I just heard from a friend who works at Mazda that he’s been given 5 Mazda Preferred Buyers Cards. Sounds like a Golden Ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! He can make these out to family, friends, or even friends of friends, and they give the holder $500 off on a new Mazda. That’s “an additional $500 off over and above any other incentives (you apply it after you have made your best deal and settle the details)”. Pretty cool, huh?
I’ve been trying not to spend money unless I have to, but after a little thought, I decided that I should check this out. Right now the dealerships are offering great incentives and they have a lot of cars on their lots. When the economy picks up again, there will be a lot of pent-up demand, especially for cars and houses. The most popular cars will be hard to find and customers will pay a premium for them.
So I thought I’d go to Mazda’s website and check out how good the incentives really are. Well for many models they’re offering 0% financing for 36 months or 2.9% financing for 60 months PLUS $1000 cash back PLUS no payments for 90 days! If you can still find a New 2008 model on the lot, the deals are even better. I even found a $169/month lease! Yep, you can lease a 2009 Mazda3 I Sport for $169 a month. Incredible!
So I thought I’d do the math on the car I want, the New Mazda Tribute Hybrid. This car gets 34 mpg in the city! That would save me a lot of money, especially now that gas prices are creeping back up.
First, I’m going to get a brand new 2008 model. It runs about $5,000 less than the 2009 and it’s still a new car and a hybrid to boot. I’ve picked out one that’s listed for $25,000. I feel confident that I can negotiate from there. I’ll get a New Car Report from Consumer Reports before I go, but for the rough math, I’m going to use the $25,000 number.
They’re offering $3,000 cash back OR 0% financing for 60 months on the 2008 Tribute Hybrids. My credit union is offering 5.25% for a 60 month loan, or 3.75% for a 36 month loan. If I decided to get a 60 month loan, I’d break even if I paid off the loan at 51 months. Any shorter than that, and I’d be better off to take the $3,000. I was planning to pay it off in 4 years, so I’m going to squeeze my budget a little more and take the 36 month loan at 3.75% from the credit union and then take that $3,000 cash back.
I looked up the hybrid tax credit on the IRS’s website, and it says that the 4 wheel drive Hybrid Tribute qualifies for a $2,200 tax credit. I think this only applied to the first 60,000 cars that Mazda sold, but since they’re only available in California right now and the economy has been slow, I’m hoping that this tax credit is still available.
On top of this, I’ll get the $500 discount from my Golden Ticket.
That’s
* A low starting price of $25,000, plus whatever I can negotiate
* $3,000 cash back
* $500 more cash back
* A potential $2,200 tax credit
And when all is said and done, I’ll own a brand new Hybrid that gets 34 mpg!
Everything here is available to the general public, except that 5 Mazda Preferred Buyers Card. I already have mine, but how do you get yours? Well, you need to get to a Mazda employee. Start at Linked In. Look at all your friends’ profiles to see if anyone you know works for Mazda. If that doesn’t turn up any good news, try sending them all an email asking if they know anyone who works for Mazda.
Tags: 2008 tribute, car report, consumer report, consumer reports, dealer, dealers, hybrid, hybrids, new car, new hybrid, r cars, rs car, tribute, tribute hybrid, Wheel