Any Micra discounts available?

[Londonguy1]

Hi guys. Looking to get a Micra sv and the dealers around here aren't budging on the price at all. Has anyone managed to score a discount of any kind on these cars? I'm in London and willing to travel a couple of hours for a good deal. Thanks.

[Evilbred]

Hi guys. Looking to get a Micra sv and the dealers around here aren't budging on the price at all. Has anyone managed to score a discount of any kind on these cars? I'm in London and willing to travel a couple of hours for a good deal. Thanks.

There's very little room for movement on these cars, Nissan has stripped the profit margin bare to get the price where it is.

My suggestion try one of the dealer invoice cost sites (Car Cost Canada or unhaggle). They can tell you relatively what the dealer paid the manufacturer for the car. Work UP from there. Keep in mind the dealer has to pay the employees and keep the lights on so they need to make something from the sale. At the same time, there are dealer withheld incentives (bonuses the manufacturer pays the dealer for meeting quota targets).

End of year now you can often score a good deal as dealers aim for manufacturer's quotas and sales people vie for top sales person at their dealer, encouraging them to "move metal".

Give them a reasonable price, let them know you are serious, and walk away. Fire off the same offer to any dealers within your geo-graphical area. Someone will meet you in the middle.

[PocketRocket]

You can get about 386 off the sticker price of the base model micraS ( if your dealership will let you), also you do not need to pay for the wheel locks ( its an accessory ), the extra 100 a/c tax ( i believe I addressed this earlier in another post ) if they are ordering you one from the factory than you have the ability to waive the etching ( if they wont tell them you are paying for something that literally costs about 40 to do before taxes ).
your next step is to check out all available discounts from the other dealerships.... if you are in the gta then your hidden fees will show up on the bill as "administrative fees". Check out all specials pages on their webpages, this is where I got nissan before... direct nissan in mississauga, had an advertisement for up to 1000 dollars worth of free accessories with the purchase or lease of a new model year vehicle... when I had called them and told them they failed to mention that the micra was not included ( meaning there was no footnot or asterisk to exclude the micra), the sales manager very quietly and gently told me that he would honor the advertisement, because it would be technically illegal to not honor the advertisement.
If you want accessories you should also check out service specials, as they usually have deals from anywhere from 15-30% off if you buy 1,2, or 3 genuine Nissan accessories. this is where you can really screw em, you can buy say 2 big items like my spoiler and my skirts for example, and you can buy for the third item, any of the Nissan accessories that they usually have in their little glass display case ( i.e. a 10 dollar water bottle )... remember to use a dealers wording an advertisements against them, if they say parts and not accesories then you must purchase an item that actually goes on the car ( the cheaper items being : wheel locks, license plate covers etc. ) they must be nissan or oem parts usually though....

i will try to think of any more things i could say to help you get a good deal on your car but for the most part just follow the steps above and check out the following dealers webpages as they are the dealerships websites i used to get deals ( they had the most amount of "specials" to haggle with )

newmarket nissan
bolton nissan
woodbridge nissan
direct nissan
401 dixie nissan
airport nissan

[PocketRocket]

Oh and your greatest ally in this battle is to be calm, and assure the person you are talking to that you want that car, and you have a price that you want to pay and nothing more. Also it doesn't hurt if you are buying locally ( for smaller areas with fewer dealers), tell them that you live in the area and would much rather spend the money in your community than outside of it, but if its going to cost you significantly more then you are reluctant to, but will go elsewhere to purchase the vehicle.

Being calm works because if they screw up and you point it out you can put them in their places, while at the same time being graceful about it.

- life experiences.

[Evilbred]

Personally I find if you show up not particularly set on any car you get the best deal. Nissan has a tool on their site where you can send a request for a quote to multiple dealers after you build a car. I always do that, tells the dealers you are shopping between manufacturers and between dealers. This puts the pressure on them to price it cheap or loose the deal.

The other trick is to not answer any preference questions in a committal kind of way. If they ask you what color you want, say it doesn't matter, or give them a wide variety of acceptable colors. Don't give them a price, once you put a number out you've lost control, you may be paying more than they were willing to sell for.

Take their best offer, and shop it against other dealers in the area, you can always shave a few hundred off this way. Finally when you've set the lowest possible price, you can bargain for accessories at or near their cost.

At the end of the day, if you play calm, tough and fair, you can get the car for less than the dealer paid for it. Remember, every car on their lot is dead money until they sell it, they need inventory turnover to live. The manufacturer's give them incentives at the end of the month and year that you don't see, so even if they give you the sob story about taking a loss or needing to keep the lights on you have to remain remorseless. People look at a hundred bucks when buying a car or a thousand bucks when buying a house as minor, when in truth it's the same hundred bucks you wouldn't waste on clothes or buying expensive dinners. Just because the sticker price is 5 figures doesn't mean the fudge factors creep up into the 3 figures. When I sense they're willing to move I'll haggle on 50 or 100 bucks, because that's 50 or 100 bucks better in my pocket than theirs. You'll know when they can still do it, you can tell by the false confident look on their face and the fear when you tell him you won't buy at that price. When they look angry or frustrated and don't care when you walk out you know you had them at their rock bottom. You can smell it.

If the sales person isn't on the edge of tears when you sign the paperwork then you've wasted your money.

[Londonguy1]

Great advice. Thanks

[PocketRocket]

I had the opportunity to talk to a few really nice dealership managers and sales managers along the way, and as far as they are concerned the car can stay on the lot as long as they want. They admitted that nissan has a program set up where they actually float the financial cost for things sitting around in inventory, he didn't get into specifics but long story short the dealers are fully compensated for the cars that remain on the lot longer than their normal turnover is. Nissan is trying to help the dealers promote themselves while promoting Nissan itself, it seems to be working too... the cube is a prime example of this its a flop... a big one, and it seems to not effect nissan at all.

[Evilbred]

I suspect that may have been a bluff. I doubt Nissan is going to get into the business of covering the cost of tied up inventory that simply isn't selling, and if they do, it isn't a business they can afford in the long run. Manufacturer's often put a lot of pressure on dealerships to sell cars fast, from offering incentives, to minimum sales quotas (essentially they push numbers of cars to dealerships, whither they are wanted or not).

From my perspective when I bought my Micra, they were more or less desperate to sell cars regardless of the margin, they're not looking at a juicy profit margin, my suspicion is sales quotas or end of year incentives.

[MetroMPG]

If the sales person isn't on the edge of tears when you sign the paperwork then you've wasted your money.

Remind me to never sell you anything!

I don't like tears.

[PocketRocket]

It was I believe more of an exageration than a bluff, because even when I called and talked to nissan canada to complain about a few dealerships and the 100 a/c tax that a few wouldnt take of (amongst other things). Even they said that the dealers are compensated up to a certain point on the inventory that they receive... I am not saying that they can have a car forever and not worry about loss, but I do know that the corporation floats a large portion of the cost of the car remaining on the lot.