Originally Posted by
scubadu
Generally I'm of the "if its too good to be true..." perspective and have never seriously considered trying to purchase a car with a credit card due to the assumption that I'd just end up paying a higher price in order to "pay for the points."
However, your posts has at least peaked my curiosity.
Did you need to disclose you were paying with Amex prior to final pricing being agreed on? I guess that is another way of asking if you felt like you got a reasonable price or if you in effect "purchased" the MR points as part of the transaction.
I've been looking at the dealerships that are linked on the Amex car buying site as supposedly "Full Card Accepting Dealers" but I can't help but believe there is ultimately a catch when you come down to signing on the dotted line and pulling out your Amex.
With the margins on new cars today, it's difficult for me to envision a dealer being able/willing to eat the swipe fee on a purchase of this magnitude, but if so the MB Platinum would almost be a no-brainer (which of course is why I'm skeptical). Charging "up to $2000" frankly just doesn't get me all that excited. On the other hand, charging the full purchase price on an MB Platinum, with 5X points per dollar, get's me substantially more interested.
Regards
I negotiated the final price before I even knew I could pay for the whole thing with CC. The car in question was C43 AMG, and the final agreed price was $50K flat, after all discounts were applied ($1K MB discount and $2K fleet discount).
I was going to put $5K on the card, and pay the rest with a check, or finance, I hadn't made a decision yet. Then I found out there were dealerships that would accept the card in full.
I offered my salesman to put it all on the card - he declined.
I offered to pay $1K for the charges - he declined.
I then emailed several dealerships in the area telling them exactly what I was looking for - the car, the price, and the full amount on CC.
2 responded with no's, one said absolutely yes, and 5 days later, delivered the car to my house. They didn't ask and I didn't offer to pay for the merchant fees.
So to answer your question, I felt I got a very good deal, given that the sticker was $56K, the invoice was $52K, and I got it for $50K and $5K worth of AmEx points (at 2 cpp).