I'm going to be buying a new Baja in the next week or so, and wanted to see if anybody had advice on how much we should be willing to pay. I've seen them listed on cars.com and other places for about $21-23,000. I know there's alot of wiggle room in there, but how much would be a good deal.

 

I'm outside of Tallahassee Florida, but I'd be willing to go as far as Atlanta Ga, Mobile Al. or Tampa/Orlando Fl.

 

Any advice would be good. There were some good hints on cartalk.com

 

Of course this Baja will mean the '91 loyale with 250,000 and no clutch (been driving it that way for 3 months) will have to be retired, but I'll still have the Brat (even though it isn't driveable yet).

 

Thanks,

 

Ace

I like the Baja also and would love to get one.

 

To get some pricing info you can go to Edmunds.com and enter in your data for your area and vehicle options and then get a comparison price. You can also get some quotes from dealers in your area.

 

It is a good time to buy a car and you should be able to save at least $1,400 on the MSRP sticker. You're in the drivers seat for the deal. Set a price you think is fair and watch out for the financing pricing game. Get a total cash price and hopefully you already have your own financing.

 

It looks like Subaru is offeriing 0% financing for a limited time for those with good credit and also $500 customer cash for '06 models in stock. Offer ends 9/5. Keep those things in mind also when you go dealing. You may be able to get $2,500 or more knocked off the MSRP.

Thanks. I'll take a look at Edmunds later today.

 

I'm thinking of e-mailing several dealers in the area and just being straight up. I'll tell them I'm going to buy a silver Baja, with whatever options, and get them to tell me why I should buy it from them. Not being a jerk or anything, but I don't want to drive 200 miles to a dealer, and then have them push me around. I had a pretty bad experience the last time I bought a new car 12 years ago, but I was young and foolish back then, plus I was in a situation that I had to buy the car that day.

 

The dealer in Tallahassee has been real jerky and high pressure whenever I try to stop in, plus they don't have a silver one. I'll probably end up going to Valdosta Ga or Jacksonville Fl.

Good choice on getting a Baja, they're great cars, I love mine!

 

You might want to go to the Baja forum on http://www.nasioc.com it's waaaay down the bottom of the forum list. There are several owners that have owned theirs for a while, and from everything I have read, the only real regrets is not going with the turbo model. I have the turbo and it has gotten me out of a few tight spots in Boston area traffic. Power when you need it, worth its weight in gold.

 

The MSRP is only an inflated price to give the dealer wiggle room to satisfy the leinholder of the trade in when the loan is upside down. When you have no trade in and your own financing that's eliminated. Best of luck! Keep us posted.

You should be able to do much better than edmunds. Bajas are selling extremely poorly - less than 1,000 a month or so nationally, with a perennial $2,000 off.

 

Be really, really sure you want one, as the depreciation in the first two years will probably be astonishing. If SOA kilsl the model it will get even worse.

You should be able to do much better than edmunds. Bajas are selling extremely poorly - less than 1,000 a month or so nationally, with a perennial $2,000 off.

 

Be really, really sure you want one, as the depreciation in the first two years will probably be astonishing. If SOA kilsl the model it will get even worse.

 

Actually, the Baja is holding its own in resale value. As far as I know, SOA killed it as of April 2006 making it obsolete at a very young age. Those who have them, take good care of them.

I did hear a rumor from a BMW guy that SOA is planning a 30th anniversary model of the BRAT, probably just wishful thinking

Actually, the Baja is holding its own in resale value.

Only if you negotiate a huge discount when you buy it. Which is very possible.

In Gainesville, Fl.

 

http://www.palmchryslersubaru.com/en_US/

I don't know who the designers on the Baja were, but it's almost like they designed it just for me. I need a fuel efficient 4 wheel drive, a back seat, with a roof rack, and somewhere to throw wet smelly stuff. I don't like regular pick-ups. Too big and a pain to drive in town. They just needed the price to be down around $18,000.

 

They have a nice one in Tallahassee right now, so I might not have to make a big road trip. They have some good incentives right now, so maybe in the next week.

 

Is it true that you can't tow a boat with the turbo? I have a 17' boat that I need to drag around sometimes, and it's about all my Jeep Wrangler with a 4 cyl can do. The Baja has more power than the jeep, but I've heard that towing with a turbo is bad because the turbo has to kick on too much and it burns out. Even the non-turbo has more horsepower than the Jeep.

 

I'm kind of looking for an excuse to sell the Jeep, because it will improve my subaru to non-subaru ratio. Other than the towing, The Brat should do everything the Jeep does. and with a little more style.

I think it should be ok, how much does the boat weigh? And does the trailer have two axles or one?

I don't know who the designers on the Baja were

 

The two-tone has always looked to me like a little kid built it from "pieces parts" of his broken cars and trucks... very quirky and very functional. I wouldn't trade mine for anything.

It's a single axle trailer. I would guess the boat weighs about 2200 pounds or so. It's a center console with a 70 hp motor, but it's about 20 years old. I think they are alot lighter now. The Jeep does OK on the highway as long as there aren't any hills. Top speed is only about 65, but that's partly because there's alot of bouncing going on. 99 percent of the time, I'll just be towing it 15 miles on back roads to the ramp, but once in a while I might want to go somewhere different. I've heard that the wind resistance is actually more important than weight as long as the trailer is balanced.

 

We figure out what we can afford, and I think we found a baja locally to check out. I'm trying to guess on a starting point for the negotiation game. MSRP is running about $23-24,000. The Dealer invoice, which I've heard doesn't mean much either, is more like $21-22,000.

 

Will it really tick them off If I start with $19,500? I want to have a reasonable "Low-Ball" offer. I sure don't want them to accept my first offer. I'd really feel like a sucker even if it was a good price.

 

I plan to use the dealer financing, but I'm undecided about trading in my 91 loyale. They might charge me extra to have it hauled off.

dealer financing is always an option, but you should talk to another source so you'll know if the rate is competetive. this is another place dealers make extrs profit. you're there, you just decided to spend thousands of dollars, and you want it yesterday. why wouldn't you over look .5% for 5 years, it onle 100$ a month.

 

the best i ever heard about negotiating with dealers was working 2 against each other. work the best cdeal you can in tallahasse, the ndrive to the next guy and try and do better. if he can, great, go back tpo the first guy and try again. what can go wrong. they don't sell you a car... like that's going to happen.

 

and don't fall for that "if i can beat that price will you buy today" crap. tell them if they can'tt beat the price, there no chance you'll buy today. then start to leave.

 

 

It's a single axle trailer. I would guess the boat weighs about 2200 pounds or so. It's a center console with a 70 hp motor, but it's about 20 years old. I think they are alot lighter now. The Jeep does OK on the highway as long as there aren't any hills. Top speed is only about 65, but that's partly because there's alot of bouncing going on. 99 percent of the time, I'll just be towing it 15 miles on back roads to the ramp, but once in a while I might want to go somewhere different. I've heard that the wind resistance is actually more important than weight as long as the trailer is balanced.

 

We figure out what we can afford, and I think we found a baja locally to check out. I'm trying to guess on a starting point for the negotiation game. MSRP is running about $23-24,000. The Dealer invoice, which I've heard doesn't mean much either, is more like $21-22,000.

 

Will it really tick them off If I start with $19,500? I want to have a reasonable "Low-Ball" offer. I sure don't want them to accept my first offer. I'd really feel like a sucker even if it was a good price.

 

I plan to use the dealer financing, but I'm undecided about trading in my 91 loyale. They might charge me extra to have it hauled off.

Well, We bought the Baja last Saturday. The dealer in Tallahassee had a silver one so we stopped there first, and we drove out with a new car about 2 hours later. The transaction went really well, and we got a different salesman than the one that had been pretty rude to us a few times before. their initial offer was actually lower than we expected, and when they made a real nice offer on the old loyale with no clutch, we signed the papers before they could change their minds. I did tell them about the clutch, but they can fix it alot cheaper than I can.

 

I really like the Baja, even though I've only driven it twice. My wife is "knocking the New off it" for a year or two, then we'll get her something new (She says Forester or Honda CRV, But I say Outback), and I'll drive the Baja. The day after we bought it, 3 random strangers came up to us and were asking all kinds of questions about it.

 

I want to thank the folks that gave us advice on buying this car. I felt really good going into the dealership informed, instead of being at their mercy. I really appreciate it.

 

Ace

Your welcome for the help. Glad to hear you made a good deal on it. Enjoy the ride.

Keep it well, there are no more coming. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do mine