First of all, let me just say that this site is excellent - great content and I've only found it a few days ago.

That said, I need some advice. I live in the Philly area and need to buy a car. I can't think of a better bang for the buck than a 2003 Maxima SE. I'm looking to get a 6 speed with just about everything except navi and looking to buy in the next 2-3 weeks. Once concern regards a few threads I've seen in this forum about fuel efficiency. I understand that this is a large displacement engine and that I shouldn't expect econo-box numbers but MPG in the low teens is a little worrysome. In any case, I think I'm sold on the car partly because I've always wanted a Maxima for as long as I can remember.

Here are some of my issues. I HATE car salesman. In just about every car dealership that I've been in since my college days, I've always felt like I knew more about the cars (and model line) than the dealers did. I'm not a good negotiator and don't know the inside moves on how to deal with these people and outsmart them. Also, I'm a little worried that with the 2004 re-design coming in March, I may not get the car that I want (color, options) for the simple fact that the dealer just might not have that car on the lot. What do you guys think that I should expect to pay for this car?

Does anyone know any "decent" dealers in the Philly area? Any advice you can give would be extremely helpful.

I don't even have the car yet but am dreaming of the mods I want to make

 

I am sorry to scare you but I will for your own knowledge. A lot of Northeast guys (NY/NJ mostly) have been scared for their headlights on their 2002/2003 maxima. This is because they are stolen in these areas. I am sure philly is no different.

The HIDs get stolen because there is a market out for them right now. The headlights off the 2002/2003 can fit the 2000/2001 and that's what creates this market.

Just warning you so you don't have to find out after you buy it.

You will find the Maxima you want if you are buying within the next 2-3 weeks. You will have way more than enough time. Dealers will give you a good deal on the 03 Maxima because of the 04 coming out. Make sure you bring that up. "I know the 04 Maxima is coming out soon and that will hurt the value of my car more than I need to know."

So, what color will be the Maxima?

 

Thanks, GLE. I was reading about the HIDS being stolen, the poor fuel efficiency, the sunroofs leaking - these are things that DO worry me. But they can't be all THAT common, can they? I mean, for every car maker and every model, there must be some cars that have impefections. As long as the amount is in a acceptable range, I'll remain steadfast in my decision to get a Maxima.

I am really having trouble choosing between black and grey lustre. And really like that light gray leather interior and titanium package.

As far as the Philly area and the theft of the HIDS, I really can't worry about that. I can't not get what I want in life out of fear that someone will just take it away from me. Everyone gets what they deserve - especially the punks that do that kind of stuff.

What do you think is a fair price for the car that I want especially with the 2004 for coming out in just over a month?

Damn Eagles lost today. I need to console myself with a new ride, me thinks.

 

The black shouldnt be so hard to find the Grey Lustre might be a little harder depending on the options you want. Price as long as you dont pay MSRP, preferably somewhere near Invoice and get it before the 31st when the 0.9 and 2.95 financing is over!

 

Welcome.
Yeah, every car has their own share of problems. I hope you don't buy a new car every 3-4 years. If you don't, then don't worry about the resale value but use that to your advantage when you go to the dealership. Make sure that they know that you know the '04 will hurt the value of the '03. Also, bring up the Honda Accord when you are purchasing this car. That should get them a little shakey.
The titanium package might be a little hard to find if you buy it a little later. Also, in that package you can't get a grey lustre or black car. You get a titanium colored car which looks better!
I think a fully loaded SE w/o Navi should be yours for 23K + tax.

Also, living 10 minutes away from the meadowlands...I am happy the eagles lost. Raiders will win this superbowl. My guess: 24-17

 

Hey badabing,
I got the exact same setup you're looking to get (only diff is I got sheer silver instead of grey/black). I got it in the Boston area for $25,885 before T/T/L and the doc fees. This was back in Nov. of 2002. The prices that people are paying vary slightly (+/- $1000) depending on the regions of the country where they purchase, bargaining skills, incentives at the time, etc etc. At this point in time, you should be able to get this car for/under $26,000. I believe the Northeast region of the US is pretty good as far as pricing is concerned.

As far as negotiating, do a quick search on this forum, and you'll get some results. I did that when I was looking to purchase not so much to learn how to negotiate, but just to see what people were paying. Here's a strategy I used with great success, and I just noticed that some others have been using it here as well. Go to www.nissanusa.com, and build your Maxima. After you're done, click on "Find a dealer" or something like that. This will give you a listing of dealers that are close to your location. Browse their inventories and see if they have the car you're looking for. Anyhow, get a list of dealerships within X amount of miles from your house (there's an option on that page to show dealerships within 25,50,75, or 100 miles from your zip code), and then send them all emails (it can be the same email, may need to change heading or something), that says you're looking for such and such a car, list ALL of the options that you want, you may want to list if you're flexible on some options (i.e. color), but make sure you're as detailed as possible about the options/colors that you need. If they already have the car in stock, then make sure to mention it to them, and give them the VIN number from the Nissan website.

After you list all of the options, tell them the price you're looking to pay. To give yourself some bargaining room, give them something like $1000 less than what you're really looking to pay. Right now, I'd say $24,500-$25,000, or something like that. Tell them that you're sending this email to all of the dealerships within X amount of miles, and the first one to either match or come the closest to your target price will earn your business. Make sure to tell them that you're looking to buy within the next few days, so that they know you're serious.

Once you start getting replies from them, keep track of who is giving you what price. After you've gathered enough of these replies, take the lowest price that you got, and email all of the other places and tell them you're getting X from dealer Y and you'd like to see if this dealership can beat that. Anyhow, keep doing this a few times, each time sending out emails with the lowest price. Eventually (after a day or two), you'll notice that you've reached the bottom more or less, at which point you should go over to the dealership with the lowest price and try to make a deal.

 

You can get Titanium with any color you want. If you get the Polished Titanium exterior color, you MUST get the titanium edition--that's the difference.

I would say a fully loaded 2003 w/everything but Navi for $23K is a little on the optimistic side. $25K would be a great price right now, but as long as it's not more than $26K, I think you'd be getting a good deal.

 

Sorry about that.

We paid 25,4xx for the gle before the other stuff in 6/02. I am sure he can get a better deal on it now especially that the 03 is the last year for this body and with the 6th gen approaching very soon.

everyone: why did you get the se over the gle? we went through this dilemna.

 

No problem with the mix up .

I think the GLE has a little more bargaining power on the customer' side because the SE has always been the most demanded trim, so it's harder to bargain on the SE compared to the GLE.

For me, I bought the SE because I wanted a manual trannie, and the stiffer, more sports-tuned suspension. That was pretty much it. Oh, and I like the SE rims more than the GLE, although both are very nice.

 

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be the proud new owner of a 2k3 Max SE. I can't wait!

Vito, I like the idea of emailing these dealers but for some reason, I have doubts that I can pull that off. I'll do some more investigating about it.

 

Why not? It's really simpler than you think. In fact, you don't really do any "shopping"--the dealers shop for YOU! That's the beauty of it. You don't have to go to every dealership in person, and if you had to, that would waste a tremendous amount of time. This way you just sit back and wait for their responses. In my experience, some of them just said bluntly that they can't even come close to the price that I'm asking and/or to a price quoted by another dealership.

Do a search, and you'll see that a lot of people on this board got great results by using this email method, or a fax method using the same idea.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

 

Bada: I am also looking for the same car, sans leather. I prefer cloth, surprisingly.

Did you get your car yet? I am going to competitively shop for the next 2 weeks in search of the best price. I am looking to do a 20k mile /year lease, so my results may vary. I still want to pay around 26k for the said car.

LMK if you have a good experience, and I will do the same.

 

I got mine at Montgomeryville Nissan. First, I found the EXACT car I wanted on the nissan site and there happened to be one sitting on Peruzzi's lot. But that was far for me, and my mom's boy friend used to be the GM @ montgomeryville. He personally knows the staff there and called them ahead of time.

They called peruzzi and did a dealer trade. It worked out well and they've been helpful to me.

I drove off the lot (42 miles on the car after it was driven from peruzzi) with warped rotors. They let the car sit for a while and the rotors rusted up bad. I wanted new rotors but I'm getting no where, even knowing some people.

I paid $100 over invoice wiithout haggle. That was setup for me. I've talked to people on here since that have gotten better deals.

If you'd like to try them, drop me an e-mail @ port80@yahoo.com and I'll send you some names.

My neighbor uses Devon nissan and loves them.

I forget the name, there's one in doylestown that has decent inventory and decent reviews here. And the new one in Exton seems to be getting some service praise.

You'd be nuts to use a philly dealer since they have to take 1% philly sales tax, so isn't it like 7% total sales tax in philly?

'03 inventory is whatever is left on the lots, so pickin's may be slim.

Good luck!

 

mkiimike - I haven't gone to look yet - i live downtown and need to get out the 'burbs to check out these dealerships. I'm very seriously considering trying this email/fax thing and asking these guys to beat a price to avoid the slimy nature of (most of) these salesman. I can't stand it when I ask a question, fully knowing the answer mind you, and these disinterested salesman answer incorrectly. In any case, I am actually starting to think that I can get the car I want - a 6sp SE w/leather, no navi - for 25k or even LESS! Not sure about leases, but I think that paying 26k without leather is pretty high. I think Saturday is my big day so I'll let you know and vice-versa. Email me @ hectorwashere@yahoo.com and let me know how you do.


itdood - where have you been reading these reviews of Del-val dealerships? Any info would be helpful. I think that my parents got their '93 Altima from Devon and very pretty satisfied - but I think they were most interested in the bottom line than anything else. In any case, why you had warped rotors right after leaving the lot and why you are still having issues getting it taken care of - this after knowing someone, no less - bothers me a little.

From what I'm hearing right now, this is the current offer: $1 over invoice, $1000 dealer discount and 2.9% financing. This is without haggling.

 

I also use Devon Nissan. So far, no complaints. They are about 2 miles from my house so that makes it that much more convenient. They had 85+ Maximas when I got my SE Titanium Edition 3 months ago. And they dealer traded from Peruzzi as well. However, I just got the auto with no leather. Being a Realtor, hot black seats in the summer would be a no-no. The only thing I hate about them is that the first thing they do to a car when they get it in is to put a front license plate bracket on it. I made it VERY clear I did't want ANY bracket drilled into my new car. They had no problem. Give them a shout and see if they have what you want.

 

Yea, it bothers me too. THe sales manager kept promising help but never returned phone calls or made any calls to the service folks as promised, he was completely ineffectice. This after I actually over paid for the car. It's been a bad experience, I figured since I "thought" I was connected well I was getting a deal, and my mom's b-friend called me after talking to them and said "I hooked you up, $1 over invoice". Then they jacked that to $100 over invoice because it had to be driven to montgomeryville. I thought heck, they wouldn't take advantage of me... Well, I feel raped. My bad for relying on someone else to take care of me. I should have done more research and not even mentioned names.

I checked into dealer reviews here, in the Dealers & vendors section http://forums.maxima.org/forumdisplay.php?forumid=13

I just searched on the dealer name or town, some good info.

 

I think it's is going to be very hard to get a great deal on one now. Loaded 6spd SE's are gonna be hard to find from now on. Japan is NOT making any more 03's. If I were you I wouldn't wait I would use Nissan's site to find the car your looking for and go get it even if you have to drive a few hours. Otherwise start looking for used. As far as a deal goes it's supply & demand and the supply is low... So if you see a deal don't wait. Also if your looking for a auto you will have better luck there are way more autos out there. The 04 comes out in a month and a half so the autos will be moving fast and a deal can be had there.

 

Now I'm getting worried. I just called 5 dealerships in my area and they are telling me they don't have my car but can "try to obtain it."

This is bad. This is very bad.

Sounds stupid but there really is no other car that I want unless I'm willing to cough up more than 30G (I'm not willing) for a German car.

OH NO!

 

Cherry Hill Nissan
Rt 38 And Church Road
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002
Tel. (856) 667-8300
Fax (856) 667-2621

Your car hurry!

 

Here is another

And another

Hey I'm on a roll

Looks like there are a few.

Don't know what color your looking for but it seems there are a few in the Philly area. If one of these aren't it then use Nissans search utility.

 

Thanks maximaman - checking it out now.

I talked to a dealer today who said there is no car that matches my specs in a SIX HUNDRED mile radius. Come on....

 

They told me that too until I brought the inventory print out in from nissan's web site. build it there and track it down.

 

Hehe....dare I ASK who told you that?

These guys are pikers...they don't even call you back. I'm telling them that I want to buy a car - in the next 48 to 72 hours - and they don't call back?

 

It seems like the Max has a poor residual value. I guess that '04 really has an influence on such things. The new Accord has a smoking residual and can be had at a very competitive lease rate. Damn shame the sedan is so ugly and soft...I like the coupe. Hrm.