Iowa Infiniti Car Dealers

This is a quck update. I bought the 2006 Infiniti G35 6MT I was leasing last month - about 7 months before the lease maturity date. I am happy with the decision -- the car is a peach!:) The only fly in the ointment was the nightmarish experience of the purchase process. Infiniti requires that the purchase be made through the dealership and not directly with the IFS through whom the original lease was obtained. This has nothing to do with price negotiation, there was no negotiation since the pay-off amount was determined by IFS. It was the rest of the process -- what should have been done agreeably in a week was concluded in a most unsatisfactory, acrimonious manner in about 45 days! I had to make numerous calls to various people at the dealership, various departments of Infiniti, various departments of my bank, and different people in the county treasurer's office -- I had to repeat everything, nobody claimed to know anything, and nobody at Infiniti or the dealership wanted to be responsible for completing the job. Like I said, I paid for the car first week of January, and everything was concluded last week. I am so ticked off by the dealership, I do not wish to visit them ever. BTW, thanks to Infiniti changing the approved dealership twice in the last 3 years, I leased my car from one dealership, serviced my car at another, and bought out my lease at a third dealership. I wanted to close the chapter on this saga. I hope my experience is not typical. p.s.: Now that I am in a better frame of mind, I probably will try the new dealership once to see if they can earn back my trust.:)

Thank you for your input. I will check again with IFS. I think IFS told me the current payoff amount is good until 1/11/2009. I think it was related to the due date for my next payment 1/12/2009. I am thinking I might as well begin to pay down the outstanding towards ownership than pay for essentially renting the vehicle over the next 8 months. The difference in monthly payments [for a 60-month loan now vs my current lease] is less than $20. I have been very happy with my car - had this one for 31 months so far with zero issues. Did not have any problems with the 2003 G35 6MT either. Besides, it is difficult to find a better value among MT sport sedans. One way I am rationalizing my decision is -- for the price of an Accord EX, I have a well-maintained G35! :)

Hi All! I am thinking of buying a 2006 Infiniti G35 6MT that I am currently leasing. The 39-month lease matures in August 2009. The residual value at the end of the lease is about $20,270. The pay-off amount currently is about $22,780 (+ Tax & fees). NADA suggests the current wholesale value is about $20k, and the current retail value is about $22k. Do you think I can negotiate the purchase price of my car, down from the current pay-off amount? How should I go about it? I would appreciate any advice you have for me. Thanks!

Fair point, although around here, there is no way I could have got an equally equipped 08 model for 34K. It would have probably been something more like 36.5K, or 7K less, which is of course still significant. I do suspect a good portion of the cost difference will be available on resale. Not only is the 08 a year old, but with the new model change, there will probably be an even bigger year-to-year difference between the two models. I know I'm paying a premium for the new model that isn't yet widely available. But the more I thought about my options, the more I realized that this is the car I really wanted, and so I went for it. I can afford it, and it's still less than the other vehicles I was looking at. It wouldn't have been smart money to buy a Grand Cherokee SRT8 either, but it sure would have been fun.

It only took me about 20 trips to the dealership, but I finally got it done! I agreed to a purchase on a 09 G37x sedan. I have been very frustrated with Infiniti repeatedly moving back the launch date of the G37, now officially in January. I kept going back to the dealer, asking when the 09's would be here, until last week when he told me January. At that time I thought I was done with Infiniti, I was going to get a 335ix or maybe even a Grand Cherokee SRT8 (that would have been a departure from the norm for me!). Well, on my way to the BMW dealer, I stopped at the Infiniti place one last time. I told the salesman who I had been working with what I was thinking. He had a revelation - you see, he tells me, there are all these cars sitting in the ports waiting to be sold. Imagine (or search for the images online) a sea of cars parked in limbo, waiting for all the 08's to get sold before they can move to their respective destinations. He said they recently spec'ed out an 09 M35, and found one in a port that matched the description exactly. They ordered it, and it they were expecting it in about 2 weeks. He thought we might be able to do the same thing for a G, but let's find out first. Of course, it was already 6PM when we were talking, so nothing could happen that night. But we spec'ed out my desired vehicle, and he submitted it the next day. Wouldn't you know it - they found one. He said if I want it, I can get it in about 2 weeks. Well, how about that? Tell Infiniti you're going to buy something faster and more expensive than their product, and they bend a few rules for you... So Tuesday (Nov. 24), I put a $1000 deposit down on a car that isn't available yet, but will be here in two weeks. The specs are black on black G37x sedan, + premium, navi, tech, sport, with illuminated kick plates, splash guards, trunk mat, and trunk cargo net. MSRP = $43,875, my price is $43,700 + TTL. Car is supposed to arrive sometime around Dec. 9. I'm very excited to make this happen. Hopefully everything falls in line the way it's supposed to!