welcome to the sti site, it is a great site
I am on Van. Island (Nanaimo), and have spent A LOT of time researching the car and prices like many people here.
as far as I know, the dealers don't even know their invoice price yet.
judging from the US MSRP and invoice price, there will be quite a higher margin of profit for the Canadian dealer compared to American dealers.
normally we pay less than the US for a given car taking exchange rates into consideration but that is certainly not the case with the STI.
the fact that the Canadian dollar has strengthened lately and the fact that we do not get HIDs in Canada is further salt for the wounds.
I think there is a combination of reasons why the STI is more than I expected here in Canada.
1)car is really limited production vehicle (so far) and the cost of passing Canadian specific regulations has been passed onto the consumer and spread over the low production numbers (unlike a honda civic which are everywhere)
Case in point: Mits. totally blew it on the evo by not spending the $
to pass front bumper low speed impact tests. The Canadian
market just not worth it to them to do it right. Mabey next year
for the evo. Subaru did it right, spent the doe, and got the job
done...................... now we pay for it.
2)much less competition, due to mits. blunder outlined above, the evo is not comming to Canada this year and lets face it, the evo was the STI's main competitor. SOA is likely screwing us a bit because of this. Less competition = bad for consumer.
As for getting it below MRSP, good luck. Let me know if you succeed. The only luck I have had was getting the total cost below 48K with all the bull sh$t charges included. This way you only pay about an extra $240 in luxury tax (<47K 7.5%, >47K 8%, >48K 9% , >49K 10%). I seriously doubt you will be able to negotiate the price below 47K any time soon to avoid lux tax. Mabey in a years time and if they increase production you could get 1 or 2K off. I think it will take at least 6-9mo. for eveyone on dealer lists to get their cars and the STI has not even hit the main stream mags. yet - just wait and see who calls after all the reviews come out this month.
I am interested in an STI club on the island, let me know.
