Stay Away from Nissan

We had a very bad experience leasing Nissan Leaf. When we reported our experience to Nissan Corporation, the best they could muster was a sorry. They indicated that the Nissan dealers are independent and that Nissan Corporation can’t help us. I never heard such an unreasonable argument ever. Let me explain.
In our household between my wife and me, we had Nissan Sentra for over 13 years and when we wanted to replace our old Nissan we went with leasing Nissan Leaf. Even with exceptional credit history, we got a bad deal from the dealer Premier Nissan of San Jose. Our sales person promised a free charger and complete protection but they didn’t honor anything. When we wrote a review about the dealer, the dealership General Sales Manager (GSM) contacted us and said he would like to discuss the situation. However, he steered the conversation in pointing out that it was our fault and that we should have checked the paperwork before signing. From the beginning of the meeting, he kept repeating that the dealership has doors all around and we were welcome to walked out of the deal. These guys are so deceptive, untrustworthy and unprofessional. All they care about is a deal and not happy customers. How can I trust their cars? I am not a mechanic and am I expected to get the car tested before driving out of their parking lot because I can’t trust their quality.
Nissan Corporation is supporting unprofessional behavior from its dealers. From the junior sales guy at the dealership to the GSM, everyone was complaining about how they don’t make money selling Nissan Leaf and it is in fact not profitable at all as there is hardly any maintenance. We bought Toyota Prius is 2010 and the experience was so different and better. The sales person at the Toyota dealer was not only professional but was courteous and gave us the best deal. We love our Prius and I think Nissan Leaf can’t match Prius design and style. The start button in Nissan Leaf is hidden and one has to bend their neck to see it, while in Prius it is prominent and is conveniently located. The gear shift in Nissan Leaf is very small. It seems as though Nissan wanted to cut corners in the design and materials to make a cheap, claustrophobic car. The overall shape of Nissan Leaf is like a frog. There are other electric cars and hybrid car companies that value customers and dealers who are not selling snake oil and bad deals and who value their company’s products and are very happy to make the sale.

We had a similar experience and were also told that dealers are independent. Except that the company was toyota. And I wont buy a Toyota. They were very apologetic when we starting looking for another car but it was too late for Toyota.
Seems that it largely depends on the dealership. They're all degrees of awful. Amazing how they can pay off the governor if Michigan.

Better to ask advice in advance. Actually all you state is fairly common for all makes. Good luck.

chityala said:

We had a very bad experience leasing Nissan Leaf. When we reported our experience to Nissan Corporation, the best they could muster was a sorry. They indicated that the Nissan dealers are independent

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They are. Blame stupid state franchise laws. Tesla has been having to do battle about this state-by-state. Google for tesla franchise laws and tesla franchise laws dealers.

chityala said:

we got a bad deal from the dealer Premier Nissan of San Jose. Our sales person promised a free charger and complete protection but they didn’t honor anything. When we wrote a review about the dealer, the dealership General Sales Manager (GSM) contacted us and said he would like to discuss the situation. However, he steered the conversation in pointing out that it was our fault and that we should have checked the paperwork before signing. From the beginning of the meeting, he kept repeating that the dealership has doors all around and we were welcome to walked out of the deal. These guys are so deceptive, untrustworthy and unprofessional.

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There's your problem (emphasis added above by me). See my post about them at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=236293#p236293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I specifically avoided leasing from them and went to Boardwalk Nissan instead (even though Premier is the closest dealer for me and Boardwalk is rather far), where I had a pleasant and painless experience.

But yes, you should've done your homework and you should've walked away or put the deal on hold if you spotted anything fishy or were uncomfortable with.

It is unfortunate these guys are still in business. If your story is true, you're yet another person w/a bad buying/leasing experience w/them.

chityala said:

We love our Prius and I think Nissan Leaf can’t match Prius design and style. The start button in Nissan Leaf is hidden and one has to bend their neck to see it, while in Prius it is prominent and is conveniently located. The gear shift in Nissan Leaf is very small. It seems as though Nissan wanted to cut corners in the design and materials to make a cheap, claustrophobic car. The overall shape of Nissan Leaf is like a frog.

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I have a Prius as well and am a Prius enthusiast. I have no issues w/the placement of the power button on the Leaf nor the shifter. Both are fine to me. If all of these issues were a deal breaker, you should've not gotten the Leaf or gotten something else instead. We have PLENTY of EV choices (http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false in CA, due to CA ZEV requirements.

There are unfortunately bad dealers w/virtually every automaker.

The biggest mistake that people make when buying or leasing a car is to assume that the salespeople and dealership management *aren't* crooks. Assume that they are, always, and let them prove otherwise. We actually had much worse experiences with Toyota dealerships than at Albany NY's Destination Nissan where I leased my Leaf (slow but not crooked, and they actually gave me a great deal, eventually). OTOH, when I tried to get my car serviced and the recall work done, I tried a closer dealership and they not only didn't do the recall work, they also charged me for a cabin filter installation while leaving the new filter in the car...

My housemate leased a Prius PHEV, but only because I figured out that the saleswoman at Northway Toyota in Saratoga NY had lied to us about being able to get one, and was sitting on our deposit, waiting to lease or sell us a regular Prius instead. At the last minute I was able to get one from out of state, through Lia Nissan in Colonie NY. (They then proceeded to cancel the good will by attempting to charge us $1k more for the car, ignoring our deposit. When I pointed it out, we were told, snippily, by that saleswoman that "We would have mailed you a check for the difference.") The moral is: assume the worst of car dealerships and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

BTW, as I posted at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1067&p=236352&hilit=fife#p236352" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, I had a good buying experience w/Nissan of Fife in WA state (near Tacoma) when I used to live up there. First experience was good enough that I went to them for a second Nissan.

I had a very good experience leasing my Leaf from Frank Consoli at Tustin Nissan. He responded to my email the first thing in the morning, and took the time to throughly explain the features of the car. It was very pleasant.

I am sorry for your experience. Clearly you are not alone.

A cultural legacy of car sales of all kind is based on short term profit. Elsewhere here I might have described my Mom's experience of the late 80's where the "very nice Ford salesperson" packed her deal (raised the price of the car) to the maximum allowed by California law, 10%, which he split with the dealership. Used cars have no such limit, so the sharkiest of sharks like that venue the best.

Like a few others here, I bought my LEAF at Fontana Nissan over the phone, and never met face to face with anyone there. Car was delivered on a flatbed. I remain happy, and Downtown Nissan, with a little price matching, has done a great job on the few battery check and update maintenance.

Consumer beware on cars in any situation.

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

evnow said:

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

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+1

Frankly, I can't see what your point is. I'm not saying you don't have one - for sure my experience of many dealers has been truly shocking too, just as yours sounds to be - but just that the way you describe it you a) complain about something you should have read in the deal you signed up to, and b) complaining about design features you had every opportunity to see, and if necessary reject.

It sound more like you have come to realise you don't like the car or the deal, and rather than blame yourself for your bad buy, you want to blame someone else.

Sorry. You may well have points of complaint about your dealer, but unless there are more things you've not mentioned, aside from potential miscommunications they did not hold a gun to your head and tell you to sign the form, so your subsequent regrets are your own concern.

+1, and some of the complaints at the end even have a slight arôme de Troll about them, LOL.

+1 to changing the title of the thread (as suggested above), as well.


That being said, I do hope that we all witness the demise of the 'dealership model' of selling cars, and the sooner the better!

OP's comment is light on specifics and long on inconsistencies. You can't give much credence to someone blaming the dealer for not liking the styling of a car they bought or leased, and it calls into question everything else they said.
I kind of feel sorry for the dealer; for all we know they treated the customer well at every turn, and they are just a head case that dropped an unwanted lousy survey on them.

My story is MUCH worse. I bought a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup from AM/PM and it did not have any Peanut Butter!! so I complained to the company that made the Reese's and they said there was nothing I could do about it! That I had paid my money and it was a done deal!

I could not believe how I was treated! I will never buy anything from AM/PM again!!

**edit**

hmmm???, I think I got that backwards!!


**real edit**

your actions are misguided. Ask anyone in the car business. if you really want to hurt the dealer, buy from his competitor. IOW, the Nissan Dealer just down the street. Then after that, pay the dealership a visit in your new Nissan (better if dealer plates are still attached. parking out front so all visitors can see it is a BIG plus!) and talk to the sales manager and advise them "This is how you get my business"

DaveinOlyWA said:

parking out front so all visitors can see it is a BIG plus!) and talk to the sales manager and advise them "This is how you get my business"

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If they cared that little about you as a customer before, why would they give twopence about you when you're not a customer?

Some businesses just don't seem to want to do business. Though as an observation I've found that much less in the US than in the UK, where here it is an absolute disease and a very large number of businesses here just don't deserve to survive. But if there are few sales entrants then that's the deal.

Since my EV has gone back I have been back in my diesel car. I've called in on 3 VW dealers to try to get a test drive in an E-Up and haven't had a call back since. Screw 'em. The cars aren't selling so I'll sit back and wait until they drop the price substantially. The oily car is cheaper than shoe leather, so I might even just wait 'til it breaks before getting hung up about it.

Dealers do fine in a sellers market, because if you want what they've got then it's for YOU to jump through THEIR hoops. The problem is that dealers can't even tell when times turn into a buyers market and then the salesfolks sit there wondering why the business isn't walking in: Answer; 'cos you screwed people when they really needed a car, and now you need the sales they'll screw you back!

OP single post and no reply to suggestions of editing the post topic...? Humm

donald said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

parking out front so all visitors can see it is a BIG plus!) and talk to the sales manager and advise them "This is how you get my business"

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If they cared that little about you as a customer before, why would they give twopence about you when you're not a customer?

Some businesses just don't seem to want to do business. Though as an observation I've found that much less in the US than in the UK, where here it is an absolute disease and a very large number of businesses here just don't deserve to survive. But if there are few sales entrants then that's the deal.

Since my EV has gone back I have been back in my diesel car. I've called in on 3 VW dealers to try to get a test drive in an E-Up and haven't had a call back since. Screw 'em. The cars aren't selling so I'll sit back and wait until they drop the price substantially. The oily car is cheaper than shoe leather, so I might even just wait 'til it breaks before getting hung up about it.

Dealers do fine in a sellers market, because if you want what they've got then it's for YOU to jump through THEIR hoops. The problem is that dealers can't even tell when times turn into a buyers market and then the salesfolks sit there wondering why the business isn't walking in: Answer; 'cos you screwed people when they really needed a car, and now you need the sales they'll screw you back!

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ok, you could be right but we have to review THE most salient point which is he did buy from them. That removes any leverage the customer had and be willing to bet that if he had not bought or bought so easily, his deal would have been much better. that is how car sales work. If you are a motivated buyer, they will cut the price AT LEAST twice before they let you walk out the door.

he didn't so they didn't.

Yeah , stay away from Nissan .... cuz of "my" bad experience ... but what if "MY" last Nissan experience was great? In that scenerio - everybody ought to go to Nissan? But wait ... now we cancel each other out. Similarly - I've had a bad experience with several people throughout life. So ... stay away from people? So .... here's to hoping the OP will get it.

.

hill said:

I've had a bad experience with several people throughout life

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Hey, you too?!!

I've had bad experiences with several women, keep away from them,

.. and several men... keep away from them.

and... children and old people .... oh heck, I'm heading back to my hermitage.... :lol:

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.