Interesting twist, I'll check that if/when back in the market. To me the other plus was the lack of negotiation, i found i had wasted time bothering with negotiation compared to the Costco price. In the end, the price would have to be decently lower to make the effort worth passing on the Costco pricing in the first place.

Agreed. If I were to actually value my time invested, I doubt the few hundred I saved was even worth the effort.

When I bought my Tacoma I used this method:
1) Look up the zipcodes for the 20 largest cities in the south east (I like in Charleston).
2) Go to toyota.com and put each zip code in to see which dealership the website sent me to.
3) Go to the dealers website and get their direct phone number.
4) Called dealer #1 and said "what can you sell me the truck for" (after giving them the list of options I wanted)
5) When they said $25,000 I would call #2 and say "beat $25,000"
6) If they gave me a lower number call #3 and tell them to beat that.
7) Repeat until no one will beat the last price. I ended up getting my truck for less than consumer reports stated as the dealer price and have the great feeling that I did my best to get a good deal. Took me about a month to 6 weeks for the entire process.

Precisely, and if you've got the free time, or don't otherwise put a value on the time invested in the process, you can pretty much always find a better deal. If nothing else, it can be fun to make them squirm and compete with one another.

My problem with this method is I finance vehicles. Why sink cash in to a depreciating asset when interest rates are so stinking low.

That being said, I am sick of trying to find a good deal on a cheap used car so i will probably be going this route. (Jeep Cherokee or Subaru Forester).

Has anyone driven a CX-5 Sport with the 2.0/6MT? I like the cargo space in the cx-5 over the 3 and the fact that you can get it with a manual is nice. I've just read a lot of bad press about how underpowered the 2.0 is and didn't know if the manual helped. No nearby dealers even have one with a manual in stock to test drive.

I've driven them on several occasions, and I've sold one or two. Surprisingly, I feel like they are better with the automatic! That car with the auto is quick to downshift and put the 2.0 into the meat of its power. The manual keeps you working pretty good to keep it going.

Shifter feels great though. IMO it's worth it to jump up to the touring 2WD. Also, within the next couple months the Sport AWD will have the 2.5 in it standard with very little increase in price.

Interesting. Being the cheapskate that I am I was hoping that that combo's (perceived) lack of popularity might mean an extra good deal at the end of the year. I thought I read that they were supposed to make the 6MT available with the 2.5 but I haver seen that yet.

Why the touring over the sport? I didn't see any must have options that the sport doesn't already have.

If we replace the RAV4 with another crossover were jut planning on fwd since we don't NEED awd. What I really want is a real wagon that's not some luxury brand or a vw.

It very well could mean an extra good deal. Mazda is offering a $500 rebate currently (it's dealer cash, so they can hide it from you if they want to) on the 2014 CX-5 Sport. Problem is, they're pretty much all gone anyway. If you can find an ad car though and the dealership doesn't jerk you around, yeah you can get a really good deal on one if you can find one. If you want, I can search the dealers in your area with my dealer tool and tell you who shows one in inventory. Just give me the area codes (not zip codes) you want me to search.

The Touring is the only way to get the 2.5 with FWD in the CX-5. The 6MT was never supposed to come with the 2.5 in the CX-5, only in the Mazda 3, and you're right -- that hasn't happened yet.

Subaru Outback? Guess that's a lifted wagon.

Thanks Ed. I'll take you up on that if that's the direction we end up going. Don't want to waste your time until we make that decision.

Also thanks for the tip on the dealer cash. I also noticed that there was $500 owner loyalty on edmunds so that would work for us too.

I personally don't want a Subaru. Parents owned one, gave them all kinds of grief and from what I can tell Subaru still doesn't know how to make a boxer engine that can keep its headgaskets from blowing. I'd rather spend my money elsewhere.

Ah yes, of course, owner loyalty. At that rate you could probably get a Sport 2WD MT for right at $20k. Neat.

Is the an example of an ad car you're talking about? This dealer has several around this price range with 1 or 2 options. I assume this is the classic loss-leader listing, where the car may or may not actually be available and they use it as a bait and switch?

http://www.russelmazda.com/new/Mazda...f078cedb18.htm

Is there way a way to tell which rebates and incentives they were using to come up with that price?

From the website:

The max rebate combination for our region would be owner loyalty ($500) and college grad or military for another $500. You only get one of those, so you should expect your price to be $500 more than the advertised price to start with. They will doubtless try to tack on some kind of anti theft etching or something similar as well.

HERE'S A BILLION INCENTIVES AND REBATES*

*none of which you qualify for, n00b.

Yup. At least that dealer has the decency to come right out and say it. Some don't.

Would it do any good to ask Mazda to import the Mazda6 wagon into the US? Diesel please.

Not one bit :fawk:

Asshats.

How about a Mazda2 diesel then?

Far less likely. People would ignore it and buy a Prius C.

Idiotic, really. But it would be expensive.

We need competition for the VW Jetta Sportwagen. Nobody is stepping up.

Do want also... another forum guy was teasing about the extreme measures he went to and was able to get one. Once he spilled the beans... it was that he moved to Paris, France :p