[homeline]

Greetings all! New member here and potential Cube buyer (for the wife).

With the extension of the Clunker Program, I went to the dealer this morning to verify the wifes car would qualify. Seems it will qualify for the $4500 amount. Thats OK, because this credit allowance is the only reason we're contemplating a new car purchase.

The dealer mentioned here is AutoCenters Nissan located in Wood River, IL.

Here's my dealer experience so far. Having only exchanged a couple emails with a salesman (named Tony) 3 weeks ago, I walked in the dealership to meet him. This was at 9:48am. He was there, but tying up loose ends before leaving on vacation...today. Introduced myself and explained why I was there. He had notes on our previous emails. He introduced me to Justin and politely bowed out. No problem I said....enjoy your vacation.

I told Justin three things that had to happen in order for this sale to happen. First, my trade had to qualify for the $4500 rebate. Second, I wanted to take a Cube on an extended test drive; Saturday through Monday evening. And thirdly, I expected way more than a $4500 discount off sticker. Tony had given a preliminary quote on a Cube at $1100 off sticker. Justin agreed completely with that. He went to speak with the manager for 5 minutes and returned. Said all was good, needed a copy of my drivers license & insurance card. In 10 minutes he escorted me out the front door to a waiting Cube, went over the basics, wished me well and said see you Monday evening. Off I went at 10:25am.

Talk about blown away. No sales ploy. No stringing me along. Nothing! These guys didn't know me from Adam and in less than 45 minutes gave me a new Cube with 10 miles on it and a full tank of gas for the weekend.

I sense they want to sell a car...badly. I'll find out Monday how bad.

Stay tuned.

C.

 

[homeline]

The wife has a new Cube!

The actual deal is outlined in some other posts elsewhere here.

In short the dealer was easy to work with. At least with me, there was no high pressure, no badgering and no arrogant, smartass salesman. Pretty cut and dry pricing which didn't I didn't find offensive. However I felt things could have moved a little faster on the actual locating of a car; probably a day and a half lost there.

Also on day of delivery, the paper work reflected a total price of over $300 LESS than the deal we agreed on. Probably due to two salesmen working on it. I thought what the heck, I'll play dumb (not a real stretch ) and go along with it. Well they caught it before any money changed hands and I ended up paying what was agreed on. So after writting up the paper work two more times and getting through the finance manager, it still took over 2.5 hours to get out of there. Not a big deal....last car I bought from a dealer was nearly 8 years ago. All others have been from private sales. So a few hours every 8 years or so is OK.

Oh and the finance manager cracked me up. Now I know this is his job. First he asked about financing. Told him I had it covered, open draft in hand, 3.99APR...etc. He asked if I would consider changing to something he might have available if he could come close to or beat the APR. Uh...you'd have to beat it! Why would I change for anything but LESS??? I declined

Then came the extened warranty spiel. Genuine Nissan...7yr/100K only $2295...but might could get it down to $1800...$1650.....how much is your draft good for??? No thanks. I'm buying a car with 3yr/36k bumper-bumper and a 5yr/60 powertrain. Why would I spend extra $$ for an extended warranty that goes into effect TODAY and runs concurrently with the factory one?!? He does get an atta-boy though. It was only his third day on the job, but he had his act together fairly well. Was only with him about 25 minutes.

Would I buy again from them? Yes. Would I recommend them to a friend? Yes. Whats their service dept like? No clue, but will find out. And they were on ball too. After stopping early in the morning on way to work to look over car, I noticed a few things. I asked them to remove dealer sticker and polish some light scratches off the passenger door. When I arrived to pick up, car looked great, gased up, cleaned up...not one issue about condition I received it in.

 

[Slomack]

I don't want to get too personal since I don't know you , but I'm wondering if you'd be willing to share a few more details (trim level, approximate price off sticker you ended up with)? I've been emailing with a couple of dealers, and Tony's the guy I've been dealing with (although he hasn't offered me much beyond $200 off sticker at this point...I haven't gotten serious with him yet ;-)). I'm getting ready to pull the trigger, though, and would appreciate any insight you could offer.

Thanks!
Jenny

 

[homeline]

I don't want to get too personal since I don't know you , but I'm wondering if you'd be willing to share a few more details (trim level, approximate price off sticker you ended up with)? I've been emailing with a couple of dealers, and Tony's the guy I've been dealing with (although he hasn't offered me much beyond $200 off sticker at this point...I haven't gotten serious with him yet ;-)). I'm getting ready to pull the trigger, though, and would appreciate any insight you could offer.

Thanks!
Jenny

Not sure what I can add that I didn't cover here. Every deal is different. People shop different things at the dealer; car price, out the door price, monthly payment, financing, etc. Pretty much guarantee if you don't secure your own financing before you start to shop and rely on dealer for that, you will pay more somewhere along the line.

Check out the last post I made here yesterday http://www.nissancubelife.com/forum/index.php?topic=899.0

For what it's worth, while this dealer was trying to find me a car, I made contact with an Aaron Proctor at Suntrup Nissan over the phone to see if they could find me a car. Explained the first deal I hashed out with AutoCenters. In short, he said if they could find a car at the price I mentioned that I should jump all over it. I figured if the competition endorses another deal then it's probably good.

Hope it helps. Keep us posted how it turns out.

 

[Slomack]

Thanks! I'd missed your posts in the other forum, and they had exactly the info I was looking for. First time in a long time I've bought a new car, and I'm trying to do as much research as humanly possible! Thanks also for your thoughts on financing--already have that taken care of, but I won't be mentioning that to the dealers up front ;-)

 

[homeline]

Thanks also for your thoughts on financing--already have that taken care of, but I won't be mentioning that to the dealers up front ;-)

Well, I did mention it up front. By doing so it set the stage for a cash deal. No effort on their part to get me financed.....probably a major obstacle dealers face with some customers. Also too, I over heard two salesmen talking about a customer in the showroom. One said he could get the $1500 Nissan rebate (not sure what car) BUT if they wanted the Nissan 1.9% APR too, then add $500 in the numbers.

 

[Slomack]

Thanks again for all the tips...every bit helps!

I went for a test drive today at Suntrup (closer, and just wanted my husband to actually drive one). I can pretty much guarantee I won't be buying there...he told me that if I wanted the CVT, I'd have to buy the SL trim, that the S trim did not offer the CVT. Uh, what?! Add that to the fact that all the cars on their lot seem to magically already have dealer add ons (pinstriping--ugly!, paint sealant, undercoating), and I was not a happy camper.

The husband, however, seems to like the car (yay!), so I'm going to start pricing at as many dealers as will answer my price quote ;-)

 

[Pejay66]

McGavoc Nissan Amarillo, TX is the best I've ever worked with!

Pejay66

 

[none]

probably a major obstacle dealers face with some customers.

Don't let the sales slime fool you - all they do is punch your social into a computer & get a bunch of offers... then they recommend the lender who gives them the biggest kickback. Nothing difficult about it.