<p>That happened to me also HGFM, but it was a Honda dealer who couldn’t give me the time of day. So I bought a Toyota. </p>
<p>Oddly, when I was looking at cars last year, NONE of the car salespeople ever contacted me after my visit to their dealership. I found that strange, since I left each with a list if what I was looking for in a car. </p>
<p>Congrats on your new car, HGFM! Make sure to map out gas stations so you would not have to drive worried where the next gas might be. Safe drive!</p>
<p>Congratulations! It’s exciting to get your first new car. One piece of advice I’d give, especially if you’re going to be living in Colorado, is to be sure to get snow tires prior to the winter months.</p>
<p>I’m the new owner of a 2011 model myself – and it’s an amazing deal! Something like 40% off the new model price and it’s still under warranty for 13 months. When I bought my last car, I visited the local Nissan dealer and had emails and phone calls from them before I got home. I get the followup concept, but <em>before I get home from the test drive</em>??? They must have called me three times a week before I told them I’d bought something else.</p>
<p>PS The Rogue is really cute. Enjoy it. One of my employees has one and is very happy.</p>
<p>alwaysamom–I’m going to be living West of the Rockies, and Grand Junction gets very little snow. But i will ask the people I work with and see if they think snow tires are a necessity. I will get them if they think I need to.</p>
<p>cnp55–I’m really happy with it! I just went out and just sat in it for a little while. I got calls from both Volkswagen and Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep today and told them both I’d purchased something else. I’m totally in love with the way it looks, feels, drives, etc.</p>
<p>Make sure you get the proper insurance coverage. On your ancient car you probably did not carry collision insurance. On the new car, you may want to (or need to, if there is a car loan involved.) </p>
<p>^Yup. I now have Collision and Comprehensive which I didn’t before. I think (according to mom) the dealer (who I have financing through) set the terms on how much coverage I have to have.</p>
<p>OP, Congratulation on your purchase of new (used) car!</p>
<p>Do you mind if I ask a question about my wife’s car on this thread? It is 2009 Nissan Altima.</p>
<p>When she drives the car the first time in the morning and applies the brake gently like when stopping at a traffic light on a local road, she could hear some low pitch noise. We brought the car to the Nissan Dealer (actually two times, the second time for this problem specifically), they said there is no problem - and one of the ladies in the service department told us ALL NISSAN CARS DO THIS (i.e., making noises while applying the brake.) </p>
<p>I looked up the reliability record for Nissan Altima from Consumer Reports, and found out that the brake is indeed not that great for its 2007-2009 model.</p>
<p>But we have driven so many different kinds of cars in the past, and have never run into this kind of problem. Also, after the car has been driven for 20 minutes to half an hour, this noise goes away when applying the brake gently. BTW, the car has about 60k miles on it, and we originally purchased it from a rental car company. When we first got the car about 3-4 years ago (we did not drive much on that car), there was no such a problem. But the brake noise problem was developed within about a year.</p>
<p>Should we be concerned about it? Also, if the dealer can’t fix it and we are still nervous about it (especially when we may give this car to our child), do you know any “brake specialist” that may be better than the mechanics in the dealer’s service department?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance. (And my apology to OP for asking a question about a car from Nissan.)</p>
<p>No worries mcat! I have experienced similar situations with my Chrysler; had a problem and the dealer was totally unhelpful. I’d suggest finding a good independent mechanic and see if they can help. That did wonders for my Chrysler and is probably most of the reason it lasted so long. Yelp is a good place to find a good mechanic for free.</p>
<p>Thanks, HGFM.</p>
<p>I did find that Nissan dealers (we went to two of them, in two different cities, many years apart) tend to be friendly, as compared to, say, Honda.</p>
<p>I almost purchased a car remotely for our child (he “complained” that he had had the driver license for a decade and still had never owned a car) about 3-4 months ago. I think the salesman (at a Honda dealer) gave me a hard time and did not want to deal with me - making me feel that their attitude is “my way, or highway.” I often needed to call them several times before I could talk to the salesman who handled my case. It was like I needed to chase after them, not the other way around. I pull the plug in the end. If they gave me a deal I could trust, it is likely I would buy it at that time. Now we were thinking of just giving one of our cars to DS (but he does not need it urgently now.)</p>
<p>One advice (if your car has one of the battery-charged “smart key”): Get a spare battery for your smart key. You do not want to run out of that tiny battery and you have a hard time starting the car.</p>
<p>Our Altima has one of those keys. We do not need to take out the key to either open the door or start the car. The key can stay in your pocket. It sends out some signal to tell the car that “the owner of the car is here.” It is quite convenient.</p>
<p>mcat, that was how I felt about the Nissan dealer as opposed to VW. I felt VW was shady and used every slimy tactic in the book (right up to muscling me for information about the car I bought today–what difference does it make? CA has no cooling off period so I couldn’t have gotten the VW this morning even if I wanted to, which at that point I no longer did.)</p>
<p>What was nice was that all the salesmen talked with me rather than my dad, which surprised me somewhat. But I think they could all tell that I was buying, not dad.</p>
<p>When I was buying a car, it really irked me that the salesmen kept directing all questions and info to H (who was then my BF), not me, even. He and I told them I was buying the car and it was for ME, but they never were able to make the transition except when H didn’t come at all.</p>
<p>We had a similar problem with our 1st pediatrician. He would only talk to H (who worked full time, not me nor the toddler). It was absurd–the pedi would ask a question about our S and H would ask me and I’d answer. The pedi would then ask H another question and the process would continue to repeat. That is one of the reasons we switched pedis–really irritating!</p>
<p>Sounds like you had a nice and savvy salesman. It is good that it was a pleasant experience for you. </p>
<p>
I think this is because you are in California!</p>
<p>Let me share a story that I learned online from a girl (who just graduated from high school then) in a small city in Texas.</p>
<p>She and her mother went to a dealer in that smaller city. When they asked for a test drive, the salesman would not let them. He asked the father to be present before he would allow them to have a test drive. Her mother, just because she is a woman, is not good enough for the salesman to take them seriously!</p>
<p>Actually, they relocated to that city because of her mother’s job. It is not like her mother is a “housewife”. The father was in another state and did not follow them to the new city.</p>
<p>When a friend’s D was looking at vehicles, the salespeople wanted to talk to her dad (who came to keep her company). He laughed at them and told them that his D made many times his income and she would get mad at them if they didn’t direct their attention to her. It is strange to me that this issue still persists–not sure why. </p>
<p>The van I bought in 1999, I was the only one who spoke with the salesperson, so it wasn’t an issue at all. He was a fleet salesperson and gave me the fleet price, he said That was the last NEW car we purchased (have acquired several previously owned vehicles since).</p>
<p>mcat, I would have been furious!</p>
<p>I do wonder if the Volkswagen dealer would have treated me a little differently had I been a young man. Lots of "my dear"s and shoulder pats. Ugh. Gave me the willies.</p>
<p>HImom, any time any of the people would even look at my dad he would just point at me and say, “She’s the buyer.” My dad is pretty mellow so it didn’t seem to bother him at all, and it happened rarely enough that it didn’t bother me. The only time he spoke more than a few words was when I asked him about purchasing the extended protection package and specifically asked him for his advice. I was glad to have him there 
(AND mom said he was impressed with my negotiation skills! Score! I feel so grown up.)</p>
<p>Dealers are not the best mannered kind. </p>