In reply to Coldsnap:
Yeah, I LOVE the green color. It's quite possibly my favorite color offered on a car in the past five years, and it looks great on the 2. Knowing that the green is an option, I refuse to take a 2 in any other color, haha. I like it that much!
SlickDizzy wrote: In reply to Coldsnap: Yeah, I LOVE the green color. It's quite possibly my favorite color offered on a car in the past five years, and it looks great on the 2. Knowing that the green is an option, I refuse to take a 2 in any other color, haha. I like it that much!
The red is also really nice too. It's like a bright fun red. Hell even a member here has a black one which looks really nice. It's a good lookin car! I hope Mazda revisits it in NA and brings out a skyavtive two door version.
Joe Gearin wrote: I actually prefer the driving experience of the Abarth to the FiST, but the Ford is a much more practical choice. The dashboard of the Ford looks and feels like it was designed on Mars....the Abarth is very eyetalian--- for better and for worse. The Abarth has an attitude the other cars can't match. It always wants to go...to start trouble....it goads you to drive enthusiastically. I can see how it may get tiring over the long haul.......but I think I could take it. It also has maybe the best exhaust note out of any new 4cyl car. (Alfa 4C included) The exhaust alone made me giggle repeatedly. The FiST doesn't sound like anything....a vacuum maybe.
Dammit, I did not need to be reminded of this Joe....especially did not need to hear a few of the aftermarket exhaust clips either......and absolutely did not need to start looking at used white Abarths on autotrader.
I might actually look into one in Ohio now using advice given in this thread. 
T.J. wrote: My favorite tactic is during the negotiation phase, simply state at what price I am willing to buy the car and then just sit there.
This.
"I have a number. This is my number. I am familiar with how much these are worth. Deal or no deal?"
If they try and mess around, just tell them "you have my phone number and how much I am willing to pay. If you want this vehicle sold, you know how to find me and give me a call". Then leave. At that point, you've made your case for how you want to enter the business transaction, and the only power they have is whether they will or will not sell to you at that price. I make sure my number is reasonable, and I do allow for the fact that they may bullE36 M3 me on some fees at the end or taxes. Unfortunately, if you truly do want the vehicle, it may be worth paying an extra couple hundred to get the deal done.
Also, if you are buying new or essentially new, buy what you want. Get the Abarth. #YOLO! 
I had my bank give me the amount I could finance to take with me. I printed 3 different car listings I liked and also any carfax info. Went into the dealership and said if you can give me this price I'll buy it today (it was about the same as the next one I planned to see in another city).
Pretty much did the same thing with the xB in 2008. My Fiat dealer was a good guy, he said he thought he could work something out and he did. He got within about $1 of the monthly payment I wanted, and I conceded the fact that his had a $1k option the other one didn't so I was willing to get close.
I love the Abarth, and even with the rougher ride I still like the 17's better (just not in love with cleaning the white wheels every freaking week).
Jerry wrote: My Fiat dealer was a good guy, he said he thought he could work something out and he did. He got within about $1 of the monthly payment I wanted, and I conceded the fact that his had a $1k option the other one didn't so I was willing to get close.
I'm glad things worked out for you, but the part I bolded is the dangerous bit. Except in cases of extreme necessity, NEVER negotiate toward a monthly payment and ALWAYS negotiate toward a total price.
In reply to Duke:
A buddy of mine worked sales for a Ford dealer for about two years. They had a used Cadillac SRX on the lot that a guy with absolutely horrid credit just needed to have for his wife, to match the Escalade that he was driving. They couldn't finance him under 10% APR to save their lives; my buddy openly told the guy that any loan with his credit was basically financial suicide, but the guy kept repeating back to him "I don't care about none of that, just tell me what the monthly payment is!" Yes, he ended up financing it well above 10%.
My buddy quit the job not long after, saying his faith in the average American was basically destroyed.
Did you get a chance to test drive an Abarth or Fiesta ST?
In reply to Coldsnap:
Fiesta ST isn't even on the list, it's down to the CR-Z, 2, and Abarth for me. I'm waiting until the BMW sells to walk into a dealership, as I want to have my down payment on hand if I find the winner....
SlickDizzy wrote: In reply to Coldsnap: Fiesta ST isn't even on the list, it's down to the CR-Z, 2, and Abarth for me. I'm waiting until the BMW sells to walk into a dealership, as I want to have my down payment on hand if I find the winner....
Gotcha. I think the list will quickly be Mazda 2 and Abarth :P I wouldn't count out the 500T either, if you cant test drive one just drive a regular and think how it would be with more power.
I'd say the sooner the better, for test driving. I'm sure a lot of people buy a car they wouldn't have if they test drove it then slept on it for a week or so.
Duke wrote:Jerry wrote: My Fiat dealer was a good guy, he said he thought he could work something out and he did. He got within about $1 of the monthly payment I wanted, and I conceded the fact that his had a $1k option the other one didn't so I was willing to get close.I'm glad things worked out for you, but the part I bolded is the dangerous bit. Except in cases of extreme necessity, *NEVER* negotiate toward a monthly payment and *ALWAYS* negotiate toward a total price.
Thanks, but I did angle for both. I had a pretty good idea I wanted close to $20k and 300/month before I got there, and he got pretty close to both. Using my cash down and even a Chrysler Employee thing a forum member gave me here!
Wow, you get a lot of car for close to $20k new.
Duke wrote: I'm glad things worked out for you, but the part I bolded is the dangerous bit. Except in cases of extreme necessity, *NEVER* negotiate toward a monthly payment and *ALWAYS* negotiate toward a total price.
Not mutually exclusive most times. Total price and monthly payment at a certain rate are closely tied together. For example on my Mustang, I wanted to keep payments to under $300 a month. Since I know I could get 2% financing, that meant I needed to get the car under $18k. I want a monthly payment that I can easily budget for, but that tells me what the total price needs to be at and I negotiate based on that. If you can't get me in at my monthly budget, that means you can't meet my total price goal, either. How much is $20k out of my paycheck? Dunno offhand, but I know how much $300 is going to be out of that same paycheck. But, as a ballpark I know that $300 for 5 years at 2% is going to mean no more than $17-18k before negotiating. At 0-2% the difference between paying for 5 years and paying for, say, 6 years, isn't going to materially change the overall price of the car, and since you already KNOW what the price of the car is, you're just fitting it into your budget.
And of course, for leasing, the same applies. I want to put 0 down, so If I negotiate from there on monthly payments, I know they are negotiating on total price. The two are tied together.
In reply to Coldsnap:
I believe tax/title/everything out the door was like $20.2K or something. New 2013 model in March 2014 with serious rebates going on at the time. Many members here were considering/buying them.
Jerry wrote: In reply to Coldsnap: I believe tax/title/everything out the door was like $20.2K or something. New 2013 model in March 2014 with serious rebates going on at the time. Many members here were considering/buying them.
That's great. My 2013 turbo was $11.8k out the door. Think for the money I couldn't buy a newer/more enjoyable car. Do you ever look at your average mpg Jerry? If so what do you usually get.
I need to get the darn seatbelt alarm turned off. As it's the biggest thing I dislike about the car. I always wear my seatbelt, but I usually buckle up after turning the car on (to get the AC going).
Klayfish wrote: My current DD, Chevy HHR, went like that. I test drove it, liked it. Asking price was way too high. I knew it had been on their lot quite a while. I started to walk away...literally...and as I was walking I simply said to the sales guy "If you get to the point where you just want to get slightly above auction price for it, give me a call".
This is my standard MO. I'll ask what they can sell for - I'll counter once if that price is close and then leave my number with the "If you decide you can part with it for that, give me a call". It works better with private sellers than dealers in my experience - but I did get a call back once on an M3 from the BMW dealer. I had already bought a different car though so I can't say it was actually successful.
My strategy at all dealerships was to be interested (but not excited) and walk out (even if I loved the car). Cars sit in dealerships for a long time, unless it's a Honda. Look at the carfax and you will usually see 4/6 months. For example - Genesis Coupe I was looking at 3 1/2 months, Infinity G37 5 months, Abarth 4 months. It works both ways too, if a car just came in then most dealerships will know how long it's going to take them to sell it and would like a quick sale. You'd be surprised to see how far they come down if you walk. Even on cars which were out of my price range (Infinity G37) listed at $18.8k all of a sudden came into my range when they keep calling you back and offering to come down $3k or so.
They will try to give you the same sales BS -
"Oh I thought you were the test drive appointment I had scheduled, which was a family, but it looks like we have two today for the car".
I was thinking to myself, OH NO SOMEONE ELSE IS LOOKING. They prey on your insecurities. Then laughed because no family is looking at a Fiat 500 Abarth.
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