I'm currently in the market for a 5-speed 4x4 XE with only the Enthusiast Package -- nothing more, although I would've paid for a few other options if I had to.

Having read a positive review of Austin's South Point Nissan on this BBS, I had someone who works near South Point drop by to see what price they'd sell a 5M 4x4 XE w/the Enthusiast package for, and they were given a price of $21,162, exactly $300 above invoice. It wasn't the best deal in the world, but it didn't really seem that bad either, so I went in to get the process started. When I went in, I was initially given the same price, so I sat down to work out the details. This is where it started to go downhill. Not having much free time, I had to split the process up over a week or so and made several trips to the dealership (dealt with the same guy). Unfortunately, many "inconsistencies" popped up during this week.

The first was the price. His first trick was to tell me that his initial offer of $21,162 WAS invoice ("we're selling it at cost," which would've been b.s. even if the price had actually been invoice), despite the fact that the published invoice for that model is $20,862. When confronted with that fact, he attempted to justify the difference by citing "advertising" costs. While they may actually have legitimate advertising costs, the $200 figure he gave for advertising didn't explain the other $100 that had been tacked on. Then came his deception over the issue of holdbacks (holdback on the X is 3% of invoice). Despite the fact that sites like Edmunds have detailed explanations of the holdback process available to the general public, this long-time (according to him) car dealer claimed that he'd never heard of a holdback ("I'm not holding anything back, ha ha"). By the end of the week, he knew enough about them to assure me that he didn't see a penny of it, as it's used to "keep the lights on," etc. I expected to be lied to, so this didn't really kill the deal. What did kill it were the fees they tried to tack on to the original $21,162 figure. Among them, an attempt to charge me for rubber floor mats (which are INCLUDED in the Enthusiast Package) and accessories such as the in-cabin microfilter, side moldings, and the protection package. In addition to these "mandatory" accessories that were not mentioned in the beginning came some previously unmentioned fees -- they wanted an additional $200 so they could make a "nominal profit on the deal" (apparently they no longer wanted to sell it "at cost," even though their original offer was probably about $900 over actual cost) and $150 to pull an acceptable model from another lot. Needless to say, these $300 worth of fees were not mentioned when the original quote was made. The $150 fee I just mentioned changed greatly over the week and even over the span of a half-hour. It started as $100, and went up from there. By the end, the $21,162 had grown to about $21,800, so South Point lost the sale. Realistically, had they not jerked me around on the price, I would've paid more than their original quote for the X, but after being lied to over-and-over again (another good one was his early claim that he wouldn't receive a commission on the sale, and that he'd dumped his previous six-figure job for his current measly $40k job because of the wonderful nature of the dealership) , subjected to the lame "good cop bad cop" routine, being subjected to bait-and-switch, the deception over the fees, etc. I'd rather go out of town than do business with South Point.

Yeah, salesmen are famous for mysterious "invoice" prices and tacking on fees. When I bought my 2001, I opened the discussion by telling the salesman I would pay 2% over invoice. He went to speak to the sales manager and came back with a figure that was 2% over MSRP! I let him know right away that invoice did not equal MSRP. Later as we discussed the deal, he started the "advertising fee" pitch. But I prevailed and got the truck at the price I wanted. You just have to hold their feet to the fire.

Yeah, I've also had bad experiences with South Point. It's always so funny to walk into their parts department and notice that "satisfaction report card" or whatever it's called and see that South Point is something like 96% satisfied.
My problem was that I had ordered touch-up paint, and they promtly told me that it would be in in about 1-2 days, and they would notify me to let me know when it would be in to pick up. 2 months pass and I never recieved a notification from them, so I finally called them, and they told me that they were "so shocked" that no one had called to notify me that it was ready. Then when I went to pick it up, they couldn't find it, and after about 10 mins. they found one.
And they also were going to charge me 70$+ to take off a two bolts attached to the front tow hook. Uh...can you say drove to East Austin for that???(paid 5$ :-))
Hm....

Advertising fees are crap. Do you realize that after you buy the vehicle from there, their dealership name they put on the back of your vehicle is a form of advertising? They should be paying you. You should argue that point with them.

Click on edit and delete the duplicate posts.

Yeah, all them license plate frames modivate me to go buy a Brand New $30,000 ride
:rolleyes:

The advertising fee's are tacked on by the Nissan Region for just that, Advertising. The dealers due their own advertising and Nissan also does regional & national advertising. Guess what, none of it is free.

Are some of the salesman and/or dealers crooks, liers, thiefs, jackoff's and just plain bad story tellers? Sure. Now what. You go in expecting all of this bullshit and make your best deal. If you don't like the deal, don't buy. Seem's pretty simple. How much price comparing due you due for tires or even something as simple as gas. Gas station on one corner is .02 cheaper per gallon then the one on the other corner so you make a U-turn and go to the cheaper station. Guess what, you just saved .36¢, BFD. But it was YOUR choice.

Simple Americana free trade.

AMEN!!