Got a New Mazda6 Sedan!
I’m the proud new owner of a fairly fully loaded manual transmission 6s 4-door sedan for $22k before taxes and tags. This is a full $3500 less than I was going to end up paying had I purchased the 5-door. Given Mazda’s current incentives, I couldn’t pass up how good a deal this was!! I was looking for more 5-door options, but the sedan kept calling to me… “Buy me!”
So, sorry Mazda. I know this is typical (charge a premium for a new model and all), but it’s easy enough to check into the resale value history of wagon and hatchback models of other cars to see that they usually end up losing more resale value more quickly than the traditional sedan. That means you not only get hit with up-front premium of buying it now, but get hit later on if you go to sell it. It will sell for less than a comparably-equipped sedan. No thanks.
So I am giving up a little utility, but c’mon… $3500 worth? No way. I’m very happy with my purchase!
I got a few emails from the blog yesterday and today about my actions. Gotta say, most are positive along the lines of “Right on!” But one asked why I would walk away from a deal over a few hundred dollars… Because it’s the principle of the thing, not the actual money. The dealer did mention one of the fees up front, but I never agreed to it (he apparently thought I did). Who’s dumb enough to pay a $250 “documentation fee,” give me a break. The second fee he never even mentioned to me and it just magically appeared on the invoice. “Oh, that’s a standard Mazda charge to all dealers… it’s the advertising fee.” Now, I don’t care what company you run, but since when do companies make you pay for their advertising? Again, give me a break. Dispute it all you want, but he never mentioned the fee up-front and I definitely never agreed to pay an advertising fee. (I don’t care if there’s debate about how “legitimate” the fee is. My customers would laugh their asses off if I tried charging them for the standard costs of my doing business with them!) That’s dishonest, and that’s the main reason I walked away from the deal (because he wasn’t willing to take that fee off or eat it).
Now, keep in mind, this dealer was already making about $1200-1400 off of this deal in profit. Rather than take a smaller profit to clear up any confusion and keep their customer happy, they instead chose to play hardball. That’s why they lost the customer. Like many car dealers, they got greedy. (Plus, they know what I also know — they will have that car sold in a week’s time for probably $1500-1800 profit.)
The dealer, since I’ve been asked about it, is Morande Mazda outside of Hartford, CT.