2016.5 CX5 GT $199 Biweekly dealer tactic - Deal or trap?

[meldxb]

So I went shopping for a new 2016.5 CX5 GT, approached several dealers and received prices between 225 to 250$ biweekly for 84 months which are competitive.
2 particular salesmen after negotiating and haggling give me a price of 199$ biweekly, says this is a great deal and if I sign on the dotted line today the car is mine with no other conditions attached. They only needed my credit card to block out 2000$ in order to secure this deal. I asked questions about how can this be true since it looks below the cost of the car. They said they can sell the car at any price they wish to make the sale.
I was a bit skeptical, since it sounded too good to be true and walked away.
But at the back of my mind I am still wondering what the real deal is? What is the risk here? I have not seen this tactic recently.

Any ideas? Is it a trap?

 

[fdew]

Looks like $35,432

 

[meldxb]

Its with taxes in.

 

[brillo54]

If it is truly bi-weekly and not bi-monthly (26 payments/year, not 24), it is more like $38,218, You don't say what the APY is and that scares me. Have they disclosed it to you? Without more info my initial reaction is run far, run fast.

 

[meldxb]

It is 1.49% APR. Its the credit card block that scares me

 

[robertmazda]

DO NOT talk about payments - monthly, bi-weekly, or otherwise. Agree on a final total price. That's all that matters. Salesmen will talk payment terms to confuse you, but the ONLY number that matters is the actual sales price. And you need to arrange your own financing outside of the dealer. Go in to the purchase knowing what you have lined up and see if they can beat it. Honestly, I would suggest that you do some Google searching on how to buy and finance a car so you can learn the basics and not get screwed. There is plenty of good info out there. You just have to make the effort to find it. And the credit card thing sounds like a complete scam. Go find another dealer.

 

[Kaps]

Canadian dollars! I would say get a good price... Financing can be done later.

 

[craigo]

Set the total price of the vehicle first then sort out payments. Ideally get pre-approved outside the dealer first, you can easily calculate payment from that while you whittle the price down. Then see if the dealer can beat the outside APR (Mazda's financing in the USA often can).

Starting from payments is the wrong way - salesmen love it because you can make it sound low when its not. 84 months is a very long time to finance a car. I wonder if the lender would require insurance on the loan (thus more $$...)