cnowak1981

Hello everyone. This is my first post and I wanted to introduce myself and hopefully ask a few questions. I currently have a 2015 VW DieselGate Passat and it looks like I will be receiving the full MSRP of the car once its had final approval on Oct 18. That said, I've been shopping around for a new car. I really like the NX because its a smaller SUV. I already have a hard enough time parking the Passat with its long wheelbase and on top of that, the Passat barely fits in my garage. I have to use stop blocks just to make sure it doesn't hit my work bench.

As much as I want an NX, it comes down to cost. Id really like to buy new only so i can get the features and colors I want but I really don't want to spend the money. Im ok with buying used it just means that the color combo will be much harder to find or I will have to settle for something else. Hopefully this car will end my reign of buying a new car every year because of something I hated about the previous car.

I've been looking at getting the 15 nx200t, awd or fwd doesn't really matter to much, Im a pretty easy going driver. The only packages im really after is the premium and the comfort package. Anything after that is gravy. Id like to spend about 32k , with at least 10k down, taxes, and interest, that would put my payment around 370ish, about 75$ less then what Im already paying. Ideally Id like to keep the payment below 350$, but unless I put more money down I doubt that will be possible.

So. Question is, is 32k a reasonable price? I keep finding cars around the 35-38 range. I think I've even run across a few below 30k, but they had a ton of miles. I've found the thread talking about getting 10-15% off msrp but nothing on used.

I live in Iowa, our dealership here gets like 1 a month or so, I checked around. Im definitely not opposed to a road trip. Kansas city has quite a few and that may be my best bet unless I go further out.

kaka22

Hi, Welcome.

I just recently bought a used '16 F Sport and I'm waiting patiently for it to be shipped to me. I did however look around for a few months, talk to 10-12 dealers inquiring about used '15 & '16 models and new '16 models. Ultimately, I was able to find the color combo and options I really wanted and negotiate a fair price.

It seems like you're interested in more comfort so the F Sport is probably not what you had in mind. I would say you're not too far off in getting you're asking price. Lexus dealerships know their 2017 models are coming and they need to pus their older ones off the lot. I would check cars.com EVERYDAY to see if anyone has posted the car you want, also add those cars as "your favorite" on cars.com so you get notified if the dealership has dropped the price. That is a sign of motivation.

Keep in mind, independent dealerships aren't that likely to bring the price down as much as Lexus dealerships are, from my experience. In the end, it's all about persistence and negotiation what you want. You'll end up finding the perfect car for you, but realize the dealer isn't willing to negotiate low enough or it just sold. It sucks, but you have to stay objective and be willing to walk away if they don't move.

cnowak1981

I'm curious what your buying experience was like online. Were you able to drive or look at those cars in person? Did you negotiate over the phone, online? I'm tempted to try going that route to get what I want, but it might mean driving a long distance, or maybe even flying. I just feel like I'd get there and find a scratch or something wrong that they "forgot" to mention. Was car.com the only place you looked? I've been looking at autotrader as well. But it doesn't seem like many dealerships use it around here.

kaka22

I negotiated everything over the phone and text message. I hired WeGoLook.com to go out and inspect the car, take photos etc to make sure what the dealer is advertising is true. This service was about $150 because I wanted a one day turnaround. Then I did my research to find a great shipping company with many positive reviews and I worked with them and the dealer on scheduling pickup. You really have to be proactive about these moving parts because neither the dealer or shipping company will care about your car as much as you do. I was aggressive and proactive and it will be shipping today and I should have it by the end of this week before the weekend. Oh, and always negotiate the shipping quote.

I primarily used cars.com after I realized the other websites out there didn't have as many listings for the NX. However, there may be another site out there that's great. I just found cars.com to be the best because of their large inventory and friendly filtering UI.

cnowak1981

That's pretty impressive, I'd heard about using a service, but I never really knew where to start with something like that. I'll def have to check that out. Did you do financing of any kind? How did that work? Signatures and stuff online?

kaka22

I was impressed with their report. They jot down the VIN, the color, the odometer mileage (however the looker wrote down the miles left until an oil change was needed rather than the actual miles on the odometer). The one thing I liked was that the pictures were large and high quality. It really made it easy to see the vehicle in high-detail.

I paid a large down, and financed a small portion through my local credit union. Dealer sent docs via Fedex overnight, I signed documents, and included the cashiers check and then sent it back with the paid return postage. Very simple process, considering I was buying out of state.

cnowak1981

Very nice, it really doesn't seem all that bad. I half expected it to kind of a pain with all the docs and salesmen wanted to "sell". The car rather talk over the phone. I personally like the whole, 'check your emotions at the door', you either want to sell me the car or you don't. Some people don't have the patience for it though.

aztr0

I was like you a bit. I was out looking for a certified preowned NX 2015 AWD F-Sport with most of the features. One thing that made my wife and I decide to just buy a new one and make it the way we want... the used prices were close to getting a new car. Ex. I was at the dealership to look at a CPO NX F-Sport with most of the features I wanted. Color was silver which I wasn't really digging. But it had the rioja red seats, AWD and it had the triple beam headlights. But the price was at $39,999. Another dealership offered me a new NX, in ultra white, rioja red and all the exact features I wanted for $43k. I took that offer from the other dealer to this the dealer with the CPO and they matched it and got me a new white rioja red 2016 F-Sport, with more features than I even asked for. Good luck on your search though. The 2015 prices should go down once the 2017's roll out.

skabei

I think this may depend on where you live, but in general, Lexus retains value stupid well. When shopping for my last 2 vehicles, I considered buying a used Lexus that was around 2-3 years old but found that I would only save around $5k since you can always get a decent amount of discounts buying new. If you're looking at an NX right now, I think you're almost better off buying new than buying used. You're slightly more likely to get a lemon when buying used and you don't save that much anyway.

VEGASRX330

i got mines a few months ago used at the local MB dealer. its a USB 2015 Nx 200t fsport fwd and it did have 21k miles but was in pristine condition. got it for 34k plus tax and fees. i paid it in full but was told that had no bearing on the final cost as they prefer ppl to finance. they were asking 37995 plus tax/fees originally.

cnowak1981

I would be more then happy to buy new, I think the Msrp on a stock car with the comfort and premium packages is a minimum of like 42k, I would be really surprised if I could score one for less then 35k.

im pretty stuck on keeping the payments cheap this time around. I don't have any credit cards, but I'm kinda planning to have a lot cushion in my budget if my mom passes before the car is paid off. It most likely won't happen, but I'm still concerned about it.

I will get a little over 10k back from VW which will go directly to the new car. I might be able to squeeze another grand or two into that unless I wait til tax season. The rest will be financed, probably by Lexus or my own bank. Depends on interest rates.

im gonna look a little more closely at the thread that talks about what people are paying. I'd be interested to know what tools are being used to determine price and some tactics people used for negotiating.

kaka22

Where you open to buying from out of state or locally? I only ask because I've found a few white/rioja f sports around $37-39k in other states, used with about 10-15k miles.

aztr0

I was opened to out of state, but would really consider if it was significantly less. I live in NYC, I was looking at PA, NJ, MD and CT. The cars I saw online was either overpriced with the miles and features or the color just wasn't right, or it missed a feature I really want. I ended up buying the car from an out of state dealer in NJ.

kaka22

That was my experience as well. Some dealers just don't know how to price them. I would see one for a couple thousand more (with more miles) than one with LED headlights and similar features. There was no uniform pricing strategy. You kind of just have to keep looking until a dealer price drops or someone prices one lower than "market".

cnowak1981

Where do you guys find these "market" prices?