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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Kia Rondo Prices Paid and Buying Experience
383 messages, Last post on Oct 08, 2009 at 11:35 AM
You are in the Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum. Your Hosts are car_man & kyfdx
A reporter from a national newspaper would like to speak to consumers who recently purchased a new small or mid-sized car and either got great financing or cash back/incentives offered to them . If this is you, please respond to ctalati edmunds.com with your daytime phone number by Wednesday, October 8, 2008.
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I have decided I want a 2008 Rondo EX 6 cyl. with Urban Grey exterior and Black interior. I have searched inventories online of local dealers and none have one. The dealership I have taken test drives at said they could find one for me, but basically wanted sticker price for it. I do have a 2002 Dodge Caravan I want to trade in. The Edmonds “What others are paying” price is 18815. Tax here is 6% plus $50. I am trying to get this for $17000 and my trade. Any comments?
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Replying to: john1234 (Oct 28, 2008 4:34 am) I'd try another dealer. |
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| I'm in Tampa, FL. I have sent email inquires to other Kia dealers in the area, and they have already started to call. It makes it harder that I have a trade, but I'm going to get a price first before going in with my trade. | |
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Replying to: newkiaguy1 (Aug 30, 2008 8:07 am)
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Replying to: irismg (Feb 01, 2009 10:34 am) They can give you a deal on your new car and screw you on the trade in, for example. And the new car salesman will blame the used car appraiser guy. My advice: don't do it. Sell your old car on your own. Or sell it to the dealer later, if you must.
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Replying to: newkiaguy1 (Feb 01, 2009 11:51 am) |
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My purchasing experience was generally positive when dealing with Pence Kia of Richmond, VA. I researched dealer inventories online within a hundred miles and found two cars at Pence that interested my wife & I. Both were '08 white V6 models, one an LX w/options & the other an EX with even more options. After submitting e-mail inquiries I quickly received a call from a Pence salesman and made an appointment for my wife & I to test drive the two '08 Rondos along with an '09 Optima as a basis for comparison. Before arriving I researched the available incentives ($4k manufacturer's rebate offered for remaining '08 Rondos and Optimas) and also used Edmonds to come up with and print reports reflecting their TMV (true market values) for some comparable vehicles equipped with some of the options packages we might consider. After test driving three vehicles we decided to make an offer for the white LX V6 equipped with the following options (note: options prices are listed MSRP): Third row seating ($500) Convenience package ($300) Floor mats-7-passenger ($95) Rear bumper protector ($65) Michelin tire upgrade ($60). Total MSRP for the vehicle per the window sticker was $20,565 I initially made an offer to purchase the vehicle for $15k, or $19k less the $4k rebate. Also asked the dealership to appraise and make a trade-in offer for one of our vehicles ('99 BMW 323ic convertible in very good condition with ~ 87k miles) Although the offer we received for our vehicle was imo ridiculously low ($4k...or just over 1/2 the estimated KBB trade-in value for the vehicle), the sales manager said he would be willing to sell the Rondo dealer invoice, or $19,088, less the $4k rebate (before taxes, dealer fees, etc.). After some discussion my wife & I agreed to accept this offer. As a result the net discount we received under MSRP calculates to $5,477 (26.63%). Although retrospectively I wish our initial offer had been lower, all-in-all we're very pleased with the price negotiated to purchase our Rondo. The only negative aspect of our experience came after signing all the paperwork (rather late in the evening after an awfully long day). The next morning when reviewing everything again I realized that a $199 fee was reflected on the invoice with the caption "etching". Unfortunately my wife and I failed to notice this charge before signing the paperwork the prior evening. After making a phone to contest the charge with the salesman first thing next morning, when I arrived to take delivery of the car that afternoon the finance manager was prepared re-do the paperwork in order to remove the etching charge. She also stated that she'd gone over the etching service with us the prior evening. While admittedly I'd agree that there had been some discussion with her in this regard, both my wife and I discussed and agreed that neither the salesman, sales manager or finance person had told us the etching was optional-or that we'd be charged $199 for the service. As a result my wife & I were under the impression that since the etching had already been done to the car it was covered by the offer we'd accepted to purchase the same. So due to some carelessness on our part and perhaps an (intentional or unintentional) failure by dealership employees to clearly disclose the fee we'd be charged for the add-on, we'd overlooked the fee initially. During these discussions the finance manager told me that all their vehicles had their windshields etched upon arrival. To this I responded that when I made an offer to purchase the Rondo it was with the understanding of being inclusive of all options which were already on the vehicle. As a result in my opinion we should not have been charged an additional amount because the the dealership had already etched the car's windows before my offer was submitted. However, in retrospect I now believe the fee charged in connection w/the etching may have not have been intended as a reflection of the cost for the glass etching service itself, but perhaps to be associated as a service for registering the etched number with a nationalwide database with law enforcement for a hopefully quick recovery should be vehicle be stolen. In any case in my opinion this etching service represents pure profit for the dealership since I can (and will) determine and record the identification number etched in the glass for my own records just in case the vehicle might be stolen. Finally, I have noted that charges for the standard "dealership processing fees for consumer services" seem to have increased significantly since I purchased my last new vehicle in 2005. I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall paying $199 for this when I purchased my Mazda 3 (from Whitten Brothers Mazda) in March 2005. Contrastingly the processing fee we were charged by Pence Kia was approximately twice this $399 + $10 as an "online system filing fee". Again, in my opinion these fees represent almost pure profit for the dealership. I seem to recall reading in some of Consumer Reports recommendations for auto purchase negotiations that dealerships are generally reimbursed for these services by most (if not all) auto manufacturers. Again, retrospectively now wish I'd attempted to negotiate reductions in these fees. However, all-in-all I'm still pleased with the deal we obtained for our '08 Rondo LX V6. Hope this information proves helpful to anyone who may be in the market for one of these vehicles. Note that it's my understanding the $4k rebate currently available for leftover '08 Rondos along with some other '08 Kia models is due to expire on March 31. In any case I would expect any remaining '08s could go fast. Good luck!
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Replying to: smoothsailin (Feb 28, 2009 9:19 am) Since posting my prior message I've read through the bulk of the comments posted on this thread. Based on what others have paid for their Rondos it sure seems like the $15,088 (after rebates, but before taxes and fees) we paid for our '08 LX V6 equipped with approximately $1.2k in options ( MSRP) was a very good deal. I only wish I'd found and had opportunity to read comments on this forum before negotiating a deal for my Rondo. Had I done so believe we probably could have negotiated the final balance due down by another $300 to $1,300 since I had failed to recognize and factor in the following: Since we were negotiating the purchase only a few days before the end of the month, pressure on the sales staff to meet monthly targets probably was somewhat high-giving them greater incentives to make the sale. Also still believe what we ended up paying for "dealer processing fees" was excessive $409. At a minum I should have demanded there be at least a 50% reduction against this "pure profit" markup. Also believe we could have negotiated a sale price below dealer invoice because 1) our car was an '08 model and b) there probably were hidden factory-to-dealer incentives in place to improve the dealer's profit potential and to move the remaining '08's off their lot. Finally, before purchasing my last car in '05 I paid $10 to subscribe to Consumer Reports auto pricing service. Had I done so this time some of the above information may have been available to allow me to be better informed before I initiated negotiations. Also, I've been surprised to read about some of the other fees and charges buyers in other areas have apparently been saddled with, including $350-500+ for "regional marketing", "AMA", and other similarly questionable markups over MSRP pricing on the window stickers. Good grief. Still, we're still pleased with the deal we ended up with at just over $16k out the door...and with the build and driving quality of our new Rondo. I'll also mention that our Rondo will be replacing our still trusty, but fairly high mileage (158k mile '98 Toyota Sienna XLE). Only time and a few thousand break-in miles will decide whether the lighter (by approx. 5-600 lbs) Rondo with a slightly smaller and less powerful (2.7 L vs Sienna's 3.0 L) v-6 will prove to me noticeably more economical on gas than our Sienna. Of course how, where and who's doing the driving may affect these results the most in my experience. Although historically I've driven our Sienna fairly rarely, when I've done so on family trips I've gotten as high as 28 mpg (500 miles on one tank with approximately 400 miles on the highway and 100 miles in town), or around 24 mpg when commuting to work at 27 miles each way with about 50% highwy and 50% on rural and suburban roads with quite a few stoplight intersections. Contrastingly, my wife has only topped 22 mpg once in my experience (during a lengthy day trip), and rarely manges over 20 mpg otherwise. In most cases all she has seemed to manage have been 17-19 mpg tanks winter or summer. Hopefully she'll do better in the future with our Rondo!
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Replying to: smoothsailin (Mar 01, 2009 3:39 am) Can't talk to what kind of mpg you might get with the V-6, as I have the I-4/2.4L engine. But I'm doing 20 (pure city), 24 (mix) and 28 (pure hwy). |
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