Newbie Here, Need Advice for buying a used FRS.

[jmaryt]

Originally Posted by whaap

Another thought. Perhaps since they sell for a fixed, window sticker price and you can't negotiate them down to the bare bones they can give you a more realistic allowance for your trade in as they've already made a fair and reasonable profit off the price of their new car and they don't have to make up as much off the sale of your trade in.

Originally Posted by terrypm

You need to go to a local dealer and price a new one. The sticker will be around $25K with no options, more if they added BeSpoke, tint, 3M film, vin etching or some other Mickey Mouse extras. Most dealers I have dealt with add a document fee of between $199 and $499. Then add in your sales tax 8-9%.

With used you are paying $22.5K plus tax. New you will pay $26K?? plus tax. You would save $250+ just on sales tax plus the $3.5K price difference. In a couple of years there will be virtually no price difference on your car whichever decision you make, used vs new.

Do not be afraid of an early production car. I have had mine almost 8 months with no problems.

this strategy is risky,and you are definitely rolling the dice,BUT what you say
could be correct.in a few years,the new one WILL depreciate to the level of the used one at $22,500.00 or so. what makes this plausible,is that MAYBE the used one's used value STABILIZES,and BOTH cars will "possibly" be worth the same,however,the (fly in the ointment) is that the "used" one may further depreciate,and STILL be worth less than the new one a few years down the road.right now,it's a guessing game as to which way it will go! for my money,since we are talking a few dollars more a month on a 5 year note,i would go new! just my thoughts!

[Ingen]

Originally Posted by Sjl86

But yes, thank you for the responses, this definitely will make me ponder more about my decision. I may decide just to go to the dreaded dealership and get a new one lol.

My dealership experience was nice I got super cheap financing, it didn't take much effort on my part, and other than waiting on the car to come from Japan, there was nothing bad about it! I was in the finance office for like 15 minutes at most, they didn't slip anything stupid in there, and he got me something like 2.9% financing. That's cheaper than my student loans, for pete's sake.

Important notes:

1) IF you graduated college in teh last 2 years, make sure to get the college grad discount. It's $1000 off, from Scion, so it doesn't hurt the dealership at all.

2) See #1 if you got out of the military recently. Same schtick. Come on military college! ha.

3) Make dang sure they don't drill the front license plate holes. The aftermarket front plate kits are far better.

4) PREMIUM IN THE TANK. Don't let the dealer cheap out... some of them honestly don't realize it's a premium only kind of car.

OK, all that said, your best bet being in Cali might be to go to Oregon or Nevada and find a dealer. I have heard some pretty shady mark-up stories about the California dealers, but at least they are doing it to BRZs as well. If you can't wait, and you find one that wants to throw their dumbass wheel package on there to overcharge you, try to get them to do RPF1s with Star specs. At least get GOOD wheels out of it.

[#87]

Id buy a used auto with low mileage, not sure about a manual though unless it were some mass produced eco box like a civic or focus.