EZ as 123

I'm car shopping and I narrowed my search down to the 2003 MP5 and Matrix. I like the MP5 much better, but the Toyota Matrix has a better price (just by a hair).

Anyways for the case in point, I was shopping around this weekend, and didn't find the car I wanted for a "fair" price so I was browsing the net and ran across a car buying site and proceeded with them. The price turned out to be a "good" deal, IMO. I had to submit a CC# to continue. Today I was contacted by a "Mazda Vehicle Specialist" to confirm the car model, options, etc..

Well, I was already pre-approved through my credit union, and he wanted me to fax him my approval letter, etc. I am a bit hesistant to do so, I haven't even seen the car in person yet.


If anyone has gone through this, or has any kinda of feedback, please post it.

thanks

shayshay

I purchased my P5 through CarsDirect.com and was very pleased with how it all went down. I went through them because I wanted the mid-cycle refresh P5 and it seemed that my local dealers were either clueless or unwilling to order one w/the options I wanted.
Is this the company you were looking at going through?

EZ as 123

yes, as a matter of fact it is carsdirect.

they found my top 2 color choices but w/o factory leather or ABS as my options.

can you fill me in with the details by either pm/email if you don't want to post here. I'll appreciate it.

-Luis

Arghman

Hey!
My friend got his Matrix XR from carsdirect.com. I'm getting my P5 tomorrow but from a dealership. What i did was go online and get the pricing for the car i wanted on carsdirect.com and i would call dealerships and see if they could beat the price. Carsdirect.com takes the invoice price of the car with the options you have and adds $300. I found a dealership that was willing to give the car to me for $100 over invoice and its a brand new hot *** Laser Blue with 3 miles :P
If you or anyone you know has graduated recently from college you can get a $500 rebate from Mazda. Go on Mazdausa.com and check it out if you are interested. I have to put the car under my mom's name but i'm getting the car for $15.9 so it's a sweet deal.

walight01

car and driver says that the matrix is faster and corners better, but they said you have to be over 5000 RPM to get anywhere, kinda like a honda S2000. Great car but for race only. Thats why everyone chooses the P5 over the matrix. THe P5 is just a fun car to drive.

Arghman

Only the matrix XRS is significantly faster than the Mp5. It has the Celica GT-S engine, 180 HP, but the thing is you have to take it up to 6,000 RPM for the VVTL-I (similar to VTEC) to kick in. If you look at a dyno chart, it's pretty bleh below 6,000, but when you get there it comes alive. I used to have a GT-S and it's a damn peaky car. It really doesn't make sense to me to have such a peaky engine in a crossover car like the matrix, especially if you have 4 people and trunk full of crap. A torquier engine would be a better idea, but i guess the engine is sufficient.
The lower models, the Matrix XR and the Base have about 130 hp, just like the protege 5. When it comes down to it, you will probably have to drive both of them several time and back to back if you can. I liked the matrix a lot better for a long time, but after driving and really paying attention to the feel and the driver position i decided on the p5.

EZ as 123

I figured carsdirect had to make a profit and so it is ~$300.
I'm thinking of just going to the dealer as you did and have them atleast match the price if not beat it
about the $500 college rebate: http://www.mazdausa.com/collegegrad/...ip=&did=&state

that's great just wished the rates would have been lower so I'll have 180 days

mnkyboy

I bought my P5 from autobytel.com. Reason being, I couldnt find a Vivid Yellow (at the time) anywhere with the options I wanted. I wanted a manual, with moonroof. The only dealership that had a VY was about 60miles away. My local dealership wanted to order one for me, but they said it would take 2-3mths, plus they "had" to charge me some bogus extra fees and ****. The dealer that was 60 miles away had my car for $18,600. That was way over want I wanted to buy the car for, plus it had about 5 other options I didnt want. I contacted www.carsdirect.com. They were very nice, but were unable to find the car I wanted. I contacted autobytel.com, and they found my car at that dealership, but they sold me the car for $17,500. Im not sure how the dealership AND autobytel made much money off of this sale, but I was happy. I didnt have to pay any bogus extra fees, or undercoating, or "diamond glaze" crap, ever tho the sticker had these items listed on it which brought the sticker price to $19,300.

Overall, I am very satisfied with autobytel.com.

ProtegeMaster

I too secured my ES 2.0 from CarsDirect.com. Overall I found the process very satisfactory, and got my car for only 4% over the wholesale price. That represents among the lowest cost available, and I didn't have to deal with my local ******* dealer (the saleman I had was a total dick).

WORD TO THE WISE:

Before you jump out and try to buy your car, get a Consumer Reports New Car Price Report. It shocks me how many people don't either know about or otherwise use this service, as it stands to save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. In it you get the *TRUE* cost of each vehicle and the options available.

I kid you not. It arms you with ALL of the information the car seller doesn't want you to know. It gives you excellent bargaining power, and I wouldn't even think about buying a car without it. Check it out.

EZ as 123

I ended up getting the car myself through a local dealer. I had enough of the phone conversions with the "Specialist". I told him to fax me the invoice and the car is just not what I wanted so, I canceled it

I have my Silver MP5 ABS and leatherless car though

JDMstuff

Good to see you went with the P5 instead of the Matrix. I made the mistake of going with the Matrix first and took a loss on it when I traded it in for the P5 a month later.

mnkyboy

I guess Toyota was hoping the name of the Matrix would sell more cars than the actual propertys of the car itself. Some people think, "The movie was good, I bet the car is even better!."

LOL

Glad to see you are on the good side now.

sumo elan

I bought mine through the internet but via email. I emailed my local Fleet/internet sales manager and got my P5 for a whisker over invoice with no need for haggling. I did the same with my Miata.

At least from a local dealer if you get buyers remorse when you finally see the car you can still back out.

ProtegeMaster

>At least from a local dealer if you get buyers remorse when you finally see the car you can still back out.

Incorrect!

At least through CarsDirect.com, you take delivery of your car FROM an actual dealer. They have a predetermined network of partner dealerships and you take delivery of your car from the closest dealer to you. And until you sign the final paperwork you don't have to buy anything.

Tetonman

I used MazdaUSA.com to check out all my local dealers and then others in Chicago area. I viewed inventory from all, then sent emails to each telling them exactly what I wanted. 2 of my local dealers responded, two of the dealers outside my defined area (defined by Mazda) responded. I then called the ones with the cars I wanted and got better pricing with a call or two.

Just for your info, I used Intelliquest.com' valuation along with Edmunds TMV. Both give the invoice price along with what the recent pricing in your area has been for your selected car.

I ended up getting my Black P5 with moonroof, manual and floormats for invoice with no haggling. It took me less than an hour to go from a so-called no haggle price of $16,930 to invoice + $100 to just invoice plus $54 doc fee. This is the only way to buy in my opinion.

So I took a train from Chicago to Muller GMC/Mazda in Highland Park and picked up my new car with 0% financing! My sales guy even picked me up at the train!

No stress and I got a great deal on a great car!