Last night I went to see the 2007 350z Nismo edition.  Basically it’s a Z with Nismo rims, bracing and shocks…and a ridiculous rice rocket nismo body kit.  It’s a limited edition release, and they’re really, really hard to find.  The dealer I went to had only one in, and it was parked in the middle of the showroom floor and plastered with ‘don’t touch’ signs.  As far as I know, this is the only one in the bay area.

So I went to take a look.  I’m kinda in the market for a car and I would jump on a good deal, but the Z seemed way out of my price range.

In any case, once I started talking to the sales guy, he said I wouldn’t even be able to test drive the car until we came close to an agreement - it only had 5 miles on it, and he wanted to keep it like that.

His first quote, $750 over 60 months, including my $22,000 trade in (-$13k financing) and $8,000 in cash.  That represents a $10,000 premium above sticker - supposedly because it’s so rare.

This was his moon shot, I guess.  Taking this deal would literally mean you’re giving away around $10k.

The sales guy brought the quote all nicely typed out in italics on a piece of paper with the nissan logo.  Then he broke out the 4 square to narrow down a ‘range.’

This is the thing though, the sales guy always asks you for your price range, because he will push up against that range as much as possible to milk you as much as possible.  It’s such a scam - I mean, what product is ever like that - even houses come with relatively structured payments.  Once he knows your range, you’ve showed your hand in a sense.  He makes it seem like he’s doing you a favor to bring the car within your price range, but all it does is enable him to take a larger cut.

In any case, I asked him to come back with some real figures, and we went back and forth for hours.  He was trying to f me two ways, once with the value of my trade in and a second time with the price of the car itself.  They quoted a low value for my trade in, and when I made a fuss about that they bumped up the trade in value, but added more on the other end.

After a couple hours, I was in the pit taking to the sales manager, who was actually a kid that looked 20 years old wearing a white NY yankees cap tilted to the side of his head and a big white t-shirt like jay-z.  No kidding.

So by this time, the sales guy is out of the loop, and we’re on the computer inputting numbers.  It’s down to a payment of $560 per month over 72 months, $0 down and $32,000 for my trade in.  Compare this to the original offer of $750 over 60 months with $8k down and you can see how much the initial quote was an effort to f me anally.

So far, I was solidly in the drivers seat, driving the numbers down, knowing that no matter what the car was still out of my price range.  I just wanted to see it, for god’s sake.

And then the sales manager took the keys, stepped in, gunned the engine in the showroom while the salesmen opened the big glass doors to the parking lot.  And I went for a ride.

The Z is low to the ground, and unlike the G35 is stiff.  You feel absolutely in control in every turn, and can feel the road cleanly.  That’s both a blessing and a curse - great for a fun, high powered drive, but impractical and a bit tiring for everyday use.

By this time though, it was past 10 and the roads near the dealership were abandoned.  And the car felt great.  It has 306 horsepower, but the car itself is small.  I don’t know a lot about cars, but I know this one had power beyond anything I had driven before.  I don’t know the official 0 to 60, but it felt like I got to 80mph in a couple seconds flat.

And so I balk.

Suddenly, the numbers that will force me into a life of top ramen 7 days a week seem reasonable.  So what, I’ll have to move to a dump and barely be able to pay for gas…but I’ll have the car, right?

So I give TJFKAK a call, and explain the details.  One thing about TJFKAK, she’s not cheap (except with PayPal fees), she’ll spend some money on some tech stuff, like a roomba, for example.

But she talked me out of it.  Thankfully.  And while I was talking to her, the remaining nissan sales people were watching me intently, knowing what was coming.  After all, how could someone who has not seen the car or driven it justify such an expense?  And that was the best part, she was informed of only the risks, and not the reward…and was therefore more rational.

So I walked.  And it was hard hard hard.  The pit boss with the yankees cap said if I went home to think about it he would add $4k back to the price of the car.  The salesmen crowded around me to tell me what a mistake I was making.  Pathetic.

But in any case, I feel like I learned a lot about negotiating tactics from this experience.  For one, give as little information as possible - the car is a piece of inventory that has a fixed cost - the dealer should be able to give numbers without committing you to anything.  They tried the line, “so if I can get you in such and such range, will you guarantee that we have a deal?” while sticking out a hand to shake.  Tell them to quote a price, and say your range is open.  And if they push back, call their bluff.

Another thing, they’ll always try to say something about your trade in that will reduce it’s value.  Scratches, blotches, a poor market.  It’s mostly BS - they can fix any scratches or dings for a fraction of what it would cost you to fix it, and unless your car has some major damage, there will always be a market for it.

And know that when they start off, they’re quoting you a ridiculous price - don’t even bother looking or considering it.  Send the sales guy straight back to the pit - he knows he’s coming at you with BS.

One thing though, I also recently test drove the new 2008 Scion XB, and with Scion, you have zero wiggle room.  You can get, maybe, a few hundred more on your trade in, but that’s it.  Since the Z was a higher value car, however, there was a lot more room for negotiation.

Anyway, fun experience.  The car was incredible.  I’m still thinking about it as I write.  And thanks to the reason and steady hand of TJFKAK.  She may think people break into her car to stash weed under the seat, but she does know a bum deal when she sees it.

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