I'm going to buy a 350Z in the Spring (March or April), my question to you good people is, should I go ahead and place an order now (I'm seeing that it takes about 2-3 months for orders to pan out) or should I wait and just shop around when I'm ready?

 

shop around when ready. They aren't a limited production, and if you order now, you will almost surely have to pay msrp.

 

I would say it depends on what kind of price you can get on an order. I started looking around and was able to find several Zs in inventory for anywhere from $1000 under MSRP down to what I am paying...$2614 off of list ($891 over invoice).

This may be end of year inventory discounts, the fact that car sales are slow this time of year, and cold climate dealers probably are wanting to keep their allocation up for warmer times, when RWD sports cars sell better. It may be hard to find deals in the future, but I suspect sub MSRP will soon become much more common.

If you are ordering a common color/option package (touring seems to be the most common right now), you probably wouldn't be risking much to wait. I guess if you are wanting either side airbags or NAV, you might be safer off ordering either. The rest of the option list is easily added later.

Just MHO.

 

Most of the deposits put down when ordering are refundable right? So in theory I could order one now, and if I am able to take one off a lot before I get my order I could get my money back. I think I might take this route.

 

just make sure its in the contract, and READ ANYTHING you sign. VERY carefully, they can screw you over, dont trust what they say.

 

Trust me, I've heard enough horror stories on this site, I'd definately get a contract. Theres actually a guy who posts on this board (BricksZ) thats a dealer down here. I'll probably order through him. He seems like a decent guy.

 

Would order if you really want the factory NAV as I've heard that only a small fraction of Z's being manufactured have this option installed. Other than that, you should be able to find what you want. Good luck!

 

No NAV needed. I'm looking at the Base or Enth. models. Anyone think these will be hard to come by in March?

 

The best way to find out when you might get your car is to find out where in the dealer allocation you will fall. If you order from a small allocation dealer that has a lot of orders then you will end up waiting a lot longer than others that ordered at the same time that you did.

 

Slareau02 thats a good point. I'll be sure to talk to my dealer to find out what kind of wait list they've accumulated. I'm in a pretty big market though (WPB/Miami) so dealers here can probably order quite a few cars per month. I'll have to check.