I went to the Scion Dealership the other day & chatted with a salesperson. We crunched some numbers & I went on my merry way. This is my first actual experience dealing with a salesperson (in cars) & I feel that I can get a better price than what we talked about. Nothing is set in stone, but I feel that I can go lower than $16K. That's with sports muffler, tail lights & something else (i forget), worth all about $700. Plus I'm trading in my 99 Mitsu Eclipse Spyder GS & the buyer will give me $7k for it. I still owe $8.5k on the car so an additional $1.5k is added to the price of the car. Confused? Yeah, me too. My father says I should wait until summer. Bleh! But I need his help to co-sign for a loan OR I could just finance thru the dealership... which I'd rather not do. So, what do you all think? I think the xA is a cool ride & I'd hate to have to wait to summer. Even though right now in Southwestern Ohio we are getting some funky weather...

 

The xA is a great car. I'm sure you will like driving one. As far as price; that isn't going to change. Scions prices are set and should not vary. The only thing that will change the price is the set of options you chose. You may have some bargaining room with what they give you for your trade.

 

Cool thanks. Yeah was impressed with the test drive. I feel that I'm getting a good deal on the trade-in. I was thinking about putting down about $1.5k so it's not added into the price of the car. Then with that out of the way maybe I can add another accessory. But it still looks like I'm going to have to go with financing thru the dealership.

 

Sell your car outside the dealership. You'll be able to make more from it, and pay off your car. Or turn to a bank for refinancing, and dealerships can be helpful to give you a good bank to finance it through. But it sounds like you owe quite a bit on your car. :-\ Your old man might be right.

Of all the scions, the xA catches my eye the most. Im currently driving a 2000 Civic EX coupe. I am often driving (1point for the xA: Gas Mileage), and usually have a couple friends, and two door can be a real kick in the sack. (Another point for the xA: 4door). But its power is just over 100. Im new to this site, and im checking all the options one would have (ie. swaps, forced induction, NA-potential), options that the Hondas have. I should be getting an ILL amount of money soon, and ive been fiending to go big on a car, and a dumped xA rollin' on some Rotas is almost arrousing.

 

You should definitely sell your car to a private party. You'll be able to sell if for 1k or more over the trade in price.

Also, check with what kind of APR you can get out of Toyota Financing. The lowest they offer for scions is around 4.5%, so compare that with other banks to see which is best.

The xA is definitely not for the driver who is looking for speed. It is slow, there's no doubt about that. BUT that's what makes it so fun to drive, because you can push the car to it's limits easily and have a blast doing so. It's a great balance between it's light curb weight and torquey engine.

 

no offense, i would follow your dad's advice to a point. wait until youve gotten some of the NEGATIVE equity out of your car and then go trade it. you may also considering getting a stock xA with no options, and just add them later. the dealer will gouge your eyes out for dealer installed options. get them aftermarket somewhere else. this site has alot of good references as to where to purchase aftermarket items.

 

Ya know, that is an excellent point. I never really thought of it that way, but you're right. I've had other cars and trucks in the past which had much more power than my xA. But I was never really able to enjoy driving them because if you "pushed" those vehicles, before you knew it, you were going way too fast or using way too much gas. The xA can be driven in an aggressive, fun way without those problems. And let's face it, for normal daily driving, it has plenty of power.

 

I say wait until summer. You'll be glad you did when your not in debt.
Good Luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

Yea debt is never good when getting a new car... but good choice what I would have gone with if the tc hadnt come out...

 

Hey, thanks everyone for all your inputs. My first task is to see what the bank says & if maybe I have enough credit to get a loan thru them. Apparently I do have credit & since my loan on the Eclipse is thru them, I'm gonna talk to 'em. I went yesterday but they were closed for some unknown reason. The more I think about it though, it would be wiser to buy a completely stocked xA & go from there. I know a couple of sites that sometimes have "Tuner Specials" on their parts so I think I'll go with that. And I can always come up with the $1,500 for my loan instead of adding it to the price of the car. I feel like e-mailing the salesperson & saying that I really can't afford it, just to see what he says but... I dunno. Only time will tell.