I hate dealers!

I've asked for quotes from so many Bay Area (Kia, VW, and Nissan) dealers and all of them suck. Almost everyone starts out with sending me a non-responsive email that shows that they never read my initial email inquiry. Don't waste my time. And then they ask about when I want to visit - hey jack@$$, why the @#$% would I visit you when you have failed to answer the most basic questions. While I'd love to replace my leaf with another EV, unless they respect my time and my needs, they can all go screw themselves. I've already got another car at the house and I don't have to have an EV. Thank you very much but I'll wait for my Model 3 where I don't have to deal with this level of B.S.

These guys need to understand that they are selling an appliance that requires no maintenance during my relationship with them. So, give me the best price and let's move on. Too bad that the dealer that sold me my current leaf is on the other side of the country - he was awesome.

Shockingly, the only dealer that was straight up from the beginning was the Chevy dealer when I inquired about a Spark. Problem with the spark is that it is a four seater. Or I would have been done by now. I did get a VW and Kia dealer to actually give me useful information, but nothing from Nissan so far.

sphinx said:

I've asked for quotes from so many Bay Area (Kia, VW, and Nissan) dealers and all of them suck. Almost everyone starts out with sending me a non-responsive email that shows that they never read my initial email inquiry. Don't waste my time. And then they ask about when I want to visit - hey jack@$$, why the @#$% would I visit you when you have failed to answer the most basic questions.

Click to expand...

If you show up to the dealer, they have a chance of actually selling you a vehicle while you're there, hence their strategy.

Some people use auto brokers. Or, if you're not that picky about price (see bottom of my reply), you could possibly try using Edmunds or Carsdirect. Someone should get back to you with a price. There's also Costco.

You can use Edmunds TMV (for instance) and MNL as references to what the price should be.

sphinx said:

Too bad that the dealer that sold me my current leaf is on the other side of the country - he was awesome.

Click to expand...

You could possibly buy from him and get it shipped.

sphinx said:

Thank you very much but I'll wait for my Model 3 where I don't have to deal with this level of B.S.

Click to expand...

Keep in mind w/Tesla, there's no haggling and the price is the price. For a given period of time, you won't get a better price from this or that showroom.

FWIW, my experience buying 06 Prius and leasing my former '13 Leaf (from Boardwalk Nissan in Redwood City), both from Bay Area dealers was painless. Long ago, I bought an 02 Maxima and 04 350Z from a Nissan dealer (same salesman both times) in WA, and it was painless.

Unfortunately, my saleswoman from Boardwalk moved on. I don't know about the other staff there.

You are exactly right, but I refuse to play by their rules. Every single new car I've bought, I did the deal 100% online with dealers that didn't mess around.

And it would be fine if they invited me to their store but had actually read what I sent them. My favorite is the guy who asked if I'd driven a leaf, even though my email talked about my current lease coming to an end.

Same issue with a lot of dealers. They will either respond with "what's a number I can reach you at" or "how about you come in and we'll talk" even though I was very clear in the email that I would prefer to do my initial business via email.

GM dealers have been a lot better about this lately. They seem to cooperate more than Nissan has. Out of 7 dealers I contacted shopping around for a new Volt, all of them responded and 5 of them actually gave me out the door quotes via email. One of them wanted me to come in or wanted to work over the phone. One of them just said they would get back with me and never did.

In the end, the dealers are crap on Volts so I decided to wait.

Ah, car dealers ... I can still remember the days when the internet was not quite as it is today and was helping out my Dad down in northern FL to avoid the dealer price negotiation hassle. We sent his specifics to 3 Honda dealers and low and behold they provided pricing back! He was amazed and the process was painless -- all were were fairly close with all of them well below MSRP and I had a reference price to compare it to. The other factor was his trade-in but we had a reference appraisal quote from Carmax (I still use these guys just to get something else in-hand when negotiating) and he was very happy with the outcome; no back and forth and 'let me talk to my manager', etc.

I guess the novelty has worn off (to some degree) but most dealers should give you something via email versus making you stop by; some even have an 'internet' sales guy but some of these may be no better and follow what their management tells them --- in metro areas with LOTS of dealers I would think this may be even more competitive if you have them play off each other.

I'm actually OK with everyone gets the same price (when there was a Scion brand they did that) scheme but its when you feel you're paying significantly more than the next guy where you feel cheated. With the fixed price scenario, all you have to negotiate is your trade-in (unless of course you sell that privately which can be a pain as well) so less hassles.

Only other thing to mention is to check TrueCar for yet another reference new car price -- some swear by them, others don't but all it does give you is yet another price point to help in negotiations either via email or in-person.

cwerdna said:

If you show up to the dealer, they have a chance of actually selling you a vehicle while you're there, hence their strategy.


FWIW, my experience buying 06 Prius and leasing my former '13 Leaf (from Boardwalk Nissan in Redwood City), both from Bay Area dealers was painless. Long ago, I bought an 02 Maxima and 04 350Z from a Nissan dealer (same salesman both times) in WA, and it was painless.

Unfortunately, my saleswoman from Boardwalk moved on. I don't know about the other staff there.

Click to expand...

I showed up at my local Nissan dealer in North Lakeland back when the LEAF was still pretty new. I stood around the car in their showroom, I opened the doors, I looked underneath it. NEVER did any salesman or anybody else come over and even say "hello." Of course, this is the same dealership that I went to when I was going to pay off my lease because at a different Nissan dealership they tried to rip me off with their leasing interest rate, they said it was "just a number," when I qualified for the best rate, the local dealership said it would be a cost of around $500 and they'd take about an hour to do it, I said "SURE," and they said, well, we can't be bothered doing it now, come back next week sometime. For $500/hour!!! I did end up taking it up to Sutherlin Nissan in Orlando, absolutely spectacular dealership, and I returned there for the maintenance work the LEAF needed, until lately when it is now out of range.

Back on PriusChat, and even Prius Online, wasn't it Donna (IIRC) from Broadway Nissan who was legendary in getting people across the country into a Prius from their dealership in LA?

sub3marathonman said:

Back on PriusChat, and even Prius Online, wasn't it Donna (IIRC) from Broadway Nissan who was legendary in getting people across the country into a Prius from their dealership in LA?

Click to expand...

Re: the legendary Priuschat saleswoman, it was Dianne Whitmire in So Cal. I know she was at Carson Toyota for awhile. I think she might've been at another dealer at other parts. Yes, some people traveled pretty far to buy from her and she was selling/leasing Rav4 EVs to people outside CA until Toyota began to really discourage that.

I've met her a few times.

After banging my head into a wall with my first attempt at buying a LEAF at an "internet special advertised price" (that really wasn't), I turned the tables and followed the Fighting Chance car buying method. Cars are a commodity, and the plan worked perfectly. It took some phone calls and emails over a few days on my part, but the actual vehicle transaction was about 90 minutes and no games. We were treated with respect, as well.

The best price was way below what these "new car pricing" services were quoting, and I understand those services often get some kind of referral fee.

Along the same lines ... guess what EV 'dealer' was ranked first .... (hint, it was NOT Nissan)

https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/ww...siwig/1371 Rev Up EVs Report_09_web FINAL.pdf

Another reason why Tesla is going to win. https://plus.google.com/u/1/+DanielCardenas/posts/YcUpKtwp5Lb
Mystery shopper from Sierra Club rates Tesla with the best buying experience.

sphinx said:

I've asked for quotes from so many Bay Area (Kia, VW, and Nissan) dealers and all of them suck. Almost everyone starts out with sending me a non-responsive email that shows that they never read my initial email inquiry. Don't waste my time. And then they ask about when I want to visit - hey jack@$$, why the @#$% would I visit you when you have failed to answer the most basic questions. While I'd love to replace my leaf with another EV, unless they respect my time and my needs, they can all go screw themselves. I've already got another car at the house and I don't have to have an EV. Thank you very much but I'll wait for my Model 3 where I don't have to deal with this level of B.S.

These guys need to understand that they are selling an appliance that requires no maintenance during my relationship with them. So, give me the best price and let's move on. Too bad that the dealer that sold me my current leaf is on the other side of the country - he was awesome.

Shockingly, the only dealer that was straight up from the beginning was the Chevy dealer when I inquired about a Spark. Problem with the spark is that it is a four seater. Or I would have been done by now. I did get a VW and Kia dealer to actually give me useful information, but nothing from Nissan so far.

Click to expand...

Hmm... I tried this in Oct 2014 and while I did get a number of BS replies (come in and talk), there were enough legitimate responses for me to have a choice. I was clear in my initial contact that I wouldn't proceed without a price quote. For the ones that wished to divert me I responded by re-iterating my position. Once only. After that further BS was trashed.

Some of it may be timing, inventory, etc... Sometimes I guess they figure they don't have to try.

Have you tried Nissan in Petaluma? Worked for me.