Nissan ended it's pre-orders in June, some dealers were allowed to fill up their pre-order slots if they had any, which at max was till Mid-July or so. Anyone who ordered after Mid-July and was told it will be "pre-ordered", was telling half truth, and half lie. The lie is that it's techinally not a "pre-order", and it can be sold with a mark up, were the REAL pre-orders can't be with a mark up, unless being re-sold due to cancellation. The truth to this is that each dealership is allowed to request (allocate) a certine ammound of Z's, the places which sell more cars gets more Z's, some might get 1 a month, some might get 15. Now if you "ordered" after mid-july and on, it's pretty sure yours isn't a Pre-Order, it's a allocation they reseverd, so in the coming months when they receive a quote from nissan telling them how many they can order, they will put your spec's and wants down into their allocation, and get it for you. The main difference is a pre-order was sent right away, an allocation is sent when Nissan tell them "Okay you can order 3, which 3 do you want?".. which can be in a week, 2, maybe even a month.

I'm 99% sure this is accurate, but if I am slightly wrong, sorry.

 

good post but there are dealerships who sold their preorders ove msrp. when nna was told about the ones here in nashville they said "so what? i paid $8k over msrp for my vw beatle."

 

I spoke with an individual from Nissan today since I just put in an order in September. You are absolutely correct. Basically the dealership gets an assigned allocation for a given month say 10. If you are 30th on their list you will be 3 months from the given allocation. I ordered in September -- I may receive a car in December. The reason I say "may" is that Nissan is now mass production the car. If they are not producing the given color and model you may wait longer. If you are asking for extra options-- Side airbags etc., you may not get them or vice versa, "your car" may have thing you didn't ask for i.e. floor mats. That is because they are sending cars that closely fit the description that the dealership asks yet still mass producing the cars. This is the information I extracted from a conversation on 9/16/02 from a rep at the 800 number from the nissanusa "contact info" section of the web. So in short, I may receive my exact car in December or the same color and model with a few variations from what I asked or I may get it in November or January. The reason the dealership states 3 months is because that is the typical amount of time needed to search Nissan's inventories for a car to "match" what is asked of by the dealer.

 

You're way wrong...Nissan cannot legally dictate what their dealers, which are INDEPENDENT businesses, can charge their customers.

 

That is true, that is why it is called Manufactor SUGGESTED Retail Price, but the pre-orders were sold at MSRP, well, most dealers did. There are very few that did mark up's on the pre-orders.. So yeah, I'm wrong on that aspect, some dealers did mark up on pre-order, and I feel for you if you were one of those people, because I bet 99% of pre-orders were sold at MSRP.

 

No, I'm not one of those people...I'm quite happy w/ my S2000, but have been very impressed by the 350Z's I've seen so far, as well as my brief ride in one.

I'll likely wait another year or two for prices to come down and for my S2000's depreciation curve to flatten...I want one, but am in no hurry since driving an S2000 is a blast as well.

 

I was told that if a person cancels or backs out of a "request" as I mentioned earlier, the dealer can sell it for what ever price they can get "open market". If it is not true, the dealers are telling the wrong story consistantly. I was told I will get mine at MSRP and had to put $1K. If I back out they give me the money back"refundable" and they can now sell it for what ever price one is willing to by it for.

 

According to the NNA rep we spoke to today (09-16) the 350Z is not in mass production. they still have not built all the pre orders yet! He could not tell us why our pre order car (May pre-order confirmed by NNA in June) has not been built but he did state the production cars will not be available till Jan or Feb. One thing that troubles me is, I was told my car was to have been built back in Aug for a Sept/oct delivery. I have read so many conflicting stories on this site and heard so many stories as to when cars are to be delivered i dont know what to think! I will say this if you want a new 350Z and did not per order check around as there seem to be dealers that will sell cancled pre orders at msrp.

 

As stated earlier...
Nissan dealers can charge whatever they want for pre-order, normal orders, inventory, etc...

Any attempt by NNA to dictate pricing could get them in hot water w/ the Justice Dept. NNA has encouraged dealers not to mark up prices, but has no authority to control them.