darwood said:
Miked801,
MSRP is not the price the dealer pays for the car, it's what is suggested by the manufacturer (I'm sure you know this but I'm just stressing that fact). Anyone who buys a "normal" car for MSRP has been raped by their dealer. Most MSRP's are $1000-2000 above dealer cost, and if you haggle enough or go fleet rate you should be able to buy a car for about $500 above dealer cost. MSRP is not what people normally pay for cars. I would suggest you do more research on buying cars to protect yourself.
http://www.edmunds.com and
http://www.kbb.com have some info on buying cars, and one of them has a calculator that shows dealer invoice, MSRP and what you should expect dealers are charging for the car.
cheers,
yes, i'm fully aware of this. but what you have to realize is that this is a phenomenon started by american car companies and which affects only american and some japanese car companies. i guess the reason i replied the way i did was threefold:
1) the STi may not be and extremely limited car, but it will be hot when it first arrives. plenty of places will be charging well over msrp; i think you should count your blessings.
2) go try to haggle for a bmw or benz. seriously. get your average german car dealer down to "$500 above invoice." it's not likely that you will. if you do (and depending on where you live), chances are you've just pissed-off the place you'll have to have your car serviced for the next 3-5yrs. is $1K worth not knowing what they're doing with your car when they have it for services?
3) as long as we're talking about what dealers are really making on our cars, let's talk dealer incentives. you go in armed with kbb or edmunds "invoice" cost and tell them you won't pay more than $500 over. they act offended. they go and talk to the sales manager. they come back concerned. they go talk to him again. they finally agree, but they're not happy. you are. you got a great deal. your dealer only made $500 on that car and you're excited because, at this rate, that bastard will go out of business and then you can go across the street and buy your next car at $5K over msrp. but wait, what really happened is that the dealer had a $1500 incentive on that model that moth. so they really pulled in $2K from your deal. damn capitalists. now they're going to survive. when you need service or warranty repairs, they'll still be there. how can you live with yourself? not to mention the fact that (at the estimated $32K msrp of the STi) you're paying an extra $25 a month! oh the humanity!
HAha, I'll be waiting a long time!
