enfuh

Hello,

I have decided that I would like to buy a Protege (I have read very positive reviews) so I have been shopping around in Ottawa.

The first dealership I went to was horrible. Made me an offer then went away, came back with the manager, and reduced the discount offered by $450.00. I left.

But another dealership has said that they would offer the following:

2003 Protege LX in a color other than white (standard transmission)
Convenience package
ABS
48 month financing at 0%

Grand total with tax, freight, PDI etc of $22,242.08. Is this a good deal?

Thank you

Roddimus Prime

Whoa, I'm not sure of the exact exchange rate, but I believe it's about 70% CAD to USD.....That is a bad deal. If my numbers are correct (you will need to adjust them) you could get much more car for the money. Here's what I just got.
2003.5 P5
5-spd (only way to buy a 4cyl!!)
Laser Blue
Black leather interior
Sunroof / 6disk CD
Power Doors
Power Windows
Power locks
Power mirrors
Chrome Wheels
wheel locks
Mazdaspeed sport exhaust
Side air bags
ABS + EBD

All of this was $14.8K...if you add back about 30% for the mark up you're looking at like 17-18K....I dunno where they hell they $22K??? Here's what you need to do...(what I did)

Go to www.edmunds.com Look up the EXACT vehicle you want. Be sure to get every option and color. Type in your postal code and Edmunds will actually adjust the costs to what everyone else in your area paid for that vehicle. Basically I bought my for $300 UNDER invoice and then still got $2750 in rebates. There is a $2500 rebate and I had a $250 Rev-It-Up coupon. Just for reference, my car stickered at $19.8 + the $240 exhuast...thats just over $20K USD...You should be getting a much nicer deal!!

Mr. Protege

Actually, I doubt you'll get anything like that for under $21,000 in Canada. The difference in pricing has a lot to do with currency conversion, but we are generally getting screwed in other ways, including taxes. I paid just over $22,000 for my 2002 LX last year, including financing interest. Lucky me, a few months later they went to 0 % and have been there ever since. I've got auto and air, maybe I might have thought the price would be lower for a standard, but you got the ABS and the convenience package, so that probably accounts for the extra pricing. The toal doesn't sound too unusual to me.

nightowl

i payed over 26 K 2 years ago for my pro 5...so ya i think its a decent deal

Roddimus Prime

wow!! anyone try and get full pricing from Edmunds?? I just printed out the sheet saying people in my area paid $300 undr invoive and that was all I needed to do. I'd hate to see you guys spend and extra couple of thousand that could be used for turbos...

enfuh

Thank you all for your replies. I did try to get a quote from the Edmunds site but I don't think you can get quotes for Canadian cities. I tried to put my postal code in the zip code field but I could not enter the last character. There are 6 characters for a postal code - I am guessing there are only 5 characters in a zip code?

There is carcostcanada.com. You have to pay for this but they will give you the "dealer cost" of a specific make and model and the MSRP. It is better than nothing but I have been told that dealers get other discounts such as volume etc. I really don't know much about how the dealers price their cars - I just know I hate car shopping. Every salesman tells you something different and they try to talk circles around you to confuse you about the pricing. Some people enjoy the haggling but I find it very exhausting!

Thanks again for your feedback. I feel better about that offer now.

Roddimus Prime

The person with the most information is always going to win!! I try to do as much homework as possible before going (into battle) to the dealership. Have you tried www.kbb.com ?? I'll look around and see what I find for you.

Roddimus Prime

hmm....I figure about a 30% difference in currency and my car invoiced at $18.1K USD, add in the 30% exchange rate and it came up to $23K CAD. However, my car had a lot more options. I would continue to try to pump this deal. Haggling isn't fun, but would you argue with someone for 5 mintues for $1,000?? I know I would. Besides think about how important it is to get the absolute lowest payment you can. You will be paying for this for a while. Everything they sneak past you, every fee they add on, every hassle they give you only puts more money in their pocket.

Sylvestre

hey enfuh, if you have the time and patience, expand your horizons. Ottawa is pretty bad for car price since there aren't that many dealerships.
Consider getting quotes from toronto dealers. Saving a few grand more than makes up for the time you'll spend getting the car.
If you dealer is willing to negotiate, get him to agree to match another dealer's quote and then just fax TO places and get them to fax back quotes.

Will take longer but I spent about 3-4 weeks looking at different cars and the price difference between the cheapest and most expensive was almost 4K.

At the very least, you will be able to see what other places are offering and have an idea of when you are being ripped off.

IchBinEinMP5

enfuh: Don't bother with Toronto... the best dealer in the Ottawa area is Performance Mazda, off Jean D'arc Blvd, near Orleans. I have a friend in Toronto area, and I had him contact several (including his own), and they couldn't touch the deal I got at Performance.

G's P5

If you are looking for the best price on new cars in Ottawa, check out www.carsense.ca. The guys name is John. He's been in business for a few years now. I highly recommend him. However, only if you are serious about buying now. He won't tell you what the best price is until you pay 1/2 of his fee. I think, but don't quote me on it, that his fees are ~$350 for a car up to $20,000, $450 for 20,000-30,000 and $500 above $30k.

He won't tell you the price that he can get until you pay 1/2 of his fee, so you won't take that price and shop it around. Basically, he is able to by-pass the sales guys commission AND the dealer admin fees, so even with his fee, he'll still get you a better price than you can negotiate yourself.

You can tell him Geoff sent you, but he may or may not remember me. No biggie, there's nothing in it for me, I'm just trying to save you some cash. All dealer incentives apply, including the ones that we never know about, like the factory to dealer cash back.

Good luck and if you have any questions, you can e-mail me. This is my first visit to the board. I was just browsing to see if I could make my wife's P5 a bit quicker, cheaply. : )

G

BTW, Performance Mazda offered us $250 for our 1993 323 and wanted us to pay full price for the P5. Yeah, right... We didn't stick around to wait for a counter offer.

DaleK

You CANNOT use a currency exchange to compare pricing between Canada and the US. This is doubly true for North American cars. generally, the field is flatter between Canada and the US for import cars, but North American cars are actually cheaper after exchange here. Dealers in the states can get busted if they buy new cars in Canada and resell them in the US for this reason. The pricing models tend to be different, in addition to the different taxes, etc. To find invoice pricing, it is necessary to use a Canadian site like carcostcanada. Also, you can check the MSRP for your particular combination at the Mazda website, add in tax, PDI, etc. and see if you are getting aq discount. I would expect that you could get up to 10% of MSRP: if you haggled, and try and get a few accessories or service thrown in.

FWIW, when I bought my P5 in September 2001, I managed to get about $500 off list in total, and the cars were backordered.

Another suggestion is to use a service that will get a number of quotes for you so you don't have to. I don't know the names of any of them though.

IchBinEinMP5

Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with them. I just purchased a 2003 P5 from them this month, and have nothing but good things to say:

Great trade value (best I found)
Great price for P5
Great freebies - undercoating, wind deflector, and cargonet

Just my experience was good...

biscuit2

G's p5 New car dealers will not keep a 11 year old car in their inventory. They will get a quote from a wholesaler. How much would you spend on a car of that age?

Sylvestre

Personally I found the prices in Ottawa were higher than most of the quotes I got from the TO places.

Again, just call around and get quotes and get your dealer to agree to match the lowest quote you get. Guaranteed to get the best price without having to go far.