From: gln@cs.arizona.edu (Gary L. Newell)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Mini Van pricing
Date: 31 Aug 92 19:26:13 GMT
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson


 OK - well, I purchased a new 1992 Dodge Grand Caravan this past weekend and 
I am trying to figure out if I was taken or not. I had done some homework 
before shoppoing and found some figures through Consumer reports and 
Money magazine which gave me a tleast a ball park figure to shoot for.

 Now the long story. About 3 weeks ago I went to the dealership and test-drove
a Grand Caravan. I liked it and decided to try and deal based on what I had
read. I used the target-base price listed in money mag. and added about
75% of the listed option price and figured that would be my target. Well
to make a long story short the van with options listed at about $21k. I 
started low but decided to leave when after two iterations they had only
come down about $400 from their opening bid of $20.5k. So, they ran a
special end-of-the-month sale last Friday and were ppen quite late. My
wife and I took a ride down to see their "rock-bottom" prices only
to find that they had taken off $1000 for a factory to dealer rebate and
had taken poff $1000 more - HOWEVER, they tried tacking on an extra
$875 for a "Desert PRotection Plan" which was not present two weeks earlier.

 Anyway, we figured "what the hell" and went in again to deal. It was very late,
they were closing at 11PM and it was about 10:30PM when we returned from the 
test drive. We filled out a credit appl. and right about 11:05 made our first 
offer which I knew was low ($17,700). Well, Iguess they decided that they
wanted to go home because they chose not to counter. The guy came over
and said "you said you wouldn't mind giving us a fair profit - what do
you think is fair?" - I said "3 percent over your cost is fair for a 92
at this point". He said "OK - here is the invoice (it matched MONEY 
Magazines invoice cost exactly) 3% over cost is $19,2?? (I forgot exactly).
I said "I'm sorry for wasting your time but this is too high for my
budget - I apologize for wasting both my time and yours". By now, the
finance manager and the sales manager want to know what is going on. So
the salesman tells him and the sales manager says "Let me see the invoice" -
looks at it and says "will you finance this through us?" - I say "if
the interest rate is fair I will - sure"  - he says "where were you
planning to finance the car?" - (I had done my homework and called all of
the local credit unions and found the one with the lowest rate) I gave
them the name of the credit union and said that I was told I could have
the loan at 7.9%. He thought for a while and said "I can get $300 back
from the factory for the Dual-air, another $120 for the child-seats and
$xx for the <some option>. Will you take it for this price and sign over
the $300 for the AC?" - I say "Yes I'll take it for $18,500 if the
financing is reasonable". So now we go to the finance mngr who asks us again 
where we were going to get financed we tell him and he says 8.4%. I say,
no they told me 7.9% - he looks again and says  -"Oh you must be
a ?????? member - their rate is 7.9%" - I say "yes". He says "OK 7.9%
then. I say "great". After 10 minutes, he says "sign here" - I look at it
and realize that they have financed the whole thing with no money down
what-so-ever - I sign, take the car home and begin to wonder if I was robbed?
I'd like to think I just did well and chose the right time of day and
month to shop but this went all too easy. I actually ended up getting
the van for $200 less than my openning bid two weeks earlier. The van
is a dodge Grand Caravan, Dual-Air, ChildSeats... all options totalled
about $3200 sticker price.

 Now according to Money nagazine, I picked it up for about $400-$500
dollars cheaper than their "target price" but it is unclear to me if
I was simply screwed or if I actually made a pretty good deal. I must
admit I was shocked that I was not required to put a single penny
down on the thing....


					gln