[tdgofast]

The tread titled: "1000 below invoice realistic yet" has proven to be very informative.
This is kind of my addendum to that growing thread. I am asking the question of; "how are people making out on price when ordering an '08?" How close to invoice are people getting. I am using the Edmunds listed invoice price as the control for this topic. To save on any confusion I would suggest just listing the price paid for the car with options. Please exclude: taxes, destination, and licensing fees.
I am watching the market and hoping to purchase an '08. If I start hearing positive rumors about the '09s; I might wait until then.

These threads should serve us well when dealing with the dealers. The more that people respond; means the more firepower we'll have by our side.

[supermarkus]

I was going to order a Silver STI from the factory with absolutely no extra installed options except for iPod interface for 500 below invoice of 33155. I was then offered 450 below invoice on a Silver with equipment group 4B (iPod interface, alarm sensor upgrade, and subwoofer) plus the Ti shift knob for invoice of 33560. The car with more options was already inbound and due in any day now.

[Slimey]

I shopped/surveyed a few dealers and the range was a few hundred below invoice to invoice

I ordered at invoice with a reasonable deal on my trade-in
Financing is not decided until delivery; this did not enter the negotiations for the order

[D0WNxSH1FT]

You can't order a Subaru from the Factory. All you can do is look around at the current inventory in the country. They do not build to order like BMW. So it doesn't matter if it is on the lot or not, it is the same price.

Good luck w/ under invoice!

[Fletch07STI]

Originally Posted by D0WNxSH1FT

You can't order a Subaru from the Factory. All you can do is look around at the current inventory in the country. They do not build to order like BMW. So it doesn't matter if it is on the lot or not, it is the same price.

Good luck w/ under invoice!

Good to hear!

[tdgofast]

Originally Posted by D0WNxSH1FT

You can't order a Subaru from the Factory. All you can do is look around at the current inventory in the country. They do not build to order like BMW. So it doesn't matter if it is on the lot or not, it is the same price.

Good luck w/ under invoice!

Don't forget about the quote button. There aren't many posts yet so it was easy to tell who's quote you were referring to when mentioning the word "factory".

I found out that dealers can and do make a bigger deal out of negotiating on a car that is not sitting on there lot or on a neighboring lot. The purpose of this thread is to find out how dealers are reacting to the sale of on an '08 that isn't sitting on there lot.

The sales guy I talked to said they can order one and that they are about two to three months out. They had an ordered '08 sitting on there lot waiting to be picked up. Zero miles.

I wont argue with you on where they come from. Maybe my dealer pulls them out of the sky. I just know that if I want an untouched one I have that option through my dealer.

Please post your response. Maybe that two to three months is the time it takes to find one around the country.

[Vampyre]

I went on subaru .com and clicked on each dealership withen 200 miles of me. Went to there website and filled out the dealer quote. In the additional options I put in a 4 paragraph explanation on what I want and expect. I sent that to all the dealers one at a time.

Take your time to write what your going to put into the additional options. It took me about an hour to write up the one I wrote. and no you cant copy mine :-)

Most have came back with an offer. Some the same, some way higher and a few right around where I want to be, aka below dealer invoice. All of these where for ordering a car that would take 6 to 8 weeks to get in.

You can find dealer invoice for the car and the options you want at cars101.com. If a dealership comes back with a price instead of xxx amount of $ below bealer invoice compare it to the invoice you get when adding it up on cars101.com. Dont forget to add the dest. fee. I had one dealer come back with a price of $2 lower then invoice. He had the price of the car not xxx ammount off invoice.

[CGMDan]

Originally Posted by tdgofast

I wont argue with you on where they come from. Maybe my dealer pulls them out of the sky. I just know that if I want an untouched one I have that option through my dealer.

Please post your response. Maybe that two to three months is the time it takes to find one around the country.

2-3 months is the time it takes for the dealer to place an order for a car to the time it shows up on the lot.
Between those times another identicalcar may show up, but it was a previously alloted car.

The other issue dealers have is they often are limited to the number of cars they can get. Dealer A might only be allotted 5 cars a month. They place their request for cars about 2 months in advance. If a customer comes in wanting certain options and it means a custom order, they may have to wait before they can even order it. The dealer knows that time is their worst enemy, so they'll try to find another car as close to the customers desired car they can get. They'll try and make you a better deal on a car they can actually get soon as oppposed to a car they have to order, run the VERY good chance you'll back out of the deal after its been ordered, and then be stuck with selling an odd optioned car that has limited appeal to others.

[tdgofast]

Originally Posted by D0WNxSH1FT

You can't order a Subaru from the Factory.

Originally Posted by CGMDan

it means a custom order,

Which is it? "You cant order a Subaru from the factory", or you can place a custom order.

[CGMDan]

Actually it neither and both, just to clear things up!


You can't order non offered options or accessories, but a dealer can order a car optioned out the way you want. Its more a matter of if they will or not.
For the lower tier manufacturers like Subaru, Toyota, etc. the far majority of potential customers won't actually go all the way thru with a ordered car. They'll back out before delivery. Not because they didn't want the car, but because things/life changes. They decide they want the car now and can live with paying a couple bucks more or less for and option they didn't originally want. Or, as you can plainly read about on this forum, another dealer offered the same car for $100 less.
For all these reason some dealers just won't order a car for the average customer.

[chelidon]

Originally Posted by CGMDan

Actually it neither and both, just to clear things up!


You can't order non offered options or accessories, but a dealer can order a car optioned out the way you want. Its more a matter of if they will or not.
For the lower tier manufacturers like Subaru, Toyota, etc. the far majority of potential customers won't actually go all the way thru with a ordered car. They'll back out before delivery. Not because they didn't want the car, but because things/life changes. They decide they want the car now and can live with paying a couple bucks more or less for and option they didn't originally want. Or, as you can plainly read about on this forum, another dealer offered the same car for $100 less.
For all these reason some dealers just won't order a car for the average customer.

Or if they do order, they will ask for a deposit -- pretty standard, actually.

[SlackerNJ]

Originally Posted by D0WNxSH1FT

You can't order a Subaru from the Factory. All you can do is look around at the current inventory in the country. They do not build to order like BMW. So it doesn't matter if it is on the lot or not, it is the same price.

Good luck w/ under invoice!

Totally not true.

I ordered my car back in January and it was made with my name on the invoice and all my specifications at the factory in japan. It arrived at the end of march.

[The Sim]

I paid near MSRP for my STI w/NAV + BBS + a few dealer installed add-ons (auto-dim mirror, security upgrade, sirius satellite radio) in the Northeast .. and it was definitely ordered from the factory -- the dealer THOUGHT he had a lock on a similarly provisioned vehicle that was allocated to another regional dealer, but that dealer went ahead and sold his in the meantime, so we had no choice but to wait for one from Japan. A lot of the STIs that were sent over in the earlier batches seemed to have BBS but no nav. My car was built 03/08 and it usually takes about +/- a month to arrive. In my case it took two and a half months total. However, everyone often gets so focused on "I gotta pay no more than invoice" that they miss out on other extra costs that end up increasing their final bottom line significantly. In my case, even though I agreed to pay close to MSRP on the front end, during the two month wait, I managed to get the 0% financing package (was originally going to be 2.9%) and the dealer actually loaned me a car for free (2008 Legacy) for over a month after I sold my old wrx (they didn't know it was going to take so long either ), which saved me a fortune, because I was about to have to drop over $1500 in the wrx @ 120k miles to fix it up and keep it running. Instead, I was able to sell the wrx for a higher price than I would have gotten on the trade-in, too. Finally, just a few days ago (!) I received a coupon from Subaru for $500 subaru-bucks for owning a previous subaru and buying a new 2008, so I got the dealer endorsement for that, as well.

[tdgofast]

Originally Posted by SlackerNJ

Totally not true.

I ordered my car back in January and it was made with my name on the invoice and all my specifications at the factory in japan. It arrived at the end of march.

How did you do on price?

[supermarkus]

Originally Posted by CGMDan

Actually it neither and both, just to clear things up!


You can't order non offered options or accessories, but a dealer can order a car optioned out the way you want. Its more a matter of if they will or not...

In my case, this would be the 3rd WRX variant and 5th Subaru sale I've done through this guy in the last 6 years (I helped friends negotiate their cars or referred). I was very specific about the accessories I wanted, just an iPod interface, but none of the cars in state had just that option. He knew I was serious about buying so he offered to order one for me. Whether it came from the factory, or he would just grab one out of port before the port installed options went in, I'm not sure. But his exact words were, "I can order one from the factory for you if you are willing to wait." He mentioned that because of the stop sale and back log, it could take up to 2 months for the car to get here. I'm still focused on the car, but I'm not sure if I want to just wait it out or not.