pmar

I just saw an ad on TV for a local dealer. They said "up to" $10,000 off on 2001 Maximas. Then they said troubled credit, no problem, you can drive a Maxima. Huh? Is Maxima a car for people with credit problems? Demographics?

We don't have very high expectations for those who work in the auto biz, but I would think that in the very least Nissan Motors would not allow dealerships to advertise like that. I don't think anyone is dumb enough to think they can buy a 28,700 listed Max for 18,700. I'm guessing the catches are fake college discount, fake Nissan loyalty discount, fake dealer incentive, and then $4000 down and must finance at 14%. Who knows what the catches are, up to ten grand off is just bogus.

Taking a wild guess I think a person can expect about 4,700 off list, which is hardly an incentive to buy now. When the rebates start a really aggressive buyer might be able to take 7 grand off list if history is any hint of what is to come later this summer. But no way can a person get 10 grand--and Nissan dealers should not be allowed to advertise that on TV to get people to come into the dealership. That just cheapens the whole Nissan brand name. You never see other makes stooping that low. Certainly not luxury car manuf. But I guess they don't have as many cars to unload.

Shingles

but that's why this is Nissan and not infinity... There are no rules on how to make money... and since each dealership is individually owned, nissan has little incentive to do anything.. I mean after all, they already got their money for the car on the lot.

Also, there's nothing wrong with advertising like that... it's a free market. Perhaps they have 1 car that had say hail damage... take the $5k off of like and another $5k for the damage, there you go, $10k off. In this market, buyer beware... it's all about making a buck and it's not illegal, perhaps unfortunately.

Heck, it's not just the dealership, Nissan even does some crazy stuff to unload cars... like $5000 rebates? man, that's just nuts. It's especially bad for folks that just bought a new car a year ago and have to eat it because no one will buy at what should have been fair market.

-Shing

Whitemax

All car dealers have scams up their sleeves. The ad " No matter how much you owe on your car, We'll pay it off!!!!" is crap. Ya, they pay it off, then tack on what they had to pay off onto the amount of the new vehicle.if you owe $7k on your trade in,they are only going to give you $4k for trade in value and the new car is $30k, guess what, you get to pay $33k. You still pay. YOu always pay. They use phrases to get people into the store and then act as though you're a moron. Not all sales people are like this mind you, but I don't care how well a dealership treats you, they do stuff like this. It's how they make money.