I bought my 04 Z from somewhere else and went there for 1st oil change. This is the letter I received from Stevens Creek Nissan today:

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Due to overwhelming response and large number of satisfied customers to the Stevens Creek Nissan Buyback Event in December, we have been approved to extend this offer for One Final weekend. SCN will again be offering special market pricing and financing for this limited event. Your status as a SCN customer qualified you for this special event.

We need to acquired several pre-owned Nissan 350zs by January 17th, 2004, in order to fulfill special manufacturer requests. You have been identified as an owner of one of these vehicles and our new car managers have been authorized to buy back your current vehicle.

We would like you to trade-in your current vehicle for any new 2003 or 2004 Nissan Model vehicle. With factory incentives at all time best and high trade-in values, we feel confident that with your approved credit you can make this transaction with little or no money down and with a monthly payment that fits your budget.
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our new car managers have been authorized to buy back your current vehicle. wtf? What SPECIAL manufacturer requests are they talking about?

 

That's just some dealer BS, they want you to buy a new car from them...
Why would you sell your 04' to them, then buy ANOTHER 04 or even 03?

 

I always thought that some of those letters were to secretly recall certain batches of vehicles without creating a lot of buzz or something... but what samw said makes sense.

 

Total dealer BS. Just another sales tactic to make you believe that you are getting some kind of deal while they are sticking it to you.

 

It's a scam. They're not "buying back" your vehicle, they're giving you a trade-in value for it towards the purchase of a new car.

Just call them up and tell them you'll go for this deal when they give you 100% of what you paid for the car, since that's what a buyback is. I'm willing to bet they hang up on you.

 

I too think this is the reason for offering a buy-back your Z. Doesn't make any sense any other reason why they would offer this...I don't get it???? Couldn't be dealer BS to get you to buy a new car when your's is already a '04???

 

I'm glad I run the Parts Dept. Sometimes I get embarrased when I see the things ours and other dealers send to customers to get new car sales!!

 

Your right!

 

hum... they are just down the street... let me drop by there and see if they'll "buyback" my 03 and trade me a 04 instead....
maybe the window streak will finally be fixed

 

Sales scam.

 

Stevens Creek Nissan is part of Sonic Automotive Incorporated, Sonic owns 187 dealerships in 15 U.S. states and Sonic has some of the worst dealerships in the U.S. Buyer beware.

"Dateline" caught Sonic salesmen engaging in such deceptive practices as adding unnecessary vehicle costs and inflating interest rates.



Charlotte-based auto dealership chain embroiled in controversy
PAUL NOWELL
Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The controversy engulfing Charlotte-based auto dealer Sonic Automotive isn't the first time car dealerships have come under fire for deceptive financing practices - and it certainly won't be the last.

What makes this case different is that it involves one of Charlotte's highest-profile and most successful corporate citizens.

With a personal fortune of $1.1 billion, Sonic chairman Bruton Smith is one of only five North Carolinians on Forbes magazine's list of 400 richest Americans. Under his leadership, Sonic has become one of the nation's largest publicly-owned dealership chains.

Smith isn't just an auto dealer, though. He's also a major player in stock-car racing, a sport that is effectively headquartered in the Charlotte region.

As majority owner of Speedway Motorsports, Smith operates some of the country's best known speedways including Lowe's Motor Speedway in nearby Concord, and tracks in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Fort Worth.

Earlier this month, NBC's "Dateline" magazine show aired a hidden-camera investigation of Sonic, which owns 187 dealerships in 15 U.S. states.

"Dateline" caught Sonic salesmen engaging in such deceptive practices as adding unnecessary vehicle costs and inflating interest rates.

The allegations were particularly damning in that some of the undercover footage was filmed at Sonic's flagship Town & Country Ford dealership in Charlotte - where Smith's office is located.

Smith declined a request by The Associated Press to be interviewed for this story, though Sonic spokesman Bill Steers delivered a statement on behalf of the company.

"At Sonic, we are committed to operating our business with the utmost integrity and to enforcing policies and procedures to ensure that our dealerships do the same," the statement said. "We do not condone any inappropriate conduct and when it comes to our attention we take prompt action to address it appropriately."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is taking a look at Sonic in light of the "Dateline" report, but his office stops short of calling their examination an investigation.

"We are looking into Sonic Automotive's sales practices and are currently reviewing the consumer complaints our office has received about Sonic dealerships," said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Cooper.

The attorney general has received more than 50 consumer complaints about Sonic dealerships in North Carolina, she said. The next step will be to contact Sonic dealerships involved in the complaints to get more details about the grievances and see how they were handled, Talley said.

Tom Bartholomy, president of Charlotte's Better Business Bureau, agreed that the complaints need to be checked out and either dismissed or more fully investigated.

"What happened happened, and there's no hiding it," said Bartholomy, who has been working with Sonic for almost a year to improve its training methods for sales associates. "The record is something they created themselves."

While Bartholomy said there has been a decline in consumer complaints to his office about Sonic Automotive, he said there was justification for "Dateline" to send in the hidden cameras.

"They (Sonic) purchased an awful lot of dealerships nationally and a lot of those dealerships had serious customer service problems and unsatisfactory records with the Better Business Bureau," he said.

He also added that Sonic's management has "stepped up to get old complaints taken care of to set things straight."

Sonic's 187 dealerships sold 230,897 cars and trucks at the retail level in 2002, according to the company's statement.

"Of those purchases, more than 99.4% were satisfactory to the customer," Sonic said. "In other words, they resulted in no complaints to our dealerships or to any third party. In addition, a full 92 percent of Sonic-owned dealerships earned a positive rating with the Better Business Bureau."

In the "Dateline" report, Town & Country Ford finance manager Eric Bird admitted he sought to get one customer's credit application approved by overstating her income. Bird also was shown later asking the customer to get her boss to lie about her income.

"Dateline" also showed a Town & Country Ford salesman telling the customer he would lower her monthly payments on a vehicle. What he did not explain was the fact that the length of the loan was being extended from five years to six years.

In its statement, Sonic said some problems highlighted by "Dateline" were true in the past but have been rectified.

"Sonic has instituted many significant controls and actions in the past two years in an effort to ensure that customers are being treated fairly in every transaction, every day," it said.

"While we believe that even one customer complaint is one too many, we attribute Sonic's overall success to our long-standing commitment to operating with the utmost of integrity and to enforcing the policies and procedures we have to ensure our dealerships do the same."

Sonic also said it intends to cooperate with the North Carolina Attorney General's office.

Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, said such deceptive practices are "pervasive." The group is asking for a criminal investigation by Cooper and attorneys general in other states into the allegations raised by the "Dateline" report.

"This is not an isolated case," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "It's probably more exaggerated than it was 15 or 20 years ago because we now have these mega-dealerships.

"One company can control 150 to 200 auto dealerships, which means all the forms and training are standardized," she said. "All the salesmen are trained to do things the same way. Anyone who doesn't want to go along is put in an awkward position."

Claybrook said the stakes are huge.

"These dealers often make $1,000 to $2,000 per customer," she said. "And there are bonuses, perks and cruises. The more they cheat people, the more money they make."

Marianne McInerney, president of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, a lobbying group in Washington, D.C. that represents thousands of auto dealerships across the country, said the "Dateline" report "unfairly indicted an entire industry."

"It was predatory in nature and not a fully balanced report," she said. "We're in a dangerous place when we start using behavior of a few people to implicate an entire industry."

McInerney said Sonic would be biting the hand that feeds it by not treating its customers fairly and honestly.

"Surveys show U.S. consumers are over 90 percent satisfied when purchasing a new automobile," she said. "So the report flies in the face of this."

Shares of Sonic Automotive were trading at $21.56 on Friday, down from their 52-week high of $29 a share on the New York Stock Exchange.

Transcript of "Dateline" report: http://dateline.msnbc.com/

Sonic corporate http://www.sonicautomotive.com

Public Citizen website: http://www.citizen.org/

 

Good (insightful) article.

One of my co-workers got a buyback notice on his Mitsu Eclipse. They fed him some line that the current style of his car was in high demand being that it was the first year run (his car body style is the current Eclipse on the market).

So they offered to buyback the car... in any case, he bit and now has a newer model year Eclipse in convertible. Sad... he didn't know that he got scammed and neither did I until reading this thread...

 

It is only a scam if you let it become one.

You can always go to the dealer and see what they will give you for your '03. If they give you a crappy trade-in price, then forget it. I agree that calling it a "buy-back" is misleading, since that implies that it is factory sponsored or some sort of official program. But in the end you just need to be aware of what you will be getting for your old car and what you will be spending for your new one.

Also, I saw that Dateline show where they were buying the cars. It really was nothing new, although they did interview people who were convinced that the dealerships actually altered paperwork after the people had signed everything. Also, they did show that finance dude trying to convince the chick to report a different income. But the entire show could be boiled down to the following: Most people are stupid.

The dealerships make their money on the gullible, trusting, naive, and inattentive. Just do your research before going to the dealer, figure out your OUT THE DOOR PRICE (so they can't add a bunch of hidden fees) and keep saying no and going to different dealers until someone agrees to the price you want to pay. As long as you are offering something between MSRP and invoice, you shouldn't have much of a problem.

-D'oh!

 

I got the same letter yesterday for my wife's Murano. I called them and they told me that they made a mistake on it, the letter was only for nissan cars 2002 and older. I think that is BS because the letter specifically said that they had to get some Muranos by January 17th, like the letter above.

 

No Sonic dealerships have been implicated in California for those kind of practices. All dealerships owned by large companies run independently. Because of their size they generaly do not condone bad practices. So don't let a few stores in North Carolina taint some stores in California becuse of who owns them. It all comes down to knowing what you are doing when comes to buying a car. Do your homework. If something dosent seam right then walk. Don't get caught up in " but I really want that car " mode. Some dealers offer better deals then others. Sonic dose not run their stores on a daily basis. The GM they hire does. If he/she makes a mess of it, I,m sure he/she will be 86ed. I bought my Z at Serramonte Nissan and their a Sonic store. I did my homework before I bought it though. The didn't try to jack me around or anything! I was in and out in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. And I didn't pay msrp.

 

got the same letter yesturday, and as Blue350zCali wifes letter was specific to the murano mine was specific to the Z. I also do not get why they would send it to me, trade an 04 for an 04? Right..

 

Hehe, I used to work there and I still got a letter. They also gave a date of January 17th. But they said "Nissan 350zs", not "Nissan 350Zs". *shakes head*

Glad the service department is still so good, though.