I'm looking to buy an '06 3i (Auto & A/C). What kind of discount off MSRP or invoice should I be expecting? Should I be looking at an '05 for better discount. Any help is appreciated. I live in Texas.

 

I just bought an 06, 5 spd, velocity red hatch this month, maybe I can give you some insight. Although I live in Cali, you can do the same thing I do when I buy cars, to get the price down. Get on the internet and get in touch with all the Mazda Internet Service Managers (ISM's) for your area. The more the better. If you have the cash, money talks. If you don't, I suggest getting a pre-approved loan from your bank, prior to negotiating with the dealers. Again money talks, if they think you have to get financing, they won't budge. So here's what you do, get all these ISM's to try to beat each other for the deal, let them know up front that you have cash and will buy from whoever gets you this best deal, then let them do the work. It's that easy and takes about 2 weeks to get the best offer. It will get down to where the dealers are fighting over a $100 bucks. I have bought my last three cars this way, my wife's car I got over $3,000 off MSRP. You won't find this much of a break on $25,000 and below cars, but you can still get them down. Also I found that Mazda does not have any rebates for the Mazda 3's because they are in demand (especially with gas prices) and they know people wil buy them without the rebate, although they do offer rebates for the Mazda 6 (May be different in Texas). I bought my new 06 for $18,000 out the door, MSRP was $19,500. So I did save a little, but what's good about using the ISM's is that you don't have to spend 4 hours at each dealership you go into to try and work a deal. You do it all on the internet, email and a couple of phone calls. When you talk with the ISM's, write the prices down next to theie dealership names, this way, you can tell them who is giving you what deal and see if they will try to beat it. When you choose the dealership with the right price, it's a matter of setting up a day to go in and everything is ready for you to sign. Way less painless than negotiating at the dealership in person. Make sure when you are talking with the dealers, you tell them you are looking for the "OUT THE DOOR" price, or sure as S_ _ t when you get there to make the deal, they'll add on tax, lic, reg. and whatever else they can soak you for. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

I paid invoice for my 3i as listed by kelly blue book http://www.kbb.com

 

ok, as a car salesman, i will give you some advice.

rule 1: NEVER USE KELLY BLUE BOOK. that is the LEAST accurate guide. one thing we hate at dealerships are people coming in saying, blue book says my car is worth 5k dollars! our response is always " is blue book buying your car from you? no? then ok lets move on"

as far as negotiating online. its a good theory but bad at the same time. Worse thing you can do is negotiate over computer. best thing to do is negotiate in person, reason being. Car sales is nothing but a numbers game. if you negotiate via computer, all we do is manipulate the numbers so that we regain our profit. EXAMPLE: We knock off 1,000 bucks off of msrp, we will just raise the interest half a point or a full point, and regain that money. or we can add it on finance fees. any extra goodies that we show you on paper like spoilers or paint protection plans, we sell them for like 500-1000, we really paid like 100 for it.

my point it no matter how much we lower it we win. the actual "invoice" dealerships show customers are not really what we buy the cars for. sales is a business, we are not going to buy a car and sell it for less than what we really paid for it. cars like mazda 3's, civics, corollas. those are all "volume" cars. which they will go down on price just to push out some volume.

what i would recommend doing to avoid hours of negotiating.

1. never tell them exactly how much down payment you have. because they will manipulate the numbers on the computer. if they ask how much down payment. say i dont plan on putting money down. (unless you have bad credit, YOU WILL NEED TO LET THEM KNOW)

2. never tell them you are trading in. cause they will do the same thing. we base our discounts off of how much trade allowance we will give them.

3. never tell them u have good or bad credit. if they ask you "where did you finance your last car" tell them a major company like ford motor company, or toyota financing. if you say wells fargo, that is a bank for ****ty credit. they will then know to raise the interest rate.

4. when buying a "volume" car . to avoid long hours of negotiating let them know you want the car at invoice. PLUS you want half of the "hold back" every new car has a "holdback" its money every car has in reserve in case they sell it for invoice, atleast they make a lil more profit. to learn more about hold back. go to edmunds.com and do a search for hold back.

5. if you have good credit a big downpayment is not worth it. 1,000 dollars down only lowers your payment 20-25 bucks a month.
if you have bad credit i HIGHLY recommend to have a big down payment. bank wont approve you with out money down.

ALWAYS TRY BUYING A CAR AT THE LAST WEEK OF THE MONTH. *we are more willing to drop prices to reach our quotas*

if u need some tips send me a private message.

 

welp my advice is simple for good credit ppl, get a car loan, go to carsdirect.com print up what carsdirect.com would give it to you for and go right up the the salesman and say "Look, i got the loan, give me the car for this price "OUT THE DOOR" and you got a deal, no negotiating" and if they say no or try to get you to negotiate, the listen a little bit and if you dont like it, then leave until someone will give it to you, and i do recommend buying at end of the month, or even better end of the year. dealerships compete with prices, thats why they dont want you to leave, or and also see if you can look for the worse numbered salesman because he's desperate to make a deal, and never go to anyone who got recommended and if you do, dont say "you were recommended by...."its a tool they use to make you feel comfortable, hustling is easy when you got a plan and gameface remember you have more time than money so dont get desperate or giddy cause thats when you slip and before you start signing, make sure they didnt tack anything on to the sticker, LOOK AT THE PRICE OF THE CAR, and never listen when they ask if you want extended warranty or that paint crap, its garbage got my base 2.0i sedan auto wit sport shift, AC, wit power nothing and ABS for 16k they got me with the licensing and registration, the car itself 15k