mazda5owner: couple of things. 1st, read & follow what dalesd wrote. damn good advice, every word of it. the internet is your friend and so is the internet sales manager.
2nd: hurry up and test drive the damn thing already! you'll fall in love w/ it- i garontee, like the cajun chef used to say.
now this what i did back in march. emailed/called all 3 local dealers, found out who wanted to deal and who wanted to be greedy. 1st dealer said 'come in, test drive it and let's talk- it'll be msrp or better.' 2nd said msrp and not a penny below, and no red gts on the lot. 3rd said 'we sell em at the price it says on the winda [sic], if you can find a better price go for it.' i did.
ended up going w/ 1st
true red GT, no options, build date feb 07 [has the latest ecu flash]
msrp $ 24550
my price $ 23500
they wanted $ 700 for a dealer fee, that got nixed early on.
standard 6.5% FL tax + $140 tag/title
wanted to give me $1000 for my 1991 honda crx si 91,000 miles, sold it on my own for $2200
looking back, i could have waited closer to the end of the model year, but i'm oh-so glad i got it when i did! now go get yours, you won't be sorry. all 5 major car mags write: "best bang for the buck" guess what? it's true! (yippy)