Used FR-S from dealers?
 

Hey guys! So I've been looking into finally getting a new (well, you know what I mean) car and have since decided to go with the FRS! I've actually been doing a lot of research and have been stalking around these forums for nearly a month now. All my friends are GenCoupe drivers and they're totally attacking me on this decision, lol.

ANYHOW, so here's the deal. I'm looking to make a purchase around Late October to Mid-November-ish. Manual Transmission and preferably White or Red. Does anyone have an estimate on what to expect for the price of a used '13 FRS from the dealers?

Private party might not be an option as I'm going to be doing a loan and hear they're pretty iffy on private deals. I'm looking to do 4-5k down payment. I see them on cars.com/KBB pricing around 20,000. Think I can get it down to 18k OTD price?

Sorry for the huge question! Hope to join you guys soon :D

Not necessarily. Unless you heard that from a loan officer at a bank or credit union, I wouldn't believe it until I heard it from a loan officer at a bank or credit union. What you need to do is shop around for interest rates, then call some of them and find out how they handle financing for private sales. They will want final approval of the car you choose, but it's probably easier than you think.

You should get your financing in place first before you find the car anyway, even if you buy it from a dealer. You can get pre-approved for up to a certain amount, depending on your credit, without having the car you want to buy already lined up. Dealers are very good at using the financing as a shell game to shift around the numbers to get you to pay a higher price for the car. You'll get a much better deal overall if you have the financing already lined up and can force the dealer to negotiate on price alone.

Don't be afraid. Get on the phone. The lenders want to lend money, because that's how they make money. Be sure and hit up your local credit unions also, because they will usually have the best rates, and you often don't even have to be a member to get pre-approved.

It's going to depend in part on where you live. I would suggest researching prices on Edmunds and/or Kelley:

http://www.edmunds.com/used-cars/

http://www.kbb.com/used-cars/

Put in your zip code, and those sites will give you a general idea of the average prices in your area. Then you'll have a good starting point for negotiations.

if you have good credit you should be able to get 1.5% zero down over 72 months for a used car loan. Its free money... A few years ago it was .49%

Thanks! I've been doing research on both these sites. I live in SoCal, originally from NorCal, so anywhere there and inbetween would be my locations. I'm planning to apply for that pre-approval thing in mid-October. As I understand, their offers stand 30 days and will force dealerships to counter-offer lower APR, etc. I'm just wondering if anyone has had personal experience with buying one of these?

I mean, if KBB is saying retail for it is around 20,000 and people are buying it for an average of 19,000, is that OTD price?

I'm a college student (currently taking semester off), but at a CC.
I've only been at my job for 6 months, but never really been out of work more than a week (lol, I've jumped 2 jobs in the past 2 years), I pay rent of about 650$ a month and have a monthly income of around 1900$ after taxes. My credit when I last checked was around 710, so I'm hoping that'll be good enough.

I have my dad as a co-signer on standby, but wanna see if I can do this solo, lol.

Check on Craigslist, they have guys that want to transfer their lease or payments.

I got mine on there for a great deal, I paid cash! but you might run in to a salvaged few.

Price will vary depending on mileage.

I want to meet the people dishing this rate out. You'd be hard pressed to get a loan on a brand new car with that term and rate. With 750+ credit even.

I ended up getting my 13 FireRed FRS for 20000 OTD in July. Had 12000 miles on it.

Have you factored in food, utilities, insurance, fuel, etc? At that income an almost brand new car seems like a stretch and I could see the car being sold after a couple months, realizing you can't afford it. But, if you have done your homework though and can make things work you should be able to find a good condition 13' FRS in the 18-20k range.

Around here that is not going to be OTD price.

I'd expect listings for $22k-$20k for a used '13 with over 10,000 miles, inflated prices are real out here compared to the $19k out the door in a soon to be snowy Massachusetts.

I'd guess roughly $2k for fees and tax title license if you're not going to a shady dealership, here's the calculator:

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculatorWeb/index.jsp

If I were looking for a car I'd try here first, there's a chance you can go through the poster history and see if they're a fool or not.

Edit: Fuck the FR-S unless mommy and daddy are paying entirely for school. Drive a beater with good gas mileage (they can be fun too) and minimize impending debt assuming you're transferring to a four year.

Credit unions. A very quick search gave me this:

https://www.nihfcu.org/credit-union-...oan-rates.aspx
https://www.jeffersonfinancial.org/
https://www.western.org/auto-loan-promo

That last one is advertising a .74% rate!

But to be clear, these are teaser rates for new cars. They charge higher rates on used cars because there is more risk there. You also have to qualify. Some of the teaser rates are only available for the shorter duration loans.

In most cases there will be a tiered system. If you have great credit, you'll likely qualify for their teaser rate. But then they'll have a few other higher rates for people with good credit and less than good credit. You might find that you don't qualify for the 1.5% rate, but instead they offer you a 2% rate that is still better than what car dealers are offering. Credit unions can offer those low rates because they are member-oriented rather than shareholder/profit-oriented.

There may be membership restrictions, but a large percentage of credit unions are wide open so that anyone can join. Some are open to anyone in a particular geographical area. Some are restricted to employees in a particular profession or company and their families. Forty years ago my father worked for a utility company, yet I am still eligible for membership at the utility's credit union.

I ended up at a credit union that is open to residents of my area. I got a 1.49% rate on a 48 month loan, but that rate would have been good up to 72 months if I had wanted to stretch it out. Because I was looking at multiple car models at the time I got pre-approved, I was approved up to $50K. I bought the car at the beginning of this year. The total interest I'll pay on this car over the life of the loan is only around $800.

This is why I say that you should shop around ahead of time and be sure to include local credit unions in your shopping. There are some great deals to be had if you do the legwork.

What it does is forces the dealer to focus on one negotiation at a time. Salesmen are very good at playing the negotiation game where they get you to a sales price you don't like, then shift over to financing to get your attention off the high price. Having your financing in place in advance takes that tool away from them and makes them focus on the price of the car instead, and generally speaking you'll get a better deal that way.

Rather than have me rehash everything, read this:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...8&postcount=45

I think I very slightly misquoted my rate in that post, but everything else is still good. Although you'll pay a higher rate for a used car, the process is still the same.

I see a LOT of them at Carmax. Low end on the price is usually like $20k for a higher mile one (20k miles not high at all, but most of the ones I see out there have less). Theres a lot of sub 10k mile ones for around 23-25k. The dealer where I bought mine had 3 on the lot. One had 20kish miles they were asking 20k if I recall, another had 3k miles and they were asking like 23k and mine (the only Monogram of the three) had just under 10k miles and they were asking like 24k for it. I ended up getting my Monogram for $23k OTD.

I think you could find one for under 20k OTD if you are willing to take the time and negotiate. Then again I have no idea about the CA market. Around here there are very few listed for less than 19k.

Also waiting for there to be some higher mileage ones on the market would also help.

Great to hear your experience with it! 23K OTD for a 24K asking price sounds good. 1K down and OTD pricing too. Hopefully I can talk the lower 20Ks in the area to possible a 19K OTD at the most/last resort. :(

What the hell, who's selling these for so much?

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65038