What Others Say
I had not purchased a used car from a dealer before and was a bit skeptical. Happily, everything worked out well. Randy Salzman, my salesman, may not be able to get the price of a car below his sales manager's minimum but he does provide other valuable services including ones well after the car has been purchased.
I am on my 4th Infiniti, all purchased and serviced at Peninsula Infiniti, and I am disappointed to see the deterioration of service at this dealership from Sales to Service. The overall Infiniti ownership experience has really gone down over the years. This will likely be the last Infiniti car for me.
The sales manager, Austin Cauthron, made buying my new car super easy. Would definitely recommend him and peninsula Infiniti to anyone in the market for a new car!
I spoke to the Sales Manager, Mike on the phone before heading down to Redwood City to drive the Certified Q50 that I eventually ended up buying. He was straight forward and gave me a better price than other dealers further south or in San Francisco on the car. Everyone was helpful and extremely professional.
I got screwed over for my lease at Peninsula Infiniti and on hindsight, ended up paying a few thousand dollars more over the term of the lease compared to other dealers. Here are the tactics that they use for new car leases or sales so DON'T fall for them.
1) If you email them or call them to inquire about a new car, they will heavily push for you to come into the showroom. They'll maybe send you an estimate but never exact quotes. Talk to a few dealers to get EXACT quotes on EMAIL for the car and model you want over BEFORE going into the showroom! You'll skip the entire price negotiation process below which is designed to swindle you.
2) At the showroom, the sales person will go over the car in detail, explain all the features in detail and really encourage you to take a test drive and get a feel of the car. Throughout the showing and the test-drive, he'll constantly be talking about how great the car is while keep degrading your existing car.
TACTIC: He is trying to get you EMOTIONALLY invested into the car. You HAVE to have it. Once emotion comes into the negotiation, you'll stop thinking clearly and rationally.
3) Now the fun part (for them). Price!
a) First he'll get you seated at his desk. He'll ask what down payment you want. He has a BOSS in the back room whom he will go to get the quotes.
TACTIC: This is a negotiation tactic. You never talk to the boss directly. The salesman pretends to be your friend and messenger. His hands are "tied", he can't work on the quotes but he has to "convince" his BOSS for you.
b) He'll make you wait... a lot. They want to start frustrating you so you eventually come to a point where "you want to be done with it".
c) He'll come back with the first quote. This will be almost DOUBLE of what you were expecting to pay! This quote is meant to INSULT you and put you on the DEFENSIVE. If you were thinking $400/month, he'll come back with $750/month. With a straight face, he'll go over those terms.
d) You'll protest at the price and he'll say "We want to do something special for you" and pull up the deal on their website (which is inflated anyways as I realized later). Plus you want the x package and the y package so the price is much higher.
TACTIC: During this process he'll ask you how much you were willing to pay. Since you're on the defensive already, there's a good chance you'll tell him (and not lesser than that like you should).
e) He'll generously add way more than he should for the additional packages in the car and whatever other reason he makes up. Then he'll write it down on a piece of paper and say this is your offer to his BOSS. Then he'll ask you to initial next to it. Most people won't object to initialing on the piece of paper.
TACTIC: Even though that paper is not legally binding, people have a tendency to commit to whatever they sign against. Also since he wrote them, they'll be higher than if you wrote them.
f) Once he gets your signature, he'll take the paper back to his BOSS.
g) He'll make you wait.. and wait.
h) He'll come back with another inflated quote. He would have maybe dropped the quote from the $750 to $650 and go another round.
i) He'll finish off with the "10/20 tactic". "Can you increase just by $20 (or $10)"? On monthly payments, $10 or $20 may not seem like a big deal but you'll be paying this over your entire term which is about $500 or $1000 more. He'll make you initial.
j) When he comes back, he won't ask if you want to go ahead. Instead he'll say "Congratulations on your new car". You don't have time to think if you want to go ahead in the first place, but most likely you'll shake his hand and then are quickly shoved into the Finance department to sign.
Once the paperwork is done, you have no recourse. Legally, there's no "Cooling off period". You can't return the car if you change your mind and Infiniti won't allow you to completely transfer the lease either.
This process sucks! In today's day and age, dealers shouldn't be allowed to torture and swindle customers like this especially with no recourse at the end.
Worst customer service! They gave me a quote for set of tires for my Q50. And when I went in to buy those tires they gave me a quote with higher price. When I showed him his earlier quote he rudely said "this is what it as, I cannot do better than this". Overly priced and rude service advisors. Dealerships charge a higher price for a better customer service but I think they dont know there are other professional dealerships around!!