Introduction- Truck buying story

[Titan Power]

Well last week I became the proud owner of a new Titan. I bought a 2WD Crew Cab, with the Fosgate package, Utility bed, and tow package. I chose Smoke for the color.

I am really blown away by this truck. I never really considered myself a truck guy, as I prefer sports cars. I considered trucks as more of a tool then transportation. Then I bought my house last year, and understood that they could be quite useful for something other then hauling race cars. Since I knew I would need a truck, the plan was to find an old beater for hauling duties. But then I realized that todays trucks really can serve a wide role. When I heard Nissan was building a full size truck, it piqued my interrest, as I have always enjoyed their vehicles. The Titan was a perfect fit for my needs. It's a bit of a shock to go from cramming things into the hatch of a small car to having the utility of my Titan. But the Titan feels like a lot more then a tool, It's a great all around vehicle. I can't wait until the engine is broken in...

Here are some pics...

http://img4.photobucket.com/albums/1...ort=descending

Buying my Titan was another matter. Here is the story below, but I'm warning you, it's long...

Car dealers never cease to amaze me. This is actually the second Titan I "bought." On April 30th, I bought the first one from Fairfield Nissan. My wife had submitted the specs of the exact truck we wanted, and the price we wanted, to multiple dealers a couple weeks ago. They called to say they had the one we wanted, and were willing to deal to sell it on the last day of the month. We left early to watch the Giant's game in SF, and stopped on the way. The salesman were not the sharpest tools in the shed, dragging us around the whole lot trying to find the truck. He didn't know jack about their trucks, pointing out trucks saying "I think that's it" to anything with four wheels, but no where remotely resembleing our truck. Crew cab, king cab, 4x4, 4x2, grey, green, Titan, Frontier, I guess they all look the same to him.

Anyways, the truck wasn't there. The guy that called us said, "It was here this morning. I've got another one on the way from another dealer, it will be here soon." He has the sticker faxed over, and it was what we wanted. So we negotiate for $700 under invoice (about 4k under sticker). I wasn't thrilled with the financing at 5.9%, I thought I could get better. But I planed on moving the loan to a home equity loan later, and we were happy otherwise, so we buy it. We had to go to the ballgame, so we told them we would pick it up in the morning. They promise to have it all cleaned up and ready for us.

The next morning we go to pick it up at 11:30. The guy tells us that it's not ready, they are doing PMI on it. I thought that this was strange, since it was already driven from another dealer quite a ways away. I told him we would wait, figuring it couldn't take that long. He then tells me that three of the service guys called in sick, and it would be a few hours, around three o'clock. We were dissapointed, since my wife and I both had to work that afternoon, this was the only window in our schedules. I told him we need to pick it up by two at the latest, that should be plenty of time. He said he would make it a priority. We asked to go back and at least see the truck. He goes to the service department, and returns to report that they are out "road testing" it. My B.S. meter is already going off, and this is just too much. he says he'll try to have it ready by two. We go shopping and kill some time in town, and call him at 1:30 for a status update. He informs us that there is no way that the truck will be ready before four o'clock. At this point, I know that he is lying to me. I didn't buy any of his other crap, and now I've got visions of the truck in some body shop getting "fixed" to cover up a mishap. My wife calls the manager of the dealership and demands to know where the hell our truck is. He said they screwed up and forgot to deliver it last night. I didn’t know if that was true or another lie, but my wife and I decided we wanted nothing to do with that truck or dealership. IF that was the truth, and they said that upfront, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But as soon as they lied, I didn't trust a word they had said about anything. Even if that was the case, it still doesn't explain why they needed five hours to transport the truck. We turned the car around, and drove right back to the dealer to tell them to take the truck and shove it up their lying ***. I made sure everyone in the showroom heard me say that I refuse to do business with someone who lies to my face, AFTER I bought the truck. I told them I don't trust them, I don't want their truck, and nothing they can say will make a bit of difference because they have zero credability. Give me my down payment back now and void the contract, end of discussion. What really pissed me off was that the guy lied to my face like I had "stupid" tatooed to my forehead. Five hours for a PMI? Road test? Maybe they had to order some more blinker fluid? When I got home, I asked a friend how long it takes to do a PMI. He is a tech at a dealership. He said it coud be done in ten minutes, but book is about an hour. He also said that the truck would have already had the PMI done at the original dealer, and it was illegal to move it unless it was done.

We still wanted to buy the same kind of truck, just not THAT one, since we figured something must have happened to it. Not wanting to deal with having a truck moved again, we searched all of the dealership inventories looking for our specific options and color. We found three, and set out to make the same deal somewhere else.

On Monday, our first stop was Elk Grove Nissan outside of Sacramento. It is a VERY nice new dealership. The attitude was completely different. Everyone seemed proud of their dealership and service. They had a nearly identical truck, with the exception of having the upgraded Rockford Fosgate stereo package, which added $500 at invioce price. The truck was exactly what we wanted, so we told them if they matched our previous deal, we would buy it. They didn't mess around, no going back and forth. They said they couldn't go quite as low, but could put the truck just under invoice. They said they could work with the financing though, and make the monthly payment lower then before. We said that would be acceptable. Minutes later it was a done deal. Normally I'd skip any kind of extended warrenties, but Nissan was offering a 5 year/ 100,000mi bumper to bumper on the Titan, that also reduced our interrest rate to a point that it paid for most of the warranty. In the end, we got the truck with the upgraded stereo and the warranty for a lower monthly payment then before.

The whole expirience in Elk Grove was surprising. Everyone from the salesman, to the sales manager, to the finance manager, to even the parts manager went out of their way to make it a good expirience. To bad they aren't closer. They gave us everything from free car washes for the life of the truck to free oil changes and other maintanence services. The Fairfield dealer felt like a shady used car lot by comparison. I'd highly recommend that anyone looking to purchase a Titan in Norther California make the trip. It's funny how we went through the process twice and had such completely opposite expiriences.

Jason K.
'90 Eagle Talon AWD R.I.P.
'92 Mitsubishi Galant VR4
'93 Eagle Talon AWD
'96 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
'96 Nissan Maxima SE
'04 Nissan Titan SE

[capturedword]

Nice truck looks just like mine. I got $3200 off list. It amazes me how little the sales people know. I felt that I was giving them a training session when I bought the truck. I used to be able to buy at an employee rate which worked out to be 15% off. Why don't the sales people sit down and do some simple internet research in their spare time ???

[Texas_Titan]

Good story. Nice to see that the 'stupid' tattoo was temporary.