http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SCANL...QQcmdZViewItem

Don't know if it's legit but he's a dealer with 10 in stock at this price. Tears my heart out because I'd love to have one but have a 2004 TL with 6 months left on the lease and a company car so I can't justify the extra car.

This price really got my attention though!

johnnykuz

 

Local guy here was selling his 05 for $36k.

2005 Acura 3.5 RL - $36000

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Reply to: sale-xxxxxxxxxxcraigslist.org
Date: 2006-06-25, 5:42PM CDT


2005 Acura 3.5RL, like new 26,000 miles with extented warrenty. All wheel drive,GPS,6disc CD, XM radio. Silver with taupe leahter.

The RL may be on my list of next car when the used prices get to about $30k, shouldn't be too long.

 

These are new. I've seen some reasonably priced 05's around but my local dealer gets MSRP for RL's (well...not from me anyway) so $41,499 for a new one is pretty attractive.

johnnykuz

 

Invoice plus destination is $44,522 - $3000 incentive is $41,522 minus $80 to Ebay for listing and sale $41,442. Dealer holdback is approx $1480 so that dealership is still making approximately $1380. Then if they get you to buy extended warranty or add on goodies, they get more. It may sound like a bargain basement price, but they are still making a significant piece of change on the sale.

 

Last time I checked dealerships are not NPOs.

 

Very true, point well taken and I do not begrudge any dealership making a living, but if that particular dealership sells all 10 for that price then they get $13,800 profit with little if any commission going to any sales force and a few hours total marketing costs in creating the ad for Ebay. Profit to actual cost ration should be nice.

I guess because of my background, I hope that people become proactive in negotiations rather than reactive, and part of that comes from knowing facts (true costs in this case). Buying a car can be a fun, emotional experience and we often live much of our lives in and because of our cars. It "should" be fun to own a car (especially the RL ), but some dealerships use that emotion to get money that if the consumer knew better, the consumer might be better equipped to keep money in their pocket rather than give to a car dealership.

To put it in a different scenerio, supposed you had a friend that was looking to buy a house and you knew the house that they wanted to buy could be had for much less than the asking price (for what ever reasons). Would you just let them pay the extra and not say anything or let them know what you know? Let us further add to that that you know the people selling the house AND the listing agent. Would you still tell the people wanting to buy it what you knew? In my case, yes I would. I read about people buying RLs for what ever price, but many are surpised when they find out the facts. The facts that could save THEM a few dollars. There will always be car dealerships that make money from people who don't know or who are willing to pay what ever the dealership asks, but I think (my opinon) that this forum is not only to help discuss the fun and problems with this car, but also to let others know the facts to help them make informed decisions.

So, yes, I agree with you that there is probably not a single 501-C-3 dealership in the US and I am sorry if I offended you.

Ben

 

Well that price is more than $3,000 below invoice. After the PDI, detail, comission, etc... are taken care of the dealership picks up a little money at the end of the year in the form of holdback. Big deal. Holdback doesn't go into the owner's pocket, you know. It goes to pay for the A/C, advertising, interest on the cars on the lot, etc.

Acura puts a price on the window of the cars it builds and says this is what they consider to be a fair price.

 

First of all, I think someone needs a beer. Secondly, by all means Acura can put any amount of the sticker they think is fair. However, that doesn't mean that consumers feel it is worth that, and that is what is hurting the RL. The car should be priced about $42k, not $49k. A dealer shouldn't be trying to make 8-9k off a new car. A couple grand is plenty.

 

Errr... if a dealer's got $20,000 cars that are flying off the lot and he makes $2K off of each of them, he's happy.

If he's got $50,000 cars that are sitting on his lot for months and the best he can make off of them is $2K, he's not.

Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Volvo, Jaguar, Saab, etc. etc. etc. routinely make 5-8K and up per car on a transaction. Go into a Mercedes dealer and try and get 15-20% off of sticker from them like you can on an RL, and they'll laugh you out the door. Off a $60K Merc you might get $2K if the dealer's feeling generous or he's got one in a funny color....

Acura's trying to compete with these cars. They're not able to do so in the $50K range car. It's got nothing to do with 'fairness', and it's got everything to do with marketing and model placement. The RL is certainly fairly priced at $50K... it's just not attracting customers at that pricepoint.

Now, maybe if they spent a few bucks on advertising..... but I digress.

 

For one thing, BMW and others have discounted leases which result in the dealers not making much money off their new cars, but making money later selling the used cars when they come off lease.

Secondly, an Acura is NOT a BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus. Drivers are willing to pay $50K for those brands but are NOT willing to pay $50K for the Acura brand right now, regardless of how excellent the RL is. Acura needs to realize that and take some kind of long-term and short-term action. Short term, reduce the MSRP. Long term, build up the Acura name so that brand whores will put it in the same category with Lexus.