[msfiveiron]

The Murano is wonderful vehicle. It's really a shame you have to buy it from a Nissan Dealer . . . .

On October 4, I placed a "Special Order" with my nearest local Nissan dealer. This was after much deliberation with my wife about the MO vs. FX35. We both agreed the MO was a better value for our current situation, although I had reservations about the notorious treatment you get at the dreaded highway dealers. Our Infiniti dealer is a local dealership that belongs to a group where I've had a lot of customer satisfaction, so I've been inclined to buy there dispite the price difference. Anyway, I put my skepticism aside and drove to the nearest Nissan dealer to place an order for an '04 Blue/Charcoal SE AWD with Navigation. I called my sales guy every 2 weeks or so for status, and he always came back with the same "nothing yet" line, along with some other "information" that occasionally contridicted itself. I chalked it up to the bunk he learned in Car Sales Guy School, and didn't make much of it.

This past Wendesday, I called the dealership 3 times to get the scoop. It's been 8 weeks since I placed the order, and you would think they would have a VIN and some tracking info by now. After three calls, my sales guy never returned my call with any info.

Friday morning, I decide to visit to let them know I'm not happy about the lack of information. As soon as I walk in, my sales guy greets me and says that he "just found out" the car has an ETA of Jan 5. I told him that wasn't good enough, and that I'm not satisfied with the way I've been treated as a customer, and it's time to move on. He puts me in touch with his manager, who tried to justify the whole thing to me. I said it wasn't about the car anymore, but the disrespect I've gotten, and I want my deposit back. He replied that they don't refund deposits on special orders. I told him my offer sheet didn't say anything about a special order. I followed that up with saying that refunding my deposit was up to him, but I would make sure that Nissan USA, the BBB, my friends and family and every web site and message board I could find would know their names loud and clear. He promptly gave me back my deposit. :25:

I then went to the next closest Nissan dealer, who've had a Blue/Charcoal SL AWD w/ Nav, that seemed a reasonable replacement. The sales guy there said the manager has been driving it as a demo for the past wekk or so, and there are about 500 miles on it, but he could get me a "great deal" on it. I told him that 500 miles was a lot for the short time he's had it, and I don't want a demo (after all the horror stories I've seen here). As I was walking out he was chasing me yelling that they can get anything I wanted, blah blah blah.

On to dealer #3 (I have the luxury of no less than 5 highway dealers within 10 miles of my house). My sales guy was a newbie, and completely missed the fact that I was buying under the VPP plan, and came back with 3 prices before he finally understood what I meant. To make this brutally long story shorter, I got an '04 Pewter/Charcoal SL AWD w/ Nav. for $34,135. I'm picking up Thursday.

:2:

Like I said, the car is great, but I hate these dealers! I don't even want the dealers to do service on it, and I'm going to do the minimum I possibly can to interact with them

 

[NVMYGT]

This is the first car I ever purchased solely on my own and being 21 at the time and purchasing this vehicle fully loaded was definitely an interesting situation. I really loved my car before this (02 Mustang GT) and didnt want to get rid of it. So for many months I debated over whether to buy a beater car or get a new all-purpose vehicle. In the end I decided to do the latter just because of insurance cost and the fact that I couldn't swallow having to drive around a beater while the car I really liked sat in the garage for 3 months out of the year.
Anyway, I stayed up the entire night before I went to the dealer searching the web for the exact car I wanted. 15 miles from my house and there she was. The next closest car with everything was a black one 50 miles away. Personally I was weary of black just because of the upkeep.
Walked into the dealer, salesman greeted me and my father in .5 seconds, told him that I knew the car was there, aftehr 10 minutes of searching I was test driving it. During that time I mentioned that I get the VPP. 5 hours later I left the dealership in the new MO but this was after 10 salesman to manager 'discussion' trips later. Honestly, for my first time buying a car I was a wreck. After almost 6 months of research I knew I wanted this exact car, was happy with the test drive, but it was a salesman bickering over the trade in value of my mustang.

In the end, I am not happy with the whole car buying experience, but I am going to look at it this way: Cars are a hobby of mine. Right now I have a very reliable, fun to drive car, that should hold a good bit of its value (the mustang lost $13000 in a year) and the next time I go to trade up I am not going to give in. I am going to get myself the deal I deserve because I wont NEED the new car, but I want it, and I am willing to wait it out. Afterall, I will not pay their price simply because they said so!

 

[msfiveiron]

When buying a car (specially the first few times) it is easy to get caught up in the excitement, which the dealers prey on to squeeze a few extra bucks from your wallet. You need to walk in the with 3 fundamental thoughts in mind:

1. It's only a car, no matter how important you think it is. Your life will not end if you don't close the deal.

2. They need you more than you need them. You are doing business with this dealer because you chose to. They are not doing you a favor by selling you a car. Never consider yourself in the position where they have something over you. The only thing they can feed off of is your lust.

3. You are smarter than they are. Question everything, and do not make a big decision in impulse. If you get caught up in the pressure of an extended warranty or undercoating, ask how long you have after the purchase to make a final decision. If you are told it's now or never, walk away. You can always get an extended warranty, undercoating, LoJack, whatever, somewhere else for probably a better deal.

Finally, you need to be prepared. Know everything about the pricing, estimate your monthly payments undervarious interest rates, bring a Palm Pilot or other tool whilch can help you calculate not just options and sales tax but loan/lease payments. And never directly answer a question that you are suspicious of. Always question it, ask why they want to know, or tell them you don't have enough information to give them a valid answer.

VPP is a no-haggle approach, that generally totals to a few hundred over invoice. It's a complicated thing to calculate, as it is not just taking some percentage off of invoice or MSRP; certain recovery costs are itemized back in. In any event, the VPP price is the VPP price, and it will be consistent no matter which dealer you go to. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to haggle over the car's price once you mention VPP. Trade-ins and interest rates are another issue, of course.

 

[Tony D]

Again, as a dealer employee, the best way to get the best deal, is let them go back and forth a couple of times, and just when you know you are close to what you are thinking, tell them you are going 2 other places no matter what they do. Do not tell them that before you have worked #'s. Most will give you a very low ball figure to make it hard on the other dealers to match, then after they do that, surprise them and take the deal, and watch thier face drop. If they try to bump it back up, walk out. Dealers hate to know you won't buy now, and will do anything to get you to buy now.

Again I said NOTHING you don't know me LOL:2:

Tony