Price discounts through AAA

[Michael Moore]

I'd like to thank everyone here who has put up so much useful information (pro AND con) on their CX-5 experience. It has been interesting reading.

We're hoping to buy in the next week or two. I'm in San Francisco and the local dealer is Royal Motors. I'd like to avoid going 25-30+ miles away to a different dealer in case I get one of the few cars that needs warranty work. With only one vehicle and driver dropping it off for service out of town would be a huge hassle.

Based on all the Internet reviews, user fora, etc we'd buy a FWD 2.5 Touring (no options, no trade-in, no extended warranty, just a straight cash deal) but we've only briefly sat in a CX-5, and haven't yet looked at any of the competition (RAV4, CR-V, Forestor). From what I've read the CX-5 looks like a pretty obvious choice based on a need for occasional light hauling/pulling a couple of race bikes on a trailer (and the driving experience), but how the ride and front and rear passenger seats interact with my wife's back is going to be a primary factor in what car we buy.

I loathe haggling, especially with car salesmen. I don't do it at the grocery store or a restaurant, I shouldn't have to do it to get a fair price at a car dealership. After seeing the mention of discounts through Costco etc I'm wondering if anyone has gone through their local AAA for pricing? If so, how much of a discount did you get vs an "Internet quote" price from the dealer? I'm thinking it might be good to do the I-quote and have that on hand when asking for the AAA price, just in case AAA is an invoice + % and not the less than invoice price that some of you seem to have gotten.

thanks,
Michael

 

[paris1]

For starters, you are not bound to have a car serviced for maintenance or warranty work at the selling dealer. Buy it in Santa Rosa or Hayward and if it breaks the next day, take it to Royal to get it fixed. Second, you're not going to get the best price at AAA or Costco. The agreements they have with dealers represents an acceptable deal for people who are negotiation-phobic. For the rest of us, they are simply a reference point to see how much we can before actually "pulling the trigger".

 

[Michael Moore]

Thanks, I suspected that warranty could be done at any dealer, but I had some concerns that I might run into "you didn't buy it here, move to the back of the line" attitudes. I suppose I should get a quote from San Rafael, Oakland and Burlingame to see if there's any significant difference that could be used for a lever.

Is the dealer Internet quote likely to be better than the "club" prices? I've got no problems doing some email negotiations, but I don't want to deal with the "let me go back and ask the other salesman who I'm telling you is my manager" time-wasting. I've got nothing against the dealer making a fair profit, just don't make me feel like a chump if you want any more of my business.

FWIW I just looked at truecar.com and they are estimating $24670 at the local dealer with one of their certificates which is slightly below what they say is invoice ($25270).

thanks,
Michael

 

[paris1]

Email quotes can be better than "club pricing", but don't limit yourself. Pick up the phone and talk to the internet sales manager (or better yet, the fleet manager) at various dealerships. Get a few price references this way, determine what invoice cost is and from all this formulate a price where you'd like to be and then call a couple of dealers back and see if they'll meet your price. I found Truecar to be a joke. However if they're quoting $600 under invoice (and that doesn't inlude any givens like $500 Mazda loyalty rebate) it sounds like the market in your area may be a little soft right now. That said, it's been a year since I bought mine, so I don't make any claims to be knowledgable on current market conditions.

 

[Texas Mazda Fan]

I guess you don't listen to the Car Pro on KSFO. It's an interesting show, and if you let him know what you're looking for, he'll send you to a certified Car Pro dealer who'll give you a no-hassle deal. The closest Mazda dealer is in Elk Grove, thought. I got mine this way.

 

[Michael Moore]

Thanks for the tips. My only "Mazda" was a Ford Festiva (Mazda/Kia 121) maaany years ago, so I don't think they'll give me much for a loyalty reward.

I've never heard of Car Pro but I just pulled up the website and I'll take a look at that.

cheers,
Michael

 

[UtCal]

FWIW I just looked at truecar.com and they are estimating $24670 at the local dealer with one of their certificates which is slightly below what they say is invoice ($25270).

thanks,
Michael

Get a quote from Towne Mazda in Redwood city. They gave us the best price. After getting the final out the door price over email, the buying process at the dealership was very smooth. The quote from Putnam Mazda in Burlingame was good too (but slightly higher).

 

[Michael Moore]

Thanks for the extra information. The farther away we have to go the better the price needs to be, and it needs to improve in significant amounts to justify the extra time/travel. I'm willing to pay a reasonable bit more if it means I can easily/quickly go and have a heart to heart talk with someone about a problem vs a 40 minute drive and a gallon of gas each way.

I requested quotes from Royal and Putnam this afternoon after the front passenger window on my GMC Safari gave a mighty clunk about 6" from closed and stopped moving. As you might imagine that added some urgency to the "buy a new car" process. I'm hoping they'll get back to me tomorrow morning so we can schedule a test drive.

We looked briefly at a CR-V and RAV4 this afternoon. 30 seconds in the front and rear passenger seats of the Toyota was enough to cross it off as that was all my wife's back would take. The Honda seats seemed OK, but she couldn't remember how the CX-5 we sat in last Thursday compared, other than "probably OK too."

If her back is neutral between the two I should then get to pick the CX-5. But I won't know until after we test drive both of them.

cheers,
Michael

 

[IgoZoom]

I was planning to use TrueCar.com to buy my 2012 CX-9 GT FWD last November. With a sticker price of $38,315, the TrueCar dealer price was $31,905 and I was satisfied with that. I was also paying cash but I had a trade-in, which Carmax offered to buy for $7500 and that’s what the dealer also offered for trade-in and I was fine with that.

The last time I had shopped for a new car was back in December 2005 for a 2006 Mazda3 s 5-door. There were online pricing guides, but none that guaranteed a specific price on a specific car at a certain dealer. The Mazda3 was HOT at the time and there was only one in Atlanta that was the color, trim-level and transmission I wanted. The dealer wouldn’t budge a penny off MSRP and they were very arrogant, which pissed me off!

So I used the Mazda inventory search tool on their website and found a total of five cars that met my specs within 250 miles of my home. I emailed each of those dealers for a quote only two responded, one for full MSRP and one for $1100 off! I went with the $1100 off deal even though I had to travel almost four hours each way from Atlanta to Knoxville, TN to buy it!

So before I pulled the trigger on my CX-9, I decided to do the same thing. I searched the inventory of dealers within 100 miles of me and found about 20 that met my specs within that area. So I fired off an email to each dealer who had one and waited to see if anyone offered a better deal than TrueCar….

The next morning, I had a dealer nearby offering me the CX-9 I wanted for $29,207 plus $599 “dealer fee” for a subtotal of $29,806 plus $66 in tag/title fees and sales tax! I saved $2,099 more than the TrueCar deal! But I honestly don’t see how they sold it for that price. They also honored the $7500 trade-in offer.

I recommend emailing several dealers for price quotes and then use the best one as leverage at the dealer that you want to buy from (near you).
I quoted the following just to see how much variance there was between the pricing sites-


Zip Code- 94102

2014 Mazda CX-5 Touring FWD
MSRP- $25,610

KBB.com- $24,575

TrueCar.com- $24,714

Edmunds.com- $24,614

CarDirect.com- $24,984

So the prices only varied by $370 ($24,614 - $24,984). So I’d say the fair price lands somewhere in there. The CX-5 is selling as quickly as they can build and ship them over, so it doesn’t surprise me that discounts aren’t very deep.

Good luck!

 

[IgoZoom]

CX-5 Touring has a number of features not available on the CR-V EX

The CR-V EX is priced very closely to the CX-5 Touring, so I was curious how they compared.

Its worth mentioning that the CX-5 outperforms the CR-V in acceleration, emergency (avoidance) maneuver) handling AND overall fuel economy (25mpg vs 23mpg overall). (Based on Consumer Reports testing, which is very consistent)

The CX-5 also performed slightly better overall in NHTSA crash testing. The CR-V drivers side rating was 4-stars for the Frontal Barrier test while the CX-5 scored 5-stars in that test. They scored identically in all other areas and both are still considered 5-star Rated.

Features standard on the CX-5 Touring but not offered on the CR-V EX:

Leather-wrapped steering wheel & gear shift
Dual Auxiliary Visors
6-way Power Drivers Seat (not power on CR-V)
Drivers Adjustable Lumbar Support (n/a on CR-V)
40/20/40 split-folding rear seat (vs. 60/40)
Sat-ready audio system w/ voice recognitioin

Keyless Access System (Push-Button Start)
Blind Spot Monitor**
E911 Automatic Emergency Notification System (uses a Bluetooth-paired phone to call 911 and transmit location if airbags deploy)

**I love the Blind Spot Monitor on my CX-9, it's an awesome additional safety feature!

Note- in fairness, the CR-V EX has a standard Power Moonroof, which is optional on the CX-5 Touring.

 

[deepfriedsushi]

Truecar and KBB values should only be used as price guides. The "current selling price" thread here is an even better guide in what the prices of cx5's are. Costco prices and AAA discounts can vary depending on the demand of the car. A friend of mine tried Costco pricing for a 2012 Honda fit and one of the dealers that called back gave a price higher than MSRP! I told her a few emails via online quotes would yield much better results, which it did.

I found email haggling was the easiest way to negotiate a price without haggling in person. I used the same method IGoZoom did, which was to use the online inventory search tools from MazdaUSA/honda AND each of the dealer's websites to find cars that matched the specs of what I wanted. Then I requested "eQuotes" for each of those from different dealers and asked for what the best out the door prices they could give. The end goal was that I could finalize a price and loan terms, make an appointment, then walk into the dealership with the car prepped and all I had to do was sign papers and drive away.

 

[IgoZoom]

One more piece of advice-

Don't tell them that you're not planning to finance until you've settled on a final, out-the-door price! Years ago, paying "cash" could usually get you the best deal.

But now dealers make huge profits off of financing. Most lenders pay them a flat fee per finance contract PLUS the dealership can mark up the interest rate on the loan also. For example, if WELLS FARGO approved you for a 60-month loan at 3.9%, the dealer could write the deal at 5.9% and the additional 2% would be pure profit in addition to the fee they earn.

When I bought my CX-9 last year, it was the first time I've ever NOT had to finance. I went by my bank on the way to buy it and got Certified Funds for $23k and change that I owed after my $7500 trade-in allowance (trade was paid off). It was an AWESOME feeling, but I was only able to do it because my Nana was very generous to me and my sister in her will and she passed away early last year.

But when I was negotiating, I said that I had secured funding already, but I'd be more than happy to see what they could offer...

There are also some great accessories for the CX-5 that you should at least consider, but I recommend buying them AFTER you purchase the vehicle and not making them part of the selling price! The guys at this link offer Mazda parts and accessories at a very good prices and they ship for free if you spend over $100- MazdaParts.org

 

[Michael Moore]

This is odd. I was sure that Wednesday night after I got home from purchasing a Liquid Silver Touring from Putnam in Burlingame that I posted about that. But I don't see it here and I looked at my profile to see if I'd put it in some other thread by mistake but didn't spot it anywhere. It's deja vu all over again.

In any event, they came down from a sticker of $25860 (MSRP including destination + $250 for the roof rails - they order all of their cars with roof rails so I was stuck with paying for them even though I didn't want them) to $23998 as the Internet quote. That made it "good enough" for us, and it was also $1K more of a discount than on the base CRV we looked at. The mid-range Mazda ended up $2K more than the base CRV, but the Mazda does seem to justify it.

I chirped the tires the first two times I pulled away from a stop before I got the feel of the throttle.

I received one other quote (I'd asked three dealers) and that was for an AWD model which is not what I asked them for, and it came in after we'd gotten home from buying the FWD Touring.

I've got the cargo cover coming in from Amazon and the cargo tray off of eBay. I do want a set of mats like those MAXpiders as the black OEM mats show any dirt that comes in from your shoes.

thanks for all the advice.

Michael

 

[deepfriedsushi]

Congrats on the purchase. (thumb)

 

[Seminole]

I used Costco when I bought my 2014 in February. It had just come out and my dealer had to do a trade just to get my car for me in the color I wanted. The offer was invoice less $500 for Presidents' Day. Considering the car was brand new at the time I was pleased with the offer.