room to negotiate when you special order.

I'm interested in the '00 1.8TQ with Conv pkg and sport pkg. And what is the procedure with sites like carorder.com, and are they reputable?

Any thoughts?

You can order specifically what you want through carorder.com, however, they will probably have to place the order through the factory. I have a MY00 car on order, and it seems to be going smoothly. However, it appears that they are no longer offering 99.5 (probably because of lack of availability). I got invoice pricing across the board (as part of a special they were running) regardless of the option.

If you don't like going to the dealer and prefer to be quoted up-front pricing carorder.com and carsdirect.com are good ways to get a car. If you need to kick the tires, pick the specific car from the lot and drive away, then go see a dealer. Of course, if you order a car that's on the dealer lot, carorder.com will simply buy that one for you so you may be able to get the best of both worlds.

Good luck!

We started negotiating % over invoice, but then as we did not know actual price at the time, I opted for $ over invoice. Originally they wanted 5% which equated to $1343 over (based on my guesstimated invoice). I said $1100, they said $1200 - I was sure I could have walked out of the dealer with $1100 over, but it would have changed the relationship between me and my dealer, which wasn't w0rth the $100 difference, especailly if you spread that across the 3 months I have to deal with him before I get my '00 1.8TQMSX,etc

Mark P

They had listed the sport package and the cold weather package as "no charge" when I was choosing my options. They also had Pelican Blue listed as "no charge", but the factory wouldn't accept that color choice for this order cycle. So CarOrder.com will get to save their $400 for that option.

My experience with CarOrder.com has been superb. Even without the ridiculously good price, I'd say that. My sales guy (Mike DeLeon) has been super-conscientious, writing and phoning me frequently to get clarification or provide reassurance that their service is for real.