I checked out all the cars everyone suggested on the internet (i.e. Elantra GLS, Focus SE Sentra 2.0, Corolla LE, Mazda 3 series i touring and Civic LX in order of price). Dealer markup (presumably invoice) ran from 9.2% to 10%. I then subtracted factory discounts and assumed I could buy the cars for $200 to $300 over invoice. I had already driven the Hundai and had an offer, so I decided to drive the Corolla LE to at least see what it was like. I had my “Build You Own” print out and I had marked on the sheet the dealer profit and my 8% discount. My wife and I test drove the car and we sat down to see if they had a car in a color we would like. I gave the salesman my build sheet and he noticed my figures. He asked it that was another dealer’s offer and I said no, that was what I was willing to pay. He said I think we can make that deal, so we picked out a car off that morning’s delivery truck. We waited a couple of hours for dealer preparation and checkout, washing, etc. We went through the financier and declined extended warranties. Toyota had just offered 0% financing for 36 months on the Corolla so we took that deal with no money down. No tricks, no gimmicks (other than extended warranties) so we were pretty happy.
Over all I think the Elantra GLS was maybe a smoother ride over road bumps but the engine was noisy on acceleration and at highway speed. Engine noise is not necessarily a real bad thing as it sounded racer like, although nothing like a V8 of course. The Elantra is definitely worth looking at and a pretty nice car especially if the price difference from a Corolla is around $3000. In my case the difference was only about $1200. The warranty is of course quite long.
The Corolla is a 2009, had very low engine noise and what little it had sounded very smooth like an electric motor. The seats are hard foam like our old Echo, so that means we will probably sit on pillows for a long trip (10 hours). The road bumps are dampened but transmit through the car to the seats, but there is generally no noise. Everything is very tight with no noises. The radio is also surprisingly good and I got the six CD changer.
I am biased for Toyota because the last seven new cars I bought were Toyotas and I basically had no troubles except for muffler systems on my 85 Camry. I also have friends at work who have 250,000 miles on their Toyotas, but I can’t say that for Hyundais. I was planning on going to the dealers for the other makes I listed above, but the Toyota deal I thought was going to be hard to beat.
I would have to say that right now the car dealers are hurting, even the best of them. This is better than shopping at year end closeouts because you can get large discounts and in my case on a 2009 model (or next year’s model instead of last year’s model). If you can swing the payments ($472/month), the no money down zero percent interest for three years is a no-brainer. Toyota also has low rates for four and five year loans but they are not zero percent.
