Long, but read......Just a little tid-bit I learned about getting your car financed. I just bought a 2009 Nissan Cube last week. One of the deal clinchers is that I was just coming off of a lease on an 06 Nissan Frontier. Because of the lease, my financing was already pre approved through Nissan up to x amount.

Anyway, I returned my truck and made a deal on this Cube. Signed all the papers and brought the new Cube home.

I got a call from the dealership telling me their finance person missed a signature and they would be sending me a new contract to sign, assuring me there were no changes, just a missed signature line.

I got the new contract and read it over. Sure enough there were no changes. But if you look over the contract closely you will see a block that say's "SELLERS RIGHT TO CANCEL".

If you read the terms it basically say's that the dealer can request the car back anytime withih 60 day's if they have a problem getting the financing through. This is the block I didn't originally sign. Their finance person didn't have me sign it because my financing was pre-approved. I wouldn't have agreed to this anyway.

In my case this term wouldn't apply since my financing was already pre-approved. I learned that if you sign this block, this gives the dealer blanket authority to request the return of the car and to change the terms of the contract for more money by simply telling you that the financial institute wouldn't approve of the contract as originally submitted, and they want different terms. You have the car and don't want to give it back, so you will most likely agree to a slightly higher interest rate, payment, etc. making the dealer more money.

So, if your like me and have pre approved financing, this condition doesn't apply. Be sure to have the dealer write accross it "Not Applicable" before you sign. Even if this doesn't apply the block still has to be signed, so be sure it's marked NA, because if you don't, this gives the dealership the leverage needed to change your financing or take the car back.

The new contract they sent me didn't have NA written accross that condition and I refused to sign it. I called them and b****ed them out. I caught them trying to pull a fast one on me. Had I signed it and sent it back, they would have manipulated it into another contract with "new terms and conditions" to their benefit. In my case, they already know how much Nissan approved me for. And since I was well under that amount this gave the dealership some room to increase my payment, or their profit by simply telling me they couldn't get the financing through (it's usually an interest rate spike they're after).

Anyway, they're sending me another contract. This time with "NOT APPLICABLE" written accross this statement.

I researched the subject and from what I've learned. This term / condition has been added onto just about all financial contracts that dealerships use regardless of who they're doing the financing through. It's a bogus term is designed to give the dealerships leverage to change the terms on their behalf. It's just like the so called dealer fees. Dealer fees are nothing more than a tacked on amount the dealer asses to a sale, it's nothing more than a little more profit. The buyer get's absolutely nothing, no benefit what so ever from a dealer fee. - Dan

the dealers have so many tricks to get your money and credit is not even funny i went thru this earlier this year with a couple local dealers where i neeed it to get rid of my yaris for a big SUV i tryed galpin ford with a pre owned h3 hummer, they let us kept it for a month and after they called me and said they need it to re do the contract because they had a hard time finding a financial place that will acceppt me.well by the time i got there the guy inform me that they tryed so hard to find me a financial place but they finally find one but they wanted me to pay $750 a month for a pre owned hummer h3 the bad news was that they did tyred to find a financial place really hard....so hard that they run our credit more than 25 times each of us me and my wife, you should see the list of the times they run our credit it was huge.....of course the more they run the credit the more screw up it gets.

at the end we didnt accept their offer and we walk away from the dealer with the yaris back...later next month we tryed again with a tahoe in santa clarita, same story same issues regarding finding a financial place for us.....why dont know when we been buying cars for the last few years with no problem at all....sudenly we have a problem buying a pre owned car blah!......the only good thing those !diots from the gm dealer did was they did me the biggest favor of pay off the yaris by accident so this time i left empty handed but happy at the same time because i really wanted to get rid of that car, it was a complete dissapointment somebody got fired at that dealer for doing sucha mistake

but both dealers ruined our credit runing it so many timesthat why everytime we go for a new car we tell clearly to the sales man that if it doesnt workk at the first 3 trys then forget it we wont go farther than that!because they let you drive a new nice car you get all happy and exited enjoy it and then they slap you telling you that u neeed to bring it back

Wow Damien, sounds like you had a super crappy experience. Sometimes I wonder how car salesmen can sleep at night.

Square1 wrote:Wow Damien, sounds like you had a super crappy experience. Sometimes I wonder how car salesmen can sleep at night.

i know man it can be deadly lol! you guys always should do the same, those guys are there for nothing but make a profit out of you and your needy situation for a car, most times they see you like the car so freaking bad they act like they know you are dying for it, dont fal for that game.always play for the lowest payment and try as hard until they look like they give up and let you go because times are so bad rite now here in USA that a salesman will try farter than what he can do to reach your businessalways show that you are the smart guy at the dealers not them....

Damien, what your saying is normally good advice. But in todays market it has a slight flaw.

Economy car sales are sky rocketing and supply is having a tough time meeting demand, even in the used car market.

Then you toss something new, unique, and refreshing into the mix like the Cube, especially from a car maker like Nissan who has a reputation for quality. The dealers got you by the short hairs. They know if you don't buy it, there are other potential customers lined up behind you that will. The Cubes are pretty much selling them self. I know our local Nissan dealership can't keep one on the lot, they sell as fast as they arrive.

In this market we're doing good just to find a dealer who will sell at MSRP and not add some BS markup. Unfortunately, even the good dealers are playing games with the financing. - Dan

^ Yes, and no.

When I decided to buy one, the local dealer gave me some stupid numbers. I told them I'd pay $500 over invoice, and that's it. I was paying cash, so no funny business in the back end, either.

He said there's no way they could do that deal, the car is new and in high demand. I walked.

A week later, he still had all three Cubes that were there before.

I emailed the General Manager, describing what the sales manager had said, and pointed out that "high demand" does not mean three cars sitting on a lot for a week or more.

I got the Cube for $500 over invoice.

AZhitman wrote:^ Yes, and no.A week later, he still had all three Cubes that were there before.

I got the Cube for $500 over invoice.

I got mine for MSRP and no BS dealer fees or markup.

Around here a Cube won't sit on a lot for more than a couple day's MAX, there's usually a waiting list. We're pretty rural, nothing like big city. Our local dealership only gets about three at a time.

Got mine for about $650 below invoice on July 7th. It was a base model (6sp) on the ad. Though is a based model it is much more loaded than most compact/economy car.

007

miata007 wrote:Though is a based model it is much more loaded than most compact/economy car.

007

You're right about this. Nissan was pretty generous with standard options on a base Cube, it has more goodies than most cars in it's class and price. I would have gotten a base if cruise control were an option, but it's not available. - Dan

miata007 wrote:Got mine for about $650 below invoice on July 7th. It was a base model (6sp) on the ad. Though is a based model it is much more loaded than most compact/economy car.

007

$650 below invoice or $650 below MSRP?

That doesn't sound right unless the dealer was having a fire sale.

that's not a typo!!! Below invoice.

007