My girlfriend is in the market for a new automobile, well maybe not brand new but new to her anyway. Her 2001 Oldsmobile Alero has pretty much given her all it can. LOL! She is in love with Nissan's product line and really likes the Maximas (2004-Present body style), Altimas (2002-Present body style), and Muranos. She is wanting to keep her payment between $200-300 per month, not including insurance. She does not require anything special such as GPS, specialized wheels, etc. Now I am not necessarily looking for advice on where to go but if you have any information about places please feel free to share. I would definitely like advice on things like are Nissans a good make of vehicle from your own personal experiences? What are some things we should look out for when buying a car, especially program or used? I have never went through the process of buying a car so I am needing some pointers. Any and all information is welcome. Thanks!
Don't trust a car salesman. They are taught to rape you and make you feel so good about it that you tell other people who good it felt to get raped by them.
Don't trust any car salesman exactly. Make sure you know how much you're going to spend before entering their office. Bring a laptop with spreadsheet or calculator. Car salesmen and finance officer are trained in hell.
Don't let them start talking about monthly payments keep to talking about over all price. When you start talking about monthly payments it is easier for them to squeeze out say 10-15 dollars more a month out of you even though in reality it represents a big push on the total price. Also they will ask you what type of price range are you looking to pay. Don't give it to them either on the total payment or on the monthly payment. That gives them leverage in negotiation. Don't buy any of their warranties. It's cheaper to get them through your bank or credit union. Preferably credit union. Most cases financing through a credit union will get you a better percentage. But if you are getting a new vehicle and the dealer is say giving a cash back deal if you finance through them then go ahead and finance through them. Then just go refinance the next week with your credit union.
I purchased a brand new 08 Altima at the end of the summer. My payment is ~370 over 5 years. Just from that I would think that you could find a used one for less than 300 over that same time frame. Car is awesome, I've put 15,000 mi. on it in the last 5 months and have had absolutely no problems. Get around 28-30 mpg with about half the miles coming on the interstate and the other half sitting in traffic to and from work daily.
Make sure you're free that entire day you go car shopping. The longer you haggle with a salesman, the more likely he will try to lower your price since he doesn't want to waste 2-4 hours with a customer and have them leave. So take up much of his time as possible: go on test drives, look at different trims and their prices, take a look at the different colors. If all goes well, and he's constantly going back and forth with his sale manager on the price, you'll get a good deal. Try to start with the lowest price possible (invoice) and then move your way up. Even if they give you a starting offer you can still cut it down. Say you want a car of MSRP 20k. Ask 15k "invoice", they'll counter offer some BS like 19.5k but you say that's too high. Remember this is after you've taken up about 1-2 hrs of his time. Give him an ultimatum like I can't pay more than 17.5k. Either he tells you to get another car, in which you walk out of there or he'll ask the sale manager again. It also helps to know how well the car your buying is doing on the market. Since luxury's have more demand, they will be harder to haggle than say a civic or camry. Finally, put down the biggest down payment you can afford. Also, finance for 3 yrs only if you can. You will tend to get better interest rates. Man, your oldsmobile is already giving out after 7 years? Time to change to Japanese. I know it's one of the poorer quality companies but that's turrible...
Go at the end of the month, towards the end of the day (or closing time at the dealership) and don't "payment shop." In other words, don't tell them where you want your payment to be. Tell them where you want the price of the vehicle to be...the payment will follow. Also, be armed with some basic info. you can get on Edmund's or Kelley Blue Book. Never pay more than $300 over invoice price for a new vehicle.
Save the money up and buy the car instead of financing at some high interest rate. Ask for the sticker invoice price and pay that. Getting a high interest rate no matter how cheap your payments are is a great way to lose your money. If you get a loan, try using a credit union instead of a dealshiip bank.
I concur, I concur, I concur. Use Edmunds.com if you are buying a new car to get different dealers to haggle with each other. Did this with a friend when I bought my 2007 Honda Civic EX.
I had an '02 Altima, and as long as you never need parts for the manual transmission it was great. Spending near four months waiting for the parts was not great.
I think the fact that there are so few Altimas with manual transmissions sold is a big part of the reason why parts were so hard to come by. I had no problems with any of the other parts of the car.
Don't know about Nissan's personally...except that my mother owns an Xterra (which has treated her pretty well)...and I've become a toyota man myself. But I will say this...you can be a complete hard ass in the negotiating process, but if you are not completely diligent from the moment you walk in to the moment you drive away, they will find a away to squeeze you. I was so happy that I negotiated a great price for the wife's corrolla S, but got screwed on the financing (I totally f***ed that up and I knew it). Luckily I got refinanced the very next day through USAA, so all is well (aside from the fact that I still had to pay for the extended warranty, which the dealer slipped in under my nose). Here's a question though...is GAP insurance really worth it or is it just another way to screw you? I had hear of it vaguely before, but wasn't too sure if it was beneficial in any way.
