Newbie doin my introduction!

[Silver Ecstasy]

So to be honest, i'm not a new member here. I had registered a while ago, and had interest at one point in an RX-8, and the CX-7. After having gotten neither, Mazda has sparked my interest once again with the Mazdaspeed 3.

After shopping, comparing, researching and test driving between the 08 Dodge Caliber SRT-4 and the 08 Mazdaspeed 3, I'm completely sold on the MS3. The test drive tonight was so wonderful! I test drove a GT, with the HID's, LED tails and Bose system. The radio was "okay", but the rest of the car was a blast! Incredibly easy to drive, felt very connected to the road, and it's a great, practical vehicle to have!!

My question is, what price can I expect to pay monthly? Credit is a-okay, my mom's bf works for Ford so I'm assuming the salesperson was correct in telling me I could get S-plan. He said that $23,845 was what S-plan would probably end up being. It's only like $1000 below MSRP. I figure, with $2k down, a decent interest rate, and some decent negotiations, I should be able to get the payment to atleast $350 a month, if not less for a 60 month Purchase.

The other question is, what's Mazda's warranty like? I know with the Caliber, you lose the lifetime warranty on powertrain for SRT models. Anything I should look for or consider before taking the dive? I'm trying to hold off until March when the Crystal White MS3's start showing up at my dealer. Apparently it's not available yet.

 

[tubebrner]

There are a lot of factors involved but I doubt you can get your monthly payment under 425 with a $2,000 down payment over 60 months. For reference I got S-Plan pricing on my GT, it ended up being $25,000 out the door, I put $6k down and I'm paying $295/mo over 72 months. Thats at a 5.2% rate, or something close to that. I would finance through a credit union to get a better rate and maybe stretch your loan out over 72 months to lower the monthly payment. Mazda has a payment calulator on their website so play around with that to see what you need to do to get the payment where you need it.

As for the warranty bumper to bumper is 3 years/36k miles. I can't even remember the powertrain warranty but 60,000 miles seems to stick out in my mind for some reason.

What dealer are you going to?

 

[Natedog_37]

Were in Mi did they let you use a S plan? I have been told no at 3 dealers in the Mi area that they will not take any plan for a Speed.

 

[tubebrner]

Ralph Thayer in Livonia. I got that run around for a while myself. Eventually I just went in there and told them that another dealer was going to honor it but they didn't have the color I wanted coming anytime soon. Not the real story, but it worked. When I picked up my car the saleman did tell me that I would be the last person to get S-Plan. I guess the owner was pissed because they gave S-plan to a few people and then Mazda NA refused to give the dealer the S-Plan kick back, but since I already had a S-plan price in writing they would honor mine. I still think you can get it. There's a lot of people on here that have negotiated to invoice without even using S-Plan. You might have a little more trouble negotiating on the 2008.5 since there aren't any just sitting around on dealer lots.

 

[n|njutsu55]

To get a payment of 350 a month over 60 months your financing is gonna have to be low...probably around 15k to 16k financed at a decent interest rate. My car is 368 a month and I financed about 19k. (26k OTD)

 

[creina1221]

powertrain is 5 yrs or 60k. An extended warranty is also available
-----
I bought my MS3 at invoice and spread the payments out over 72 mo, my payment is well below 400.00. good luck, you won't be disappointed if you commit to it.

 

[SwampAss]

http://www.cars.com/go/advice/financing/calc/loanCalc.jsp

 

[Silver Ecstasy]

Well theres alot of people who are still in amazement that I got the payment I did on my Trailblazer SS.

I'm gonna make it happen. Atleast $350 a month. $2k down, if not $3k. I won't sacrifice what I want (HID's, leather). Not this time, especially on a car i'm buying this time around. I'm keeping it, so I gotta make this happen.