Current Discounts (i4 and V6)

[FEGuy]

Starting to shop a bit - primarily interested in i4 but wanted to open this up for V6 owners as well.

Those that have purchased recently, what kind of discounts are you seeing (specify i4 or v6 when replying).

Thanks!

 

[Nova]

I don't think you are going to bet many dealers to budge now that 25% tariffs are on the way. At best you get one for MSRP "pre price hike". This is just how I'd see it. Before the recent issues, the I4s were being discounted more than the V6s. Depending on color combination desirability, maybe $2-5K off?

 

[steveoexige]

I paid £58k for my 2024 vivid red 1st Edition i4 with 400 miles on the clock. Not sure on the exchange rate bearing in mind the golden wonder is giving the global economy a heart attack right now.

 

[FEGuy]

I don't think you are going to bet many dealers to budge now that 25% tariffs are on the way. At best you get one for MSRP "pre price hike". This is just how I'd see it. Before the recent issues, the I4s were being discounted more than the V6s. Depending on color combination desirability, maybe $2-5K off?

There's 6+ months of inventory at dealers (exact can't be calculated due to pre-order noise in sales data). Most i4s for sale have been sitting 90+ days.

That's the real reason for the unofficial 'no more delivery due to tariffs' announcement. With hundreds of unsold units sitting at dealers I would suggest anyone should be looking for a meaningful discount.

Dealers are budging fine btw based on a couple I've already spoken to. I sent messages to a few more today and will see what I get back.

 

[F1 SML8R]

I don't think you are going to bet many dealers to budge now that 25% tariffs are on the way. At best you get one for MSRP "pre price hike". This is just how I'd see it. Before the recent issues, the I4s were being discounted more than the V6s. Depending on color combination desirability, maybe $2-5K off?

I just bought mine, some are, some aren't. I'm also a dealer's worst case sales scenario. I live in Ca, but essentially pinged all 35+ dealers in the country looking for specs that checked all my boxes. I then started to prioritize by geography on where I was willing to fly in and drive home (my Carrera T came from OKC). Then I started chipping away via email/calls using roughly an 8-10% margin to calculate/estimate their true cost + some pre-determined number of what you would like them to make ($1000 for me).

While I won't provide the exact details of my deal or dealer out of respect for their work, I will provide the following. Real deals (i.e., material discounts) are further away from CA or Florida. Ironically CA and Florida have the most cars (think Galpin and Naples). They somehow think because they've ordered a lot of cars, they've "cornered" the market. On the flip-side, dealers outside of these two states (or at least away from the previously mentioned dealers) and closer to the mid-west were much more eager to deal. So, what's a deal? The lowest bid where someone offered a discount from MSRP and no add-ons, was $2k off. At one point, I had someone offer $7K off only to find they then essentially would claw it back with a bogus $1k "doc fee" and other fees. So watch out for post negotiation fees. I also had people saying, I'll sell at MSRP, but throw-in an extended warranty (don't get me started on why I largely think these don't make sense in most scenarios).

For anyone that has bought several cars over their life, they'll quickly recognize that what I described above is what's been going on since the beginning of car sales. Step 1) You need to research where the cars you want are. Step 2) research what their cost is. Step 3) decide what you want to "allow" them to make off the deal (yes, they need to make some money). Then start emailing/calling and get ready for rejection, but someone will bite. Lastly, you know my discount was somewhere between $2K and the fake $7K that the one dealer tried to click bait me on then added bogus doc/admin. fees. So, this should give you a feel for what's possible. Lastly, even if you don't plan on financing, take the 3.99% from Lotus, then just pay the loan off when you get the first payment. This also helps the deal, because for anyone that didn't know, banks provide a few bucks for every loan they get. So, they count that as part of their winnings.

Happy Hunting!

 

[FEGuy]

I just bought mine, some are, some aren't. I'm also a dealer's worst case sales scenario. I live in Ca, but essentially pinged all 35+ dealers in the country looking for specs that checked all my boxes. I then started to prioritize by geography on where I was willing to fly in and drive home (my Carrera T came from OKC). Then I started chipping away via email/calls using roughly an 8-10% margin to calculate/estimate their true cost + some pre-determined number of what you would like them to make ($1000 for me).

While I won't provide the exact details of my deal or dealer out of respect for their work, I will provide the following. Real deals (i.e., material discounts) are further away from CA or Florida. Ironically CA and Florida have the most cars (think Galpin and Naples). They somehow think because they've ordered a lot of cars, they've "cornered" the market. On the flip-side, dealers outside of these two states and closer to the mid-west were much more eager to deal. So, what's a deal? The lowest bid where someone offered a discount from MSRP and no add-ons, was $2k off. At one point, I had someone offer $7K off only to find they then essentially would claw it back with a bogus $1k "doc fee" and other fees. So watch out for post negotiation fees. I also had people saying, I'll sell at MSRP, but throw-in an extended warranty (don't get me started on why I largely think these don't make sense in most scenarios).

For anyone that has bought several cars over their life, they'll quickly recognize that what I described above is what's been going on since the beginning of car sales. Step 1) You need to research where the cars you want are. Step 2) research what their cost is Step 3) decide what do you want to "allow" them to make off the deal (yes, they need to make some money). Then start emailing/calling and get ready for rejection, but someone will bite. Lastly, you know my discount was somewhere between $2K and the fake $7K that the one dealer tried to click bait me on then added bogus doc/admin. fees. SO, this should give you a feel for what's possible. Lastly, even if you don't plan on financing, take the 3.99% from Lotus then just pay the loan off when you get the first payment. This also helps the deal, because for anyone that didn't know, banks provide a few bucks for every loan they get. So, they count that as part of their winnings.

Happy Hunting!

Very helpful. This is kind of the range I was expecting. I completely agree with your write up btw.

 

[F1 SML8R]

BTW, if you actually do all the grind work I did above, it isn't a fast process. My whole sales life cycle from the start of research to the first ping to final deal agreement took about 60+ days. So yeah, you have to be patient and stick to your goal regardless of the "noise" you hear from dealers in response.

 

[Lotus F1]

I paid $1500 over invoice... no games no fees. Most simple and direct purchase I ever made. I think $1500 was very reasonable profit for them

 

[F1 SML8R]

@Lotus F1 Given "invoice" pricing (i.e., cost of car the dealer pays to manufacturer) isn't published (can be roughly estimated at best), can you restate your price paid in the form of discount to MSRP which is readily available.

 

[Lotus F1]

I saw the invoice (it wasn't published) so I'm not sure what you mean. But essentially 7K off MSRP after their 1.5K taken

 

[Wiz33]

There's 6+ months of inventory at dealers (exact can't be calculated due to pre-order noise in sales data). Most i4s for sale have been sitting 90+ days.

That's the real reason for the unofficial 'no more delivery due to tariffs' announcement. With hundreds of unsold units sitting at dealers I would suggest anyone should be looking for a meaningful discount.

Dealers are budging fine btw based on a couple I've already spoken to. I sent messages to a few more today and will see what I get back.

There is no 6 months inventory at dealer. especially not V6 manual. There are a lot of V6 auto as who would want a V6 auto now that the i4 is also 400hp and have better performance? ( I won't be surprised if some of those V6 auto will still be on the lot a year from now). The only reason there are that many i4 available is that pretty much all dealer offered to let i4 depositor to switch to a V6 FE2.5 when Lotus allocated additional FE V6 when they announced the dealy of the i4 from April 2024 to Dec 2024 back in Dec 2023. i4 depositor were once again offered to switch to orphan FE V6 when they start arriving in Apr 2024 (There were quite a few with the 3 years delay). That's what happened to me, I had a deposit on an i4 at Oct 2023 and I was offered to switch to a FE 2.5 in Jan 2024 and then again when the first batch of FE V6 arrived at my dealer Apr 2024. That's how I got my FE V6 and my i4 would be an orphan on the lot now if I didn't decide to also pick it up.