Buying a Mazda SP23

[safetyboy]

Xposted from http://www.msprotege.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=159

Greetings. I am new to the forum, hopefully some of you might have some advice for me.

At the moment I am looking at buying a Mazda 3 SP23.

Unfortunately, I have not had a whole lot of experience buying new cars, have always bought second hand until now.

I run my own company, and am looking at leasing/hire purchase on it.

I have 3 questions:

1)Any general feedback on the SP23? It seems to be getting excellent reviews in all the motor magazines, but I am looking for the point of view of someone who has owned for a couple of months. Are you happy with your purchase, have you had any problems, is there anything about the car that really ****s you?

2)Sticker price on the car is 29990 + onroads, which means it works out close to 34 on the road. I assume that I shouldn't be buying sticker price - but how much room to move do the dealers have on this?

They have given me a trade-in price on my current car. I am guessing that they have an amount that they can move on the car, for arguments sake lets say 2k. I assume that if I beat another $1000 dollars out of the dealer for the trade in, that comes out of the pool and gives them less room to move on the price of the car?

Any general suggestions of how to get the best price out of them?


3) Finally, the dealership uses St George as their leasing company. Is it worth shopping around for this sort of thing, or is it much of a muchness?

Thanks for your time.

SB