[rtking]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie here... and I'm just waiting for my Murano to come in at my dealership and I'll be able to join the MO-Crowd. I had an 2004 Audi S4 on order, but I will be cancelling the order since I've had an epiphany and the Murano suits my needs better.

But one question just keeps haunting me: Why do I see so many Muranos used on Autotrader? I know that my local dealership had 3 used Muranos, but they claim it was used by Enterprise rent-a-car on Hawaii and they bought them with 5-8K miles to add to their used car lot.

Do you guys think that people have just gotten bored of their Muranos? Or maybe they "bit-off more than they can chew" in terms of price or payment?

I have to admit that the Murano really appealed to me because I need an automatic transmission for daily traffic commuting, the extra room would be great for moving things and taking my clients to lunch, and the agile suspension satisfies my need for a good handling car/SUV. Plus the gas mileage seems very good (and far better than the new S4). There doesn't seem to be a "down-side" to owning the Murano. Am I missing anything? Am I still caught-up in the excitement of soon owning an really exciting vehicle?

Thanks for any feedback! And thanks to all for this great forum! I really enjoy reading all the posts!

Bob K.

 

[jaak]

Like eBay, dealers use Auto-trader as well... It's getting time to roll those demo units....

 

[rainbowfarm]

Some of the used ones I've seen

One fellow around here bought a loaded SE, except Nav. At the first oil change, he traded it in for one with Nav (the dealer could not add it).

That accounts for one used MO.

I have seen others for sale (demos, used). Some people trade very new cars in (money to burn?). A 6-month old Mercedes E-class was traded for an MO here. I found a loaded Grand Cherokee with 8,000 miles on it. He got bored, and traded it for something else.

 

[copperstreak]

It looked to me like many of the Muranos on AutoTrader were in fact new.
Even though they show up in a used car search, we are talking at a few hundred miles and under.

A test drive will get up to that quickly at 12-20 miles a pop. Also I see those with just over 1000, so I think we are talking about the dealers car he driving home every night (I can't blame him), or the phenomena of so many people (like me) wanted to test drive one out of curiosity.

I don't even see a hint of evidence that anyone is returning their vehicles at such low mileage.

 

[jay beede]

Hmmm... may I ask why you are waiting for a murano? The dealers in my area are overloaded with them.

 

[MusicMan]

used Murano

The dealer I had been working with also had a car that the Owner had taken on a trip, and it had 3300 miles on it. They wanted to sell me this car.

 

[copperstreak]

Well, I let him answer of course, but like a few of us here the model we want was out of state or special order. Some combinations are not readily available and some states do have very limited inventory like Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.

I was in Califonia Bay Area a week ago and saw quite a few on the road and at two dealers they had so many! The California pricing also reflects the volume, even though they seem to sell more-more on the road (I'm sure the new taxes will help tremendously )

In Wyoming however they are adding a special location dealer markup of $1200-1600 over MSRP (at least 2 dealerships I talked to). Even if you get it below MSRP, that charge does not go away. They have only a few (even just 1!) at the lots I checked with. It is more a novelty there, and they move slooooooow. You'd think they would deal, but they don't.

 

[rtking]

In SoCal the combination I'm looking for is tough to find.

In Southern California, it seems that most of the dealers have only FWD Muranos in stock. The AWD units they have usually don't have any options. I wonder why? My only guess is that the people who want AWD have already bought their cars and have taken all the cars that are fully loaded. And what's remaining are the cars with minimal options.

I am also very color specific. Since it can get hot in Southern California, I wanted a lighter color car... Glacier Pearl, Polished Pewter or Sheer Silver. But these cars must have the Caffe Latte interior. And I wanted a car with all options including navigation, but without chrome wheels. I preferred the SL, but really it didn't matter if it was an SL or SE.

There were two cars in Arizona that are available to my specs: Polished Pewter w/Caffe Latte, SL, AWD, Navigation, etc. but I haven't tried to negotiate with them. I doubt that I can get the same deal that I got locally... and if you add in transportation costs (the cost of a flight and rental car to get to Prescott, Arizona) then I've just eaten-up some of my hard-won savings on the price.

Thanks for the replies everyone! I really AM looking forward to being part of the MO-crowd!

Bob K.

 

[twelsh]

One of the local dealers was willing to sell my the Owners loaded demo AWD SL (Silver/charcoal) which had everthing including chrome wheels with 7k miles on it for $1000 below invoice. I considered it for several days before deciding against it, only because I prefered the sports-car like handling of the SE... Now if he had been offering an SE...

 

[rainbowfarm]

Silly Rabbits

I once looked on trader.ca or autotrader.ca, and hebdo.net (Quebec version) for used MOs, and just did it again:

11 in Ontario, all dealers, all low-mileage (mostly demos), all selling for almost MSRP (like, I could get a new one for less).

3 in Quebec (with snow in the pictures, so from last winter), asking the price of a loaded SE for a basic SL (one has sunroof). Must be from when demand was high and maybe they once sold above MSRP. Also all dealers.

Nuts.