Nissan tries new incentive: Buy Now, Pay Later
Beginning today, Nissan is offering its buyers a creative new incentive that it hopes will spur the company's sagging sales. Any customer who buys a Nissan now through October 2 won't have to make a payment for 130 days. That means if you bought a Versa today, your first payment wouldn't be due until January 2nd. For some reason the offer is not available to residents of Michigan, Maine and Pennsylvania and Nissan has given no explanation for the exclusion of these states.
This is another one of those incentives that could be a double-edged sword for unsavvy consumers. While not making payments seems like fun at first, this type of deal will quickly increase the disparity between what is owed on these vehicles versus what they're worth. A year or two down the line an owner might be caught off guard to find how much negative equity has accumulated in their aging Nissan.
[Source: The Detroit Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Max 7:18PM (8/25/2006)
...because this concept worked so well for Mitsubishi.
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Rich Strayer 9:30PM (8/25/2006)
Additional car information
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Ryan 7:42PM (8/25/2006)
#1
EXACTLY!
From what I remember Mitsubishi was doing "ok" prior to this similar incentive.
If I remember correctly it was:
0 down 0% intrest and 0 payments for a year.
Sure does seem risky.
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Eric L. 7:50PM (8/25/2006)
As with most attractive sounding deferred payment deals, you would probably need an astronomical credit rating to qualify for the Nissan deal. I'm willing to guess this was not the case for the Mitsu deal, and thats how they ended up with all the deadbeat cases.
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Ryan 7:52PM (8/25/2006)
#3
Your probably correct about that, hopefully Nissan does have a "strict" credit approval rating system for this deal, or a least you would assume so.
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Joe 7:55PM (8/25/2006)
Whereas companies that have cars people want (i.e. Saturn Sky, Camry Hybrid, etc...) have them paying 130 days before getting the car...
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dave 8:05PM (8/25/2006)
someone has to be mighty stupid to fall for this one. and yet they will.
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Biggsaw 8:16PM (8/25/2006)
Sure smacks of desperation to me. Seems that people are getting wise and not falling for asian propaganda anymore. The only choice for them is to resort to even more gimmickry. The American public has spoken, they don't want your poorly made crap!
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Clinton 8:24PM (8/25/2006)
I like but now, pay never a whole lot more.
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Chris 8:23PM (8/25/2006)
When you build things that ugly, you have to give someone a good reason to take it. It's simple, build what people want and they'll pay for it w/o any gimics.
Look at how well Infiniti is doing. Nissan has the hardware under the sheet metal, they just need to work on the wrapper.
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Michael Karesh 8:45PM (8/25/2006)
I hadn't been buying the talk about Nissan having trouble. I figured that the redesigned G35, Altima, Sentra, etc. would reverse their recent slide.
Now I'm not so sure.
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jack_brack 8:54PM (8/25/2006)
asian propaganda?
as opposed to employee pricing by american companies? puh-leeze, leave your prejudice out the door.
This is what it is...a stupid incentive. It matters not if it's from Japan, France, or the United States.
BTW, Nissan is pretty much French you know...ignorant racist.
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Stoneman 9:17PM (8/25/2006)
Sign me up!
Stoneman
http://www.stonemanautoreview.com
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Mike 9:43PM (8/25/2006)
and if you are looking at sentras and altimas, this brings a whole new meaning to the term "fire sale"!!!!
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sam 10:13PM (8/25/2006)
french? that explains the slide. good god who would want a car from those cowards.
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Donald Jacks 10:41PM (8/25/2006)
I did the 0 down deal for 10 months and I liked it and I did pay off the car.
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kris 10:58PM (8/25/2006)
I also did the Mitsu deal. No payments for 9 months... The salesman was quick to say that after that period lapses 90% of the people who did that deal refinances. I DID refinance, from 11% to 5% with my credit union. HOWEVER, I had to put up the difference between what I owed and KBB on my car (about $6,000). I am a special case. What average American consumer actually puts that much money away? Yeah, right. These kind of deals are a recipe for disaster. Most people get used to a certain amount of cash outlay with absolutely no regard for what's going to happen in the future.
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carbuzzard 3:58AM (8/26/2006)
I'll reckon the reason it's not offered in MI, ME and PA is because the state won't permit it.
This gimmick is used by low quality furniture stores all the time. No payments for a year usually disguises the fact that interest accumulates during that period, and that you eventually have to pay that off.
Perhaps Nissan will have a strict credit approval process for these loans, but I'll betcha those folks who qualify won't be interested.
The good news for anyone willing to wait is that there will be a surfiet of used Nissans on the used car market six months to a year from now as folks who bought into this but really can't afford it have to bail from thier contracts.
On the other hand, this may be good for Nissan from the standpoint of making more money from its financing arm. And from a manufacturers standpoint, does it make a difference? If they make $2,000 on finance for every $1,000 they "lose" on the retail side, does it matter if that $1,000 "loss" is what brings people into the store? That's how those furniture stores make money, from financing more than retail income, and it's why car dealers would rather finance your car than sell you one for cash.
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Spamman 10:53AM (8/26/2006)
Come see my ugly, pointless site I like to spam this here auto blog with!
Spamman
http://www.spammanautoreview.com
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Richard Warren 4:57PM (8/26/2006)
Dollars on the hood, reduced/free financing, who cares if it's good or bad for the company?
Fact is it's retailing, move the product any way you can. A rebate or price reduction is just that, no matter where you take the dollars from.
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