Rairdon's Nissan of Auburn (WA) $100 below Dealer Invoice

[evnow]

And I might add...it's NOT at all wrong to mark-up a money factor, it's one of the ways that Dealers are allowed to make more of a profit.

All true - except for the AZ buyers, they wouldn't have come to a WA dealer if they had been told, they would end up paying more for monthly lease than if they bought from a AZ dealer at MSRP. So in this case it looks like bait & switch - esp given that
- Rairdon's asked everyone to submit a buy RAQ even when they wanted to lease
- And there was no indication whatsoever about markups on lease

 

[turbo2ltr]

I understand they need to make money. And I suppose you can partially blame the customer for not understanding that it's common practice. People (including myself) automatically assumed that the lower the transaction price the less you'll pay total, which was not the case. They took $1400 off the MSPR and made it all back plus more by inflating the MF. So it looks like a good deal, they got a bunch of orders, but you end up spending more than paying MSRP with a non marked-up MF.

I look at this whole thing as: now I fully understand leases, whereas before I didn't have a clue how they worked. It was a learning experience for the books.

 

[Gonewild]

deetime7767

If we selected lease on Nissan web site would the mark up still be allowed?

 

[evnow]

If we selected lease on Nissan web site would the mark up still be allowed?

Yes, but we would've known about it and we wouldn't have accepted the quote as it would've been too high.

 

[Gonewild]

If we selected lease on Nissan web site would the mark up still be allowed?

Yes, but we would've known about it and we wouldn't have accepted the quote as it would've been too high.

Wow that would have been nice to know. I would have got to my first dealer Fontana.

 

[QueenBee]

So who has an image of Rairdon quoting/selling a rate markup?

 

[SteveInSeattle]

Of course banks make money charging interest, but they are taking the risk and loaning the money. The dealer is just skimming extra profit off in a place that few customers will notice it. They are not the one providing the lease, just writing it. Frankly, after Rairdon made a point of being the lowest cost dealer, I find it odd that they would use practices that are damaging to their image and generate such negative comments on this forum.

 

[LEAFfan]

Frankly, after Rairdon made a point of being the lowest cost dealer, I find it odd that they would use practices that are damaging to their image and generate such negative comments on this forum.

Yep, my thoughts exactly. When people in WA see these posts, it will spread like wildfire and it will definitely hurt their business in the long term, despite their deceptive short term profits on these LEAFs.

 

[Anonymous]

Frankly, after Rairdon made a point of being the lowest cost dealer, I find it odd that they would use practices that are damaging to their image and generate such negative comments on this forum.

Yep, my thoughts exactly. When people in WA see these posts, it will spread like wildfire and it will definitely hurt their business in the long term, despite their deceptive short term profits on these LEAFs.

Which is why you should always look at a dealer's reputation before jumping into a deal, especially when you're in a situation where it "locks" you into that dealer ahead of time.

This Rairdon dealership was brand new when they started taking Leaf orders (seriously, opened only a month or so before taking orders) but you could look up the other Rairdon dealerships in the area and ALL of them had very poor ratings.

 

[garygid]

One should also VERIFY the claims "against" them.
Anybody can claim to have been "mislead".

 

[Gonewild]

:lol:

 

[Desertstraw]

This thread was started by Greg Leach. I think that he should respond to the allegations made by various posters. Otherwise, "silence gives consent".

 

[evnow]

This thread was started by Greg Leach. I think that he should respond to the allegations made by various posters. Otherwise, "silence gives consent".

Greg no longer works at Rairdon's - so he won't obviously responded. Todd who took over from him, knows about this forum and can respond if he wants to.

 

[SteveInSeattle]

Rairdon has 4 dealers listed on a search at the Better Business Bureau, they are rated: B, B+, A and A+. The Nissan dealer is not yet rated (because it is new)

Campbell Nelson has 2 dealers, VW and Nissan, both rated A+

 

[Carlos]

Frankly, after Rairdon made a point of being the lowest cost dealer, I find it odd that they would use practices that are damaging to their image and generate such negative comments on this forum.

Yep, my thoughts exactly. When people in WA see these posts, it will spread like wildfire and it will definitely hurt their business in the long term, despite their deceptive short term profits on these LEAFs.

Which is why you should always look at a dealer's reputation before jumping into a deal, especially when you're in a situation where it "locks" you into that dealer ahead of time.
This Rairdon dealership was brand new when they started taking Leaf orders (seriously, opened only a month or so before taking orders) but you could look up the other Rairdon dealerships in the area and ALL of them had very poor ratings.

(Sorry for the Length)
I'm sure we all took some time to do our due diligence before we locked in our Preferred Dealer and RAQ. The internet and phone are our best friends during these times.
Presently there seems to be some evidence of smoke coming from this Rairdon's issue which may lead to some unhappy future LEAF owners.
Speed is not always our friend and in our haste to lock in an order and take an early delivery we were at the mercy of Dealers and Salesmen.

When I did my Google searches and public opinion forums as well as the BBB for Washington state region I did see some issues that raised caution flags.
The number one flag was the newness of this dealership and how the ownership group purchased it from another group with less than stellar reviews.
The new owner group had BBB ratings that bounced around the alphabet with no consistency. I phoned the BBB direct and inquired a bit further.

Ultimately it isn't the salesman directly but his General Manager at the Dealership who is ultimately responsible to the Owner Group.
Dealerships make most of there money for the Owners from the Service Center. Selling a car that requires relatively no service or to out of state buyers will not add anything to the bottom line of the Dealer. With this information you have to ask how can someone sell a car at or near Dealer Invoice and make a profit. The answer may be a shear volume strategy or a Marketing Plan that would put emphasis on the direct advertising value and create immediate impact for a New Dealership. Of course this all falls apart when their strategy is called into question by changes to personnel, buyer agreements/expectations or other extenuating circumstances.

I'd like to hear that the Rairdon's Dealership selling the LEAF's is on the level and honors agreements as well as customer buy/lease expectations.
Of course if this doesn't happen you may see that they actually are in the Orphan Leaf business which may prove very lucrative to their bottom line.
Only time will tell

 

[BlueSL]

The whole thing seems a little silly from Rairdon's perspective.

If you want to buy, they give you a screaming deal. If you want to lease, they hose you.

What's up with that?

 

[Desertstraw]

I am interested in this thread because I live in the Phoenix area and was tempted by Rairdon. It seems to me that if allegations made here are true, in order to maintain its own integrity Nissan should offer people who ordered from Rairdon the opportunity to order from another dealer without losing their place in line. If people get angry enough to cancel Rairdon orders, Rairdon stands to make money by having Leafs for immediate delivery. I started with Rairdon around Sept.1, gave up in October, and received a follow-up in December. At the suggestion of the moderator in the interest of brevity I have appended quotes from emails that I received from Rairdon rather than whole email messages..

On December 8, after I gave up on Rairdon, I received an email from Todd Fee with the following relevant information: "if you in fact are happy with the Nissan dealer you ordered your Leaf from, I offer you a sincere "congrats"; however, if you want to save more money, I can still offer you my BELOW invoice pricing on Leaf, as well as offer you the allocation of being able to GET your Leaf in a timely manner". As I understand it from Nissan Customer Service, if you cancel an order once it is placed you go to the end of the delivery line, the dealer does not control the time of delivery.

Ibid: "but having over 60 confirmed orders in our database, I CAN tell you that I CAN get the Leaf you'd order in a timely manner, but in all reality, for LESS money too!" This means that if as alleged by others here you do not save money with Rairdon, there will be disappointed customers, including many in our area. Rairdon would profit handsomely from canceled orders because they would have an inventory of Leafs for immediate delivery.

Greg Leach, October 2: " I have been selling Nissans since 1999 and have never come across this before it’s always nice to learn something new and I thank you again for forwarding that to me .". He had never heard of a single pay lease, which is common, before.

Todd Fee on the same subject, September 1: "As far as a pre-paid lease is concerned, I'll have to check with Nissan Motor Acceptance; I have money factors and residuals, but since I've never done a pre-paid lease on a Leaf, I'll have to see what's involved."

Greg Leach, October 13: "I apologize please forgive me I totally forgot about that you wanted those numbers ". The numbers means the price for a single payment lease.

Greg Leach, October 18: "I totally forgot about that you wanted those numbersissan to help us figure out what we must do in our system so that we can do that so please forgive me I have not forgotten about you". An auto salesman who can't remember that you wanted an answer to a price request!

Finally, has anybody received information about the cost of shipping the car back to Washington at the end of the lease?

 

[Skywagon]

It stinks to hear about people getting screwed around; especially my fellow future LEAF owners/drivers here in AZ. I was considering going with Rairdon's as well but I finally decided that I did not want to deal with someone who was more than a half day's car ride away. I figured that worse case scenario I could make a long day road trip to deal with them face-to-face if I had any issues (plus I wanted to take delivery at the dealer and then flatbed it home). As it turned out I was lucky and chose wisely; my experience at Fontana was top notch.

I was hoping that my choice to go with Fontana would have rewarded me with an early delivery (and it did). And I also hoped that the other AZ people ordering from Rairdon's would be rewarded for their patience with a better deal than I got. That way we would have all been happy with our deals. Maybe something will work out and that will be the case but as I hear from some people off line (and reading in this thread) it may not be the case. This is such a bad deal and I hope it costs Rairdon's many, many future orders that they would have had if they would have stuck by their word.

I still feel that this was Raridon's plan all along. They requested that people select the buy option when ordering so that they could keep the lease rates off of the Nissan system. When they did that they knew that they could adjust the rates to regain back their discounted pricing on leased vehicles. And they also figured that if someone figured it out and cancelled after the car arrives at the dealer then they would have a car to mark-up as high as they think they can go (and make even more profit).

One thing I will say. Have any of you who are set on a lease checked with another bank to see if they would do a lease on the car? I have known friends that have leased through major banks like Chase in the past with great results. They negotiated the rates with them and then dealt with the dealer like it was a cash sale. Being that the car is electric that may be an issue as there is no data for residual values and such (other than what Nissan has declared by it's lease; maybe that would be enough to get them to assign a value). It may be worth looking into anyway.

 

[SilverLeaf]

I've been in contact with Jack (Jay) Miller of Rairdon's.

The conversations and outcomes have been consistent with what I negotiated with Greg before he left the dealership. I am confident that I will be treated fairly by Jay.

I am also purchasing all cash, so some of the other complaints do not apply to me.

I also received a telephone call today (indicated 'private call' on my caller id)
--the woman identified herself as being from Nissan, and was calling to see if I had any
----complaints with my experience, with my being an out of state purchaser
--------(AZ resident purchasing from Rairdon in Washington State).

Either Nissan is concerned, or someone is looking to survey our experience with Rairdon.

I explained that I had no issues, at the moment (based upon conversation with Jay).

 

[Anonymous]

Rairdon has 4 dealers listed on a search at the Better Business Bureau, they are rated: B, B+, A and A+. The Nissan dealer is not yet rated (because it is new)

Campbell Nelson has 2 dealers, VW and Nissan, both rated A+

Wow, I had to go verify this myself and you're right. This was certainly NOT the case when I looked them up on BBB before (when I was picking a dealer a few months ago). Scores were much lower then. Maybe they're starting to focus on this and improving their score, which would be commendable.