Mazda CX-7 Prices Paid and Buying Experiences

I've seen a lot of you guys post that you are getting offers of $7,200 off MSRP. Where are you getting this? In south Florida the best the dealer is offering me is $3,000 under invoice. $7,200 off MSRP would put this car at around $16,500 on the sport...
 
I ask because I'm in the market for one, and I'm looking for the best deal.
 
The best I've seen so far: $20,000...

Replies to this message:
• derrickson (Oct 19, 2008 5:55 am)
  • pinkiteh (Oct 19, 2008 3:57 pm)
    • derrickson (Oct 20, 2008 8:57 am) and 1 more...

Replying to: godwheel (Oct 18, 2008 5:45 am)

gw...
as you say, i purchased mine for 17.3k (+ttl), which was 7k off the base 24.3k. this was in tx. unsure if i could have gotten this same deal other dealers, as a few of their offers were several thousand higher. when i mentioned the 7k off to these dealers, many said, "that's not a real offer... its probably a 1 only, teaser offer for a purple vehicle".
 
but guess what...it was a real offer. and i can return to this dealer & do the same deal for at least 3 more 08's i saw on their lot yesterday when i stopped by to p/u my plates.
 
that said, a few posts back, supershawn (or someone else) mentioned it is possible for dealers to "buy" vehicles from other dealers (via the mfr) for a significant discount ("...the only time the public can buy for this price and not go to jail..."). this can happen when another dealership closes, or stops selling mazda's etc. in these cases, the dealer can sell a bigger discount (ie 7k) & still make money, whereas a typical dealer cannot. while this scenario above has not been verified, it may explain why dealer A can sell for X, while all others cry "BS".
 
you may want to simply counter to these $3k off invoice offers, and say you need to be $5.5 off invoice to do a deal.

Replies to this message:
• pinkiteh (Oct 19, 2008 3:57 pm)
  • derrickson (Oct 20, 2008 8:57 am)
    • des5 (Oct 20, 2008 9:20 am)

Replying to: derrickson (Oct 19, 2008 5:55 am)

Replies to this message:
• derrickson (Oct 20, 2008 8:57 am)
  • des5 (Oct 20, 2008 9:20 am)

Replying to: pinkiteh (Oct 19, 2008 3:57 pm)

Derrickson - Did you get this deal with the 0% APR? Or do you finance at market rate? I was told that if you get $7k off you do not get the 0%APR.. is this true?
 
paid cash, so did not ask about financing. i imagine at least a portion of the total discount was "in lieu of financing" , but i do not know how much. sorry!

Replies to this message:
• des5 (Oct 20, 2008 9:20 am)

Replying to: derrickson (Oct 20, 2008 8:57 am)

Replying to: des5 (Oct 12, 2008 7:16 pm)

Mazda news first....the local lot I bought from had 2 left ($24,400 for just under 18k) when I went to get my wife's tag yesterday. Personally, I can't believe you guys haven't snapped them up!
 
One thing I have seen happen a few times is a regional manager offering either "stale" stock or remaining stock from a dealer that went over transferred to another dealer to help them move (or keep them from going to the floor-planning bank). This is usually accompanied by extra incentives either in the form of a one time payment or credit to the dealer (least common), more "select" inventory spots like nicer packages or select models - or earlier slots on the assembly line- (most common), or simply more money off invoice (remember,dealers really do initially pay "invoice", it's only "not the true and final cost to dealer" as there are marketing incentives, etc, once the vehicle is sold).
 
One summer in the late 90's, we had the hottest selling truck package out there as they were ordered perfect (right packages to give most bang for buck- oddly getting more can end up costing less at times) and a regional incentive hit that allowed us to sell them for an unheard of price. We were (well family still is, only I have changed careers) in a peculiar situation as our dealership fell in a separate region than others literally right down the road. That may not sounds like a big deal, but there was a regional incentive for "our" region that was giving us an additional $2500 off. We were blowing out loaded full size 4WD's for $19,995 ($50 house deal for salesmen) and $9,995 for the small trucks. We were pumping trucks out so fast that our regional rep was pulling trucks from other lots an giving us other dealers orders. They would FedEx us a new window sticker (this state was very particular on the contents of the window sticker) to and we would replace the one with the other dealers name on it. We hit #1 truck dealer for the manufacturer like 4 or 5 months straight and ended up getting #1 for the year.
 
Anyway, some dealers were not too happy with this- not just because they were losing inventory, but because we could literally sell the trucks cheaper than they could because of the regional special (this is rare). We actually had one dealer buy a few for their rental and loaner fleet. To appease the dealers not happy with the situation, the regional rep would let the dealers request other "non-truck" stock in return or request that we also take a few "slow moving" or "high day count" (getting ready to go to higher floor plan rate or off floor plan completely) vehicles. We were selling trucks so fast (for nothing but pride, certainly not profit- unless we "stole" the trade) we would sometimes blindly accept the extra stock without checking color codes, etc. One of these trades left us with two of the ugliest vehicles I had ever seen.
 
The first was a two-tone s-10 blazer, four door, aqua marine in color with a dark blue stripe for the two-tone down the sides. Then, for some reason, most likely on a bet or dare, the dealer actually added chrome lower molding (the 3-4 inch strips) along the bottom. It had dk blue cloth interior and an odd assortment of packages and option leaving it a little higher than similar blazers.
 
The second was a two tone s-10 pickup, bolt action 4-banger with no air, bright red and maroon. This one was also "beautified" with a chrome package down the side.
 
I remember first seeing this trucks and thinking these trucks were going to be around for a long time.
 
I have always said I learned some of life's most important lessons from car salesmen during my time on the lot, and these two trucks were the source of one of the biggest. As I stood there looking in awe at these beasts, this long time car guy walks up and put's his arm around me and say's "What's wrong, kid?". I just looked at those two trucks and shook my head. "Don't worry", he said. "There's an *** (butt) for every seat". And do you know that aqua on blue Blazer sold the very next day? They couple absolutely "loved it".
 
Lucky for me they ended up living on the same road I took home (when I was allowed to go home...its hard to get time off in the car business, even harder when your father owns the place). I saw it most every morning and every night. But maybe it did me some good. I no longer pre-judge or assume anything or anyone, and whenever an impossible life situation comes along, I can literally hear that raspy 20 year+ of smoking voice telling me "There's an ** for every seat", and I "know" there's a solution to the problem if I just give it a chance.

Replies to this message:
• derrickson (Oct 20, 2008 10:56 am)
  • supershawn (Oct 21, 2008 3:23 am)
    • derrickson (Oct 21, 2008 4:47 am) and 1 more...

Replying to: supershawn (Oct 20, 2008 10:35 am)

the local lot I bought from had 2 left ($24,400 for just under 18k) when I went to get my wife's tag yesterday. Personally, I can't believe you guys haven't snapped them up!
 
shawn,
folks are holding out for the 50% off offers -- like the dodge p/u's!

Replies to this message:
• supershawn (Oct 21, 2008 3:23 am)
  • derrickson (Oct 21, 2008 4:47 am)
    • supershawn (Oct 21, 2008 3:37 pm)

Just picked up the last '08 cx-7 on the lot! It's a FWD Touring w/Bose-Moonroof. Put in the best of U2 CD and could've sworn Edge was singing background right there in the back seat as we were driving along the highway - love, love, love the bose stereo. $7.5k off msrp of $27.2k +TTL.
 
Was originally looking at a cx-9, but the prices were still outta my budgeted range. So as derrickson and supershawn have been saying, where else can you get a turbo cuv that drives nice and looks waaaaay cool for that price?
 
Experience with the dealership:
I've only purchased 3 new cars in my life - counting the recent buy - and 2 of the 3 have been horrendous experiences. This purchase experience ranked way up there on the bad list. The only difference between this one versus my last purchase from 8 years ago was that I caught every "mis-step" the dealer tried to pull. Everything from an extra $500 lumped into the fees to an unneccessary credit pull and an addtional "requirement" to fill out a full credit app even though I was a 'cash' customer, to the final delivery of the vehicle where they tried to get me to sign a legally binding contract ladened with high financing terms (RISC-simple interest contract) by telling me it was the standard sales contract for taking delivery - even if I am a cash customer. What a crock of BS.

Replies to this message:
• derrickson (Oct 20, 2008 12:52 pm)
  • fishhoppa (Oct 20, 2008 3:59 pm)

Replying to: fishhoppa (Oct 20, 2008 12:34 pm)

congrats fishhoppa! so close to $21k otd for a touring... now we're talkin'! hey, if i recall, weren't you considering taking the rental car route? aren't you glad you didn't pull the trigger on that deal?!

Replies to this message:
• fishhoppa (Oct 20, 2008 3:59 pm)