I bought an Xterra in Dec 07. The finance guy told me I was getting a Maint. package, Blue steel package, road hazard package, and one other package, along with Death insurance and an extended warranty with the purchase of my vehicle because it was cert. pre-owned.
About a month later i noticed all of this stuff in my contract which I signed not knowing i was charged for it. How dumb of me. My advice is while in the finance rooms don't let them rush you and question everything. I tried to contact my salesman and he quit after being there less than a month. I never tried to get my money back to save myself the trouble of getting involved in a never ending bout of phone tag and denial.
Today I got a letter in the mail from NTN stating they were having a new ownership sale(3-3-09). Their third owner in about a year. The letter stated they were giving above NADA value on trade ins, 0.09% financing OAC, and up to $8,000 off of a new or certified pre-owned Nissan.
I called and talked to Brad, Brad said they were highly motivated to sell me a vehicle and that i should come i and see all of the sales they were having. I looked at many and decided to go with an xterra. They were asking $2,000 above the NADA value on this one and gave no discount off of what it was actually worth. So there goes the up to $8,000 off of our vehicles gimmick. Then they offered me exactly half of what I paid for vehicle. Keep in mind i purchased this vehicle from them 15 months prior.
Not to mention they offered me $5,000 less than the actual value of my vehicle, which was $2,000 less than NADA trade in value. So there goes that gimmick as well. And as for the 0.09% financing, we never made it that far. But they had my payment around $600 which was 50% more than I'm paying now. My guess is the interest rate was about 11%. When i gave my sales man and his buddy from finance(who came out to "assist" me when i requested the amount of money they would give me for my trade in and the amount we would start negotiating at for theirs) my counter offer which was blue book value for mine and blue book value for theirs and 5% interest over 5 years i thought they were going explode from holding in their laughter.
They always bring you a payment back from the finance office, and never actually tell you what you pay for theirs and what they'll give you for yours, it's so frustrating. Beware of the finance department. And why do dealerships have salesmen, they only run from finance to the lot or the showroom to tell you that they'll consider selling a car to you if you initial this piece of paper.
The service department at this dealership is lacking as well. I have to tell them what is on my maintenance plan, I've had to turn around and go back because they forget to rotate my tires. It took 6 days to find out if an output shaft seal was covered by my nissan powertrain warranty. I was charged a $95 diagnostic fee to tighten a bolt on my alternator, that was rattling like crazy. A car wash adds an hour to your wait time as well.
The guys in service said they don't know why they hand out the maintenance pamplet that outlines your service plan because they are not compliant with the service nissan actually performs. And turnover is crazy here, i never see the same people twice. Except Jay the service manager. I recommend using extreme caution when doing business with this dealership. They are very shady and will definitely take advantage of you if you let them. When they say let me go in and get the keys and we'll go for a ride they mean it.
PS. When you salesmen take my keys to "assess" my trade in value, give them back immediately when you finish.
Tony
Denton, Texas
U.S.A.