Gerald Nissan of North Aurora

I bought a used car from here almost six months ago. While I am happy with the vehicle and the price I paid for it, the overall experience makes me not want to ever go back to Gerald Nissan. My salesma While I am happy with the vehicle and the price I paid for it, the overall experience makes me not want to ever go back to Gerald Nissan. My salesman was Jonathan Dewig, or, as he likes to call himself, "Big Jon." Jon seems like a decent enough guy (though immature), but it's obvious from the start that he's just a salesman, even going so far as to call me on Friday night (when I told him I would come out on Saturday to look at the car) frantic that "someone else just took the car out for a test drive." "I'd like to get you out here right away, I don't want to see you miss out on this deal." Okay, John, sure; the carfax says you've had the car for a couple months, but now there is a sea of interest in it. Right, see you tomorrow. Luckily for me(sarcasm), the car was still there Saturday. Jon grabbed the key and out we went to look at the car and take it for a test drive. I thought it was rather irresponsible that they didn't even ask to see a driver's license before letting me test drive the vehicle, but whatever. Back to the car, Jon is praising how immaculately clean it is, how "that's how they brought it in" when obviously the dealership detailed it. We go for a test drive and everything checks out, even though it's obvious Jon doesn't really know very much about cars. Although to be fair, it was a Ford and not a Subaru or Nissan (which they mainly sell), so he gets somewhat of a pass. Before heading back inside, I notice the window sticker says it has a warranty, so I ask Jon about it. His response "Oh you noticed that! You ruined my surprise; I was going to surprise you with that later. It's my icing on the cake." And tells me all about their "wonderful" Gerald Nissan warranty they offer (It's their pride and joy, even the poor phone girl has to mention it in her phone greeting), and how it's included free with purchase. Back inside at his desk, we're negotiating the sale and we finally agree on a price. A short while later he returns and says he can't go any lower than the internet quote. Fine, but don't shake my hand when we agree on a price, making me think we had a deal. It's only a couple hundred dollars more and still a good deal, so I agree to it. We get the financing done, agree on the rate & term, fill out a bunch of paperwork, I bring in my license plates to transfer from my old car to the new car, and after all this work has been done, he comes up and tells me "Oh, by the way, someone made a mistake in putting that warranty sticker on the car. The warranty is only included on 2005's and newer (mine was a 2004.) Your car won't have any warranty." Are you seriously telling me this now, after the deal is nearly done, after you have my license plates in back and I can't just get up and leave if I wanted to? To tell the truth, I didn't care too much for the warranty anyway. I googled the warranty company while waiting and it's not even a major company. I doubt many repair shops would accept it for repairs, let alone a dealership, and I can't know how good they would even be at paying out for repairs. So I had already discoutned the value of the warranty, but still I wonder how often they pull this on people who WOULD value their warranty. At this point, I was ready to finalize the deal, sign off on it, and go home. I would have been content with the experience if I had been allowed to do that at this point and wouldn't be writing this review. Unfortunately for me, I got stuck sitting in the finance manager's office for almost an hour, saying "no" so many times I felt like a prude on prom night. (True story: I asked my brother to complete the sentence "saying no so many many times I felt like..." without giving him any context as to why I wanted it, and his answer was "Like I was in the finance office at Gerald Nissan.") This guy would not stop, showing all the energy of that giant empty can of Red Bull on his desk. He tried everything in the book, from extending my 3-year financing to over 4 years so the monthly payment wouldn't rise so much, to "talking with his boss" and coming back with a lower price for the warranty. Finally, after he still didn't get that I was not interested in his $3000 warranty, I stopped being polite and told him enough is enough with the games. He has me sign a disclosure saying that the vehicle is sold "as-is no warranty." I'm thinking 'Good, let's wrap this up. I've been here 4 hours, I'm starving, and just want to leave.' He leaves for a few minutes, comes back in, taps me on the shoulder and says "good news." 'You're finally letting me leave?' "What I'm gonna do for you is..." 'Is this for a warranty?' "Yes." 'We're done with the warranty! I do not want a warranty!' The big shot from the next office walks by the door, and our guy tells him we refuse the warranty. Big shot makes a mean face and says angrily "Make sure they sign the as-is no warranty statement." REAL customer friendly, there, buddy. Finally, he printed out the bill of sale and we were able to leave. But that wasn't the last I heard of them! Apparently, they never submitted my loan to the bank, so they wanted me to come back in and resign for a loan at a different bank. I said no way am I driving all the way back out there (3 hour round trip) so they ended up mailing me the papers to sign. I did end up with a slightly lower rate, and didn't have to make my first payment until 2 months after I purchased the car because of their mishandling of the loan, but it still was very unprofessional of them. Maybe they wanted me to come back out there so they could have another crack at selling me that warranty? To sum it all up: I am happy with my vehicle, and the price I paid for it, but I would not want to ever return to that dealership. They are very unprofessional and obviously only care about the money. They are the reason car salesmen get a bad name. More

Only go to these guys if you can get the absolute best deal on the exact car you want. Otherwise it's not worth it. Of course, it ended up that I had to visit on the day of one of their big Saturday tent deal on the exact car you want. Otherwise it's not worth it. Of course, it ended up that I had to visit on the day of one of their big Saturday tent sales, so keep that in mind, because they were extra busy that day (the only day I could go). I was buying one of the most expensive cars they had, a 370Z, and yet I was treated like a second class citizen and forced to wait in the customer lounge for hours on end with no results or progress on the sale. It was always, "you're next, you're next, just a half hour, etc." with no service. Dan was knowledgeable about the car which was good, but in the weeks leading up to the sale he came across as a fast-taking slime ball who was only in it for the sale. He was pretty much unwilling to budge on the price, claiming it was the "absolute lowest he could go" and that he would "get me deals on financing". Don't believe that last part, they can save you .5% on financing but in the long run that will save you maybe 200-300 bucks, and that's IF you don't pay off the loan early. Also, is it too much to ask that your salesman actually cares if you're happy with the car and the deal? Apparently so. I spent nearly 7 hours (that's right, 7) in total at the dealer that day and at least 60% of it was waiting around in the lobby. I wasn't even allowed to sit at Dan's desk because he apparently had more important customers than me, despite the high cost of the car I was buying and the fact that I already had my financing approved and ready to go. The longer I waited the less and less happy I was with Gerald Nissan and their lack of respect for the customers. I even chatted with another lady who was waiting around all day like me. We were both pretty put off. Now that you see I'm somewhat bitter about this whole thing, I bet you're asking "why not just go to a different dealer?" Well, I shopped around at many dealers and unfortunately the car I wanted was very hard to find in a 500 mile radius. I dealt with MUCH better dealerships over the course of my hunt, but unfortunately I never found the vehicle I wanted there. Gerald happened to have the exact car I wanted for an ok-but-not-great price, so that's why I ended up buying from them. Don't buy into the hype about their "FREE LIFETIME GERALD POWERTRAIN WARRANTY" and all that crap. I actually read over the terms of the warranty and what it actually covers and it's almost nothing. Don't let this add to the value of the negotiation price because the Gerald warranty adds ZERO value, in my opinion. I ended up buying a 70,000/7 year warranty from Nissan anyway, which actually covers a good amount of componenents, and renders the Gerald warranty useless. For crying out loud, Gerald doesn't even fill up your tank after you buy a 30K+ car!!! They have a "half tank" policy that left me driving straight to a gas station before my trip home. Unbelievably bad service. But ultimately I am happy with this purchase, and that is ONLY because I got the car I wanted and I didn't feel completely ripped off on the price, even though I could have done better. If I was judging the Gerald Nissan experience by itself, I would give it 1/10. They couldn't even fill out my forms correctly, there were numerous spelling mistakes and they got my address wrong and I had to make a bunch of corrections on the forms they asked me to sign. I was embarrassed to be buying from them. I realize not everyone has this bad of an experience at Gerald, but I would try to avoid them unless they have the exact car you want. Otherwise it's not worth the hassle. More