My Touring+Sport Purchase Experience
Yesterday I went out and got a 2009 370z Touring MT with Sport, Brilliant Silver. Paid $37,000.
I bought it somewhat on impulse. On my old car, a 2003 350z track, I'd gone 75,000mi on the stock brakes. They started squeaking around 72,000mi and had gotten to the point that my car made a grinding noise at low speed. I took the 350z into the shop yesterday and they said I needed new brakes for $700 and new rotors for $2,000+labor (rip off). I had them machine the existing rotors and just replace the pads. On top of that the windows no longer worked, there was a crack in the windshield, the rear axle made a clicking sound at low speed, and there was some sort of seemingly minor electrical problem. Other than those things the car was in great condition.
After having my brakes done I was so sick of not wanting to drive for fear something would go wrong I decided right then to go pick up a 370z. At the dealership they gave me a simple sheet to fill out regarding the condition of trade-in which I filled out accurately and they surprisingly offered me $10,500 for it which is more than I had expected. I was happy enough with that that I we only went back and forth on the purchase price of the car twice and I accepted $37,000. Trade-in + $15,000 down left me with a 24 month loan at $669. I'm sure I could have knocked another $500-$1000 off the purchase the price but I'd already exceeded my expectations. To top it off the salesman should be nicknamed Kaizer Soze. I didn't realize what a good salesman he was until much later last night. I came in expecting to either go back and forth really quick with their fleet manager or deal with the typical sleazeball salesmen tactics. Instead I got a young (late 20's) almost computer geek looking guy. This guy must have figured me out pretty quickly. He didn't try to have me sign a thing outside of the credit report request, he didn't use ANY tactics I'd ever heard of or seen, nor did he put a bit of pressure on. He just finished up my credit report, walked over to his bosses desk for 15-20 seconds, and came back with the numbers. We did that a couple more times and I was done. He was so disarming I didn't even think to fight.
The finance guy on the other hand I felt bad for. As soon as I sat down he brought out the extended warranty sheet and I immediately told him I wanted absolutely nothing added to the car. No warranty, paint sealants, lo-jack, pin stripes, etc. He told me he had to explain the warranty options by law (HA!). I leaned back in my chair and sighed and he asked why I didn't want a warranty. I told him and he put the paper away I started the signing process. At the very end he just said "what if the warranty was just $1500?", I shook my head and he printed out the final form and I left. Anyways, all told I was in and out of the dealership in about an hour and I'm happy with my purchase.
As I started to drive home I immediately felt that something was just wrong with the transmission. It seemed like it wasn't giving me the feedback I expected. I hadn't realized that the syncro rev match feature works on upshifting. From what I'd read I thought it only rev matched when downshifting. This made me really sad as I found the upshifting rev matching really annoying but I love the downshift. I can't heel-toe brake and I work at the top of a 6 mile, curvy, 8% grade hill. The downshift rev match would have made my commute home much easier.
It's really nice moving from a 350z track with about 0 features to the 370z touring/sport and it's relative assload of features. I had to pull into a parking lot last night and spend 30 minutes or so playing with everything so I didn't get in a wreck screwing with things on the road.
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