Is the nitrogen charge actually going away these days? Been seeing dealers pushing that for years. When I factory ordered my Mustang, I saw they tried to add nitrogen and
VIN etching. I told them to take those of and I am not paying for them, so if they screw up and do it, that's on their dime. Everything went smooth until the finance office where he had that on the invoice. I fought over it and they took it off. Scum bags.
I see less of the dealers trying to push nitrogen as consumers get more educated - thank the internet (and forums) for that. Pretty hard to justify something like that with an knowledgeable consumer when it's questioned - both the salesperson and the dealership end up looking bad.
I bought a BMW a few years back and after hours in the dealership negotiating a satisfactory 'out the door' price, the salesman came back with the sales paperwork and it had a 'security etching' charge of 500 dollars pre-printed on the document. When called on it, he had a well rehearsed reply 'that is mandatory on all our vehicles' and couldn't be taken off - so I told him to go back and rework the price so it was included, as I wasn't paying extra for it. He did, and I bought the car.
When I did my final inspection when picking up that car, the 'security etching' turned out to be a half dozen serialized metallic stickers stuck on the hood, fenders, trunklid, etc. When questioned on THAT I was told that was how 'security etching' was done now, using a 'permanent adhesive' that could not be removed by criminals (!). Within a year, half of them had fallen off. 500 dollars!
For the Stinger I took a different approach to buying. After much market research, I contacted every dealer in the province, said I was ready to buy, and told them up front what I would pay for the car in the trim level and colors I wanted. I told them the bill of sale could show any additional charges they wanted - but the final number had to be the price I would pay. All of them told me they couldn't do that price, which I expected - but two dealers in Calgary were at least serious, and countered.
After considerable extra back and forth (phone calls and email), I ended up purchasing from one of them, and ended up paying the price I wanted - for a brand new car fresh off the transporter.
By the way - for a lark I pulled an online 'Unhaggle Dealer Cost' report on the Stinger AFTER purchasing it, advertised as 'The Smartest Way to Buy a Car'. Their absolute bottom line 'Dealer Cost' after all available incentives, etc. before adding
ANY dealer profit (which Unhaggle recommended should be another 3 to 7 percent extra)
was considerably more that what I paid. Trust no one ...
