Joe.Dille@frco.com wrote:
>
> Well I drove the Dakota today. Very nice. Nobody has a V8
> 5-Speed. Sands Brothers in Quakertown PA was the only dealer that
> had a 5-speed period. I took a 2WD regular cab out with the V6
> and the 5-speed. I did not beat on it, but the 6 had adequate
> power. The ride was nice and I liked the quiet cab.
>
> The salesman then talked me into taking a 4WD V8 5-Speed ram out.
> I did want to feel the clutch on the V8 so I could be sure my wife
> would have no problem. The Dodge clutch is as light or lighter
> than my Chevy S-10. My wife will have no problem with the clutch
> :-) I will love the 318 V8 :-)
>
> I spent most of the ride explaining that I did want to order the
> truck since I wanted just what said I wanted and that was not
> sitting on the lot. He consented to work up a price, so I left
> him with my list of options and accessories. We will see what
> happens.
>
> Does anyone know a dealer in south east Pennsylvania that will
> order a truck for a reasonable price?
>
Joe,
I just finished the whole looking and buying task last week. It took me
a solid month of searching to find a 98 RC SB V8 5spd decked out with
the right options.
Try AutoWeb or AutoVantage through the web (no I'm not trying to
advertise - I just had pretty painless experiences with them). They have
you fill out an on-line form and then direct you to a participating
dealer in your area. I got price quotes of $250 and $100 over mfg
invoice respectively from these two services. I ended up buying through
AutoWeb as that dealer was able to come up with the closest match. These
dealers searched the whole southeast region for the vehicle I wanted.
Unless your able to find a dealer that will sell one for you below
invoice (ha!!), these are pretty darn good prices. I spent quite a bit
of time working through the invoice prices via the Edmunds and Autosite
web sites, and these participating dealers were right on the mark.
You've got to go out and compare the option pricing structure (from the
web) to the stickers to get a good feel for it though, but field work
was the fun part for me.
The only thing you can't really find out about on the web is the
Chrysler corporate advertising tax. Every dealer gets charged for local
and regional advertising costs, and these appear on the invoice
(surprise, surprise, ...). The charges vary from area to area - around
here (Atlanta, GA) the charges ranged from ~$300 to ~$350. Of course the
dealers pass this on in the 'mfg invoice' total. I was not able to find
any dealer which would absorb add costs.
You'll get the absolute best price if you order or buy one as is off a
dealer lot. If you have the dealer add extras to an existing vehicle
like I did, you will pay a little extra. But it was worth it to not wait
for 2+ months.
Good luck.
jeff
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:08:02 EDT