Buying a Used 2011/2012 Mazda3?
I'm getting ready to go check out three Mazda3s come Wednesday and I'm wanting to score a deal as close as possible to the wholesale cost (say $1000 above wholesale). These cars are at larger dealerships (Ford and Toyota) in LA County. The mileage on these cars are at about 40k and the asking price for all of them are right around $13000; I plan on starting the "game" at $7k and working upwards from there. $9k's right around my max. Now I know $6k below the dealer's asking price is a crude place to start, but here's my reasoning: Edmund's and KBB have the 2011 Mazda3 trims (in fair condition) that I'm looking at pegged at a fair retail price of $10500. So a great deal, the way I see it, is to buy below the fair price… If anyone could provide me with some feedback I'd be happy.
That would be a great deal, but your chances of getting them to sell it to you at 1500 less than the "fair" price on KBB is extremely slim. New car dealerships do not sell used cars in poor/fair condition, they have a reputation as a new car dealer so the used cars they do sell are generally in good to excellent condition.
Here's my advice - use Edmunds instead of KBB to gauge prices, from my experience KBB is too high, but then be realistic when it comes to condition, options, etc. Then if the number you get from there's in the ballpark of your budget, you can start negotiating with your end goal being to do a little better than that number, but do not start the negotiating by low balling the dealer to that degree. If I worked at that Ford dealership and you offered me 7K on a vehicle that we're asking 13, I'd be done with you, I would not take you seriously as a buyer. On the other hand if you had a printed out form (or better yet more than one) from edmunds, nada, kbb, etc stating that you want to offer me 11K because you have these docs indicating that's a fair price, then I would listen and work with you to try to reach a deal. That's what you should do.
Its a good deal. But I don't think car dealers will sell used cars in poor condition.
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