How was your buying experience (new)?

[NocturnalEmber]

Just out of curiosity mainly. For those of you that bought your Z new, how was the experience dealing with your Nissan dealer/sales rep?

Honestly mine was pretty shitty. They weren't overly rude, but for buying a $61,000~ OTD car I was kind of annoyed. I wasn't expecting white glove service but you'd think they could have made me feel like more of a priority that day. Return service for my free oil changes was also... not great. Not awful, but definitely not great. I can see why Nissans rep has fallen in recent years.

 

[5amp5on]

You have to remember that dealerships are independently operated much like any other business. There are great Targets, there are crappy Targets. Same with dealerships.

I am very fortunate to have a fantastic Nissan Dealership 6 miles from my house and it's always a great experience with great employees and management.

 

[Mugzilla]

A-holes. Their whole staff.

But I'm a bigger A-hole.

 

[citrus]

Quite miserable. The only competent person in the whole process was the initial salesperson, ironically. Finance said they won't honor the full the discount unless I used their financing. It wasn't a big deal, since I just moved the loan afterwards, but still annoying nonetheless.

 

[NocturnalEmber]

You have to remember that dealerships are independently operated much like any other business. There are great Targets, there are crappy Targets. Same with dealerships.

I am very fortunate to have a fantastic Nissan Dealership 6 miles from my house and it's always a great experience with great employees and management.

I'm well aware they are independently owned/operated. My consensus though is despite the four I've been to (owned by at least three automotive groups) Nissan has been continuously sub par across the board. There is one being the exception but I can't speak to their sales, just on service/parts.

One of the others I mentioned had okay service/parts but bad everything else. I was waiting for parts for my Z at the time and I was unlucky enough to witness a salesman walk over to a customer minding his business waiting for his car to be done and pull the whole "I want to buy your car, I can get you into something newer with the same payment" The dude had to tell him no like six times. Just unbelievably predatory.

 

[ill-legal?]

My experiences buying (and with service) have also been mediocre at best...many of the local Nissan dealerships near me all try to jack up their prices with garbage "ZakTek" fake coatings, shitty low-quality window tint, bloated doc fees, and other scammy add-ons. While the location I purchased from ultimately took off most of this upcharge bs during negotiations, I will end up having to spend some money to get the bubble-riddled tint removed and redone with a quality film. BUT, after enough back and forth, I was able to get the price I wanted on the car, and an acceptable value on my trade-in, and the process went relatively smooth overall so I'll give them credit there.

In the future I'll be trying a different dealership for my service needs, while it's a bit of a drive there are others here who recommended them and I am hoping to have a better experience than I've had at the dealers closer to me.

 

[NocturnalEmber]

Quite miserable. The only competent person in the whole process was the initial salesperson, ironically. Finance said they won't honor the full the discount unless I used their financing. It wasn't a big deal, since I just moved the loan afterwards, but still annoying nonetheless.

Lol' In situations like that I have zero qualms about moving the financing over. They're trying to get a kickback from the loan interest, I'm trying to pay the least amount possible. 'Trust and believe' I'm moving that loan over to a lower rate as soon as possible after I have the keys. I'd consider leaving it in place for a few months for them to get the bonus if they made my experience good enough to warrant it.

My initial sales guy was the one I had through the entire process surprisingly enough. He wasn't openly hostile, but he did have his moments where he put the 'high pressure' sales tactics on, and I had to shut that down.

I will say that at some points I did take more of their charade than I would have, because while they had four Z's sitting on the lot they did have the only Seiran Blue with blue interior within a few hundred miles, and that was what I was buying, so I had to pick my battles in that regard.

Typical scumbag dealer tactics though, force bundled $2,000 add on that included 'pinstriping' (that I took off when I got home), an 'unlimited' powertrain warranty, etc. It did include two free oil changes, which I've since used.

I remember while I was waiting for the guy to come out of his hole, I was looking at the other Z's in the showroom. One I happened to be walking by when he showed up was a nismo, and he looked at me and said "don't tell me you're looking at a nismo now."

My initial thoughts were "is this guy serious?" and I think I ended up saying "If I'm paying $70,000 for a car I want to change my own gears."

Post sales support was nonexistent. One of the keys they ended up giving me were for another Z, found that out after I got back home, and my Nissan Z med kit was not in the car. Salesman gave me some runaround about having to ask parts (that he never did), so when I showed up to get the key situation resolved, I had a manager grab one from another Z for me.

Maybe I'm just being materialistic here, but I figured for spending what I was on a car there, I'd get some better treatment. Sales staff acted like I was looking at at 15,000 Versa or something. Most nissan dealers around here don't even have a coffee shop or anything, and the one that I bought from closes theirs at like four in the afternoon or something, so while waiting to close on my car I naturally had nothing to drink, or when I went in for my evening oil changes. Nissan dealers are just incredibly bare bones. If I had bought a GT-R or something I'm sure i'd be more annoyed with the lack of facilities and sales people that just don't care.

 

[NocturnalEmber]

My experiences buying (and with service) have also been mediocre at best...many of the local Nissan dealerships near me all try to jack up their prices with garbage "ZakTek" fake coatings, shitty low-quality window tint, bloated doc fees, and other scammy add-ons. While the location I purchased from ultimately took off most of this upcharge bs during negotiations, I will end up having to spend some money to get the bubble-riddled tint removed and redone with a quality film. BUT, after enough back and forth, I was able to get the price I wanted on the car, and an acceptable value on my trade-in, and the process went relatively smooth overall so I'll give them credit there.

In the future I'll be trying a different dealership for my service needs, while it's a bit of a drive there are others here who recommended them and I am hoping to have a better experience than I've had at the dealers closer to me.

I'd probably make a longer drive to a better location if I had to use a dealer again to be honest.

If I had to buy another car I'd likely go get a Miata or a GR:C. Mazda has by far been my best experience, and their parts program can't be beat. Toyota was overall just a better experience as well.

 

[ill-legal?]

I'd probably make a longer drive to a better location if I had to use a dealer again to be honest.

If I had to buy another car I'd likely go get a Miata or a GR:C. Mazda has by far been my best experience, and their parts program can't be beat. Toyota was overall just a better experience as well.

While I'm happy with my Z, I much preferred the service experience I got when I had my Lexus. Free loaners, clean showroom/waiting area with nice amenities, much friendlier staff, etc. Nissan dealerships are at the opposite end of that spectrum for sure. "Here's a styrofoam cup of warm water and an uncomfortable metal chair, enjoy your wait!"

 

[NocturnalEmber]

While I'm happy with my Z, I much preferred the service experience I got when I had my Lexus. Free loaners, clean showroom/waiting area with nice amenities, much friendlier staff, etc. Nissan dealerships are at the opposite end of that spectrum for sure. "Here's a styrofoam cup of warm water and an uncomfortable metal chair, enjoy your wait!"

Before/during/after buying a $50-$60,000 car to boot.

 

[jc604]

Im sure the buying experience was so bad when the car first launched plus a year after it did. As for me in canada terrible launch and terrible allocations. They had a pre reservation program which failed horribly. Managed to locate the spec i wanted at a different dealership through glitches in the inventory on the website and quickly contacted them to put a deposit down.

 

[goeagles11]

Definitely depends on the salesman, my salesman was great when I bought my 2023 Sport trim Z new.

I hadn't even asked for a test drive, but when I arrived to the dealership at my appointment time he had the car already outside ready for me to test drive. He even let me test drive it alone and refused to tag along. Other than that the negotiation on my 370Z trade in value was easy and fair. Other salesmen came up to me while I was waiting in the office to compliment both my 370Z and talk about the new Z, was given water/coffee snacks etc.

Full disclosure at this point I had put down a fully refundable deposit to "hold" the car so he knew I was a serious customer but we hadn't agreed to a deal yet at all. In my experience it's best to negotiate at least partially over the phone. That tends to save you from the strategy of them tiring you out in negotiations by "running back and forth to their manager" 10 times to knock off all the add ons and garbage.

 

[NocturnalEmber]

Definitely depends on the salesman, my salesman was great when I bought my 2023 Sport trim Z new.

I hadn't even asked for a test drive, but when I arrived to the dealership at my appointment time he had the car already outside ready for me to test drive. He even let me test drive it alone and refused to tag along. Other than that the negotiation on my 370Z trade in value was easy and fair. Other salesmen came up to me while I was waiting in the office to compliment both my 370Z and talk about the new Z, was given water/coffee snacks etc.

Full disclosure at this point I had put down a fully refundable deposit to "hold" the car so he knew I was a serious customer but we hadn't agreed to a deal yet at all. In my experience it's best to negotiate at least partially over the phone. That tends to save you from the strategy of them tiring you out in negotiations by "running back and forth to their manager" 10 times to knock off all the add ons and garbage.

Mine was nothing of the sort. They wouldn't even let me test drive the car ahead of time. Mind you I was paying about 80% down. If it wasn't the only one of its kind within a few hundred miles I likely would have walked. I did get all of my negotiations done before I set foot in there for the most part though.

 

[speedjuno]

Visited 3 dealerships. All were pleasant. 2 offered me an acceptable deal, 1 offered an insulting deal. I purchased using an acceptable deal for the exact car I wanted. Win-Win.
oh, fwiw, I'd test drove at a dealer I didn't buy, but not at the dealer I actually purchased from.

 

[FSUZ33]

Local dealership didn’t have what I was looking for so I ended up traveling a bit. Don’t like the local dealership, but I’ve only dealt with the service dept.

Had worked a deal with another dealership. Wasn’t going to sign anything before I saw the car, and that one sold 8 days before I planned to go there and buy, assuming all was as expected. I sent the paperwork from the first dealer to the one I ended up purchasing from. They had one that was identical. Same MSRP. Same options. They matched the first dealerships offer to the penny. Still traveled that same planned day and bought a Z, just from a different dealership. Biggest gripe was I got the runaround for 5 weeks as they wouldn’t send my new registration (tag transfer).

Nothing terrible with the one I purchased from, but if I had to sum it up I’d say “They did the bare minimum.”