To give you an idea of what to expect, I got my '13 from a Chicagoland Subaru dealer back in June for $23.5k OTD. The car had 4,100 miles on it and was listed at $21,995, I talked them down to $21,500. I know it's not a lot off and I probably could have talked them down more but it was in great shape, listed about $1k less than any other used FR-S in my area and had around half the miles of the other used ones. I really just wanted to talk them down enough to cover my winter tires. I'd say I paid about what the car was worth honestly, and it was actually a pretty good dealer experience. That being said, I paid $0 down and financed through my credit union at 2.99% for 60months and my payment is $414.

I bought my 2013 white FR-S with 16K miles for $22,650 OTD in may this year. I wish I could have haggled lower but I had to drive from one side of Washington to the other to get the car and I couldnt get them to lower the price over the phone..

My only advice if you buy one is dont get into any accidents.. Getting an FR-S repaired has been a nightmare.. Nobody knows how to put the front bumper back on properly I swear..

I guess my question now is.. If I want to keep my payments around 300$ - 325$ maximum a month (without adding insurance price), would it be best to just do a 6 year/72 month loan?
I'm planning to put down 4000$. I heard APR is higher with longer terms, but some people have recently told me APR would be lower with longer terms..

One thing i noticed that was not mentioned was credit history. Credit score will only get you so far. without a good credit histroy you may get deneied for the loan or have a really high interest rate. Most college kids do not have a lenthy or good enough credit history to buy a newer car even though they may have a great credit score.

Your payment is going to depend on the loan length and the interest rate and final out the door price after trade in/downpayment. From my experiance shorter loans have less interest rates but its not always the case. If your credit is good you should be able to meet your payment goals. If your credit is bad and your interest rate is high you could be at $400 plus

For instance:

Total price $22,000
Down payment: $4,000
Interest rate 2.0%
Length: 60 months
Your payment will be roughly $320 per month

That same loan but a interest rate of 12% will put your payment at about $400 per month. Depeneding on your credit your interest rate could be sustanitually lower or ever higher. I screwed my credit up a few years ago and financed a car just to rebuild it. My interest rate was just over 20%.... yes you read that right. The payments sucked but fixing my credit was worth it.

A shorter term is usually not going to have a higher interest rate unless some other factor changes also. The shorter term will usually be the same or less than the longer term. There's less risk for the lender in a shorter loan, so you will usually get a better price.

If you do opt for a longer term loan, be sure that you purchase GAP insurance. You can usually roll that into your loan if you don't want to pay it up front. With a 72 month loan, it's almost guaranteed that you will be upside down on it at some point. You don't want to get stuck with the bill if you total the car while you're upside down on the loan.

This is a good idea and i beleive very important.

I got my 13 automatic from a dealer 2 weeks ago in Austin, TX. It was listed at $20,900 which was exactly 1k less than the few I'd seen in Houston. So I drove up there to look at it and everything was 100% great with the car. Best one I'd seen yet.

I ended up telling them I wanted it for $21,800 OTD and they accepted almost immediately (this made the actual price of the car $20,200 so a full $700 off) and they even got me a better rate on financing than my bank had. That was the lowest price I'd seen in an area that doesn't get snow though.

How many miles?

It had 19k when I got it