Dang, based on this post I researched possibilities for myself here in Colorado, but it's not as good.
First, the dealer is telling me to choose between 0% financing and the 3500 credit, I can't have both.
2nd, the list price is 32500 for the S trim package, guess they don't need to mark down in my market?
There is a $6000 state credit, but the deal is probably not low enough for me to go for it.
If you are looking to buy or lease a new car. The best way that I have found is to figure out exactly what model, options, colors, charging package, floor mats, etc. Do a test drive with a a dealer but flat out refuse to negotiate a price. Walk out. Even if you are curious. Why waste time stuck in their trap. Escape. The price that they give you will be thousands off so why bother.
Go home. Call up 10-15 or so dealers and ask for their fleet manager/internet sales manager's email addresses. Most likely you will be transferred to talk with them. Refuse to discuss what you want. Tell them that you will email them all the details later in the day so there is no misunderstanding.
A few days before the end of the month. Send out your email spelling out exactly what you want. From research include MSRP and invoice for the car and model that you are looking at. I recommend using a SPAM email for this. You should tell them that you plan on buying on the last day of the month, that you don't need a test drive, that you want financing or don't want financing, that you don't have a trade in, that you are buying from whoever is the cheapest.
If you are buying new. You are buying a commodity. They have nothing else to offer except the lowest price. If they call or email with good questions then answer them. If they want to negotiate, just politely tell them that you don't like to negotiate and that you are going to buy from the cheapest provider of your exact model. Some will refuse to play the game, but others will.
I went from the person that I test drove telling me that $32k was the internet price and an amazing price to finding the exact same vehicle for $28,500 - $11k in federal and Nissan rebates. Once you have what you feel is the best price. Schedule an appointment to pick up the car. That you only have 30 minutes.
All the paperwork should be ready and you should be able to drive out in less than an hour. I have helped friends purchase cars where they brought a cashier's check and were out in 15 minutes.
No stress, no hassle. From the emails from the dealers they are stressing to win the sale.
If you are going to lease specify 0 down, ask for the cost per mile over the 12,000, number of payments and ask about the residual values. Again ensuring that it is apples to apples. If anyone comes up different ask them what happened. If you learn something, let everyone know what in your ask has changed.
I actually called the Nissan dealer that was 6 miles away and asked them if they could match or beat the lowest. They said they couldn't. I ended up leasing from a place that was 12 miles away.
If you have a trade in you can inquire about that. This way you are comparing two very specific transactions. You know what you are getting for each.
Good luck. I am confident that you will get the $3,500 plus more if you use email as a tool. Total time to buy a car was less than 3 hours including test drive, finding email addresses, filling out paperwork, etc. stress was close to zero.