After months of shopping around, I wanted to share with everyone my personal experience.
Once I decided that I wanted a CX-5 Touring with the preferred package, I emailed every dealership within a 50-mile distance to find the lowest price I could find. A dealership that was about 30 minutes away quoted me the lowest price of $24,300 for a Labor Day deal from an MSRP of $29,305. OTD came out to $27,300. At the moment, I had a gut feeling that prices would come down a bit lower toward the end of the month as the quarter/month comes to an end and the '21 models start rolling in.
I waited for a few more weeks and reached out to them again on Monday. Unfortunately, the dealership told me that the Labor Day deal was gone and that there were no additional incentives; the price went back up to $27,800. We went back and forth, and the final thing they told me was that they would give me a good deal if I came in this weekend. I was getting pretty exhausted from all the research I've been doing, so I decided to just go in with the hopes of getting the deal done at $27,700 OTD.
Yesterday, for some reason, I had a feeling that I should call up all the dealerships that I had talked to before one more time to see if they could give me an even better price. I mentioned the price I got to a local dealership (20 min away) and was told that they would match the price but would have to charge the $400 extra for the roof rack that the car would come with: MSRP of $29,705 and OTD of $28,200.
Similar to before, I had a number in mind going into the dealership: $27,500 OTD, but open to up to $27,700. The dealership offered me right at $27,700. Since I knew that this meant that they had some room to wiggle, I offered a price of $27,000. Of course, the response from the sales guy was terrible and he got pretty upset lol. Eventually, the manager was called and I was offered $100 more off to arrive at $27,600. I told him to split the difference, and we ended up settling at $27,300 OTD. Now, I'm a proud owner of a brand spanking new Silver CX-5
I wanted to share this with all of you guys since this forum was incredibly useful in helping me think through the process! Thanks to everyone who helped, and thanks in particular to
@zroger73 for helping me out via direct messages!
Good luck to you all with your CX-5 purchases and feel free to ask me any questions!