Courtesy Nissan in Richardson, TX (ugh)
I actually was not going to do a review at all on this dealership but after talking to 2 total strangers recently on their experiences with this dealership I just feel obliged to point something out to others in the Dallas area. First let me start with my own experiences with them. I’ll have to really think back as we are talking memories over the past 10 years.
In that span of 10 years I have had 4 previous experiences dealing with Courtesy Nissan. In a sense you could say they have been primarily responsible for me not owning a Nissan until now. Granted I could have visited other Nissan dealerships but after going through one of their negotiating sessions it was enough for me to go to other brands.
The first time I approached them it was to buy the 1991 Sentra SE-R of which I was completely head over heels with. Went to Courtesy Nissan and had to sit through 2 hours of endless sales tactics to get me to pay more. The way the deal was structured I was going to pay near MSRP and practically give my trade-in (a 3yr old Isuzu I-mark) to them. If that was not enough of an insult, they called me back a week later saying the car I wanted was there and the manager had reconsidered my offer. I went down there only to find out there was no such car and was promptly given reasons as to why I should settle on the SE models. I left and bought me a Honda CRX Si and never regretted it.
Second time I came by was to buy a 1995 Pathfinder XE (didn’t want 4x4). Again, I got the same act from the dealer, was told SUV’s were selling like hot-cakes, and they could keep enough Pathfinders on the lot. The deal came down to around a $1000 difference but fell through because they felt that they would have a hard time selling the Honda. Yeah, sure. Hard time selling a Honda my patooty – and a low mileage CRX Si at that! So I left and got a 1995 GMC Jimmy SLT. The GMC dealership was quite generous with my Honda valuation.
In 1998 we tried getting a Saturn. Not anything to do with Nissan, but anyone who has dealt with Saturn knows that what you see is what you pay, but, you can negotiate the trade-in. However, they would not give a fair value for my wife’s Talon to cover about $1000 difference. It is funny to point out that year was one of the worst years for Saturn in sales and because they had to stick with their image of no-haggling the Saturns they had to be especially generous on your trade-in. The corporate memo must have been sent after our attempt to buy one. Didn’t buy a new car that year
Anyway, third time I came back was to get my wife a 2000 Maxima SE. My wife wanted one after seeing my friend’s 99 SE model and her sister’s 2000 GLX trim (neither bought from Courtesy by the way – one from Bankston, the other from Grubbs). Our dealer told us from the start how hot this car was selling – really hyping that they couldn’t keep them on the lot (hmmm, heard this on just about everything I go negotiate on) and then gave us our test drive. Now, I have never been in fear for my life on a test drive before. This guy just went nuts on the 75 Central, hammering it and zipping in and out of cars to show us how great this 222hp engine was. By the time we got back my wife was deathly afraid of the car and wanted nothing to do with it. After calming her down a bit and telling her we could get the less sportier GLE trim. Getting her to agree on it, we head back to the negotiating table. First words out of our daredevil dealer’s mouth was “Oh yeah, GLE’s. Those are great too. We can’t keep enough of them…” and you know the rest. So we left. Didn’t buy a new car that year
So at this point you would think after a third time I would learn not to deal with these guys. Don’t worry we did – at first that is. My wife and I went there to simply look at the Altima 3.5 SE, get a brochure, then get a test drive. We were definitely not going to buy there at all. Now here is where it gets interesting. The salesperson (who shall remain nameless) turns out to know a co-worker of my wife at her place of employment. This co-worker told our salesperson to “take care of us”. Want to know the definition of Courtesy Nissan’s “taking care of you”? How about starting from MSRP and going up. Yes, UP. I am talking about dealer add-on here. If they don’t have the car on the lot, guess what? A non-refundable $500 deposit fee AND more add-on fees such as cost of transport. Boy, this guy was REALLY taking care of us! If that wasn’t enough he tried to move us to the 2.5S and SL models just because my wife wanted the 3.5SE in silver. They had a couple of Silver Altimas on the lot, but they were all 2.5S and SL. At this point we were being told that there was no difference between the engines in the 2.5 and 3.5 trims. I’d say there were 2 cylinders and 60hp difference. Then his feigned ignorance on the Altimas progressed when we were told we could get certain options regardless of the packaging. At that point we were tired of getting the run-around and told him we would think about it and just left to go to Bankston Nissan (who knocked $1000 off the price at the start, by the way).
What prompted me to post this review are those two strangers I mentioned earlier. The first guy had a Black 3.5 SE. We got to talking about the cars since we parked next to each other just about the same time at Stonebriar mall. He stated he went to Courtesy first and couldn’t get them to budge at all on the price. Ended up buying at Bankston. The second stranger (actually a couple) my wife had talked with in the parking lot at an Albertson’s. They had a white 2.5S and they too went to Courtesy first and stated how they were unwilling to move on the price. They ended up buying from Trophy. Is anyone seeing a pattern here? Apparently, I'm not the only one not getting a good offer there.
Now if anything my experience and that of these two strangers will tell you is that if you are looking for a great deal on an Altima, you will be wasting your time at Courtesy Nissan. Granted, someone on this board got a great deal, but then there were connections explained that apparently were mutually beneficial to both this person and this dealership. Otherwise, for the rest of you who will not have so much as a friend at this dealership you will be paying more – guaranteed.
Maybe this will change in time. I can’t say much more about this dealership beyond the negotiating level simply because it never got further than that four times prior. I can say they have good service department. My friend and my wife’s sister brought their cars there for service and never had a problem. I went there to get a part and spent some time talking with their parts guys. They are pretty cool.
But for the sales side of things – I would avoid Courtesy Nissan. Unless, of course you just don’t care about getting a deal and wouldn’t mind paying MSRP and financing their next dealership Christmas party.
Oh yes, we ended up buying the car from Marzie Hughlett at Waco Nissan in Waco, TX.
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02 Silver Sheen 3.5SE fully loaded with everything except cold weather pkg.
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