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View Full Version : san rafael mitsubishi.....invisiguard.....noob



b0yw0nder
08-09-2005, 08:26 PM
i've been on norcalevo.com since a couple months after I moved to California. (since October/November or so)

The forum was a great wealth of knowledge and eventually led me to my purchase about 2 months ago.

SHORT VERSION
Don't bother looking for a car in the south bay, drive to san rafael, talk to Chris or Snorre. They will help you out with financing, insurance, a good deal and will follow up with good service.

When looking for a way to protect your investment. Jeremy at invisiguard is the guy to go to. Good price and great service. (He went out to san rafael and installed my clear bra before it left the showroom floor) Even better....I asked him about some little touchups, before I even ASKED him at the Gruppe-S meet, they were already done. Cooks a mean burger too.

LONG VERSION BELOW

So you might say...why was he on here in december and didn't buy till like June? Well, moving countries, your credit doesn't follow you...0 credit meant ridiculous loan rates and high downpayments. Took me awhile to get that downpayment cause I was still having to put money into my Grand Prix and buy furniture and stuff.

When I finally had a downpayment, I headed out to the dealerships and started contacting the internet fleet managers. Keeping it simple, Stevens Creek was the first dealership I visited, the first time I visited they had an MR they were willing to let go for MSRP (instead of the 7-8K over MSRP Sticker)....but I passed on that. The next time I visited them they said there was no way to finance me and there was no way they would let it go for less than MSRP. Another strike against them was that they wouldn't let me drive until I was fully financed and they wouldn't even take me for a ride. Eric seems like a nice/honest salesman though.

At the same time I was talking with the internet fleet manager at Capitol. He made a really good offer and I decided to go down and look because he promised he'd let me drive an EVO. He was busy so I decided to talk to one of their salesmen. (You're not just buying a car, but you're buying something from them as a whole......slimey salesmen probably means bad service in the end) The guy was decently intelligent but couldn't produce any tangible differences between the STi and EVO. Once we talked price, I knew he was off his rocker. They wanted several thousand over MSRP. When I said I already had a quote for 500 over invoice he said that is impossible. He brought the manager over and he explained they were the "kings of the EVO" cause they had so many. (About 15 at the time) My parting comment was "good luck with getting rid of the inventory at those prices".

Sometime in here, I actually went to the dealership off 80 and was told to leave the dealership when I asked why a regular EVO had a 5K increase over MSRP for "dealer added options". The dealer added options didn't actually exist and I was told it was due to "supply and demand". Needless to say, I asked too many questions and was told to leave.

Lastly, in December or so, I followed a lead here and talked to Snorre at San Rafael. A little caught off guard at first, but he helped me as much as he could. At that time, I really couldn't afford the car or downpayment and I think he had written me off. A few months later, I was back, ready to go and he passed me off to his associate Chris. Chris back breakingly looked for banks that would get me the money and in the end find me money. Actually...he had to do thise twice cause at one point I had to faulter again. EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY.....there was no haggling required, I made my offer, he accepted. I told him I needed to drive an EVO, he said come on up. Drove the evo and the deal was done. Chose the color I wanted and he spent the time to get it ordered right from the factory. (The subaru dealership up there was cool too, they let me go and test drive an STi with only 4 miles so that I could compare back to back...both of these "bastards" tried hooking me by taking me up mountain roads) Chris even came and picked me up at the train station in san francisco so that I could drive my car home from san rafael to mountain view without having to have someone else drive up there with me.

I also knew I wanted to protect my investment. I looked around on here for clear bra places and came across Jeremy at Invisiguard. He had a good price and he was mobile. Being mobile, he was actually able to go up to San Rafael and install my clear bra before the car even hit the road. He even followed up a couple months later at the Gruppe-S show. I had e-mailed him about some small marks I made with my shoe and a corner that had become "unstuck". Before I even asked him, he'd hunted down my car and fixed them. He cooked up some mean burgers at Gruppe-S....

Anyways...thats my story......look forward to getting to know the EVO and the people here.

rodw
08-10-2005, 08:28 AM
How much was the clear bra? and which areas did u get done ...hood, fenders, bumper, etc....??

b0yw0nder
08-10-2005, 11:31 AM
i should have mentioned...I got what I would call the "extreme" package.

extended coverage in the front (about 18inches up the hood and down the fenders), mirrors and door edges.

headlights

custom rocker panels and behind the rear wheels.

for price, just drop jeremy an e-mail and he'll get back to you asap. [email protected]

turbotiger
08-10-2005, 04:22 PM
How not to be a gullable newb when buying a new car.

1. Get a preapproved car loan. Best bet is at a credit union. One of the lowest rates, and credit history almost doesn't matter. You can just come out of bankruptcy and they'll still approve you.
2. Be patient. Tell them you're already preapproved for a loan, tell them you want a car as soon as you agree to my price. You're going to go back and forth a few times. Leave them your name and number if they don't agree to your price and you feel it's going nowhere. They'll call you up either in the next day or a few days or even a week or two later. Tell them you won't come in unless they agree to your price.
3. Call around to other dealerships and tell them you want the car and will pick it up if they agree to this price. Tell them you already have an offer from another dealership for X amount of money and if they beat it, they can have your business.
4. Do you math on the total amount of your loan, monthly payments, etc. Make sure you can afford it at that price, term, interest rate. Allow the dealer to attempt to beat the rate with the same term. They may or may not. Do the math if you do finance with them to make sure the total amount paid is what they verbally told you.
5. Do not get the undercoating special, or crap like that.

I hear San Rafael Mitsu is very pleasant to deal with. But when I purchased my car, they were not the cheapest.

b0yw0nder
08-10-2005, 04:41 PM
lemme know next time you move countries okay....

i tried 4 different credit unions....none could match the rate that san rafael got for me.

while I agree with the point that I should have probably started lower....the deal I got was pretty much on par with anything I saw here other than the recent 0% financing. (which I wouldn't have qualified for anyways......even Subaru couldn't qualify me for it and they've been in canada forever)

dohcvtec
08-10-2005, 06:27 PM
lemme know next time you move countries okay....

i tried 4 different credit unions....none could match the rate that san rafael got for me.

while I agree with the point that I should have probably started lower....the deal I got was pretty much on par with anything I saw here other than the recent 0% financing. (which I wouldn't have qualified for anyways......even Subaru couldn't qualify me for it and they've been in canada forever)
Same thing with me at SRM. I was already pre-approved with my own loan and they beat that rate by 1% on top of giving me a hell of a price on the car. SRM is the best car dealer I've ever dealt with.

wilson1
08-10-2005, 07:44 PM
SRM is the best car dealer I've ever dealt with.

That's what i have been telling everyone!!!!!! 8)

turbotiger
08-11-2005, 10:23 AM
lemme know next time you move countries okay....

i tried 4 different credit unions....none could match the rate that san rafael got for me.

while I agree with the point that I should have probably started lower....the deal I got was pretty much on par with anything I saw here other than the recent 0% financing. (which I wouldn't have qualified for anyways......even Subaru couldn't qualify me for it and they've been in canada forever)

If they beat the rate at your credit union, then that's pretty good. Were you looking at the same length of term when comparing rates? What was your rate they gave you? How many months?

b0yw0nder
08-11-2005, 11:27 AM
made sure i was always comparing apples to apples....

tech credit union wouldn't do anything less than 7.75 (7.25 with direct deposit)

san raf originally had me 6.X something but interest rates skyrocketed in 2 months I had to build up a larger down payment (and put new tires + half shafts on my grandprix) and ended up around 7.1.

tech credit union was the lowest of all.....and they weren't going to finance me for the whole amount....downpayment was going to be about 3K more.

turbotiger
08-12-2005, 09:59 AM
made sure i was always comparing apples to apples....

tech credit union wouldn't do anything less than 7.75 (7.25 with direct deposit)

san raf originally had me 6.X something but interest rates skyrocketed in 2 months I had to build up a larger down payment (and put new tires + half shafts on my grandprix) and ended up around 7.1.

tech credit union was the lowest of all.....and they weren't going to finance me for the whole amount....downpayment was going to be about 3K more.

Yikes, must be your miserable credit rating. :D

b0yw0nder
08-12-2005, 12:50 PM
is zero bad?
cause that is what it is

turbotiger
08-12-2005, 04:13 PM
is zero bad?
cause that is what it is

Uhm, yah, that is not good.
See
http://money.howstuffworks.com/credit-score.htm

b0yw0nder
08-12-2005, 07:39 PM
duh.....like i said, move countries and let me know how your credit works...

Invisiguard
08-23-2005, 12:47 AM
hey thanks for the good word Jarred! :D

yeah out of all the dealerships Ive dealt with SRM is definitely my favorite, its VERY rare to find a true enthusiast dealership 8)

ZK
08-29-2005, 08:49 AM
I have to add some positive feedback for Jeremy at Invisigard as well. He came out to do my clear bra this past Sunday. Excellent work and explained the whole process in detail with me. We talked about different kinds of films and he actually uses all sorts of different ones depending on the car. Plus he is a serious car guy with a nice hooked up STI so it was cool just to talk cars.
He did leave a wrinkle in one of the headlight protectors but mentioned he'd come and replace it sometime the following week.

+1 for Jeremy

crctslt
08-29-2005, 09:39 AM
Just curious what was the dealer on I-80 you went to?