search Massachusetts dealers, click their site, click contact and then click email. The trick will probably having a sample document to copy / paste from and then perhaps customize it for those few dealers I've been shopping for a used one with. In that email I plan on letting them know that my target price is $200.00 over "real" dealer invoice, specifying that the only add-on in that figure will be the "destination charge". In my mind I've been debating whether to attach a copy of the email from Becker &/or link them to the Fitzgerald site (Fitzgerald prices for a comparable car are about $1,000 more than Becker but I probably need to add the $208 N.E. emissions if not the $100 dealer swap charge). I did make the mistake of using the Edmunds online quote service. I've gotten about three replies in the $23,000 to $24,000 range, maybe more. The numbers were high enough that I wasn't paying much attention. I did test the waters by replying by email to the one dealer that didn't quote me a price but sought more info from me. In that email reply I mentioned $200 over "real" dealer invoice inclusive of destination charge only. I gave them a "ball park" on the lowest figure I have so far, rounding down from $21,300 to $21,000. Can you hear the laughter from where you are? We'll see how that goes. Wish me luck. ~Cath |
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Replying to: hoople (Mar 16, 2006 12:20 pm) Regarding the negotiations with my carrier, they are proceeding slowly for strategic reasons. I don't have the time or energy to argue any further with them unless and until it becomes absolutely necessary. At the risk of ruining your opinion of me I'll tell you that I have a background in insurance claims, with some Auto property damage experience in my distant past; and I think I have probably done the best I can with my carrier. (I will not bore you with all of the excruciating details which include producing receipts for a newer engine with only 20K miles on it, researching comparable vehicles available for sale, checking book value, reviewing Massachusetts appraisal regulations, etc., etc., etc.) I finally contacted the carrier of the at-fault vehicle and they have deemed it repairable. No big surprise since that was my carrier's position at first. Again, it is a borderline total. I was hoping to avoid towing it to a shop for a formal supplement but we finally had that done the day before yesterday. If I decide to push for a total I think I can do better with the at-fault vehicle's carrier since I can always sue their insured. Whereas with my company I would have to go through the time and expense of arbitration, which may be binding. Fortunately for me, my carrier, and ultimately the other carrier, I have been driving our third vehicle, the econobox "commuter car"; so the clock isn't ticking on a rental vehicle. Squeezing behind the steering wheel in my current condition is the closest thing to exercise for me these days besides sprinting for the train on occasion. As long as I can stand the sardine in a can routine I have the luxury of time to aggressively shop for the new "family car" and if I do well enough, possibly repair the OB sport, trade in the econobox and demote the OB Sport to commuter car status. Whew... Did you follow all that? By the way, how much did your carrier increase their original offer? I don't have a before and after figure from my carrier since I made my best case going into it. However, given the age of my car their target figure was basically private party sale ($4,500, or so they say) and with the documentation I provided on the condition of my car the actual offer was basically the low end of dealer retail ($6,200). Of course you and I both know I can't replace the car for that amount and have any peace of mind not knowing the history of the car I am buying. Anyways, thanks for the feedback; and tune in tomorrow. ~Cath |
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