I'm late to the game I know I know but yesterday was the first time I test drove a RevUp. Wanted to see if I could feel any performance differences between the 06 vs 07. Great car, sounds like its got a damn panther under the hood (grrrrrooooowwwwwlllll). Well todays task was to find an 07 at a different dealer. Got to the stealership and they had 0 07's. The first sales guy tells me "I heard the 07's have a supercharger.." I laughed and gave him the skinny on what I knew about the 07 vs 06 differences. Since they had no 07's he brings me to his "boss" who goes on to tell me that the 07's are not even out yet . I said well yes they are I've seen them with my own eyes. He says well their is no difference between the 07 and 06 so you might as well buy one of our 06's. So I'm thinking like a smart *** (If they are not out yet how do you know there is no difference). After I left I was thinking I shoulda challenged him to a bet. I'm willing to bet you an 07 350z that their is a difference, you win I buy you one if and you lose you buy me one. Dammit!! the one that got away . These guys both had me rollin. Its not like there is a Nissan website or anything that has the info there for all the world to read about.

 

You have to remember the life cycle of a car salesman is very very short. Most of them rely on 90% bs and 10% product knowledge. To the average consumer, they only care about the color, looks, and options so it doesn't matter. Out of all the dealerships and countless encounters, I've only met one guy that's been on top of his stuff.

 

well, the honda salesman couldn't get the top to open yesterday when I went for a test drive. lol

 

yo man.....dont know where your located at......but if u need any info.....or wana test drive another 07......PM me.....we can set something up!!! good luck on the journey 2 get your Z

 

If ya want to shut him up ask him if he is the "closer". The first salesguy will be the guy that tries to get you to see the closer. Usually, the guys out front are the guys that suck at closing.... IOWs, they ain't got no skills. So when you ask him if he's da "closer", its kinda deflating to their ego cuz you're lettin him know indirectly you're onto their game and you know he really sucks. A couple weeks ago, I had some warranty work done at the dealer & the salesman was chattin me up & tellin me how he saw the new 07 270hp Altima go 160mph (no limiter?) so I asked him if he was a "closer" and he was all "whaa?... how do you know?..." and then admitted he was not a closer. No more BS.

 

Its just as bad here. The sales guys don't know squat about the Z's. Besides, as soon as they find out you aren't willing to buy anything they drop you like your hot! Last time i talked to a sales rep, he couldnt tell me ANYTHING about the 07 z i was looking at, besides it had chrome rims and 300+ hp. He also gave me this crazy look when i talked about clear bra'ing the front and he was like "why would you go and do a stupid thing like that?". I cant stand salesmen!

Oh, and not even starting on the price rape they try to pull...

 

As I agree with most everything you and others are saying, you can't blame them for dropping you once they know you are not buying. These guys work on comission only. They don't make a sale they don't get paid. While he's bsing around with you talking about clear bras and numbers/stats about the Z, a buying customer could be walking in the door to the next sales guy. Yeah we can talk all we want about Pre qualifying but that's just the nature of the beast. I too just wish they would at least get their info straight.

 

Just FYI, a professional car salesman NEVER believes "...you are not buying", no matter what you tell them. Their attitude is anyone who walks into a delership is a potential buyer. As I've heard more than one saleman comment, "they didn't come in here to buy a hamburger"

bill

 

What I really luv about some of these guys is the way that they try to discredit the power of the internet. Whenever I've ever taken my quotes on trade in value from the net, I've had more than one salesperson tell me "let the internet buy it."

 

Well, I can't really disagree with that. Your trade-in is only worth what some will actually pay for it.

You can get lots of numbers off the internet, but they are meaningless unless someone backs it up with cash.

bill

 

Sure, but the same information regarding what MSRP is for any automoble and invoice prices can also be found. Dealers will use this information as gospel or whenever its convenient. And as far as using internet info for private sales or trade in value by customers, most dealers know what they can get for most any used car, they give u a line of crap about let the internet buy from is a farce and used @ their discretion just to low ball u.

 

i guess i'm in somewhat of a different norm b/c i'm in the infiniti market where it's twice as much product knowledge and sales skills here. but again most of you know i'm knowledge on most cars out there. i KNOW a lot of sales man don't know the product and just BS which is the stereotype

 

Actually in talking to a employee my dad knows at the nissan dealership i was talking about, she said the salesmen there actually arn't on commission but get a huge boost in pay depending what they sell. Otherwise they get paid a flat rate. I can see if they wanted to get on to trying to sell cars to other people but when i was there, there was not one person on the lot besides me and another man that was already taken care of by another salesman.

 

Also with trade ins most dealers factor in their extra charges.
$xxx for a full details
$xxx amount for a inspection
$xxx for new tires
$xxx for tranny flush

and so on. I worked at a dealership for a few years detailing carss and learned alot about the sales business. Although some salesman dont know their stuff, others really do. Im an automotive engineer and I could shoot the sh*t talking to a couple sales guys about cars for hours. For the most part its the new salesman who dont know jack about their product or cars in general. I can remember one instance where a new sales guy didn't know what I was going to school for and insisted that diesel trucks had spark plugs...honestly what was he thinking.

 

I agree with Jim. most know a lot about the cars they sell and a few dont. i have good friends that run the nissan dealership down here and in all honesty i know more about the 07 Z than they do. Nissans education is slower than the the information we get on the forum.

When I sold cars (dodge) the only product i would ever get good engine questions on were the diesel rams. did i know how much hp the grand caravan had? no, but i knew how many cupholders it had.

 

Back in 2000 when I bought my previous car before the Z I was shopping around at 5-6 different dealerships. At all 5 of the dealerships, after inquiring about a car, i was told "Ya, the previous owner was a woman who gave birth to twins and needed a 4 door." Exact same story, 5 different dealships....

The real kicker is a couple years before that i was car shopping and kept getting fed the story "Ya the prev owner was a women who had a kid and needed more room."

20 year previous owner BS timeline

"Grandmother, only used it to go the church" > "Woman had a kid" > "Woman had twins"

soon it'll be "woman had triplets"..........."woman had octtuplets"........"man needed room for his clones"......

 

sounds better than
" we just got it at auction and have no idea where it came from"
"we picked this one up from the rental agency"
" the last owner got in over his head and we had to put him in a honda"

 

 

I worked as a salesman for about 6 months and just from reading some of the posts on this thread and others, I can say there are a lot of misconceptions about how a dealership actually operates.

It's true that most sales people don't know jack about the cars they sell. They are usually encouraged to learn, but there's never any test to make sure you know your stuff. Most sales people don't stay at any one dealership for a long time either, and a lot of sales people you will talk to have sold Fords, Hondas, Chevys... you name it. So there's never any incentive to learn the cars since they'll probably be somewhere else in a few months. The grass is always greener on the other side.

For most customers you really only need to know a basic knowledge to get by. Like someone said earlier, most customers care about how the car looks, how it fits them and how it drives. Some also care about mileage and safety, but a salesman can pull that info right off the window sticker. If that's all they care about, it should be no problem finding them a car. Selling is more about building trust, a good relationship and making the customer feel comfortable. That's just basic people skills.

The dealership is in the business of making money. To make the most money, you have to buy low and sell high. That means giving you low value for your trade in so they can make a profit on it when they resell it, and mark the new car up so they can get a considerable amount over what they paid for it.

It's like a game of Blackjack. The dealers have the slight advantage, and they know how to exploit that advantage. They do it multiple times a day and the model has worked forever, so they're pretty good at it. Hence the reason there's so much money in it. But if you go in there like a reasonable person, not try to be a dick you can actually get them on your side, and have them working like an agent for you.

Know what you want when you go in there. If you can show the sales people that you know more then they do, you will gain some of your advantage back. Also if you don't try to be a dick and be fair about the price, you'll have a better experience. The dealer isn't in business to hand cars out. There's no money in that. I don't recommend paying the marked up price, but MSRP is usually a fair price. The dealer still makes anywhere from $1K to $2K profit. If you go in there trying to get a car at invoice, then don't expect much for your trade in. They gotta make the deal worth it for them some how...

 

If a salesman was that up-front with me, I would buy something from him.