A local dealer has 'offered' to sell me a 2016 car that is currently under stop sale waiting for the abs fix. They've offered a loaner while they hold onto the car pending receipt and installation of the part. All the obvious thoughts come to mind - unknown timeline until I would receive the car, during which time I've given them the money I would otherwise be receiving interest. Benefit to them is that car appears in their monthly sales records and is off their books. Benefit to me is I lock in ownership of one of the dwindling inventory of 2016 cars on sale.

My conservative nature automatically discredits this 'opportunity'. Am I being to cautious? What else am I missing?

 

This ABS problem is very serious, and the replacement parts should be available in the very near future. I don't think the delay with the ABS will be as long for you as for most of the rest of us, because you will get one of the first new ABS replacement parts arriving at your dealer. I say that because your dealer will be anxious to get his loaner back, as the miles you will be putting on it reduce its value, as well as make that loaner unavailable for use by other customers. And I don't think the Feds are going to be raising rates again in the near future, so you won't be losing much in interest.

If you really like the car and price, I think you should proceed with the purchase. Just my opinion.

 

Average rate on MM's is around 0.25%. 0.25 on $40,000 is $100/year, or 27 cents per day.

The value of the loaner is many times that.

 

One of my concerns is that this dealer is sitting on over a dozen Maxima's of various types and that if the parts come into them in batches, they will be motivated to fix cars they haven't sold yet versus fixing mine for which they have already made their profit. Not being cynical, but rather trying to empathize with how I might think as a sale manager.

 

IMO the dealer would be very motivated to get your car off the lot ASAP in that situation. You're putting miles on their loaner and they would be liable for your car while it is in their possession. I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger if it was a good deal on a leftover, but this could be an opportunity to get them to sweeten the deal. I would tell them that I would be concerned about the clock starting on my factory warranty when it could be sitting there unused.

 

To close out this thread, as you may have noticed up in the 'what did you pay' thread, I ended up buying a 2017 for the same discounted prices the 2016's were going for.