good luck chrysler...way too late for this marketing gimmick...some discount.

http://www.chrysler.com/crossfire/

 

Remember, too that there is additional "room" below the employee price for haggling. There are dealer incentives on cars that do not sell. These are not advertised, as they are not customer incentives. Dealers will get an additional $1000 in dealer incentives from DaimlerChrysler for every 100 days that the car sits on the lot. This "kickback" in part covers the opportunity cost, i.e. for every day the car sits in that spot on the lot, a car that would sell could be sitting there. Anyhow, to make a long story short, I bought my 2005 base coupe for $24,300 brand new (25,865 incl. tax & lic). That's significantly below employee cost, and well below the $30K sticker. I got that deal by working two dealers against one another on identical cars. Know what? They both arrived at the same spot, on cars that were sitting on the lot for more than 200 days each. I bought the car from the dealership that was closer to my work, after a week of negotiating on the price. One more tip: leave the dealership after test driving, and negotiate over the phone. This makes it easier to play the dealers off one another, saves you time, and keeps you from getting "trapped" in an office with a bunch of high pressure sales guys. Also remember that you don't have to be an employee to get pricing this low, and don't believe them when they tell you that there is no better deal than the employee cost. Remember too that you can use the same tactic to negotiate up the value of your trade-in, so that you don't have to roll anything over into the new car.

 

Employee cost on my 04' without any incentives was 31,300 (under invoice). This with the manual transmission.

The reason why there isn't much of a difference from the MSRP is the cost of our German Brothers charging Chrysler so much per vehicle. We don't have the room to play the numbers game on this car.

 

[QUOTE=DFWSBR]Employee cost on my 04' without any incentives was 31,300 (under invoice). This with the manual transmission.
You know, even at $31,300, I would argue that your Crossfire Limited represents a fine value. If you look at the other cars that play in this same league (Audi TT, Mercedes SLK, BMW Z4, Honda S2000, Nissan 350Z), the Crossfire looks like a bargain. The cost of a limited is very reasonable, considering the sophisticated engineering throughout and high level of content. And, sure, Mercedes probably does charge a lot for the car. But considering the top drawer components throughout and the assembly quality, I think it is justified. For instance, check that paint quality. Mine is as smooth as glass, with nary a hint of orange peel anywhere, and it seems to do a fine job resisting rock chips, etc. I never thought the car was overpriced...I just intended to "under spend"!

 

For the reasons you listed above, is why I purchased it. I know there are a ton of options out there. Plain and simple. I love the looks, love the way it drives. It's quiet, doesn't beat you up, and does quite well over 90 mph. Plus there aren't a million out there. I get looks and questions still to this day about the car. With the lease rate being as low as it is, its a STEAL. Besides back in 04 you could spend 10k more with MB for their SLK made up with the same components.

 

Absolutely agree with judzz; I am only speaking from my ’05 Crossfire Roadster Lmtd purchase experience, but MSRP on mine $39,355, the EP (employee price) was $35,287 and PP (can’t recall what that means) was $36,581 and my price wound up at $32,466. Now granted it was very slow when I purchased, the dealer even printed out the DMC invoice with the different dealer costs (I snagged it from him when shuffling paperwork). I’m sure even with my price (which I very happy with) the dealer still had some kickbacks.

 

"PP" means "Preferred Price". 32K for a limited Roadster is a fantastic buy!

 

On July 6th when the EP pricing scheme kicked in, two additional things happened. The rebate amounts across the board were lowered, AND the "Tracking Cash" (the money for cars at 200 days $1000, and 300 days $2000) was deleted. How do I know? I bought my 04' limited coupe under a special dealer chain only EP pricing sale a week and a half before the DCX plan took hold. I bought it for $26K (+ tax/title of course), almost $9K off MSRP which included the $2000 in tracking cash. I was contemplating buying an 05' yellow roadster at the same time in addition to the coupe, but decided to wait until fall when I thought the rebates would go up some as there are a lot on the lots right now. By waiting, I lost $500 in a lower rebate, and the $2000 in tracking cash. So the 05' limited roadster that would have cost me $32,500 on July 5th, will now cost me $35,000 and change. I think the tracking cash will slide back in later this summer/early fall, then I will buy the roadster, unless something else catches my eye before then from the Dodge Hemi lineup. Currently the extra mystery money is not there, and the dealers are hurting some. A new NEON SXT costs my local dealer about $50 more than what it is going for on the EP pricing. They do get some sales quota cash if they hit tiers, but it still takes a bite out of the profit margin.

YellowBee

 

looks like Ford just joined the game too --

 

Gee, lets see here. GM introduces a new, expensive incentive across the board to move the metal without much regard to cheapening their brands or killing the resale. Sales shoot up. Ford and Chrysler follow. The Japanese don't. And then, at the end of the quarter, Toyota profits are through the roof while the big three have a wafer thin margin. This has been going on since 2001, when GM decided to "keep America rolling". All of the big three would love to ditch this expensive marketing tactic, but seeing as how the Asians continue to pick up market share without incentives, you could imagine the implosion that would occur if they did. The sad truth is...

1) American car makers have few "gotta have it" products on their showroom floors

2) There is a persistent lag between perception and reality of product quality (it is now better at the big 3 than most people realize)

3) There is an actual technological gap between the foreign makes and Detroit makes, in many cases. For example, durable though it may be, GM's 3800 V6 has seen better days.

Meanwhile, they have a union contract at their US plants stating that workers will receive up to 90% of their pay during temporary shutdowns. Thus, their choice is to either keep the lines moving and sell product at a loss through heavy incentives, or shut down the lines to bring volumes in check, and lose even more. "Moving the metal" at any cost is their best and only option, until the contracts can be renegotiated. We live in a very different world now, than when the contracts were written. Back then, all of the big 3 made huge profits on the backs of large SUVs, which were then very much in vogue. Since then, the market has become crowded, and consumer tastes have changed to crossovers - an area where Detroit must catch up to the imports (who were there first).

 

You guys paid "employee" pricing for your 04' Xfires and it cost you 31.3k? After financing and everything, without employee pricing (bought mine a month earlier than the EP craze) I financed 27.8. Glad I didn't wait.

 

My $31,300 was before any incentives were out. I got mine in 2003.

 

Makes a lot more sense to me then.

 

EP = Employee Price
PP = Friends and Family


Chrysler Employees get control numbers to use for themselves or give to people. EP is like 5% below invoice (i'm pretty sure, for some reason can't remember at the time) and PP is 1% below invoice (positive on this one).

 

I paid $22K otd, that included rebates and EP (my Grandfather retired from Chrysler after 30 years on the job). The dealer lost a few grand on the deal but was happy to get rid of their last '04. It pays to wait.