Prices being paid ?

[einy]

What prices are being paid for "non Prima" 500's out there?  Truecar.com has insufficient data (not surprising) at this point.  I'm particularly interested in transactions in the Cincinnati / Columbus Ohio region.  

Thanks in advance!

[littlejohn]

I don't think anything other than retail?  I would assume that even if a dealer had a really large amount of excess cars, they would transfer them to other dealers in need of cars, other than discount them?  At this point in time anyway, not much margin I think?


500C maybe be the bigger deal quite frankly now that it's been launched. With so many 500 hardtops running $19-$20K+, go C!...time will tell.

[Fiat500USA]

There is not a lot of margin in these cars. I'd rather have the Studio take the few hundred dollars and spend it on rewarding/retaining good employees and stocking parts and accessories.

[einy]

I guess time will tell .... I was considering a Kia Soul last Spring, and was told "there is no margin in these cars, we can't possibly discount them" .... now all the Cincinnati area Kia dealers are advertising over $1,200 off in the paper.  It all depends on how satisfied Fiat is with 500 sales, and how much they choose to participate with factory to dealer incentives, etc., etc.  There has been some coverage of Mr. M's dis-satisfaction with 500 sales in the US to date.

Regarding spares ... are common items like oil filters available at the dealerships yet?  

[Giallo Edizione]

Much as we and FIAT hopes otherwise, I seriously doubt they can hold the line on pricing, especially with the volume of production they are planning for. My dealer has 79 cars on the lot, the only dealer open in all of New England that I know of, and nearly all of them are automatics. I've been monitoring movement of the inventory and not much is happening.  What do you think they will need to do.

[ciddyguy]

einy wrote

I guess time will tell .... I was considering a Kia Soul last Spring, and was told "there is no margin in these cars, we can't possibly discount them" .... now all the Cincinnati area Kia dealers are advertising over $1,200 off in the paper.  It all depends on how satisfied Fiat is with 500 sales, and how much they choose to participate with factory to dealer incentives, etc., etc.  There has been some coverage of Mr. M's dis-satisfaction with 500 sales in the US to date.

Regarding spares ... are common items like oil filters available at the dealerships yet?

I read about Marchionne's "dissatisfaction" with Fiat sales, but the source report mentioned here in a thread was questionable and was pulling apart another report to make it look like Marchionne  was dissatisfied when in fact, he may well have been dissatisfied with how the dealers are opening, not how the cars are selling as many dealers ARE selling the cars (not all as yet due to a lack of ads but they WILL be forthcoming, once a critical mass of dealers are opened).

[littlejohn]

I know, what's with all the automatics?   I guess I agree somewhat with the idea younger kids today don't have any interest in a manual, care to learn, etc?..

but the Auto option pushes the price up $2K from the get go, (not that some of the other options that get thrown in with the auto aren't items folks might pick anyway?)

Well, we'll see...factory incentive/credit for the cost of the auto package, who knows?

[Fiat500USA]

ciddyguy wrote

I read about Marchionne's "dissatisfaction" with Fiat sales, but the source report mentioned here in a thread was questionable and was pulling apart another report to make it look like Marchionne  was dissatisfied when in fact, he may well have been dissatisfied with how the dealers are opening, not how the cars are selling as many dealers ARE selling the cars (not all as yet due to a lack of ads but they WILL be forthcoming, once a critical mass of dealers are opened).

This report is ridiculous.  The report this was taken from where he supposedly claimed Alfa will be delayed, was a misquote and not accurate. This is from someone who really knows.

[ciddyguy]

Fiat500USA wrote

ciddyguy wrote

I read about Marchionne's "dissatisfaction" with Fiat sales, but the source report mentioned here in a thread was questionable and was pulling apart another report to make it look like Marchionne  was dissatisfied when in fact, he may well have been dissatisfied with how the dealers are opening, not how the cars are selling as many dealers ARE selling the cars (not all as yet due to a lack of ads but they WILL be forthcoming, once a critical mass of dealers are opened).

This report is ridiculous.  The report this was taken from where he supposedly claimed Alfa will be delayed, was a misquote and not accurate. This is from someone who really knows.

I'd forgotten that was mentioned, but that's why I mentioned it as it WAS slanting a negative tone to the whole Fiat thing and doing it in a lazy fashion to boot.

[littlejohn]

No one in auto buying land is reading that anyway...too soon to tell on what year end sales numbers these critters are going to yield, but a stripper "C" may be the consumers best value.  The Abarth is probably going to come in too high for most of us...$20K was always wishful thinking of course.

[ciddyguy]

littlejohn wrote

No one in auto buying land is reading that anyway...too soon to tell on what year end sales numbers these critters are going to yield, but a stripper "C" may be the consumers best value.  The Abarth is probably going to come in too high for most of us...$20K was always wishful thinking of course.

If the timing still holds true, we won't know how it all shakes out until summer 2012 or that fall once the numbers get processed but they WERE planning on 40K for ALL of N. America a while back.

[Terry]

I had thought that FIAT's approach to pricing was the same as Saturn. That is, no dickering or negotiations--Sticker was final answer thus not making the consumer who loathes bargaining more comfortable and distancing FIAT from "normal" or traditional auto stores.  Also, unless I'm wrong the automatic option, at least on the Sport 500 is $1k, not $2k.

ciao,

Terry

[Fiat500USA]

einy wrote

I guess time will tell .... I was considering a Kia Soul last Spring, and was told "there is no margin in these cars, we can't possibly discount them" .... now all the Cincinnati area Kia dealers are advertising over $1,200 off in the paper.  It all depends on how satisfied Fiat is with 500 sales, and how much they choose to participate with factory to dealer incentives, etc., etc.  There has been some coverage of Mr. M's dis-satisfaction with 500 sales in the US to date.

Regarding spares ... are common items like oil filters available at the dealerships yet?

A lot of these discounts are the result of: combining a factory incentive with a discount from the dealer, closeouts on older models before new ones hit, discounting a car that has been on paper to long. There isn't a lot of money in cheap cars. By the way, these deep discounts are the reason why you see these big doc fees. They have to make their money somewhere.

[littlejohn]

Hi Terry, the $2K I was mentioning was in reference to the Pop model...but you "do" get some other items thrown in on the deal, whether you want them or not, so...


I guess maybe Fait is thinking, in addition to the whole, "no one wants autos idea"...is that folks wanting a stick would be moved to the Sport anyway, make sense, so why not ship a bunch of Pops with autos for the masses.  I do wish they would have just done a conventional conv...

[75Spider]

Didn't get into pricing when I test drove a Sport today but the 'base' Pop at only 16K does seem to offer a lot for the price. We bought an '08 smart fortwo passion coupe that was sold at full list as well (of course you can pick up a smart at a significant discount now!) but at the time it was nice that even though in high demand, dealer's were NOT gouging above that -- the only issue I see would be if an optioned up car (like the Lounge series) really offers the same kind of value at $23,500. Granted it was 3 years ago now (although if anything, the price has gone down on lower end models) our smart with many similar options (leather heated seats, auto wiper/lights/climate, fogs, full lucite roof w/sun shade, semi-automatic) listed at $15,540 (includes dest. charge). Now I doubt most people would cross-shop a smart and the Fiat but more and more people would like more of the comfort/convenience options just in a smaller car -- I mentioned the MINI at the Fiat dealer and while this is a closer direct competitor to the 500; the price difference favors the Fiat by quite a bit so again you have to see what works for you versus what's available in the market at the time. I'd really like to wait until 'my' dealer has their design studio up and running to get the full experience and see how the service dept. goes -- like the fact that they're offering the initial maintenance covered, smart didn't offer that and MBZ labor rates are quite high! As the gas prices should be easing up over summer a bit I wonder how well the Fiat will do price wise and if they'll be forced to offer discounts like smart is doing due to slow sales -- time will tell.

[KO]

Just ordered a pearl white Sport.  The dealer paperwork shows the dealer cost. The dealer paid $16,850 for the base Sport (MSRP 17,500).  With options and $500 destination fee = MSRP 18,900 (dealer cost $18,177).  Add a ridiculous $498 in document fees, taxes and license for the total.

[KO]

$498 did not include taxes and fees, just doc fee.

[macdebbie]

Afraid to ask - how much were the taxes and other fees?

[einy]

Dealer (true) cost isn't really what the invoice says.  They also get the 'holdback' at the end of the month on each unit sold (typically 3% - 5% of the MSRP regardless of the actual selling price - percentage depends on the brand), as well as their unit count incentive.  Last two vehicles that we bought ('09 Accord and '10 Forester) were both bought at the end of the month, and we paid less than "invoice" for both, yet the dealerships still made a good profit on them from the unit count bumps they got.  While dealers certainly are not "advertising" selling prices below MSRP at this point, I suspect they will get there eventually.  Personally, after driving a pair of Sport / manual transmission unit last week, I think we'll hold off a bit and let a few early production bug-a-boos (rattling glass in the driver's door over bumps on both cars being the most noticeable) get sorted out, and a let bit of the "new factor" wear off and then see how / if we move forward.  Possibly by then, the Abarth will be out to test / drool over / buy ... !

[Fiat500USA]

macdebbie wrote

Afraid to ask - how much were the taxes and other fees?

Hi macdebbie,

Welcome to the forum!

Here is this thread on the new forum: http://www.fiat500usaforum.com/showthread.php?3091-Prices-being-paid/page2

Re-post this on the new forum to get more responses. Thanks!

Chris