A 350Z is not ordered from the factory like an American made car. When the order is placed, the Nissan zone office attempts to route one to your dealer as they are received from Japan. There is no way the dealer can predict when this will happen. The car you order is not built to your specs in Japan and shipped here! When you order a Chrysler, Chev, etc. the order is placed with the factory and the car is built to your specs with your name on the sticker. AN honest dealer will verify this.

 

But there are no honest dealers.

 

Promike, how do you know this information? This is the first time in my life I have ever heard of this. And the thought of it makes me want to head down to my local dealer with a mini-gun and about a thousand rounds.

 

Blue Liquid, I have had 5 z's over the years starting with the 260Z. I am getting ready to buy another. This was explained to me by an honest dealer many years ago. I confirmed this info with a dealer that I am getting ready to buy this one from while sitting in his office ********ting about the car business. He has been seling them for 22 years and I have been buying them for close to 40. You can take it to the bank. When you "order" a Z the dealer has taken you out of the market. In other words you are no longer looking to buy a car, because you think that you have one coming and you probably do, eventually. The rest is ********. It stops you from visiting another dealer. I thought that I had ordered a 300Z turbo when they first came out until an honest dealer explained the facts.

 

I had called a dealer back in may and told him i wanted a 2004 and i want to order and he asked me what model color and options and he said i will order when it that time was possible to order 2004 and on june 9th he said i placed order he called me and confirmed and said 90 days so two weeks ago he calls and says your car is hee come get it
i paid 1300 over invoice butguess what these cars get the money the dealers what for them so i said all well pay up if you want the car and i did i tried to haggle and told him you already making hold back which 900 on my car so in reality he made 2200 but if u look at it other way they are allowed thats why they are in business........but the kicker was i never put no money down never negotiated a price and he ordered as he said but remmember all sales people are crooks thats the way it is.

but what i want to say is dont bother with that dealership becase they lied to you pal and reason is they are not makin enough on you so they sold to someones else just pay a bit more and you will get what you want...whats the difference you already will be paying a few thousand just pay a bit more

my 2 cents

 

cant even write and talking bs about car dealerships.

 

I called several dealers over the weekend. Just got the deal settled on 04' SS Performance model at invoice. $29.4k+TTL
They are sending someone here early tomorrow to pick me up and send me to the dealer. The salesperson even faxed me the quote.
pretty cool deal eh?

 

I just went to my local dealer yesterday looking for an 04 enth, which they did not have(in dat blue). I asked how long it took if I ordered one...wondering what there response would be after reading this thread. They said 1-2 days. After asking more questions, they said if any dealer within a few hundred miles had one, someone would DRIVE it to them. I told them that sounded strange (would that then be a used car?). Sure the kid that drove it would not care about proper break-in procedures, etc... Does that sound right? Anyone else get that story? Thanks!

 

Wow that is a great deal. You Cali folks are lucky. I was going to be getting $30k for the 04 Perf and this was a huge favor since my family bought 3 cars from them since 2000 (small dealership). I have never seen a deal that good in the Northeast. Maybe being near major cities (New York and Boston) is not helping my cause.

Update on my situation is I got the GM of the dealer to let me re-order a 2004 track model for $500 over invoice (I can afford it now that I will be waiting another 3 months ). We'll see if they screw up this order. If so maybe I'll fly out the cali and get a car!

 

Dealers trade/exchange inventory like that all the time.. its not uncommon to have a dealer 'search' for a car in the immediate area to meet your spec, find it, and either buy or trade the dealer for that car. Its an arrangement for the dealers so they in the long run help each other out.. rather then loose custmers.

What the other guy said about ordering.. dunno.. but this is how its been explained for the 350z. Each dealer has one day a month (during a specific week) where they place their orders. Each dealer has an allotment they can order up to. When you 'order' a car, that is what you are doing, getting your spec into their ordering allotment. If you are truely ordering, there is an order number that goes along with it, which NNA can track with, and as the car is built, and ready for shipment from Japan, at that time a VIN number is allocated and available. If you keep on top of your dealer, and follow those two pieces of information.. you will not have these mix-ups. Of course tho the sales guy doesn't usually track to this detail. And yes, there are regular updates of the status of their incoming inventory.. shipment dates slip, etc. But once you have a VIN, YOU HAVE A CAR in transit.

Where people tend to get screwed is a dealer will take an order, with no allotment space for the order! So your car ordered this month may not go into the next order.. it may slip a cycle or two. Many early Z purchases got screwed up like that.. that why it was important to chase an order number.. that way you knew for sure your order was placed, and you could track with NNA and by-pass the dealer if they were giving you crap answers.

Now, upstream from the dealer, NNA may try to shift inventory to meet dealer's orders, rather then factory build.. but during the pre-order time, and early in the Z build, every 'order' was from the factory, which gave long waits. If I recall, typically it was even 4-6 weeks AFTER you got the VIN.

 

For anyone wondering about order numbers you CAN get one. Push your dealer and don't take the line that one does not exist. After my fiasco and talking to the GM at my dealer I had them print out the computer screen they used to order my car. Included is a spec of the car you ordered with options and an order number. I plan on following up with nissan consumer affairs in the coming weeks to make sure everything goes smoothly this time around. Tack on 3 more months of waiting for me...

 

So after 100 days of waiting I finally get the call that my car is in. I show up at the dealership and they inform me that while they ordered me a 2003, what they got was a 2004. I would have to pay an extra $400 or walk away. This dealership was so firm on that $400, they wouldn't budge, even though I signed for a 2003 at a specific price. Otherwise, they would search for a 2003 at some dealer somewhere, probably taking at least another month or more to find exactly what I want. So after some discussion with my brother, I gave in a bought it anyway. These dealers are so screwed up, nobody could track my car, nobody knew when it would show up, and when it finally does show up, it's the wrong model year. It's not that I'm pissed I had to spend an axtra $400 (after all, I did get a 04 instead of an 03 for only $400 more) it's that they would rather lose a customer than stick to the original deal. I'm just surprised a dealership would leave a customer with a bad taste in their mouth for $400, which for a large dealership chain seems like chump change.

 

I've walked away from deals where the dealer swore that he was only making $100. He said that only gave the salesman $50 and the dealership $50. However, after two weeks and several calls they had come off of the price another $200. Go figure.

 

They never specifically ordered you a car then.. they've been BS'ing you the entire time. You may have been spoken for, but never had a true order in.. Call NNA and complain too.

 

They call it "Consumer Affairs" because the guys there go around screwing consumers all day.

My experience with Nissan Consumer Affairs consisted of my calling them to complain about the Bose System not having any bass............they told me no one else had lodged a complaint about this and to call my dealer. What bull crap........there are hundreds of posts on the various Z forums about this issue.......am I supposed to believe I was the ONLY one to call consumer affairs about it? The Bose customer affairs division, while not doing anything about the problem at least had the honesty to admit the system is not up to their standards.

As far as chroming wheels goes, the cost is normally around $500 to $600 dollars. Several places do this type of work as a speciallty. I am gong to have mine chromed at California Chroming.

Hope you get the car you want at the price you want.......but from a different dealer. Do an inventory search on NissanUSA.......maybe there is one sitting there for you at a dealer a town or two over.

Wedge

 

jhchan If you are going to drive all the way to NY to get a car stop by Jerry Rome Nissan in West Springfield MA (right off the Mass pike). I got my car there and they treat me like a king. Talk to the GM. I forget his name but I can find out if you are interested.

KJ

 

KJ,

Thanks for the offer but my order went in along with my now $1000 non-refundable (unless they screw up again) deposit for my track model. I don't think anyone could get me $600 over invoice anyway.

What kind of price did you get on yours? I have a couple friends who will be getting a Z in the next year probably.

 

Those that have successfully been able to track their order given the order number, was this through consumer affairs or directly through the dealer? Or other? Consumer affairs said that they have no such power to get this type of information. Of course I can keep calling the dealer but we all know how that goes...

Thanks,

 

NNA will always push you to the dealer unless you can convince them the dealer has not been helpful or is out of line. The right people there will and can help you if you have a VIN or an order number.

During the pre-order process we got alot more attention, but the mechanisms are still the same.

 

I preordered mine ('03) so I am not sure what they are looking for on an '04. I was just telling you that I had good luck with them.