Hanlees Hilltop Nissan/SF Bay Area -- Caveat Emptor

[BlueSL]

If my experience with Hanlees Hilltop Nissan in Richmond CA is any indication, it would be naive for Leaf customers to expect that a car as radically different as the Leaf will cause some of the less savory aspects of the auto dealership business to change with the times.

Virtually everyone who visits these boards knows that Nissan has gone to great lengths to make its rollout of the Leaf orderly and respectful of the interests of buyers. The decision to stop taking reservations once the number reached 20,000 is the perfect case in point. But can Nissan control its dealers and make them change, too? No. It cannot, and that is why you need to be careful before trying to order your Leaf from an outfit like Hanlees Hilltop Nissan.

This dealership -- without saying outright that it will not play by Nissan's rules -- has no intention of playing by them. After I emailed my quote request to Hanlees, I followed up with a phone call. The "internet sales manager" told me on the phone that his dealership would sell me a car for MSRP. But instead of sending me a quote that day, he sent me an email saying he would know more in a couple of days about how Hanlees would be selling the car. I should have known I was talking to the wrong dealership when the email concluded with "Thank You For Your Patients [sic]." No matter how I tried thereafter (I even accepted a bizarre invitation to come down to the dealership to discuss my purchase), Hanlees steadfastly refused to email me a quote. The stated excuse? Hanlees claimed that without an identified car and corresponding VIN, it was impossible to make a deal.

I was getting really confused by this doublespeak, so I called Nissan's EV hotline which made clear to me that if I could not get Hanlees to respond to my quote request, I should try another dealer. I called Hanlees one last time to give them a chance to respond to my quote request -- which did not seem like a big deal since I had been orally assured that I could buy the car from them for MSRP. They fed me the same line of baloney again -- no VIN, no quote. He also told me I should contact another dealer if I wanted a quote. So, I did. Thank you, TJ at Dirito Brothers in Walnut Creek.

Don't waste your time at Hanlees. It is pretty clear they want to wait until the cars arrive, and then try to gouge you.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

That's just weird. They're taking themselves out of the whole RAQ process then, since there's no way to proceed without a Quote. They're just going to frustrate anyone that accidentally selects them as a PD.

 

[kmp647]

They are trying to work the system and create orphans they can mark up $$$$$$$$$$$

not to surprising

I still have Dc area dealers who say things like " we will have the leaf in January would you like to put your name on our list?

right sure , your list good luck

 

[BrendanDolan]

Did they not get the memo on how this works? There has been a ton of training by NNA to ensure we know how to handle everything. :roll:

 

[BlueSL]

I am sure Hanlees knows the NNA drill. I even sent them a link to these boards in an email asking why I needed to come down to the dealership to talk price after they had orally told me what price they would charge. The whole thing was right out of Kafka (or Orwell).

Nissan could fix this for consumers in an instant by only delivering Leafs to dealers who have accepted quotes. That would mean more Leafs for the "good guys" like Boardwalk, too.

There will be a crazy feeding frenzy for the "orphan" cars, no doubt. But that is not in Nissan's or consumers' best interests. If the public perception of the rollout is that you can only get a car by paying a crazy premium, the brand will be harmed.

 

[johnr]

Some Nissan dealers are eager to sell this car, while others couldn't care less. Simple as that.

 

[BlueSL]

As time goes by and people who did not get lied to by their PD populate the spreadsheet ahead of me, this burns me more and more.

For anyone waiting for their RAQ email, go do your homework NOW. Strongly consider working with one of the dealers whose name appears over and over on the spreadsheet who know the drill and are treating people right.

Whether a dealership like Hanlees Hilltop Nissan is incompetent or deceitful matters not. You want to get to the accepted quote stage as fast as you can.

 

[GeorgeParrott]

I find it difficult to understand why anyone would waste more than one token effort, in the SF Bay area, with ANY other dealer than North Bay Nissan in Petaluma.

No, I do not work for them; I am a Professor of Psychology at CSU, Sacramento, but after checking with my closer Sacramento Nissan dealers and getting something close to the experience reported for Hilltop Nissan (Actually all three dealers I checked did indicate that they would sell for MSRP), but again WHY consider paying MSRP when North Bay Nissan will sell the car for closer to their own INVOICE COST? Combine the "discount" with the additional sales tax savings, and this is not a token amount.

I did pay full MSRP for my Chevy Volt, but that was with a "classic American" sales approach that GM followed. It was seriously hard to even find a Chevy dealer who would order a specific equipped Volt and then to confirm that sale at MSRP (Check Fairfield Chevrolet, Danny Austin).

The BIG headache for the Volt was finding the MSRP ordering dealer; my Volt sits now in my garage on my Coulomb 220V chargepoint (free including installation, courtesy of the Volt presence and a DOE special grant for the Sacramento metropolitan area). My LEAF should arrive in about a month, since that order was CONFIRMED on "Day 1/31 Aug)" and I am in the "first 200 accepted by Nissan for production and delivery here in the US.

 

[Glenn]

I find it difficult to understand why anyone would waste more than one token effort, in the SF Bay area, with ANY other dealer than North Bay Nissan in Petaluma.

No, I do not work for them; I am a Professor of Psychology at CSU, Sacramento, but after checking with my closer Sacramento Nissan dealers and getting something close to the experience reported for Hilltop Nissan (Actually all three dealers I checked did indicate that they would sell for MSRP), but again WHY consider paying MSRP when North Bay Nissan will sell the car for closer to their own INVOICE COST? Combine the "discount" with the additional sales tax savings, and this is not a token amount.

With all due respect, George, there is at least one other dealer here who is going toe to toe with North Bay. Anyone south of the Golden Gate might do well to give Brendan or Mike at Boardwalk in Redwood City a call; their number usually shows up at the top of the page.

 

[GeorgeParrott]

Point well-taken. The Bay Area is maybe about the BEST served by customer-sensitive Nissan dealers. I sure wish that my own closer dealers, including Hanlee's in Davis were so attentive and eager to actually get these cars to customers.

 

[BrendanDolan]

Point well-taken. The Bay Area is maybe about the BEST served by customer-sensitive Nissan dealers. I sure wish that my own closer dealers, including Hanlee's in Davis were so attentive and eager to actually get these cars to customers.

I do all of that, and order Volts at MSRP. It's fun to have both franchises.

 

[GeorgeParrott]

@Brendan,

Wow, being involved with both franchises, Volt and LEAF, puts you in a very special position.

My new Volt sits in my garage right now; it was delivered by Fairfield Chevrolet (at MSRP) last week; I expect our new LEAF in the next 4 weeks, since that order was placed with North Bay Nissan on 31 August. We got the Coulomb chargepoint installed at the house courtesy of a Sacramento region "free including installation cost" program, and our house is fully solar panel equipped,so with TOU and the PG&E E9 rate structure our total annual electricity billing (house and charging both cars) will still be ZERO (though we will still pay PG&E $12/month grid connect fee).

 

[hill]

If you're at zero, and you can actually save a bit more via lighting, vampire current draws such as adapters, cable boxes etc, and/or insulation etc, CA now requires utility companys to PAY for surplus (based on a one year cycle) backfed onto the grid. You COULD get that 12 bucks back from them ... as well as any fees tacked on for disabled persons, etc, besides the BS "hookup" fee.