Did i get an ok deal?

Black on Black 2003 C4S 996... Carbon Wheel, Dash, Horseshoe, Switch panel.. Dual Tip Exhaust Supple Leather 10,700 miles.. Bose High End system Aluminum Trim Aluminum Sills Heated Seats Flawless Condition A few other things... List was $90,800.. I paid $72,500 Did I do ok? Thanks....

seeing as how you already made the deal, this isnt a great question to ask. but, bad news for you: FWIW my friend just bought a nearly identical car for 70 about a month ago. (except his was grey/black w/ aluminum parts instead of carbon). you could have done 65-68 especially in this market. for high 70s to mid 80s you could have bought a new one depending on options / dealer desperation/relationship / time of month

well im asking because.... A) I wanna know if the dealer was straight up with me.. B) I can always take it back... I suppose I should mention its certified.. if that makes a difference in prices these days..

I might add.. I looked at the new ones, and they are all in the high 80's to low 90's so Im not sure where you are shopping...

Sounds good to me. This board seems to be replete with lots of reports of killer deals that are hard to duplicate in real life when you are in the market, just like on the bimmer boards. For the record, I paid 59k for a Speed Yellow/Black with carbon, painted seatbacks, painted console, Litronics, Bose, sport exhaust, sport seats and other assorted chit, with 30k on the clock. 72 doesn't seem unreasonable for a year newer car and with 20k less on the clock. Could be wrong. I'm just happy I got my speed yellow C4S.

yup, im not looking to have gotten a killer deal , just an ok deal... It seems that the carbon costs about $4k or so, and my wife was insisting on having that... It seems like an average deal leaning towards good.. just wondering what others thought so I could gauge the BS level with this dealer in case I go back there for another car..

As frayed said, i will concur that the deals that i was offered, and my friend recieved, were very '1 time' deals, with very special circumstances, and with dealers with which we had done ALOT of business in the past, so a VIP courtesey if you will. you didn't get ripped off per say, and for a certified car with that much extra options (which shouldn't have added 100% of original value to the price) the penny pinching obsessive in me says you could have gotten it for 70 flat, but considering everything you've said, it isn't bad by any means, and you were in no way 'taken'.

thats good to know.. and all I really wanted to know.. I got the VIP deal like you were talking about with my car (E55), so I know what you are saying about those... Im hoping that we can get one of those with this same dealer down the road when the 997 TT's come out.. but right now, I just wanted what was fair.. (my wife was in a real rush to get it and very attached to this exact one...)

i can understand the 'rush' and the anxiousness of getting a car, however, take my advice, there are some expensive mistakes to be made. but i'm sure you know all that so i won't bore you, when you said your wife was in a 'real rush' that surprised me. buying a car is not buying shampoo or toothpaste, you have to live with it longer than a few weeks

I dunno man. At its core, buying a car is hugely emotional, and irrational. I have an deposit down on an Elise. It's been there for nearly a year. Now, with its imminent arrival, I will likely bail, and take the $2k deposit and buy some BlInG for the Pcar. Lotus gave me too much time to talk myself out of it. A Porsche ain't no Accord, and emotion goes a long way on such purchases. I suppose if you are on your 2nd, 3rd, or xx high end sports car, you can divorce yourself from the process, but I sure could not.

frayed, as you so eloquently put it, i have indeed 'divorced myself' from the process (much to the happiness of high -end sportscar salesmen in the Tri-State Area NY.NJ.CT ) with my Boxster, it was a long courtship process with the salesman, which involved him switching to a job at another dealer and keeping in touch with me., then i shopped around, went to dealer lots, read alot of boards, etc with my last aquisition, it was a 4 day process, July 3rd 2004, sunday: really hot/humid day and my mercedes was an OVEN without AC - decided i needed a car to replace it. monday: car research - decide which car i wanted (50~k was the price point) tuesday: decided on m3 and did market research, car sales market, as well as aftermarket group discussions. that evening, called up dealers to cut the best deal "$3500 off MSRP" - was the best i could do, and was better than anything i'd heard of on 5~ BMW m3 boards. wednesday: one blank day, dealer was not working, and i was also busy thursday: all day at dealer signing documents, waiting for loan approval, drove the car home. i am satisfied with my purchase and it is a good complimentry car to my forthcoming Turbo S Cabriolet. when you are about to drop 180k on a car, buying something for 50k~ - with about 20k of trade in credit, ending up at 30k, just isnt as exciting and emotional as it should/would/could be. even so, wednesday was torture . god i love cars. it's a tough bug to be bitten by.

It's impossible to evaluate deals because they are so market specific. I deal with Valley Motors in Hunt Valley, MD. Late model 911s don't stay on their lot for more than a week. The longest I've seen a 911 stay on their lot was an '01 TT that took them a little over two weeks to sell. They were asking low $90s and got high $80s. In this kind of market, do you think significant discounts are likely? $72K for an '03 C4S would be a very good deal in my area assuming the car was in great shape and not involved in an accident.

Werd. Very tough indeed.

2003 Boxster S 2004 BMW M3 Coupe SMG2 2005 Turbo S Cabriolet (October 2004 Delivery) Moogle: A new car every year? Wow, you are smitten by the car bug. I know how you feel. If I had the disposable income, I'd probably do the same thing.

Moogle, please don't take offense. I always enjoy your posts, and appreciate your knowledge, but I'm just curious: you're *financing* the M3, and have a turbo S cab on order? You're obviously doing well (at least I hope you are); do you have some investment tips on how to get a return on your cash better than the rate on your M3 loan? (I ask this, because, for me, I am, too, smitten by the car bug, but I only started into this level of car when I reached a point in my life, mid 40's, when the cost was a relatively insignificant issue, and after the house, kids' college, retirement, etc. were all vetted.)

Maxy, interest rates are still pretty attractive. I got 4.45% on a *used* car. Took the money I had for new ride and used it for better returns. Moogle, my short story: Found car, decided last Tuesday to buy it, booked one-way ticket to Lauderdale Tuesday night, drove two days averaging 73mph, car safe in garage by Thursday evening.

Signal 9, I think that ok is an ok way to describe the deal you got on that car. Not great, not terrible but ok. I have an '03 C4S and think that you will really like it. It's interesting that your wife insisted on carbon fiber. Most women don't care about cars, I think it's great that your wife is interested.

Moogle - I'm curious as well. in your signature you have a link to your boxter pics and it has your birthday listed as 10 April 1986. Either that is a typo or you are doing very well for an 18 year old....

Yeah, you're the man Moogle. Like Colin Quinn who was hosting the news on Saturday Night Live said the the seventh grader that slept with his teacher: "You don't know this yet, but you're doing good, kid. Real good." I thought I did well for myself getting a new 944 in high school. But you have a Boxster and a BMW with a 911 Turbo ordered? You make me look like the Beverly Hillbillies before they struck oil. lol. Are you one of the Backstreet Boys? N'Sync? By the way, what is the significance of the picture of the GQ magazine next to your Boxster pics? Don't tell me you're in GQ too.

Well, it seems that there is quite a range in different markets. I found that cars on the West coast held their values a bit more than on the East coast. So when I was seriously hunting for the right car, I ended up boiling it down to 3 cars which were all on the east coast. The difference in freight getting it to the west was $1600, so If I was saving $3-5k (or more) it was worth it. New C4S's on the showroom floor in Honolulu are stickered at around $85k +/-. They are not offering any incentives at this point to move the cars before the 997's arrive, as other dealers are. But many other dealers have had these very same cars listed much higher. It's the opposite with less expensive brands, such as my wife's Nissan. I saved $8k buying it in CA and then $1k to ship it over here. P-cars seem to be less expensive (new) here in HI than in CA or elsewhere. I personally think that finding the "right" car is far more important than finding the right "deal". If you found a car that you feel something for, and it costs a bit more than something that doesn't quite elevate your mood as much, why settle? We are into these cars for a little self-indulgence, are we not? If you love your new car, enjoy the heck out of it. And forget about whether you could've save a couple of grand or so.

That is not a typo, I am 18 that probably does raise a red flag in more than one brow, what I will disclose about my personal life is that I was able to purchase these marvelous cars through some honest hard work, these days I am doing some careful(read: very lucky!) investing with money I made in my younger years ( ) as a writer Fishman: I am not a backstreet boy/entertainer (even though that is a very tempting lifestyle) - PS. doesn't my use of 3 syllable words exclude me from that clique? I am very lucky to be able to enjoy so many nice things, realizing the true nature of capitalism. In retrospect, I will admit I was brought up in a priviledge family environment, the only male hier of a long extended family of business minded people (an environment which likely contributed to my own competance(?) at investment banking) but I work for all my 'toys' and there was no leg-up, - no old-boy network for me, things are that much sweeter when you buy them with your own 'blood money' (as we say in China) getting back to a few of the other questions, I was able to get some great interest rates when financing these new cars, 4.25 on the Boxster S back in october 2002 (when the 03s JUST landed) and i was able to get 4.49 on the M3. all of this through chase manhattan (great service in my experience). On the turbo Im guessing it may be closer to 4.75, as interest rates aren't exactly nosediving... an come november, ... On another note, I don't see these cars as investments, so I don't heavily consider the long term effects of locking in a low interest rate/depreciation/etc.etc. that is what you have a job for, if you absolutely have to consider these factors when buying a car, it is probably 1. not the right car for you. 2. not the right time financially to buy said car. or 3. forget it and take a dive! anyways I'm happy to answer anything that isn't too personal, Thanks for all the helpful and positive support. Best, Tom