Finally!!! I called up the dealership and was simply told... your money is being creditied to your account. Ok, one down another to go..went to the second dealership and asked for my money back and they were nice about it and returned my money. I then went to Nissan Rt. 112 (thanks Doug!) and they had a car and was able to help me out in less than 30 mins from start to write up. Wow, what a difference a dealership makes. I'm picking it up today so I'll post pictures tomorrow. Thanks everyone!

I'm happy that your getting the car, they are good people there you should be fine.

I might jinx myself when I say this, but I've had a pleasant experience shopping for the Versa so far. Mind you, I don't have it yet. I ordered it a few days ago and was told to expect it in 6-8 weeks. That works out perfectly for me because my current lease ends around the same time. I have been looking for my next car for a few months now and the Versa was a late addition to my short list. Talk about saving the best for last.

Anyway, I sat down with a dealer (Universal City Nissan in Los Angeles) and my salesman took my order for the exact Versa I wanted (1.8 SL, magnetic gray, CVT, ABS & all packages); wrote up paperwork for my deposit as well as a signed sheet confirming what I ordered; showed me lease figures for an awesome lease they were currently having; ran my credit report (with my permission) to see if I could qualify for the lease; and even gave me a printout of the lease figures so we can reference it when the car comes in.

I must've asked him 10 times if he was sure the lease special would still be in play by the time I got the car, and he assured me it was. That still remains to be seen.

He is asking for MSRP on the car, but to be honest, if he can deliver me the car I want in the timeframe we talked about, even if I end up changing my mind and financing the car (which I will probably do), I am more than happy to pay him MSRP for the car, just for the service I got.

Am I being naive? I've never ordered a car from factory before. I figured if things go south, I can still get my deposit back and the worst thing that can happen is I'll be back where I started -- which is shopping for my next car.

On these cars, there is not a lot of markup from factory to dealer. At least, not as much as other cars.

More than one dealership told me they make only $500 on the cost of the car, which may or may not be a load of bull. But because both came up with the same figure, I assume it may be close.

That being said, you shouldn't pay more than 5% over invoice price (not including taxes and other fees they may ram up your keister.)

So when you're ready to go, ask to see the factory invoice (not MSRP sticker, that's different.) I never got mine unfortunately, so I went off info I got from Edmunds. I plan to head there again some time and ask for my factory invoice.

I see that Nissan finally removed the restriction on ordering ABS with other packages. Figures... I should have waited. Oh well.