[Deathshead]

Hi guys. Heres the deal, I own a 05 Neon SRT-4 ACR- with 70k on it.
I owe like maybe $3500-$3900 on it.
While I love the SRT-4, and its 100% reliability, CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP parts. I really want an abarth, it reminds me of one of my beloved cars.
the Ford festiva,with a mazda b6 swap

Are dealers working with anyone on trades? or should I sell privately? My car is my daily driver on a 24 mile commute to work, Im sick of playing the game with tirekickers, and crybabys, and people who sing the blues as to why they cant come up with the bread, etc...as i have done with so many cars in the past.

Or are Fiat studios playing the "exclusive" game like when the Minis came out? no trades, no price haggling, etc?

 

[SoCal Fiat Club]

I'm very confident that you'll be paying sticker on an Abarth (hopefully not more) but it's always wise to sell your car private party.

 

[davklie]

Hey Deathshead.... where are you located? I work at the Fiat studio in Tacoma, WA. A lot is going to depend on how many Abarths are available. Most studios have a relatively long list of deposits already taken, so obviously those people will have first shot. I'm sure there will be some customer orders where the customer decides against a purchase, or is unable to buy for some reason. I would expect most managers will be applying a market adjusted price to cars at least initially. There probably won't be a lot of haggling on price, because there will be more demand than supply for a while. We are guaranteeing MSRP for our customers who place deposits ahead of time. Typically you are better off selling private party, but sometimes it can be more of a hassle than it's worth. Particularly if it's your only car or if you can't have two loans out at the same time, etc. I know we give very fair assessments on trade ins... and are very willing to work with customers. In many cases we've given customers far more than their trade is really worth. That being said, I doubt that will happen too often in deals for the Abarth. I would say though, that if you are interested, it is definitely worth placing a deposit with your local studio now.

 

[VTEC Mini]

Try to sell it privately. Yeah it can be a hassle but a dealer is always going to try to pull one over on you and ding you for everything they can find wrong with the car and 99% of the time you will get more for it if you go private. I have always gone private sale because of the laughable quotes from dealers. it can save you money in the long run to. Figure a dealer will give you $2K- $4K less than private on average. When applying that to a final purchase towards a car you will save more because your loan will be less or you can go for a shorter loan and have it paid off sooner.

All so don't pay mark up now matter what. That is absolute B.S. and money you will never get back on top of depreciation. You might as well just flush it down the toilet. All that is, is greed.

You do have time. I know it is hard when you are excited about a car but being patient can save you $$$$.

 

[NHFiat500]

They will give you the auction price on the car and thats it. Abarth wont be discounted so if you need cheap get whatever is on the lot now. They have discounted them to winter prices at the moment across the board.

 

[Col Pudgebutt]

an 05 SRT4 with 70K on it? first thought thate comes to mind is its been 'rode hard and put up wet'. not saying that is the case, but generally these awesome cars are run through the ringer and have been over-modded to the point that most buyers will step away from them, unless they're bone-stock.

easy way? trade it in....and good luck getting what you owe on it. more difficult way? sell it ot a private party and maybe you'll break even.

good luck!

 

[blefevre]

Chances are the wait list is too long to get the initial run. Just wait until your dealer gets their demo unit in the end of Feb/early March then drive the car and see which one you like better.

 

[panther76]

Hi guys. Heres the deal, I own a 05 Neon SRT-4 ACR- with 70k on it.
I owe like maybe $3500-$3900 on it.
While I love the SRT-4, and its 100% reliability, CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP parts. I really want an abarth, it reminds me of one of my beloved cars.
the Ford festiva,with a mazda b6 swap

Are dealers working with anyone on trades? or should I sell privately? My car is my daily driver on a 24 mile commute to work, Im sick of playing the game with tirekickers, and crybabys, and people who sing the blues as to why they cant come up with the bread, etc...as i have done with so many cars in the past.

Or are Fiat studios playing the "exclusive" game like when the Minis came out? no trades, no price haggling, etc?

do you have any carmax dealers around you? ive had occasions where they bought cars from me for much more than trade offers from regular dealers.

otherwise the hassle of selling privately will come out best in the end.

 

[bsohn]

You would probably be best selling it privately on pretty much any car at this point. We had a pristine 2007 Mercedes SLK280 w/low miles that we wanted to trade in for the Fiat and the best any dealer would do was $19,000 (blue book dealer was $22,000).. CarMax did better at $21,000. However, we decided to hold off and sell it ourselves and got $24,500 which was pretty much exactly Edmunds Private Party amount for the car with the options and condition...

So we just got our 500 Espresso Sport (auto,convenience,sound,safety) w/lifetime warrantee and still walked away with $1,500 after all fees..

So in the end it was far far better for us to wait and sell privately...

I would have liked the Abarth myself but this one was for my mom.. Though I do wish the Abarth had the Semi Auto as an option.. I have a Euro Edition SVT Focus that right now I am not sure if the Abarth will get me to give up.

Brion

 

[Fiat49]

Lifetime warranty. ??? Explain


Fiat 500 Argento Sport

 

[bsohn]

Chrysler Group offers a lifetime extended warranty as an option on the fiat 500 and as well most of their car lines. The Max Care version covers basically everything that the normal factory warrantee covers except for wear parts and and cosmetic parts. (I would only ever suggest getting a Max Care as the others lower plans significantly reduce coverage) The warrantee retails for around $3000.00 but we got ours for just under $2500.00. Which was a matched price with an online site. The Deductible is $100 (they do have a $0 deductible also but it is significantly more money). Key things about the warrantee are: Unlimited Years/Unlimited Milage for original owner (though the dealer actually told us something else about this that I wont write here but it is good). $100.00 deductible (the plan we got). End of contract clause... When the repair exceeds the value of the car you will receive the value of the car minus the deductible (I am not sure if you get the car as well but I believe you do) I view this clause as downpayment insurance. Cancellation - In CA (not sure about elsewhere) the warrantee is prorated over 7yr/100,000Mi so if you wished to cancel at 6 years you would get some of your money back based on the year and mileage NOT how much you used it, so if at say, 5 yr 50,000 miles you had a $5000 repair you could cancel the plan right after and get some of the value of the plan back as well. Or if you were to get into an accident you would receive the prorated amount back as well.

We looked into several options for the warrantee before going to the dealer and actually had it all planed out as to what we wanted to pay. The 7yr/100,000 mi version of the Max Care is only about $600.00 less than the lifetime so if you are going to keep the car a long time or run it into the ground 30,000 mi a year the lifetime will probably work out well.

My theory on getting the lifetime warrantee was that good factory backed extended warrantees have saved our butts on several occasions. One covered a complete engine change in a car due to a failed radiator after a flush. The car is to be my moms and she will be running low milage which means the years will expire before the miles get up. So that means that anything that might start occurring around the 35 - 50K mile mark (which is where I have constantly started to see niggling issues in all cars like sensors and sometimes gaskets (usually $300-$700.00 issues when you include labor), would be well out of warrantee (year wise) and maybe even beyond the 7YR mark. Since we put the car in My moms name and mine the warrantee will go along with the car for as long as I have the car not my mom so we could have the car under warrantee for 20 years or more. Warrantees like this are basically in a way insurance and you really need to think about how you plan on using the car before opting into it. For us we lost my dad last year and the Mercedes SLK what his car, My mom has cancer (under control) that moved to her back and caused her to have back surgery so we needed a car that would be easier to move around and easier to get in and out of as well we wanted the security of knowing that the car would last for her. The Fiat with the lifetime fit the bill perfectly and she loved it so that is what we ended up with.

Anyway I hope this helps a bit as far as info.. It took me a while to gather all of it when i was looking.

Brion