I just sold my 01 Sierra and now have money spend on a 02-03 Maxima. What do you think I can with about 18K cash as far as option and milege. What metroplex areas do you all think are saturated with Maximas. Here in the southern tip of Texas there are hardly any. Thanks in advence.

File

for 18K? a realllllly good lap dance.

I just bought my 03 maxima 6spd with sunroof, only 6500 miles for $19,000. Perfect condition, 2 snow tires, sunroof visor, 2 sets of floor mats, and remote car starter were purchased and installed by previous owner.
You could probably get very similar with 18K. Hope that helps

for cash you should walk into a dealership and get a brand new 2k3 and walkout... cash speaks for a lot

Cash, check, or Credit card doesnt make a diffence in bargining. To them they get it either way..

Lol...Get the maxima, the lap dancers come on their own

At least the good ones do.

it sure as hell makes a big difference if they're willing to pay with cash all up front, rather than having to finance the car....
if ur paying all up front, they'd be stupid to let u leave without buying a car.... jus walk in there and come on strong... you should get pretty close to what you want... brand new 2k3 with sunroof should be no problem... probably like TE.... try to push for leather too.. but if not... u still got a great deal

nah.. they get some huge kickbacks from the banks, trust me they want you to finance.. cash is annoying to them, because you are more sensitive to every little markup and generally you dont bargin much. Plus, from their perspective, you have an attitude if you have cash. f'd up, but thats how they look at it.

I generally dont tell them how I intend to pay (or I intend to trade) until the numbers are on the table. they dont like the either but tough sh*t for them..

There's no way in hell you're getting a brand new 2k3 (under 100 miles) with titanium package AND leather for 18k cash. Why would they do that when they can wait for the next guy to walk in and finance it at around 24-25k? They get the money up front either way.

you can easily get a low milage 02 SE

btw, back in the day, dealerships were paying interest for every car on the lot.. Now, they use credit (Nissan dealers here use Ford Credit - odd huh?) to buy the cars on their lots.. They have like a 30 day grace on the lot these days.. Plus, money transfers much faster than it did say 10-20 years ago. So cash really doesnt motivate them like it used to.. It may tell the salesperson youre able to afford the car, but heck, banks are so lienient these days, salespeople dont worry much about that either.

i said try to push for leather... probably wont get it.. but u should try... and when i called the dealer before i bought my car.. they said they preferred cash up front and that if i told them i would pay at once, i would have more room for bargaining since they want your business... since they have such low interest rates going on..0.9? 1.9? ... they're basically lending u the money for free... they're lending you money at a rate below the rate of inflation, which means there's a chance that they're even losing money... on top of that, there is NO RISK wutsoever if you pay for ur car all at once, whereas if you sell a car to someone through financing, there is always that risk of not getting paid and having to repo the car which means nissan loses money...
i dont kno exactly how the dealers get paid, but even if they do get paid a lumpsum, nissa will have to do the financing.. so it would make more sense that they would offer more incentives for cash payments... don't quote me on all this... most of what i said is based on me making observations from what the dealers told me...

money up front talks and cash is better then a credit card and better then a check

ask ANY dealer what payment they would prefer..i guarantee you it is cash

You go that right the few remaining 03's they arent going to give away at those type of prices!

You are correct my wife works in finance for Nissan and she agrees with you!

you guarantee it? hmmm. dealerships get their money a couple days after the sale from whatever company financed the deal. what difference does a couple days make? none. didn't use to be that way, but that was a long time ago. cash won't do anything except make em think you're a gangsta.

my 2k2 maxima may be for sale as I'm thinking about getting a Lightning--I live in Houston and you can check my homepage for pics if interested

Mattattax, nice max but I am looking for a white/pearlwhite/silver with sunroof. BTW, did that intake you have help out a lot?

what?

when putting money down...but they will lose money if they don't finance it.

even at 4.9% or whatever the going rate is, they'd rather loan you money, than get cash...

they will make more money in the long run if the finance it.

I went to a dealer today, and a saw a "$27,000" Maxima, the guy told me he could unload it for $23,500.

they don't care if you have cash or bars of gold...they aren't going to sell a car they bought for $23,500 and sell it for $18,000....just because you have cash...really it helps out with negotiating power to the bank, when trying to get a lower rate, and the dealer knows you are more likely to get approved for a loan when you have $6 or $7,000 to put down...so they are more likely to work with you...

but they won't lose $5,500 up front (not to mention thousands of dollars lost on financing) just because you have cash..(NMAC gets the 23,500 AND interest if they loan the money)

let me ask you this...as the seller of YOUR Maxima, what would you rather have?

$23,500 in the form of a check from a reputable bank?
-or-
$23,500 and a $500 "referal kick-back" from your buddy at XYZ Savings Bank?
-or-
$18,000 in cash

i'll take either of the first two I can get...

cash isn't that great, and a good dealer won't have his a$$ handed to him like you suggest...

I think this guy can get a good used 2k3 6 speed...for his wonderful cash..

but I might recommend (with rates so darn low) getting a loan for the car (4.9% on used cars at alot of dealers) and investing the rest in something old & stable (GE, GM, Pepsi, Coke, Johnson & Johnson...ya know, one of those companies that are so stable that their stock may as well be a bond)

-vq

ask ANY dealer what payment they would prefer..i guarantee you it is cash [/B][/QUOTE]

Negative Ghost Rider.....although depends on what perspective you look at it from. Paperwork is easier on a cash deal since no need to mess with a bank. From a pure profit perspective, dealers want you to finance because they can make money off the rate (dealers get it lower than what they sell it to you for), and the finance guy will make soome $ off the rate too.

Bottom line - from a dealers perspective, it's all cash. Whether it comes out of your wallet or from the bank, it's all cash and they'll sell you a car either way if there is a deal to be made. I'd take a loser deal that'll finance before I'll take a loser deal that'll pay cash, since I can make up profit on rate. Simple, huh?

the dealers must be telling you that you need cash up front because your credit may not be as good as the next guys...

any salesman telling customers that are calling in that they prefer cash up front should be fired...the number one thing you (as owner of a dealership) want to do is GET PEOPLE TO YOUR SHOWROOM! the more people there are, the more cars are sold...unless you have that same idiot in the showroom, telling customers they want cash...

I've NEVER had a dealer tell me they wanted cash for a new car...especially over the phone..that's insane...1/10th of 1% of the population pays cash for a new car...they would be driving people away if they were telling people that...unless the person they were telling that to was annoying them, or....has bad credit.

-vq

Everyone that says the dealer prefers you to finance is correct!!! once the car is financed, they get the $$$ for the car, plus they make$$$ on the loan!

when you finance through the dealership, the car now belongs to the finance company holding the note- not the dealership, not you either.



for 18K?? no, you will not get a new max SE w/moonroof! forget lthr or titanium at that price!

go to www.edmunds.com to find invoice,and pay nothing more than $2K below invoice!!!! more like 3K below invoice.

check out ebaymotors.com, and you will see many 2k2 w/25M for around 17K. hertz is selling them for 16K (if you are willing to go rental)

good luck and keep us posted so you dont get screwed.

The Nissan dealer down here in Jacksonville have 2k3s for $19,995.

Damm that is cheap

wow, I just read what I wrote.. I really need to spell check before hitting submit

A good friend at the local nissan dealer told me that they usually only prefer cash if the customer didnt have good credit. If they CAN finance you, they want to fincance you! He says that when financing they actually might be able to give you a better deal on the car itself (depending on how long its been sitting on their lots etc) because they make money on the financing. NMAC probably gives them some sort of a kickback.

For example, the last time I bought a car eventhough I mentioned that I was willing to pay cash if that got me a better deal. The dealership didnt care. They gave me a better price than I expected and then actually insisted that I take advantage of the low interest rates (3.9x60,2.9x36,1.9x24 or something like that) But when my co-worker went in (due to his bad credit) the dealership insisted that he pay cash if he had it instead of trying to get him financed and he paid a bit more for the same car.

IMO, cash at dealership usually is more affective in smaller used car lots, where the owners (thugs) usually want to get rid of anything they can for a reasonable profit and as fast as they can.

ur making it sound as if he said "bring cash, or else"...it was nothing like that... i asked what are some things i should come to the table with for a better deal... he said the more i pay as down payment... the more they'll be willing to bargain with me.... and if i actually bought the car with a one time payment, they'd be stupid to let me leave the dealership.... this was all before they checked my credit, which is near perfect.. and before he even knew my name.. i just called in anonymously...

ur comparing apples to oranges here... don't compare 23,500 with 18,000... lemme pose to you another scenario (which more applies to this case)
would u rather have:
a. 18,000 straight up cash
b. lend 19,000 to someone at an interest rate of 0.9-1.9% over 3-4 years (which is less than the rate of inflation i might add... which means essentially u are losing money in the long run...
*would u let someone borrow money for 1% when the cost of everything around u is increasing at a rate of 1.5%?* <~just an example
let's also not forget the risk that the buyer will default his payments..

i'm assuming most people will choose A, even tho in theory it is less money

i said he can get a new 2k3 with sunroof and TE for about 18000, because i kno someone around here who just got those exact same options for about 20, without having to haggle the dealer much...

The above sums up the situation. In my case, the salesman told me straight up that they can give me a better deal if I finance, rather than pay cash. Once the paperwork is signed, the dealership gets the money from NMAC, so it doesn't matter to them whether you pay them cash, or they receive a transfer of funds from NMAC for the same amount.

Skandalouz: There are incentives for all parties involved to finance, so although they're lending at below inflation, they're still making out on top at the end. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in business, right?

On a sidenote, there's a some talk now in the economic community of DEflation in the coming time, so inflation is not even a concern right now, although I do see what you were saying.

Just keep in mind that there are all sorts of behind-the-scene incentives that are being thrown around, so trust me, NMAC and/or the dealership are NOT losing money if they lend it to you at below inflation.

you are not going to find any dealers giving up a 2003 Maxima for $18 or $19,000....cash, credit, loan, in any way shape or form.

end of that story.

cash doesn't mean that much to the dealer... now if it's the difference between $23,500 on a 1.9% loan or selling cash at $22,500 the dealer might go with the $22,500. But a dealer would rather try and tell you that your credit wasn't good enough to qualify for the better rate (even though it might have been good enough) so they can scare you into financing with XYZ Bank at 6.9% so they can make a killing on you.

they want you to finance...not every deal at the dealership goes at the lower rates, not everyone has good credit.

Cash isn't a big deal to them. If you walk in there with a butt load of cash, they will tell you they like cash, because why would you want to **** off someone with alot of cash? but it won't get you $5,000 off the sticker price.

there are no $18,000 BRAND NEW 2003 Maximas....none....

-vq

he got that for $20,000 + at best 1.9% financing...for a grand total of somewhere near $21,000-$21,500...

so what makes you think they'll get rid of one for 3,000-3,500 less?

-vq

If I had that cash in hand and with interest rates so low, I would just go out and purchase the car and have it financed. I don't know how long these 0.9-1.9% rates will last. It even might go lower for all I know. Even if it goes lower, the current rates are still great rates. Use OPM(Other Peoples Money) to buy the car. Park that 18 grand somewhere where it will earn more than the going rate of your auto loan. I second everyone who says that it does not matter to the dealership whether it is a cash transaction or not. They get the whole amount either way plus any incentive from the financial institution for giving them the business. My 2 cents......

20k, really? 03 SE w/mnrf & titanium....let me know the dealer that is selling his max's for 6k under invoice (8k under msrp)!!!! everything you have said is very suspect.

you continue to make the same simple 'inflation is greater than the interest rate' statement. havent you read the numerous responses about this subject from people who know the deal here. your argument sounds like a 9th grader who just took his 3rd period econ final.

listen close, you are being taught something here. VITO, was extremely diplomatic in his post, when he is rebutting your misinformed statements. there are many behind-the-scenes transactions that make financing the preferred way by dealers, lenders, etc.

dont forget to let us know which dealer is selling the max at those discounts.

Shark (and anyone else thinking of buying cash):

Never buy a car for cash!!!!!!!!!! if you have the cash put a minimal down payment as possible. then after a month pay off the note!

you will raise your fico. this score determines the interest rates you receive which will save you tens of 1000's in your lifetime. especially when you buy a house for private, investment, business use , etc.

even if they want to charge you 5, 10 20 %, FINANCE!!! who cares the rate they give (just make sure it's the lowest you can get with your credit power), you're only going to pay the first months interest anyways.

i would go into the positive snowball effect of having xlnt credit, but it would be extremely lengthy. just imagine those tens of 1000's you save that will be making money for you.

18grand can buy u a bangin' system.. or maybe a way to turbo ur 3.5L engine

I agree, the dealership will make more money if you finance but if you are walking in with cash they know the deal can go through. Many people go into a dealership saying they have good credit only to find that they don't and the salesman's time is wasted.

It's less hassle for them if they are in a hurry to make the sale. I would wait until the end of the month when they are trying to make quotas and go in on a Sunday night (or maybe the July 4th holiday). No one is buying cars then and that's when you get a good deal. The best time to go is x-mas eve!

Also, be careful with walking around with $18,000 in your pocket and don't stop at the nudy bar!!!!

Another thing to think about is when is the next time you are going to have $18,000 cash in your hands? If you don't have a house, that could go toward your down payment. It's really not a lot of money (ie: I won $18K in the lotto) but it is a lot of money to have all at once.

Thi sthread is funny my wife who works in Finance read it and she said that they still prefer people to finance for various reasons, and 18k will not get you a brand new 03. It will get you a good used 02 with moderate to high mileage or previous rental! Most dealers are out of 03's now anyway according to her looking in the system.