Stay Away from Nissan

evnow said:

You should change the title to "Stay away from Premier Nissan of San Jose".

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Yes, wrong title, does not lend credence to complaint.

I think the 'stay away from Nissan' was correct from the OP's point of view, because Nissan refused to act against a Crooked dealer. They obviously didn't realize that few if any car manufacturers will do so. (I never encountered a crooked Honda dealer, but I'm sure there are plenty of them.)

Let me preface this by saying I have absolutely no loyalty toward Nissan at all. Let me address your concerns.

If the dealership is unable to, in any way, provide you with the service and price you want, or if you don't like any aspect of your purchase, you walk out. There's no obligation to stick around. You find another dealer. If you feel they were dishonest, if you think they wasted your time, you can leave a review so others don't buy a car from them.

Thanks to your "representatives" that you foolishly vote for every election, it's actually illegal for Nissan to sell you a car directly. Nissan has to go through third-party sleezeball dealerships like this, so when a customer is unhappy about the buying process, there's very little Nissan can do to fix the issue. If you buy a Samsung TV from Best Buy, and you think it was a horrible purchasing experience, no one would expect Samsung to resolve your buying experience complaints.

I'm curious- if you had such a terrible experience at this dealership, if the LEAF is such a bad design, if the start button is at such an awkward position, if the gear shift is so small, if the materials were so cheap, etc... WHY DID YOU SIGN YOUR LEASE?

If the dealership is unable to, in any way, provide you with the service and price you want, or if you don't like any aspect of your purchase, you walk out. There's no obligation to stick around. You find another dealer. If you feel they were dishonest, if you think they wasted your time, you can leave a review so others don't buy a car from them.

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This goes too far towards letting criminal enterprises off the hook. If the car salesman promises you a charging station and they don't tell you they took it out of the written agreement, then essentially admit that they did it and dare you to do something about it, that should be legally actionable. This whole "vote with your feet and stop complaining" idea is just what the criminal dealerships want you to say. Why help them out? Sure, give them a bad review, but also report them to your state's AG, and follow up on the complaint. Part of the reason there are so many ripoff dealers is that they know human nature, allowing them to pressure people into signing bad agreements while not worrying too much that they will really take serious legal action against them.

Last few times I got cars I recall the "business manager" having me sign something saying that nothing was promised to me that wasn't reflected in the paperwork. They were quite deliberate about explaining that and didn't try to "slip it in".

LTLFTcomposite said:

Last few times I got cars I recall the "business manager" having me sign something saying that nothing was promised to me that wasn't reflected in the paperwork. They were quite deliberate about explaining that and didn't try to "slip it in".

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standard practice to sign a "We Owe" form. This is where promises are recorded

I got a good deal, but there was no form to sign like that. I think you're confusing what decent dealers do to protect themselves from irrational customers with some sort of industry-wide requirement.

LeftieBiker said:

This goes too far towards letting criminal enterprises off the hook.

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I'm not defending the dealer, I'm just saying no one should sign any contact if they aren't getting what is expected- whether that be the car trim, the condition, the accessories, or the agreed price. If someone is promising you a charging station, it should be in the written agreement. If it's not, don't sign. It's not difficult to ask:

"Where in this stack of papers that I'm signing does it show I get a charging station? ... floor mats?... $199/mo for 24 months with $1499 down?"

Original poster still has one single post... I am going to let you guys enjoy this one on your own...

I bought a LEAF, took it home, and… Lo' and Behold! It was shaped like a frog!

Life is a Lemon!

(And I Want My Money Back!)





[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1BDsyBa5o8[/youtube]

minispeed said:

I love when people post about ergonomic things that bug them and can't seam to understand that it's impossible to tailor a car to everyone.

I have a leaf and a 2013 prius. I'm 6'4. In the prius I hit the start button blind, in the leaf I can see it better.

I got into an argument with the Toyota dealer in the finance office, my dad who bought a prius V on my advice would have walked out of the deal if he hadn't trusted me so much (they were trying to tell him how expensive the computers were and that he needs an extended warantee, his take from it, the dealer was saying "these car's break down").

I leased my Nissan from Oakville Nissan (Ontario Canada). My dad just went there to get a new Versa for my mom and his experience was the same as mine. Nicest people in the sales office, ask what you want, find it, tell you the price of the add ons, you say no they move on.

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Exactly the same dealership I used. Had a great experience with them and even though there were some issues they stepped up and did what they needed to. Nissan on the other had was not very helpful at all when I tried calling them. There are good dealerships like Oakville Nissan but they appear to be the minority from my own experiences.

Four pages of threads and an OP with only one post. Not sure I would continue responding without further OP interaction. These threads often end up being very baited. But then again we have pages of threads based on spam posts :lol:

To the OP's credit, frog-like a good way to describe the car's looks. I will use that from now on.

mgs333 said:

To the OP's credit, frog-like a good way to describe the car's looks. I will use that from now on.

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These were some initial comments on the car way back in 2011. I think the OP gets credit for starting a running thread with no interaction.

Let's see how long we can keep it going.

These cars are powered by coal.

My last two, er, three, er, four dealership experiences weren't great. From oldest to newest:

Dodge dealer, and I pre-ordered a PT Cruiser before they were available. I was told (and was written down) the price was $500 over sticker. Given the car was really hot at the time, I agreed. When the car arrived, the salesperson didn't work there anymore and they "couldn't find" my paperwork. They said it's $2000 over sticker. After loudly complaining to no avail, I reluctantly purchased the car (if I didn't, someone else would, so there was no penalty for the dealership). I gave the dealership all 1's on their surveys and got a personal phone call from the owner of the dealership. He was not happy with me. I got pleasure telling him to suck it. :lol:

Mazda dealership. I got a Mazda 3 hatchback off the lot. Everything went well until the finance person tried to sneak in a $1000 service policy. I caught it and nearly walked. I would have if the deal wasn't great. Otherwise the dealer was quite good.

Mitsubishi dealership. My daughter was about to be born and I needed some liquid cash for hospital bills. I traded in the Mazda 3 for a Mitsubishi i-MiEV (my first EV) on lease ($0 down with $69/month!). Other than being very slow, the dealership experience was good. (The battery wasn't fully charged so the ride home was a little unsettling.) However, the service department had their own service schedule that was around $400 a year for maintenance. Completely different than the owner's manual. I stuck with the owner's manual. Don't try to pull that BS on me.

I didn't have a great experience with my Nissan dealership's Internet department, and even got hung up on when I called on the phone (yes, it was intentional), but once I was there, the experience was great. Plus the deal was exceptional. Even the finance person was good-natured, though he didn't realize the LEAF didn't take engine oil. Even his warranties he was trying to sell me showed oil changes. "That's weird. It's supposed to remove options that aren't pertinent."

This is why Elon Musk doesn't want to sell Teslas through a traditional dealership model. There is NO reason for the middle man anymore. We have plenty of consumer protections available now that make the dealership model unnecessary.

My first bad experience with a dealer was Bill Brown Ford in Livonia, Michigan. My Focus had a recall on the front springs due to premature rust. When I got it back, the front brakes didn't work at all. They said there was nothing they could do about it, suggested I was trying to con them into giving me new brakes, told me it was like that when they got the car, and bluntly told me they wouldn't be doing anything to remedy the problem. Then the service manager took a camera out to "document" my allegations in case I decided to make an issue of it later. I was personally offended and hated dealerships, particularly Bill Brown, from that point forward.

Another bad experience was when I came in to LaFontaine Imports of Dearborn, MI to test drive a Suzuki SX4. The sales guy alleged I was a disgruntled previous customer and he took a very defensive posture (this was a totally strange experience- like he thought I was going to start shooting up the place or something). Eventually, he let me take a test drive, but insisted he be present in the car for the test drive (I've never had a sales person do this before- usually they scan my license, throw me the keys, and say "see you in an hour"). The car was almost completely out of gas (zomg range anxiety!), and the "test drive" was limited to a drive up and down the street and straight back to the dealer. He wouldn't let me take it on the highway and didn't even want to stop for gas. Needless to say, when that "test drive" was over, I had no interest in doing business with them. Suzuki later went belly up, and now the dealer sells Kias. I would never go back.

I went to a few Ford dealers and a Mazda dealer before going to the Nissan dealer and test driving the LEAF. I was sold immediately. First time I sat in an EV, much less drove one. Massive EV grin on my face.

My dealer experience with Yark Nissan in Toledo, Ohio was overwhelmingly positive. The LEAF sales guy, Chris Newman, was zero-pressure and I would certainly make the drive back to him if I wanted another Nissan. The only bad part of the buying process was with the financing guy- he was trying to push extended warranties and I really had no interest at all- but it really wasn't that bad.

The first car I bought new (and the last as well) was a 1986 Civic Si. The salesman, a nice Brit named Michael, had worked with us to buy an Accord the previous year, but my credit application was rejected for insufficient time on my job then. This time I sailed though, and Michael didn't try to sell me anything extra. (I wanted an extended warranty, which actually did pay for itself with new front axles.) The price on a Honda was pretty much fixed back then unless you had cash, but he threw in floor mats. All in all a nice, painless experience. I drove that car for 23 years. Buying used cars from dealers later on, though, was never great.

Leasing my Leaf was a really mixed experience: I had gotten a very good quote from Destination Nissan's Internet Sales Manager, but when I got there she was out, and the car quoted was apparently gone. I spent the next several hours, in 90+ degree heat, at the dealership, as they tried to come up with a car I could afford. I would have leased a nice SuperBlack S, but I need cruise control because of leg pain, and it can't be added to the S. Finally, when it seemed I would die there, the main Sales Manager came up with a deal on a Silver SV ( I had wanted blue or black) with no QC but with Premium Package. It really was a great deal, but I was so exhausted all I could do was quietly agree. $2k down (plus a whole $1k of NYS sales tax!) and $149 a month. The followed a long wait for the finance manager to be available, then a fairly painless but still kind of long finish to the process. I wasn't pressured to add anything, just asked, and there was no Funny Business, so I was lucky. Also, the salesman, while not a Leaf veteran, did his best to help, even giving me a ride back the next day to pick the car up. Part of this was because they wanted to hit a monthly sales figure (it was memorial day weekend), but after reading about crooked dealers here, and actually encountering one or two while helping my housemate lease a Prius PHEV, I'm grateful to Destination Nissan. I just don't want to have to go through that again!

Most of my awful experiences have had more to do with service departments than salesmen, but there was one Toyota sales-person who deprived Toyota of at least one, and possibly multiple sales.

After attending the Detroit Auto Show, I'd realized that the cars that turned me on at the time were all 2-seaters. I had decided on the Toyota MR-2 and it was within my budget, if I were to purchase the base model, with no options. There was a picture of such a vehicle on their brochure and of course this was the basis for their advertised price.

I told the fellow what I wanted, and they played the usual game of wandering off to "figure things out", leaving me to sit there for a half-hour. This was my first new-car experience and I didn't know enough then to simply start walking. Finally the guy comes back and hands me an invoice with $3000 (1990 dollars) worth of options. I pointed out that I couldn't afford this, or was he giving these to me for free? "No, this is the car we can get for you". I reminded him of our initial discussion and my disappointment that he made me sit there and wait for something I definitely didn't want. The fellow insisted that this was the shortest option list they could provide. They would absolutely not let me order a base-model even if I were willing to wait.

As luck would have it, there was a Mazda dealership right across the street. The Miata was another of the 2-seaters I'd seen and so I took another look. The salesman came out and asked if he could help. I asked if he'd be willing to order a car with EXACTLY the options (or lack of) that I specified. "No problem". And so a few months later I took delivery of a 1990 Miata, an absolutely brilliant car. I brought that car into the marriage and over the years we ended up buying or leasing two 626's, a Mazda pickup-truck and an RX-8. Meanwhile I'm still harboring a grudge against Toyota. :lol: