¿GotJazz?

How did you find the Infiniti sales management staff?

When it got down to the closing of the deal on a 2004 G35, I was introduced to the sales manager at the dealership. While I enjoyed the Infiniti shopping experience up until this point, it all went crashing downhill once I met the sales manager.

Shopping at the Lexus and Acura dealerships in town, I found that I could get a reasonable price quote from all the sales staff. THe Infiniti dealer, however, was like going to a sleasy Ford or GM dealer. Instead of quoting me a reasonable price, I got the "Make me an offer" shtick from the sales manager. When I told him that he should make me his best offer, and that I would go with whichever dealer had the lowest price, he refused to give me a price and said that I was unwilling to make a reasonable offer to him.

Things got ugly pretty quickly after that.

Sigh.

Did anyone else find this to be a Infiniti-specific characteristic like I did, or was I just lucky with the other manufacturers / dealerships?

¿GotJazz?

ColdFusionTL

I wanted to trade my 03 TLS for an 04 TL but didnt end up doing so because the sales manager at the acura dealership was a total b*tch and i decided not to get the TL. I got a G35 coupe instead. Maybe its just the infiniti dealership you went to. When i was shopping for my car, i went to 2 infiniti dealerships and they were very nice and answered all the questions i had

adam209

since they're all independently owned, it really depends on who you go to. there will always be bad apples in the bunch.

Jss1

I didn't have a problem with the dealership, just the build quality of the interior. No matter how good it looked on the outside, I still had to live in the inside which I wasn't prepared to do for over $50k CAD. There weren't any deals when I was looking at the G35 sedan earlier in the year. No regrets here.

adam209

the G's interior looks really cheap but i LOVE the body style. TL's interior + G's looks = happy me

Motavar

I think all car dealers are shadey. First Acura dealership I went to... the sales guy got up from the table and walked away from me and told me to come back when I was ready to deal. This guy was an obvious ass as it was my second time there to deal with him but he wouldn't budge at all from MSRP for the car. He was wasting my time.

I left, went to another dealership the next day, got the car and drove it home in about.. 2 hours.

Next day after I had the new car.. the annoying sales guy from the first dealership calls me up asking me to come in again for a 3rd time. *whatever*

While I really really wanted to hate Acura I just shrugged it off and realized these guys are just car salesmen. I actually feel sorry for them now.

What this has to do with the G35 I don't know. But I was bored and felt like typing. Ooh please feel free to flame me if you are into car sales.

rets

Yes, I will think it's onwership's problem.

Going to Acura dealer in Queens on the end of Sep, my friend was trying to make an appointment for test-drive. The saleman came to us, and said we had to make $1k refundable deposit in order to have the early test-drive after the offical day.

He mentioned all ppl on their list having put the deposit and pre-order the cars, they have sold out all they have on October.

I then asked how much it is, he gave me MSRP plus $2k, and insisted the dealer has right to increase the price while this new car is HOT. My friend said he likes to take a look first before making any decision. That sale guy walked away.

So did we.

That's the only dealership in the world ever telling me price more than MSRP.

adam209

there are alot of dealers around here in cali that mark up cars for no reason. the funniest sh!t i think i ever saw was when i went with a friend to look at a hyundai tiburon. they had soooo many hyundai's there and every single one was marked above msrp. we asked why and they said because eventually they'll move them at that price. i think it's so that when you negotiate it'll make it seem like you're getting a good deal getting msrp.

¿GotJazz?

This is good to know. I've been steering as many of my friends away as I can from Infiniti because of the bad experience. (There was yelling on both sides, and I was loudly using some language that would have resulted in my mouth being washed out when I was a kid.)

My blood pressure's rising just thinking about it again.

I guess that maybe it was more general manager-related than manufacturer-related. I really would like to keep my friends from going there. I would be nice to call the general manager up from time to time, and let him know that I kept him from even having a chance at another sale. It's probably the only way that they may change their sales policies.

¿GotJazz?

adam209

as much as you want to try it might not hurt them. however, i do remember that dealership in arizona that got a bad rep because of the internet. so maybe the dealership name on here will get word of mouth going and maybe do what happened to the other dealership.

Formula 350

This person does not care. It is the owner you need to talk too. However, even with that they are probably making more money doing it this was than how you would like. If not, then they would stop doing it.

Just like politics, people hate mudslingers, but vote for them all the time and they win.

bluenoser

I cross shopped the 5 series, but the BMW dealer wouldn't even arrange a test drive when I told him I was cross shopping the TL and was trading my 99TL. I guess they triage their prospects quickly. Perhaps they expected me to buy it first, or they knew the 5 series wouldn't hold a candle to the TLs total package. Anyhow this is not a winning sales approach.

vandy786

No matter how "good" or how "bad" a dealership is, the BOTTOM LINE is they're always out to squeeze a few extra bucks out of you. Play hardball and let them know you have more brains than money and EVERY dealer will be nice to you. You can quote me on that.

Nicki

sounds like paragon to me.

rets

Nicki, bingo.


Actually, I saw that damn guy in another occasion, he said again that price is true and all their pre-order customers accepted that price.

Anyway, it's totally bs.

prozzi

I've bought an Infiniti FX35 and my dealer, the only one in the state, was really nice to work with. I have been working with an Acura dealer, again the only one in the state and they have been pretty good, which is supprising that both dealers have been very good being that they are the only ones in the state.

But I do have to tell this story, my wife wanted to trade her WRX for the new Mazda3, she likes hatchbacks, and needs more trunk space. Well when we went to the mazda dealer, the guy wouldn't even let us test drive one because they closed in a 1/2 hour, and then when we talked about trading in and the buy out price and stuff, he says to me, "if your buy out price is 18,000 we give you 17,000 for your car". And I said ok that is fine, and I will give you the 1,000 to make up the difference, fine that was a done deal, I tought. He comes back and gives me the price of the mazda3, and the sticker said 19,700, but now he says that the car is 20,700. I ask him why the 1,000 dollars more and he tells me that if you take the price of the new car 19,700 subtract the money that they are giving me for my car 17,000 and then add the 18,000 that brings the price to 20,700. Now my wife is an Accountant so she started to laugh, I told this guy that he was nuts, I said that I am giving you the 1,000 to make up the difference and he tells me that some one has to send a check to the bank for 18,000 and said that we didn't understand. Well we got up and walked away. I know it might be confusing but what do these salesman think, that we are so stupid.

Z Factor

I have found good and bad salesmen/managers at just about every single car dealership regardless of the make of the vehicle.

When I looked at the G35, it never interested me enough to get to that stage since I had already experienced the 3rd Gen TL

pjp

There is never a need to ****er directly with a salesperson. In fact that can be a disadvantage. Let your fingers do the walking. Use the internet to your advantage. Start with yahoo yellow pages and locate the Acura dealerships in a reasonable distance from you home. Go to their on line site and get the internet or fleet manager email address. Sent the a request for a quote for the specific car you want. You will get emails and phone calls the following day from about half of those you sent emails to. I got quotes from about 10 of the 20. They ranged from 500 over msrp to about 1500(in LA-too far away). After you get your lowest bid. Call back or email them with the low bid offer and see if they will come down. I used this method and ultimately paid 1500 under invoice (they matched the LA quote) in the SF bay area. If you contact a sales person at a dealership when you look at a car and then ultimately try to get a quote via email or fleet management then they have to pay a commission to the salesman. So you price will not be as good.
This method saves the consternation of dealing with salepeople who have no people skills. One bit of advice, make sure that they do not add items you do not want ie mud guards etc and most importantly build a spread sheet to track who you talked to and what their quote was. Another variable you will have is their ability to get the color/features you are looking for. It would help if you had a 1st/2nd choice.

Ken1997TL

These posts just reinforce why I left car sales. I loved selling Hondas themselves but I hated how I was always the "bad guy". My managers probably hated me more than anyone else, I was "too nice" to my customers.

ccie2663

Well I had a '04 TL reserved and it arrived fully loaded, but I could get the G35C for almost 5K less fully loaded, thank you VPP. If Acura had VPP, I would be driving a TL now. Walked into the dealship, signed the paper work, was handed the keys, given a full overview of the car, jumped in, SMILED, and slammed the pedal the the floor.

Sweet. Can't beat that experience! And the way it should be all the time.

prozzi

I think that being nice is not a bad thing to be to your custormers if your selling cars or anything. And also I wish I could find a salesman that knew at least something about the car. I hate when I ask questions and they don't know the answer, are you selling cars or toasters? But I know its a hard job so I will stop complaining.

rhalvers

My wife and I were trying to decide between the TL and the G35AWD. She wanted to test drive the G35 and the TL on the same day for a close comparison. This was the 2nd test drive for both cars and we drove the G35 first. The sales person was great and helpful. Suggested an extended route that took us on the freeway and got us to use the Navi system. We had our two little girls with us so they could give feedback on the backseat. After the test drive we started to talk price. When I first talk with the dealer (but not this sales person) a few weeks earlier they wouldn’t budge from MSRP, so I wasn’t expecting much this time, but I was surprised when we cane to a price of $40K OTD for the AWD and Navi with the premium package #1 in short order. They wouldn’t even consider this price just a few weeks earlier. I would have bought the car right there if they only had the color combination my wife wanted, but the dealer was unable to find the color combo anywhere in the system and could not give me a delivery window. We drove to the Acura dealer and re-drove the TL.


Rod.
Still waiting for delivery. :-(