Southern States

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:39 am

I'm in the market to buy Pam a new ride. We drove by Southern States on wake forest they other day and looked at the new 3, CX 5 and some of the subies they have on the lot. I know in the past these guys had a suck reputation to say the least. Anyone dealt w/ this dealership lately? They are the closest dealership to me, but I'd go to another dealership if they have a better rep.

Feedback?

BenjaminGuardiola · **Joined:** Wed May 14, 2014 8:31 am **Posts:** 84

I've had better luck with Capital Mazda in Cary.
Mazda is running a promo right now if you are ready to buy:

"From now until March 31, 2015, E-Plan eligibility is expanded to include Mazda Team Support Members, their family and friends. If this is you, you'll get a no-hassle price, 4% below the dealer invoice price on any new 2015 Mazda. On top of that, you'll receive all available incentives! The program ends soon, so call us at 800.435.2508."

I'm sure there are several members in the club with support numbers. Anyone driving a Mazda should have one.
Let me know if you want to use mine.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:30 pm

BenjaminGuardiola wrote:

I've had better luck with Capital Mazda in Cary.
Mazda is running a promo right now if you are ready to buy:

"From now until March 31, 2015, E-Plan eligibility is expanded to include Mazda Team Support Members, their family and friends. If this is you, you'll get a no-hassle price, 4% below the dealer invoice price on any new 2015 Mazda. On top of that, you'll receive all available incentives! The program ends soon, so call us at 800.435.2508."

I'm sure there are several members in the club with support numbers. Anyone driving a Mazda should have one.
Let me know if you want to use mine.

That's great info, thanks! I may be needing your number please.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2015 7:31 pm

I take the WRX there for service, and find them to be friendly, prompt, courteous and have had no issues. They swapped out a stripped wheel stud in 2012 for $40 when others wanted $250. No idea about current sales reputation, but they were pretty lame and inattentive in 2009 when I was shopping around.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:52 pm

Steven Carter wrote:

.... No idea about current sales reputation, but they were pretty lame and inattentive in 2009 when I was shopping around.

Yeah, I had a bad start w/ them many years ago and walked away from a sale. I see no reason for them to have mended their ways. That said I'll drop by and see what they have to offer and then hit Cary and compare the 2.

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

I have bought both of my Mazdas from Tracy Floyd at Capital Mazda. A very nice guy, very low pressure salesman who will let you check out everything you want to check out on the cars. He's not terribly knowledgeable on the details of the cars, but I've always done my own research there. When I was looking at the MX-5, they also had an FR-S on the lot. He let me take both out and properly put them through there paces. No pressure to buy then on the spot despite two aggressive test drives, but I did end up coming back.

When I bought my 3, he let me take it home for the weekend to make sure I was comfortable in it before pressuring to buy.

A genuinely nice guy, I'd recommend him.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 2:47 pm

BriceJohnson wrote:

I have bought both of my Mazdas from Tracy Floyd at Capital Mazda. A very nice guy, very low pressure salesman who will let you check out everything you want to check out on the cars. He's not terribly knowledgeable on the details of the cars, but I've always done my own research there. When I was looking at the MX-5, they also had an FR-S on the lot. He let me take both out and properly put them through there paces. No pressure to buy then on the spot despite two aggressive test drives, but I did end up coming back.

When I bought my 3, he let me take it home for the weekend to make sure I was comfortable in it before pressuring to buy.

A genuinely nice guy, I'd recommend him.

Thanks Brice, that's the sort of info I'm looking for. Appreciated...

Brett_Murphy · **Joined:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:02 pm **Posts:** 355

I bought used from Southern States years back or so and it was pretty painless, but I already had financing with USAA, so the transaction boiled down to haggling a bit over price then handing them a check. It was pretty easy. I looked at a new car there in 2012 for my wife and the sales wasn't too bad, but I also advised them up front I was checking all of the dealers in town and had financing in hand once again. I would up buying elsewhere simply because they had the exact car my wife wanted.

A guy I know from a Facebook Mazda group just took a sales job at Southern States and said that they have cleaned house there. Apparently their bad reputation was hurting them and they're trying to reform.

Take that for whatever it is worth. The guy's name is Florian.

Alec Moody · **Joined:** Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:02 am **Posts:** 299

I bought my Mazda 2 there a few years ago and it was a much better experience than when I have been into Sport Durst. They also sent me back an internet price quote that was very close to what I wanted to pay. I think it is really dependent on the sales person you get, when I was buying my Miata I checked out a car at Capitol Mazda and the sales guy was a total skeeve who started talking to me about his mistress. Frema Mazda in Goldsboro was also a really easy transaction.

Dustin Fredrickson · **Posted:** Wed Apr 08, 2015 11:47 am

When we bought our Mazda3 a few years back, none of the local Mazda dealers wanted to negotiate, most trying to convince me they were doing me a favor and wouldn't price the car to what S-plan (or whatever plan the Mazdaspeed program gives you) should have been, and every one of them telling me a slightly different story of what the discount actually amounted to. Southern States was the most "slimy" of the lot at that time.

That said, I emailed Frema in Goldsboro, worked out a good "internet" price (for me at that time, was ~ a grand less than the cheapest local dealer), and went in to sign papers within a day. The lady I used isn't there any more, but I wouldn't hesitate to do the exact same thing again (after all, where else can you save many, many hundred$ with an hour of extra driving)?

They sent me service reminders from Frema for a while, then those started coming from Southern States, who did the one minor warranty repair that we've had to do. IMO, no reason to spend more just to couple sales and service departments of a dealership.

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