Money And Investing  -

The S-Plan

18 06 06 17 22

-------- Difficult to Buy a Car With It

My vehicle, a Mazda Miata 1996 M-Edition, is just 10 years old this week. It still runs, but at some point maintenance costs may start to become a worry. I am considering exchanging it for a newer model of the same car, or another type of car.

Ford / Mazda offer an incentive plan for partner companies, the S-Plans. Employees of Bose, Raytheon, Fidelity, among others, can get the S-Plan price (very close to invoice) without negotiation on the vehicles from participating Ford or Mazda dealers. My wife happens to work at a company that offers the S-Plan to their employees. Different car manufacturing companies may have other similar plans, but essentially the car manufacturer gives some incentives (kickbacks) to the dealer for participating on the S-Plan sale.

At this point buying close to retail price is the fartest from realistic option: The car still has some life on it, and I am in no hurry to part with it.

Recognizing that only participating dealers offer it I ask the question within a few minutes of meeting the salesperson on the dealer. This is what has happened recently at two dealers:

• Wellesley Mazda – I ask if they are able to find the car I want, I even bring them the printout from the dealer website that has it, but it is quite far from home. Calling the original dealer by phone gets a vague answer about the car availability, and I want a close dealer to find out for me, and potentially sell me the car. I ask them if they offer the S-Plan, and they answer that they do. After a couple of hours waiting for appraisal of the trade in vehicle, and other discussions, we get to numbers. The 'S-Plan' offered is about $400 higher than the one published by Ford/Mazda. Then they slap a $200 salesperson fee on top of it (in lieu of standard commissions). Suddenly, in principle it is not 'S-Plan' anymore. The deal breaks through and the dealer manager tells me I am making them loose time.
• IRA Mazda – This is the dealer that should have the car that I was asking at on Wellesley Mazda. They do not have the car there when we get to the dealer – and even when it was listed on the Internet, it was sold a few days ago! There we discover that Wellesley Mazda was trying to sell me a car, on a contract, with a VIN number, that was sold a few days earlier. Talk about making me loose time! The IRA Mazda salesperson proceeds to tell me they are a multi-state dealer that can get it from another state. Good! I ask him if they will give me the S-Plan to which I get a very positive answer, as I will get two more times during the conversation, always pointing me to a nice decal that said 'You can Trust IRA Mazda'. After two hours of car appraisal, conversations, waiting, and the usual runaround, I get the listing for my car. A nice Grand Touring version of the 96 model with improved suspension package and all, for $25,500 MSRP ($500 higher than the car I was looking for in my two attempts, and about $3500 higher than the original Miata I started looking for). I ask one more time if he will get me the S-Plan and he points me again to his “Trust Me” decal. The final price was not based on the S-Plan. What was supposed to be a $2,500 S-Plan discount was a mere $500 'just for you' discount. The excuse was that S-Plan was not available for a Miata, even when I had asked repeatedly about it. We left, offended, of course.

• You must always be ready to walk out of the dealer. No car, just your money in your pocket.
• Internet dealer inventories may not reflect actual inventory. They may be outdated by up to a week.
• Dealers will lie all through the sales process. They will even print fake VIN numbers on the contract (as Wellesley Mazda did).
• The S-Plan is a way for dealers to bring customers in, and to get rid of non-performing inventory: not to sell the customer the car he wants. Sounds simple enough, but it is always good to know the priorities of the two parties in any negotiation.

• Keep repairing the Miata. -- This is the one that will most probably happen!
• Buy a Miata at almost retail price.
• Wait until winter and buy a Miata when no-one else wants a convertible.
• Buy a different car: the RX-8 looks very nice.
• Buy used – letting someone else loose the initial depreciation could be fun.