.......A New Chapter, A New Age, A New Car.......
The planets aligned on Monday and I've cashed in several years worth of Karmic Brownie Points to pick up the SWEETEST most LUDICROUS deal imaginable. My Dream Car (realistically speaking, and not psychotically speaking, else I'd obsess about owning an $800,000 Pagini Zonda "F" Clubsport) has been fiscally improbable and I've been resigned to the idea of selling my car in February and picking up a slightly used 2006-07 Subaru Imprezza STI for around 26 to 28K. Factor in used-car financing rates being at best 4.5 percent, you're looking at an additional 1300 bucks a YEAR over the life of the loan!
Enter the stock market crash and the subsequent flagellation of the Auto Industry and we're looking at car companies with unbelievable rebate offers and insane finance products in a near desperate effort to clear out their bloated 2008 stock. This is clearly a buyers market, and perhaps the best car-buying market in a generation. On a whim, I looked at Mitsubishi Motors and low and behold, they are offering ZERO percent financing up to SIXTY MONTHS on not only their economy cars but their HALO/Flagship car the EVOLUTION X as well...again, an extreme rarity. At this point, I began an utterly exhaustive investigation, calling every Mitsubishi dealership in Northern California, cruising Ebay, and scouring Craiglist for the best deal possible.
The special ZERO percent financing was up on Monday Jan. 5th so I did my final round of calling, visiting, and cut-throat negotiations that morning. You see, I'm looking to buy an EVOLUTION GSR with just the right options: the Track/Aero package and nothing more. This car MSRP is $37,490...whew, you see why I was looking at a used Subaru STI. My attitude in negotiations was simply; ask to speak to the supervisor and low-ball the F$%& out of the price...and I had two Bay Area dealerships positively furious with me insinuating I had insulted them, taking advantage of the Auto Industry's desperation...but I could care less. I WANT A DEAL. I offered 28,999 and salespeople threw up their hands in incredulity; "Are you serious!?", "That's 5 grand under Invoice!" (shaking paperwork to demonstrate their point). Twice salespeople dismissed me to EBAY to buy a used EVO 9 or even 8 with 10K miles on the odometer because my offer was so outrageous.
The last day of the ZERO percent financing offer was coming to an end and after being laughed at and scolded by salespeople up and down Nor-Cal, I figured it just wasn't meant to be. I gave it one last shot and swung by Serramonte Mitsubishi which had the largest glut of EVO's in the Bay Area. I walked into the showroom, spoke with a very friendly and very un-intimidating saleswoman and after some small talk asked her directly what their lowest price was on an EVO GSR with the Track/Aero package. She didn't bat an eye, walked over to her sales-manager, pulled out a newspaper ad from that morning, looked at her one and only GSR Track Pack, busted out the calculator, and said "How about $26,888?" My jaw dropped. I asked if we were talking about the right car. She checked again and said she was.
Apparently, only hard-core enthusiasts would be interested in an EVO GSR Track. To get buyers into their showroom this week, they had run an ad that morning for their ONE EVO GSR Track to get buyers in to look at their 18 other less hardcore EVO's. They had a large number of offers for that ONE CAR in the 8 hours since the ad had run but NOT ONE qualified for financing...the demise of the financial markets in effect. I submitted my SSN and my near 800 FICO scored sealed the deal!!!!!
Talking with the sales manager afterwards, he mentioned that I had just purchased the lowest priced EVOLUTION X in Northern California since they first began selling them fourteen months ago! In fact, they were selling for 5K over MSRP (43K!) with 4.9 percent financing late last year! People were actually spending nearly 50K for this car!
Anywayz, I felt dizzy when they told me the price and had to sit down when they told me I was approved. I was positively shaking when they handed me the keys to the car which was washed and waxed, with a full tank, and ready for me to take ownership. The drive home was an exercise in containing my jubilation. EVEN MY WIFE APPROVED OF THE DEAL!!....my last and final hurdle.
Here are some pics:
The specs on this car is too numerous to list, but here are the highlights: Brembo GT's front/rear, Recaro buckets, front limited slip, rear limited slip, active center differential, ASC, active-yaw control, ABS, inverted dampers, strut tower bracing, aluminum control arms, front-splitter, undertray aero, rear diffuser and wing, etc. etc. etc. I can't say it better than the hundreds of Magazine articles praising this car, placing it on a short list of Uber-Track-Weapons....but I'll try in one sentence:
......Telepathic Handling.......
My GOD, the performance is mind-bending. I'm sure the PerfectLine can describe the sensation when he first drove the M-Coupe and the Lotus Elise....you literally have to RE-LEARN how to drive a car. Yes, my S4's acceleration is like a bomb exploding, but the GSR will run circles around it in the handling department...and 400HP ain't nuthin to laugh at either!
Anywayz, gotta go. I'll let you guys drive it when I see you next. One thing though, the clutch needs another 400 miles of break-in and the motor another 500 miles of sub-5000 RPM driving. The ECU map has been switched to "stock/break-in" so I'll be driving it like a Grandma for a while.
Enter the stock market crash and the subsequent flagellation of the Auto Industry and we're looking at car companies with unbelievable rebate offers and insane finance products in a near desperate effort to clear out their bloated 2008 stock. This is clearly a buyers market, and perhaps the best car-buying market in a generation. On a whim, I looked at Mitsubishi Motors and low and behold, they are offering ZERO percent financing up to SIXTY MONTHS on not only their economy cars but their HALO/Flagship car the EVOLUTION X as well...again, an extreme rarity. At this point, I began an utterly exhaustive investigation, calling every Mitsubishi dealership in Northern California, cruising Ebay, and scouring Craiglist for the best deal possible.
The special ZERO percent financing was up on Monday Jan. 5th so I did my final round of calling, visiting, and cut-throat negotiations that morning. You see, I'm looking to buy an EVOLUTION GSR with just the right options: the Track/Aero package and nothing more. This car MSRP is $37,490...whew, you see why I was looking at a used Subaru STI. My attitude in negotiations was simply; ask to speak to the supervisor and low-ball the F$%& out of the price...and I had two Bay Area dealerships positively furious with me insinuating I had insulted them, taking advantage of the Auto Industry's desperation...but I could care less. I WANT A DEAL. I offered 28,999 and salespeople threw up their hands in incredulity; "Are you serious!?", "That's 5 grand under Invoice!" (shaking paperwork to demonstrate their point). Twice salespeople dismissed me to EBAY to buy a used EVO 9 or even 8 with 10K miles on the odometer because my offer was so outrageous.
The last day of the ZERO percent financing offer was coming to an end and after being laughed at and scolded by salespeople up and down Nor-Cal, I figured it just wasn't meant to be. I gave it one last shot and swung by Serramonte Mitsubishi which had the largest glut of EVO's in the Bay Area. I walked into the showroom, spoke with a very friendly and very un-intimidating saleswoman and after some small talk asked her directly what their lowest price was on an EVO GSR with the Track/Aero package. She didn't bat an eye, walked over to her sales-manager, pulled out a newspaper ad from that morning, looked at her one and only GSR Track Pack, busted out the calculator, and said "How about $26,888?" My jaw dropped. I asked if we were talking about the right car. She checked again and said she was.
Apparently, only hard-core enthusiasts would be interested in an EVO GSR Track. To get buyers into their showroom this week, they had run an ad that morning for their ONE EVO GSR Track to get buyers in to look at their 18 other less hardcore EVO's. They had a large number of offers for that ONE CAR in the 8 hours since the ad had run but NOT ONE qualified for financing...the demise of the financial markets in effect. I submitted my SSN and my near 800 FICO scored sealed the deal!!!!!
Talking with the sales manager afterwards, he mentioned that I had just purchased the lowest priced EVOLUTION X in Northern California since they first began selling them fourteen months ago! In fact, they were selling for 5K over MSRP (43K!) with 4.9 percent financing late last year! People were actually spending nearly 50K for this car!
Anywayz, I felt dizzy when they told me the price and had to sit down when they told me I was approved. I was positively shaking when they handed me the keys to the car which was washed and waxed, with a full tank, and ready for me to take ownership. The drive home was an exercise in containing my jubilation. EVEN MY WIFE APPROVED OF THE DEAL!!....my last and final hurdle.
Here are some pics:
The specs on this car is too numerous to list, but here are the highlights: Brembo GT's front/rear, Recaro buckets, front limited slip, rear limited slip, active center differential, ASC, active-yaw control, ABS, inverted dampers, strut tower bracing, aluminum control arms, front-splitter, undertray aero, rear diffuser and wing, etc. etc. etc. I can't say it better than the hundreds of Magazine articles praising this car, placing it on a short list of Uber-Track-Weapons....but I'll try in one sentence:
......Telepathic Handling.......
My GOD, the performance is mind-bending. I'm sure the PerfectLine can describe the sensation when he first drove the M-Coupe and the Lotus Elise....you literally have to RE-LEARN how to drive a car. Yes, my S4's acceleration is like a bomb exploding, but the GSR will run circles around it in the handling department...and 400HP ain't nuthin to laugh at either!
Anywayz, gotta go. I'll let you guys drive it when I see you next. One thing though, the clutch needs another 400 miles of break-in and the motor another 500 miles of sub-5000 RPM driving. The ECU map has been switched to "stock/break-in" so I'll be driving it like a Grandma for a while.
posted by supergoober at
4:58 PM
5 Comments:
Sweet ride SG....damn that's a sexy car, and a sexy deal.
dude you are the KING of awesome deals I bow down to your car buying prowess
-craftsman
I want to call you so many terrible names, but I just can't bring my self to do so. I am jealous. Pretty sure my Box can still take you!!
I have to say, this is the deal of the day, week, moth, year, decade, nay lifetime!
I had a REALLY good deal when I bought my ///M Coupe, but had to cash in my car buying karma for all time. The last 2 cars, not so much in the amazing deal department.
Nothing like this though. Unreal, I can not wait to flog it around a track!
Dude, that's just freakin rediculous! You have hella karma in buying cars. You have to give me some pointers next time I'm in the market for a new car! Nice!
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