Georgia Suzuki Car Dealers

This past Sat. my wife and I bought a 2009 SX4 Crossover AWD manual transmission w/touring package. We paid $18700.00 out the door. Good buy? I don't know, but we sure are happy with the car. We drove it 80 miles one way home from the dealership after we took delivery Monday afternoon. After much research and trying out other vehicles, we decided that this Suzuki would perhaps be the best vehicle for our money to pull behind our motorhome. We needed a vehicle that was light in weight, manual transmission, and was stated towable by the factory, so as not to void the warranty. The SX4 was right on. We also wanted 4WD or AWD for our future trips to Alaska and other places where it might be needed. My first tank of gas we averaged 27.3 mpg. Very happy with that figure. After 400 miles, I am so impressed with this vivid red SX4 Crossover. This is a beautiful car, more so in my opinion than the all red mini cooper I once owned. More pep, more room, more storage, around the same mpg, and AWD, and less money. We are happy. Terry

I honestly don't know anything about cars beside I wanted an AWD vehicle with the lowest price and best gas mileage possible. I have been following Edmunds tips on buying and negotiating. All said and done I purchased a new '09 AWD SX4A Hatchback-Technology Package for 17,400 in addition to a far trade and $1250 suzuki rebate. I felt like I was negotiating forever and was exhausted by the end of it. Did I get a good deal? Could it have been possible to get a better deal had I been more patient? Also, I paid a bunch of additional fees in addition to the ones on the invoice. How do I know which ones are legit/unavoidable and which are bogus?

I own the '07 SX4 with the sport package. I love the car. At the time I purchased it, the new sedan model was not available yet. The car has exceeded my expectations in every way except for one: gas mileage. I average around 22-23 MPG, which I feel is on the low side for a car this size. This point is emphasized whenever I see an ad from Suzuki comparing it to the Honda Fit or Mini Cooper, which both average about 10 more MPG. Although I am disappointed with the MPG, I accept it as a compromise since no other car on the market comes close to packing in as many features for the price, most important to me being AWD, ESC, and Traction Control. I can fit the whole world in this little car when I fold the seats down and the safety features are well worth the sub-par gas mileage. I live on the east coast and the car has been great in snow and ice storms. Couldn't be happier.

Including tax, title and tax, I paid $17000. That included the $750 rebate, which I chose rather than the 0% plus free summer gas.

Labor Day was yesterday and I went on a car hunt. Bought a 2008 SX4 w/ Touring II Pkg AWD. I have no idea why they call it the II as there never was a Touring I. In anycase, this replaces the 2007 Sport Pkg. For color I went with a new color for 2008 SX4 called Azure Gray Metallic. Hard to describe new paint, but in general it's a Charcol Gray with a hint of Blue. I am a little disappointed that Suzuki doesn't have much "news" out on the web yet for the 2008 lineup. All you find is their marketing blitz on the front wheel drive SX4 Sedan or 2007 data. So doing research on the 2008 SX4 5door hatchback or "crossover" was near impossible. However armed with what I found on 2007 and seeing that the 2008 only has small changes, it was easy to find a good price point with negociations on what I would pay. First let me tell you what I found "new" or changed in 2008 Touring II from 2007 Sport. '08 Gas Flap is opened by inside button (versus finger flip from exterior). '08 Touring II has color matching rear spoiler Std. w/ black trim. '08 Touring II has 9 speaker Std (subwoofer under driver seat..very small, but hey! that's 1 more speaker). '08 Touring II put in white lettering (easier to read) for the description of the 2 buttons to the right of the LCD read out that tells you MPG etc..('07 was just black..hard to rear what button was what). That's all I noticed..hehe probably some other very minor changes, but that's all I have seen at this point since I don't have 2 to go over inch by inch. Price for 2008 SX4 Touring II AWD: MSRP was 18,595 Dealer Inv was 17,911 Net Invoice (this is what you don't see) was ~approx 16,972 (could be off a little, but I was trying very hard to memorize so many numbers). I paid 17,000.00 (including Destination Fee). plus tax/title as with any car you'd buy in most States. Yes, that's a good deal from what I can tell. Most dealers will not go below Dealer Invoice. Tip is simply stick to your price. Difference between Net Invoice and Dealer Invoice is 3 main things that the dealer will get pending the individual car sale. I show above a difference of $939 between Net and Dealer Inv. $595 is the Hold Back incentive that Suzuki will pay the Dealer for Selling the car...approx $135 guessing (you get the idea) is what Suzuki will pay the dealer of "Show Line" which I don't know much about. Something to do with credit/carry costs I think (could be way off base). 3rd item would be Marketing. Suzuki will pay Dealer for Marketing schemes used to sell car (probably such as Web advertising or maybe tying ballons on the car) hehe I dunno. Bottom Line is be informed there is a Net Invoice that is Below the Dealer Invoice. So paying Dealer Invoice Price is a good deal, but you can do better unless the sales person is greedy or you get too greedy as well, play it cool show respect and talk smart. Appears to be a fun car with many options I didn't expect to find in a "commuter" type of car. I just hope when Suzuki finally gets information out there I don't find I really got screwed in price. So I post this as tips/news to others who are looking into this car as to aid them in their research. =) 2008...go zuk go.