Clint / Heuberger Motors
 

http://i.imgur.com/XHLSJhv.jpg

That pretty much sums up my buying experience from Clint...

Backstory: I was never interested in buying a BRZ. Or FR-S. My friend (who used to work at Mackin) had a FR-S last year in preparation for SEMA Show, and I drove it to/from my house to an In-N-Out nearby. Never over 4000RPMS, only driving it in a straight line, only drove total of less than 10 miles with nothing aggressive.

I wanted the car solely because of several obscure attributes:

• Low center of gravity. This was a prominent advertised feature of the S13 240SX (I have an original 1991 240SX sales brochure in my hands) and can appreciate it when a car manufacturer has this as a top project/design priority
• Curb weight: yes, the curb weight of 2750lbs was pretty much what I wanted. My S13s all weighed the same, and I have had a lot of S13s in my life
• Front engine, RWD. This was sort of a big deal for me...
• Factory LSD.

Beyond that, I hated the FR-S interior. It felt cheap, it wasn't as good as it could be, but (most importantly) if I bought the FR-S I would pretty much swap everything out the day I got it.


Then, I decided to sit in one at a dealer. They won't let me. I asked the price of the BRZ, they wanted $3k markup.


Over the course of the first 3 months of this year, I called every dealer in California. The "cheapest" was a dealer local to me that decided to use me as a guinea pig, and custom order a BRZ from Subaru. I would be offered the car for full MSRP with no markup or dealer-added items (Lo-Jack, etc), but I decided not to buy the car from them after they didn't call me for weeks to follow up on status.


As for Clint:
I was lurking on the forums. I saw a thread that he made in the sponsored classifieds section, and decided to send him a PM. To summarize how I bought the car:

1. Sent PM with my info
2. Got email with quote (lower than what I was going to offer)
3. Accepted, paid $1k deposit via credit card 4/30
4. Booked my flight for 6/15
5. Filled out finance paperwork end of May
6. Mailed down payment of $15k + remaining paperwork two weeks prior to pickup
7. Flew in to Denver, went to dealer
8. Spent less than 20 minutes at the dealer, didn't even bother to inspect the car as I knew it would have a ton of bugs on it within hours
9. Picked up keys and drove back to Los Angeles without hesitation

Would I do it again? No hesitation. Clint made it easy (in fact, his first few times communicating with me felt like he was pressuring me to buy the car, when in reality it was 1) last car left for foreseeable future, 2) custom-order car was 4/30 close date for Aug/Sep delivery, 3) wait for uncertain allocation, or 4) 2014MY, ETA in Q4 2013)... so much so, I can't believe I spent so little time and attention buying this car.


Not every dealer will be as easy to work with, and for some people who have never bought a car from out of state, it may be a daunting task... but to be honest, buying a car is possibly the best thing you can do to protect yourself, because it's so incredibly difficult defraud someone on a new car.


Plus, never hurts to have a salesman offer you a quote below your asking price, before you even say a word.


Thanks Clint for the great buying experience.


-alex

THANKS ALEX :)

Quick update:

Just registered the car this morning at the DMV. A few things to note:

• The paperwork sent by Heuberger Motors is pretty complete, including the sales tax that is forwarded to the state where you reside.
• Check your local laws regarding how to register a car, including restrictions and penalties if not done in a timely fashion.
• Enjoy the "Certificate of Origin" while you can... I was sad to part ways with that nice piece of paper.

Your final price for the car will vary, but I paid $30580.75 "out the door" including tax, title, registration, smog, gas money driving back from CO, etc. If you choose to ship the car, add on transport fees. Airfare from LAX to DEN was ~$150 max if booked 3 weeks out, mine was free by using points.

For reference, there is a BRZ sitting at Puente Hills Subaru for full MSRP + Lo-Jack that is higher than what I paid in total.

All in all, this was about as pain-free of a car buying experience as one can have. If you're willing to spend ~1 hour of your time at the DMV, buy your car from Heuberger Motors, or at least make your local dealer match their prices!

-alex

Edit: If you're in CA, this info will help you.