My Sentra was a 2001 and had the air cond. replaced 3 times (and it never worked correctly), 3 re-calls in the first 2 years,left me stranded 5 times because of bad electrical connections,a bracket came off the exhaust and was going to cost $1500.00 to fix because the piece isn't available un-less you buy the WHOLE system,the fan belt self-destructed on the highway and tore it's way through the engine bay taking various parts with it,started rusting at the top of the rear window,driver's door and left rear wheelwell.All of this with less than 85000 miles on the OD.And there is more.I pampered this car because I wanted it to last 15-20 years like my sister's Toyota.Maybe it was a lemon but Nissan has lost me for good.My '79 Renualt R5 was more reliable!
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Originally Posted by NCC1701
I have zero complaints about my 2006 Nissan Sentra. I drove it for a half year without a single problem. And 26 mpg in the city isn't too shabby. But, I don't need two cars, two car payments, and to insure two cars. I'm only one.
I should point out that my statement was mostly conjecture as the only smart salespeople I've come across here in town have been attentive to questions and concerns.
True, but what I was stating was your statement sounded like a normal Sales Staff to me more then the smart dealers I have delt with. So I am guessing that there will be those dealers that are A holes, and those that want to do nothing but help you out. So, it is luck of the draw so to speak where you live. I am wondering if it is due to the small ONLY SMART dealers are nice, and the ones that are actually attached to a Mercedes dealer are mean. Guess only way to find out would be to do a study. I personally think the dealers should be separate from the rest. That way you get experts on the car and not someone that has to go look up the information.
just like any other retail business, there's the GOOD and the BAD. and regardless of the industry, whether it be fast food or car dealerships, the tendency seems to be leaning more towards poor customer service and attitudes such as the customer is an 'inconvenience' rather than an opportunity. for many, if you ask a question and they don't know the answer, then they just ignore the question all together, i guess in hopes you'll forget you asked. all i ask is that if i ask a question, please answer it and if you don't know the answer, tell me that too and offer to find out. of course, most importantly, FOLLOW THROUGH and FIND OUT and get back to me. everyone doesn't know everything and shouldn't be expected to know, that's why we ask questions.
we have a fast food franchise in this area, "Chick Filet"(sp?), and they hire the GREATEST PEOPLE! i've been to 3-4 locations and they are all the same: upbeat, smiling and very courteous. if you ask for extrra ketchup, there's no "It's in the bag already", they just ask how many you would like and hand them over. with them, it's all about CUSTOMER SERVICE!
most businesses today could take a lesson from THEM.......
thanks for the inputs...but lets keep on track, not switch this to a nissan-bashing thread. yeah, the 01-05 nissans aren't spectacular, but thats because the company was almost completely broke and switched ownership during that time too. I had a 1999 Altima from early 2000 until spring 2008...ran up 93k miles and besides regular up-keep, and even a few collision repairs (no ABS + cheap tires in chicago winter = ) there was no problem with that car. A/C has also always been nissan's strong point. Even past 90k it ran ice cold, much better than in any Toyota, Ford or Chevy I've ever been in. In fact, i was so impressed with the Altima that i now drive a 2008 Rogue.
Yet...despite liking Nissan, Not a huge fan of the Versa, thus is why I am waiting for the Cube. Well, on top of that I really liked the 1st gen xB until they made it huge and gave it a 2.4L engine.
So anyway, back on track. Yeah, I figured that $2000 was a bit steep for the system. I saw some nice Pioneers on crutchfield for 1/2 that. Probably even less on feabay.
As for missing out on delivery by not ordering now? I am somewhat flexible with the late summer / early fall target. The car to be traded is a 2002 Daewoo Leganza with currently 74k miles. I would honestly rather not run it more than another year, but if I need to (pending no major disaster) I can run it longer (up to 2 more years....little over 100-110k mi), just to hit the Smart delivery.
just like any other retail business, there's the GOOD and the BAD. and regardless of the industry, whether it be fast food or car dealerships, the tendency seems to be leaning more towards poor customer service and attitudes such as the customer is an 'inconvenience' rather than an opportunity. for many, if you ask a question and they don't know the answer, then they just ignore the question all together, i guess in hopes you'll forget you asked. all i ask is that if i ask a question, please answer it and if you don't know the answer, tell me that too and offer to find out. of course, most importantly, FOLLOW THROUGH and FIND OUT and get back to me. everyone doesn't know everything and shouldn't be expected to know, that's why we ask questions.
we have a fast food franchise in this area, "Chick Filet"(sp?), and they hire the GREATEST PEOPLE! i've been to 3-4 locations and they are all the same: upbeat, smiling and very courteous. if you ask for extrra ketchup, there's no "It's in the bag already", they just ask how many you would like and hand them over. with them, it's all about CUSTOMER SERVICE!
most businesses today could take a lesson from THEM.......
I dont want this to turn bad, but just FYI, they are a Christian run company and they expect that their employees at least ACT the part while working. funny thing is I always crave Chick-fa-lay on sundays when they are closed...
very few industries have good customer service. Chick-Fil-A, Publix and a few others are the only that I know of where consistently I have found good service. I have heard many people talk about how they have gotten good service from one dealership and bad service from another. I was saddened to see how little the Jacksonville dealership wanted to reply to my e-mails even when the e-mails were blatantly obvious that I wanted to have some questions answered and then planned on putting a reservation in if everything ran smoothly. This was about the same time that I found out about the insane dealer fees that Jacksonville and others around the area were going to charge...turned me off to the whole idea of owning a smart and still haven't put a reservation down. It took until when I came on here and wrote my frustration that someone from the dealership could finally find the time to talk to me. This was after many unreturned calls and e-mails. My folks recently purchased their second Mini in Orlando and the service there is "AMAZING"...I kid you not...I would put there service against anyone in the industry...its such good service, I can understand why it is so easy to sell cars for them. People want to be treated good...they want to feel right when thinking about purchasing a car...something smart dealerships arent bothered with these days. My theory is that because they have reservations for years to come running out of there ears that they just dont feel they need to do anything for now except sit on their padding of people waiting in line. I couldnt see living with allowing these people to act like this and would rather do without the product then purchase the product and continue to allow a dealership to treat people like this. The way I see it...all dealerships should view customers as if they "need them" not that we customers are just a means to an end. Poor service is just not smart business!
You have to realize that buying a Smart, at the moment, is a long and complicated process. First you put down the 99 bucks. Then you get a DDE for about a year away. Then as the date gets closer you configure. Then as the date gets even closer you might put down $1000. Then you might get a VIN number. Then you get a delivery. THEN you buy the car and drive away.
Consider it like a very busy restaurant. Some customers are getting their food. Other customers have been seated and are ordering their food. A whole bunch of other customers are impatiently waiting for a table. And you basically were playing the role of someone looking at the menu and asking the maitre'd whether or not you should eat there and how was the food compared to the place down the street you might want to go to and if you ordered your food how long would it be until it came out and if you wanted to order your food but come back in two hours could you... well, you get the point.
So, in short, yes, the person probably WAS brusque, and it was probably unwarranted. But this is a very unique situation at the moment. If they had 500 on the lot, and you walked in and got ignored, I would concur that they were a cruddy dealership and you should go elsewhere. I wouldn't judge the whole place over this one incident, though.
i'm really surprised that we have not significantly moved beyond the decade's old dealership model altogether. there is little reason to still employ car salesmen in the internet age. a truly modern company would have figured out how to eliminate it entirely. maybe even have the vehicle delivered to your door when ready!
you can compare that to anything JD10367 and it still makes for foolish business. The fact of the matter is that I got ignored alltogether...that is foolish business. I was willing to get in line at the time and wait for a car to show up eventually and instead of answering my question and getting me in line they chose to not answer my questions ultimately leaving me with a sour note. I am not sure how you can even defend this sort of mentality. Going back to your restaurant analogy, what you gave as an example is what the difference is between a restaurant and a great restaurant. You can defend their decision all you want, but its places like that which I hope will do so bad because people wont put up with it that they will go out of business and have new management step in. Harsh yes, but so was the treatment they extended me. When more microcars come to the market...unless things change in a big way...smart may be heading toward the sewers before it ever really makes an impact on the market.
that's being a little dramatic i think.
car dealers are too often slimy - that's not something smart has a lock on. dealing cars is the type of job that attracts the slimy i think. and unfortunately, despite new-fangled web-reservations and a zero-advertising approach, the smart distribution model is still largely like every other auto maker's model - and that model is not based upon customer service, it is based upon unscrupulous and slimy sales tactics.
what would have been cool is doing the entire transaction online, then maybe picking up the smart at an IKEA or something. some place where no traditional car salesman type person was even around.
you have to remember that most of these people are just working for a paycheck and if there is no money coming to them in talking to you, they're not going to bother themselves. most got into the smart dealership by sliding over from one of the other car lines - perhaps as punishment for not doing a very good job even!
yes it is bad business - but for as long as demand exceeds supply, it probably works out well for them. why waste time on people who aren't driving the bottomline? that's the short-sighted way they probably look at it.
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) there was no problem with that car. A/C has also always been nissan's strong point. Even past 90k it ran ice cold, much better than in any Toyota, Ford or Chevy I've ever been in. In fact, i was so impressed with the Altima that i now drive a 2008 Rogue. 
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