Originally Posted by gospeedgo1

Congrats. Does your FWD model exhibit lack of acceleration or kicking down a gear when flooring the pedal from a stop or when rolling? My wife and I test drove a 2016 AWD model that was doing that.

Originally Posted by jeffbrig

Yeah, well I can be a very difficult at the dealership when I have no real need to close the deal. I'm up front about it too. "Look, I'm considering adding a third car. If the deal is great, I am willing to sign and drive one home today. If not...that's ok too." I wasn't married to the CX-5, so I wasn't the typical buyer who is emotionally invested in taking home a car they've absolutely fallen in love with. The CX-5 has the utility I was after, but the car wasn't a "must-have". That's the best negotiating position you can put yourself in. I had to tell the sales guy multiple times that we were just too far apart to make a deal happen.

You know the game, he wanted me to offer up a number at which I'd do the deal. Well, I was quite firm that I wasn't putting big money down, and wouldn't go over $250/mo. We were initially negotiating over a Grand Touring (mid-level, which I think is their volume trim level), and after much back and forth his manager simply wouldn't do the deal for my price. I knew we'd found rock bottom when he came back and suggested maybe he could put me in a 6 instead for that price. However good the 6 might be, I just have no need for a sedan. So I suggested we go down a trim level, and that's how we ended up at $244. When we finally did the credit app and disclosed our household income, the salesman was just speechless. :tipwink

Originally Posted by QUIKAG

Yep, definitely the best position to be in from a negotiating standpoint. What was the miles/yr on the 2 year lease? My fiancé's Mom needs a new SUV as her 4-year old Escape has over 120k miles on it (she drives a ton), so leasing isn't an option. She wanted another Escape and I was steering her the CX-5 as I think it's the best mid-size SUV on the market.

Originally Posted by jeffbrig

We went for 10k, and honestly we won't even use that on a 3rd vehicle. We usually average around 15k combined on our two cars.

Originally Posted by Nerd-Vol

The grand touring is the top trim, touring is the middle and sport is the entry level.

Originally Posted by Marioshi

yes, this is what I experienced as well, at low speed the car seemed to struggle to figure out which wheels to send power to or something, it was very odd. It just seemed to stumble around for a few seconds before taking off.

Originally Posted by jeffbrig

I misspoke earlier, it was Touring we were looking at initially, definitely not the Grand Touring.


Also, not trying to humble brag about income, I see how that could have come across wrong. I was just highlighting the irony from the salesman's perspective when a couple beats him up on price and is about to walk out over $25/mo, then reveals a fairly high household income, where $25 or even $50/mo. isn't exactly going to break the bank. Probably could have phrased that better...

Originally Posted by Nerd-Vol

No problem! I often find that the folks with the highest incomes negotiate the most aggressively. They tend to be the most well informed and they tend to be quite careful with their money.

Originally Posted by Marioshi

You don't keep money by being foolish with it, that's for damn sure.