Pulled the trigger.
July 9, 2021
Dealer: Puyallup, WA Mazda
Trade: 2019 CX-9, 20,733 miles, great condition
Black Book Trade Value Range: $24,105 - $28,175
2021 CX-5 GTR Price (only extra is roof racks and red paint charge) Invoice: $36,033
MSRP: $37,555
Price quoted: $1000 under invoice = $35,033 (there was another dealer that offered $1,400 under invoice - which would be $2,922 under MSRP but they offered $500 less on the trade)
Mazda Loyalty Cash = -$750
Price paid excluding tax an license: $34,283 + Doc Fee $150 = $34,433
So with doc fee I got $850 under invoice not including Loyalty Cash, $1,600 under invoice including Loyalty Cash or $3,122 under MSRP including the loyalty cash.
* If I didn't have a trade I could have gotten $2000 under invoice with loyalty cash or $3,522 under MSRP from the other dealer.
* Note these figures are all including the $150 doc fee
Trade price: $26,500 (Other trade offers I got from other dealers: $25,000, $26,000 and $26,175)
I told them I wanted more for the trade and suggested they throw in moving my trailer hitch from my old car to my new car. They agreed to install a brand new trailer hitch for free on the new car which if I had this done after I bought it would have cost me $450 in parts and labor so I consider the net trade price was $26,950 including a installed nre trailer hitch which got me well within 5% of my target trade price.
So difference between trade and new car with trailer hitch was $7,483 My target was $8000 or less (Invoice or $1,500 below MSRP on the new car and $27,000 on the trade). Northwest region isn't discounting as much as places like Florida so I'm glad I was able to beat my target.
If you don't have a trade then you just go for the lowest new car price obviously.
SOME SIDE NOTES:
Note that I used Checkbook.org's Car Bargains service which contacts the Fleet Sales Managers bypassing the commissioned salespeople, getting you the dealer's bottom line price on the new car. It's truly their bottom line price. It's well worth the money as it will definitely save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars and hours and hours of emails and phone calls. It is NOT the same as TruCar or Costco which are essentially lead generation services. They WILL get prices lower than the Costco price. Note they cannot get you the price on your trade. I just took the three lowest dealers, sent photos of my car and asked for trade price and then picked the one with the lowest price difference between the trade and the new price. My time is worth about $90/hr and I figure it would have taken me 10 hours to do what Checkbook did for me so at $225 for their service it was a bargain. The prices I got back from 6 dealers ranged from MSRP to $1,400 below invoice.
Get the best deal on your new car using these proven CarBargains competitive bidding strategies. CarBargains, a service of nonprofit Consumers' CHECKBOOK, shares their new car shopping secrets to get you a great deal.
www.checkbook.org
Also on the trade price, I can tell from 40 years experience buying and selling 29 new and used cars, Edmunds, KBB, and NADA Consumer are all aligned more with dealers than consumers. Their figures are low and the dealers LOVE them for doing that. Most Dealers use NADA or Black Book to determine used car values. BUT, the NADA numbers they use are NOT the same as the NADA numbers the NADA public consumer site spits out
In my opinion, Black Book is the best source as they use Manheim auction history which is where dealers sell used cars they won't keep on the lot and the second tier dealers buy their used cars from. But Black Book is a subscription service for the dealer not the consumer. You need to find a dealer that gives public access to their Black Book subscription. This GMC Dealer gives access to their Black Book Portal. Black Book prices can tend to be a little on the high side of what the dealer will actually get (so one could argue Edmunds/NADA aren't too far off then) So if you can get within 5% of what you think your value is in the Black Book range, that's a fair trade price. It's much more powerful though to bring in a BlackBook price to show the dealer than KBB or Edmunds as they know you know what's up if you are using BlackBook.
https://www.intelliprice.com/intellipricedealer/start.htm?dealerid=3045511#/trade/home
** The main thing to remember when you negotiate, if you have a trade, always negotiate the new car price first, and always have a target number on the difference between the trade and the new car. Only focus on that. The price on the new car and used car by themselves are useless. If your difference is $5000 you can pay $255,000 for the new car as long as the dealer gives you $250,000 on your trade. Tell them that. But don't tell them your bottom line from the start. They will ask what your target is first. The rule in negotiation is he who names a price first loses. But not necessarily if you are prepared. So tell them you need the difference between to be $3,000 and then let them haggle with you until you get them to your $5000 target. If they won't meet your target, WALK AWAY. You'll be surprised how many times they'll pull you back in and give you the deal or call you the next day and give you the deal.