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bagofpucks · 05-14-2013, 08:17 PM

I'll chime in as I went through the same thing a little over a year ago for a CX7. Sorry for the wall of text in advance, but I found this type of stuff very useful before I went on the search for our car.

- The dealership's had 0% financing, so they were more interested in talking about monthly price as opposed to final price. I like math, so I didn't find this too difficult, but I can certainly see how it can be tough for people who don't like going back and forth between each number.
- I went to three Mazda dealerships in Calgary. The first dealership wasn't interested in giving me the time of day, so I crossed them off of my list. The second dealership gave us the most awesome display of dealership "song and dance" I have ever seen. The sales guy asked what our top price was and then he went to the sales manager. This happened at least three times. By this time, my wife and I were laughing so hard at the whole process there was no way we were going to buy from them. The only good part was we had some free time that night, so we didn't feel bad wasting two hours of our time. The third dealership was recommended to us by a friend and I dealt directly with the Used Sales Manager, even though we were buying new. I told him exactly what I wanted (model, extras, etc.) and the price I was able to pay, which included explaining to him the break down of the rebates I knew were available. He said he could make it work, so I went to the dealership and signed the paperwork (this whole process was done over the phone). Even though this dealership is by far the furthest from our house, we will be taking our CX7 there for all service and we have been so happy with their service department we will also be taking our second car. Two friends of ours have also bought cars from there working directly with the Used Sales Manager.
- At the end of the day, the MSRP on our unit was about $42,000 and my deal included winter tires on stock Mazda alloy rims. We traded in a beater that was worth at most $2000 and we paid a bit under $37,000 all in. I feel like it was a pretty good deal, but I'm sure the dealer made a bit out of it as well. I should note, we did buy a previous years model, so I'm sure that helped my bargaining power a bit.
- My wife was with me a couple of times when I went to dealerships. The sales guys generally focused on the color of the car and other accessories such as leather interior and warranty when they talked to her. It was kind of funny because she didn't care one way or the other anyways.
- A common trick at all the dealerships was to get you picking out accessories like color or trim level on a vehicle before you even talked dollars. I'm assuming this is a way to make you feel like you are "own" the vehicle. When I put my deal in I said I don't care about the color, here are my top choices, but it is not a deal breaker.
- I found that as soon as I showed I was an informed buyer on the vehicle, the amount of salesmanship went down considerably. I think you can make this work in your favor if you know it going in.
- As someone else said in a previous thread, if you are willing to walk away from the vehicle you can gain some leverage with the salesperson.

05-14-2013, 08:17 PM	#8
bagofpucks Scoring Winger Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Calgary, AB Exp:	I'll chime in as I went through the same thing a little over a year ago for a CX7. Sorry for the wall of text in advance, but I found this type of stuff very useful before I went on the search for our car. - The dealership's had 0% financing, so they were more interested in talking about monthly price as opposed to final price. I like math, so I didn't find this too difficult, but I can certainly see how it can be tough for people who don't like going back and forth between each number. - I went to three Mazda dealerships in Calgary. The first dealership wasn't interested in giving me the time of day, so I crossed them off of my list. The second dealership gave us the most awesome display of dealership "song and dance" I have ever seen. The sales guy asked what our top price was and then he went to the sales manager. This happened at least three times. By this time, my wife and I were laughing so hard at the whole process there was no way we were going to buy from them. The only good part was we had some free time that night, so we didn't feel bad wasting two hours of our time. The third dealership was recommended to us by a friend and I dealt directly with the Used Sales Manager, even though we were buying new. I told him exactly what I wanted (model, extras, etc.) and the price I was able to pay, which included explaining to him the break down of the rebates I knew were available. He said he could make it work, so I went to the dealership and signed the paperwork (this whole process was done over the phone). Even though this dealership is by far the furthest from our house, we will be taking our CX7 there for all service and we have been so happy with their service department we will also be taking our second car. Two friends of ours have also bought cars from there working directly with the Used Sales Manager. - At the end of the day, the MSRP on our unit was about $42,000 and my deal included winter tires on stock Mazda alloy rims. We traded in a beater that was worth at most $2000 and we paid a bit under $37,000 all in. I feel like it was a pretty good deal, but I'm sure the dealer made a bit out of it as well. I should note, we did buy a previous years model, so I'm sure that helped my bargaining power a bit. - My wife was with me a couple of times when I went to dealerships. The sales guys generally focused on the color of the car and other accessories such as leather interior and warranty when they talked to her. It was kind of funny because she didn't care one way or the other anyways. - A common trick at all the dealerships was to get you picking out accessories like color or trim level on a vehicle before you even talked dollars. I'm assuming this is a way to make you feel like you are "own" the vehicle. When I put my deal in I said I don't care about the color, here are my top choices, but it is not a deal breaker. - I found that as soon as I showed I was an informed buyer on the vehicle, the amount of salesmanship went down considerably. I think you can make this work in your favor if you know it going in. - As someone else said in a previous thread, if you are willing to walk away from the vehicle you can gain some leverage with the salesperson.