1st Time Ordering and Negotiation Questions
 

I'm looking to order a new Sport Tech with splash guards, floor mats, etc. The Nissan site puts it at about 41,500 MSRP. I know there is tax and probably some dealer fees on top of that.

I have never ordered a car before. (They don't carry many Zs in my area and there are only 3 dealers that I would drive to.)

I am going to buy it, no financing, no leasing. How much negotiation power do I have when ordering a car? (I figure I have more since I am paying it all off at once) I know they probably want a nonrefundable deposit and if you put that down before you negotiate, you lose negotiation power.

Would it be better to order a base Sport Tech and buy the accessories separate? I don't think it would save me anything, but I just figured to ask. I'd rather have everything ready to go when it arrives.

I would think you'd have leverage, since you're paying it all off right then and there, but I've never really negotiated for a car.

I'm mainly here to see what everyone else says :tiphat:

I agree. i am not in your place ( i dont pay tax hahahha )
but cash gets me discount. a very substantial discount.
I got off approx 3000$ for paying off by cash.
i probably would have got more, But umm i hate negotiating lol.

Do NOT agree to MSRP.

Look up invoice on NADA, there is 3% holdback, and there may be dealer incentives. There will definitely be dealer fees that are pure profit for basically doing zero work other than filling out forms.

Ideally you will come at or around invoice -- below is possible, but will be more difficult as its still early in 2015.

Here is your negotiation power. You can walk out and buy nothing.

Have financing secured before you go in and do not tell them how much you are approved for.

Do not automatically expect a "fair" deal. "Fair" is all relative.

I disagree that cash gives you more negotiating power.

If you do plan on paying with cash, I would highly suggest not to tell them this up front and to wait until you have a final negotiated price. If they ask you if you are going to finance with them just say "probably yeah". Why you ask? Well when dealers are negotiating the purchase price they plan on making some money on the back end through financing. So if you tell them you will pay in cash they will know they won't make any money off of you through financing and be less liking to negotiate lower. This advice also applies for those have been preapproved for financing from their bank or credit union or have a trade in, so don't let them know that information until you've done all the negotiating you can.

When they give you a final price that you feel is fair then just tell them, "That sounds like a good deal. I have cash for that."

Hope this helps, good luck!

Some great info here...guess I'll add my 2 cents:

When I order my Z I financed it, what I did was:
1.go into the dealership and talk to the salesman that looks trustworthy
2. Tell him I want a Z with "this" and "that"
3. Told him how much I wanted to pay (he told me that was like $4k off the price and I said I know lol). I also said I was going to give a $1k deposit for ordering the car (I think this is critical so they know your really interested)
4. Comes back with invoice pricing, told him that I could only pay this XXXXX which was a few hundred bucks less
5. Manager tells me he can't do it, I asked for my Credit card back (which was for deposit), he says to hold up he'll come bring me his business card
6. Comes back tells me I have a deal
7. Make sure you sign the contract and keep it with you until the car arrives!!!!!

Total time negotiating: less than 15 min

If you pay more than $36-37 OTD you are getting hosed.

What may work best in your favor getting a nice lump sum o cash from granny and paying up front is to negotiate and tell them, "yea you'll finance, blah blah." They make their money off financing through NMAC and you would probably be best doing a penalty-free loan through NMAC for best price. Just pay it off in a month and brag on here about your deal and disposable income after the fact.

NEVER pay MSRP lol

FYI I just went and checked 2015 NISMO with nav is only 37K at the auctions so you should be able to get yours for 35-37k range as falconfixer said above me from the stealership.

I know most non-nismos I've seen have only been low 30s but auction prices are very different than a dealership.

I am not paying MSRP, I just wanted to see what the Nissan site puts it at to have an MSRP. I have specifically saved money to pay the car in full, and will probably wait until the last few months of the year or when I see some dealer incentive. I want to do some research now to see about the ordering process. I will definitely try telling them I want to finance and see what they give me first. I'm trying to see what your experiences have been like as I have never ordered a car. I've seen some stories where some dealers are asses and won't negotiate with a person because they don't want to put down a deposit first, or they do and are now locked into a ridiculous price because they put down a huge deposit that is nonrefundable and felt it was better to buy the car then walk away and lose the large deposit. Maybe I'm just assuming the worst, but I figure this is the place at ask this stuff. Thank you for all your suggestions.

if one dealer wont play ball say fuck em and move on to the next lol

there's always another dealer and one will play ball with whatever you want. just need to find them. I searched for 3 months for my Z before I bought it.

i'd say go in there and feel out the salesman. don't walk int and let them know you got cash in hand ready to go. if you go in and they know you want the car and are 100% then they wont budge. play the card as if you're on the fence and make them work to get you into the car. then jam your giant wad of cash in their mouth in the end after you knock a couple G's off.

walk out with a mic drop and some mod money in your front pocket left over :tiphat:

You are going to get a better deal on dealer stock then you will for ordering. You might be better off finding the car you want at a dealer in a surrounding state and negotiating a better deal.

:iagree:

forgot to mention that myself by he's right. do searches constantly and see who has one in the specs/color you want then go check them out.

And don't be afraid to walk away from their price or their negotiations. If you have a reasonable counter offer, make it and refuse to buy the car until they come down to your price. It's not unusual for them to call you back to accept your offer.

Also, I would recommend going at the end of the months. Dealers have quotas as do salesman, even if they are unofficial. If they are low on sales at the end of the month, you're going to have more power than if you go in at the beginning of the month. If they're good on sales, you have about the same power, and you can always just wait another few weeks to try again.

Yes, I've only looked locally though. It seems that they don't have may 370Zs where I am, let alone the Sport Tech. Maybe because the Sport Tech is still fairly new? I guess I should expand my search, or I might get lucky and find one in my area.

The MSRP of a manual transmission 2015 370Z Sport Tech with splash guards, illuminated kick plates, floor mats, and trunk mat is $38,560 including destination. The automatic is $1,300 more, or $39,860. I'm not sure where you got $41,500 from, unless you were adding some obscure (and overpriced) accessories.

If you are able to get $4,000 off the MSRP, that would be a very good discount for a 2015 considering that the leftover 2014s are being discounted at about that same rate.

So you would be at $34,560 for the manual transmission plus your 6% state sales tax, which would put you at about $36,634 OTD (plus any license and dealer fees). falconfixer said you should be between $36,000 and $37,000 OTD, but I wonder if he presumptively and erroneously based that on the the $41,500 figure you provided. Would he now say that you should be between $33,000 and $34,000 OTD based on the correct MSRP? That would be about $7,000 off MSRP. What incentive does a dealership have to let someone order a 2015 370Z with a $7,000 discount, or even a $4,000 discount for that matter?

As others have said, your best bet is finding one in stock somewhere that is equipped the way you want it. Then you can deal with an actual unit that needs to be sold.

A lot of times you can find one in another state that is discounted enough to cover your airfare and gas to drive it home. Look in more northern climates where they can't drive them all year. They typically sit longer than they would in Florida where you can drive it all year.

I calculated it as automatic transmission and the missing accessory is the Nismo exhaust. That is how the site gave me the MSRP. However, I see now that the overwhelming response is to find one to get a better deal and not to find the "perfect" version of the 370Z I want.

you will get a bigger discount IF you can convince your dealer to order because it wont be sitting on their lot. Most dont like to order though because theyre scared you'll back out the deal. you'll get a better deal financing through nissan america than paying for cash.

:iagree:

i found my Z in Louisiana after 2-3 months of searching.

flw down and drove it 1300 miles straight home. :tiphat:

Purchase
 

I never go above dealer invoice, MSRP is always inflated and varies from dealership to dealership. Do some number crunching and present your dealer of choice with the lowest price you found and make them match it, or beat it, or walk away, trust me they will call u back a few hours or days later, because the longer the car stays on the lot, the longer they still are paying for it, plus the 350z -370z - NISMO's don't move off the lots that quickly and they want to sell them desperately, trust me I had two, a 2013 370z NISMO and Now a 2014 370z NISMO, homework is key, you have to be well schooled and versed on what youre talking about, if you sound or seem clueless, they will try and take advantage.. Good Luck !

That's not what I read at all. The overwhelming response is don't overpay for what you want. You shouldn't have to settle for a Z that doesn't have everything you want, and you should be able to get it at a reasonable price.

Your original post stated that you had no car buying negotiation experience. So you are a prime candidate to get worked over by a scummy dealer. Know that you can always walk away. Do not sign anything without reading it and make sure everything they say is actually in writing in the contract. Since you're not financing, you don't have to worry about the terms of a lease/loan, making it a bit easier to go through all the paperwork.

All that being said, don't buy the Nismo exhaust from the dealer. You can get them used on the forum for several hundred bucks - just keep your eye open in the classifieds. There is absolutely no reason to pay whatever outrageous price the dealer is asking.

Yeah, like mentioned above you can get the nismo exhaust much cheaper slightly used shipped and installed for way less than dealer.
OP, do you really like the nismo exhaust, or was that just the only option you had to replace the stock from the dealer? There are a decent amount of nismo exhausts for sale because for many owners, it's not aggressive enough nor the best "exotic" sounding. Many others offer same or better performance too.

The exhaust was just something I was looking to replace. My friend had a new Infinity G35 in high school, with a dealer upgraded exhaust and it sounded very nice. I figured a dealer upgrade would be fine. I'm not looking for anything too loud, exotic is the right word you chose. However, I'm not familiar with aftermarket parts, and figured what Nissan offers would be easy to deal with. It's really not a deal breaker,but if someone has a better recommendation I would take it into consideration.

I looked nationwide for my Z and got it for quite a bit less then what the dealerships here in Texas wanted. If you can find dealer stock that they have been sitting on (still kinda new, I know) &/or in a part of the country where the Z doesn't sell well (bought mine from Arkansas), you'll have plenty of buying power right off the bat.

What's more expensive, a one way plane ticket or a $4000 dealer markup? Good luck!

Here's a question for everyone that traveled a long ways to get their Z. Do you contact the dealer beforehand at all? I assume you would want to contact them to at least make sure that it hasn't been sold already, but when you get there you don't tell them that you traveled X-hundred miles to come look at it, do you? Wouldn't that give them a little bit of leverage?

Quick question guys.
I'm shopping for a new 2015 Nismo base with 6 speed. Most of the dealers are asking way to high. Like $45k-$48k.
Realistically, how much should I offer Out The Door? I did a search around but haven't really find anything yet.

Cheers.

Truecar.com in socal for a nismo base mt is about 39.5

Awesome. Thanks man.

To give you an idea, I got the same car you are shopping for at $39,800. That price is with all fees thrown in but minus sales tax. The options included with that price were illuminated kick plates, floormats, trunk mat, and cargo cover. Based on Trucar I got it below invoice. The only string attached was that I had to finance through Nissan for three months and then I can pay it off. I wanted to pay off the car when purchased but the dealer wouldn't give me the price I wanted(39,800) if I paid cash. So in the end the financing for three months would add around $250 to the total amount paid.

Since you are in California the price may vary.

This price looks like it may be without any options.

Awesome. $39.8k is an excellent deal. I'll try to talk to them see what's going on. Thanks man.

On truecar for zip 90004 2015 nismo mt with carpeted trunk, floor mats and illuminated kick plates is 39.6k also the price is trending lower. Just in April same configuration was 40k March was 41.2k. The pricing for the 16 came out about then and I'm sure that's why it's going lower. The base 16 was announced to be just $15 higher than the 2015 so obviously they have to be more flexible with the 15s price because they can't sell it for the same as the 16. Truecar suggests a 16 would be 41.6k with the same options. Not too many dealers have 16s yet but do some searching and find a dealer that has a 16 and just see what their best price is. Ideally it would be great of they had a 15 as well but if they don't have one on the lot go to a dealer that does. You now can use the argument "why would I pay 41k for a 15 when I can get the 16 for 41.5" and then they should be more likely to come down to the "truecar" price. Good luck just don't be pressured into a price. If it's not the price you want then ask them if that's the best they can do. If they say yes tell them to have a good day and walk away. If they CAN go lower they will either chase you down and some dealers will even call you if you left them your contact info.

:tup::tup:
You guys know if the 16 will be any diff from the 15? I searched around and found some rumors about the new generation Z is coming out soon. Any ideas?

The 2016 is actually out (in some places). Pretty much the same as the 2015, except they added a "sound enhancer" that plays engine sounds through the speakers. There are other changes as well, but I can't think of what they are at the moment.

Here's a link to another forum member that recently picked one up.

http://www.the370z.com/new-nismo-370...ew-member.html

There are two 2016 owners on the forum. I did a search on Nissan's website to see where the 2016 Nismo is in stock and all I saw was one in Hawaii. I have no idea how the two members on here already got them.

As far as I know, the only change to the 2016 Nismo is the active sound enhancement. It would be news to me to hear of any other differences. Perhaps one of the new owners will chime in.

Not even half way thru May and there are 2016's already on the road. :confused:
I know by September/October time frame most dealers have in stock next year models but in April/May?
I understand some of us can be premature but this is like "previous to premature".