SCAA

If I sign up for the SCCA online, do I get the certificate right away? Once I get the certificate how many days do I have to redeem it ? Planning to get GTI hopefully tomrrow if everything works out..

Not sure about the SCCA cert, but you might already be eligible - many employers are part of the same partner program, and if your employer is one of them, you're in. My GF bought a Mk7 TDI back when they came out and turns out she would have been eligible as she works for Wells Fargo Bank, and they're on the list. Here's the full list of participating employers:

http://www.vwpartnerprogram.com/vw/partner/program/partner/suppliers

You can either put your employer name in the search box, or leave it blank and it will bring up the full list, and it's a whopper.

My company not on the list but I see a lot of my friends company are... I guess I gotta pay SCCA $95 fee

Yes you print it immediately after paying.

I tried to sign up for the SCCA discount when I bought my GTI. I couldn't use it though. There were too many dealers signing up unknowing customers just to get a discount to make themselves look good. I was told (and we looked up official VW documents on line) I could sign up for the SCCA discount but had to wait 30 days before I could use it. Ended up not being a big deal as we shopped a bit more and found a better price even without the SCCA discount (HA! maybe they signed me up!)

If the dealer participates I believe the SCCA discount is after you get the best deal on your own. So I don't see how you could get a better deal since the discount comes to the dealer from VW unless there's cost sharing between VW and the dealer involved. Did you ask the dealer specifically how the program works?

The Fed said:

If the dealer participates I believe the SCCA discount is after you get the best deal on your own. So I don't see how you could get a better deal since the discount comes to the dealer from VW unless there's cost sharing between VW and the dealer involved. Did you ask the dealer specifically how the program works?

Click to expand...

That's not how it works. If you are eligible for partner program, visit the website, build your car, or see what the local dealer have in their inventories. The PP site will give you the price for that specific car, $500 below invoice, plus whatever incentives are available to you. The site will not disclose an VW-to-dealer incentives (which is most of their cash incentives) that can be passed on to the consumer. which is where the "negotiation" typically occurs. Dealers usually pass along part of all of the VW dealer incentive cash, which you'll know about by checking the monthly incentives that I post in the appropriate subforum. Tell the dealer you want all the dealer cash, and they'll give it to you, since they're still keeping the flat fee from VW for selling a program car, plus whatever volume-based incentives they may also earn.



Trying to negotiate the purchase price and then "surprising" them with the partner program probably won't get you a better deal, and it will make the sales process that much less enjoyable, since you've wasted their time. Much easier to tell them that you have PP up front, and start from $500 below invoice before any pricing discussions. It's possible to get more out of the dealer than PP + incentive cash, but that's between you and your dealer. Personally, I think that taking all the dealer cash and leaving them the program fee and volume incentive results in a fair deal on both sides, and also eliminates the haggling, which is generally considered the least enjoyable part of the car buying process.

As Shane points out, you're better off being transparent with the dealer, up front. We expect the same from them, so it's only fair that we, as consumers, do the same. Wasting a bunch of their time by trying to play the Partner Program card late in the game would annoy the hell out of me, and probably you too, if you were the dealership. Put your cards on the table, make a reasonable offer, and then move forward from there. Likely to result in a better outcome, more quickly, for both parties.

Next weekend is the last weekend of the month. Between that fact and how late it is in the model year, it should be a great opportunity to make a killer deal on an in-stock car.

Don’t understand why you wouldn’t mention the SCCA discount at the end. it’s simply $500 that VW pays back to the dealer. What am I missing?

dequardo said:

Don’t understand why you wouldn’t mention the SCCA discount at the end. it’s simply $500 that VW pays back to the dealer. What am I missing?

Click to expand...

Except that's not what it is at all. It's a starting point that's $500 below dealer invoice, plus all incentive cash an special financing/lease offers. You mention it up front because all you'll end up doing is wasting time by trying to negotiate first. The end result of those negotiations, if you're persistent, will be the dealer agreeing to give you all of the unpublished dealer cash incentives off the MSRP, which they'll call a discount,and then you get to save another $500. Or, you could start off with the partner price in hand, as shown on the website, and then ask them for the dealer cash, and get that amount taken off of invoice price, rather than MSRP.