Business is supply and demand. The term “price gouging” was invented by anti-capitalists whining that they can’t get gas for $0.05 a gallon.

Dealerships will mark up the GT-R. People who want to pay $90,000 will buy it. If not, then they will drop to the next price point that people will buy. This is how all business works, and should. It’s not incredibly important when it comes to sports cars, but when you talk about things like gasoline or food, it’s economically responsible to allow market prices to fluctuate.

That is correct. The same thing is happening with Ferrari as well so let the market decides.

If price making laws are illegal, how do Scion and Saturn do it?

edit: price fixing*

Kaizen: Huh?

Kaizen: Scion and Saturn follow the MSRP (the Manufacturers SUGGESTED Retail price). The selling price is not mandated.

How much free publicity is Nissan hoping to gain over the GT-R’s pricing? Canceling warranties is stupid on a first release like this. And the rest about talking to dealers is a bunch of crap. Has Nissan marketing department been lacking funds these days? If Nissan is so worried about the GT-R being marked-up why simply don’t they maker it up themselves to $120K? They won’t because no one would buy it.

F451: The mark up is purely dealer’s profit, not Nissan’s profit. If Nissan boost the price to $120K, dealers are still going to add another $15K to that price tag if the demand is there.

Technically, I can get below invoice pricing on every Nissan sold in the USA - and employee incentives are on top of that. Anyone know what invoice is on this dink?

But with Scion, if the dealer charges a different price than MSRP, they could potentially lose the franchise. I think it’s called the Scion Covenant where each dealer has to sign this contract stating that they will only charge MSRP to become a Scion dealer.

@ odie, those dynamics I fully understand. It simply appears that Nissan is rolling on free hype at this point. Just get it to the showrooms floors where the final judgment will be made—by the consumer.

Kaizen, that isn’t price fixing. If Toyota signs that agreement with potential dealers in advance and does not deviate from that price between dealers, then they are all abiding by the same business agreement and not gouging in a competitive market (nobody is forcing anyone to by a Scion and there are plenty of fairly priced alternatives). Taking away a franchise for breaking a contract is likely part of deal and is normal.

Price fixing would be more like if there were an agreement between several manufacturers of a highly similar or identical product to sell at Price X and no other lower price.

Saturn is pretty similar with their cars, though some flexibility seems to be in play. Still, even though I like some Saturns I would not buy one if I can’t negotiate. To me that is a matter of principle, so they can hold their line and I can go next door.

this is really chapping my balls that dealers would do this, what nissan should do is simply put a phone number on the window sticker that says “if there is dealer markup on this car, call this number immediately” and it should be etched in like stone so it cant be removed by the dealer, and then when there is markup, you call the number, bitch to corporate, and Nissan gives no more GT-R’s to that dealer for at least the rest of the model year.

Or nissan should sell the car for $500,000 with a $430,000 instant rebate.

Yes Veda, but you cannot compare any Nissan to a Ferrari. I would consider buying the GT-R for 70 grand, but when greedy dealers push it at or near the 100k mark, they are pushing into competing with other, better, and more expensive cars and they are pushing me right out the door.

This happens all the time, people who can’t wait to buy the car and can justify giving a dealer more of their hard earned money, so be it. Business is business.

This happened with the PT Cruiser, the Beetle, 05 Mustang, Ford GT, SSR, Thunderbird, Z06, Viper, Prowler and all SRT-8’s etc. It’ll also happen to the Camaro, the Challenger and the new Blue Devil / ZR1.

Nissan should take advantage of this and rip people off as ruthlessly as they can. After all if youre desperate enough and a die hard fan then you will be willing to pay anything for one.

I cant believe Nissan didn’t have a clause in their franchise contracts about towing the line with pricing. That just seems foolish as they are allowing their dealers to create a bad impression of the brand by marking up prices/gouging.

My local dealer is horrible at gouging customers. The reputation in town is only go there if you have to, otherwise buy out of town and service locally. That kind of sentiment will be spreading with the inevitable gouging on the GT-R.

Jonnycat, in my are - major metropolitan city - the only cars I have seen a markup were the first year viper (long time ago - was thought of as a collector car when first launched) and the Ford GT (was a collector car as most aren’t driven). The others you mentioned never had a markup as they were readily available at numerous dealerships across the city.

The GT-R is an everyday drivable car like a Porsche, Audi, bmw. Nissan dealers will do as they like and fanatics will buy at any price. But the markup will turn more non-fanatical buyers away and create a negative perception of the dealer. Sometimes gouging on one or two cars (locally my dealer will mark up GT-R & G37) can hurt overall profits.

Are any dealers hiring right now?

I wonder how much of a fight there’s going to be amongst the dealers for a piece of this thing. As was pointed out, once you sell it there has to be someone to fix it. I mean we all know where this is going in that 6 months after the car arrives no one is going to give a **** anymore because the next really cool car will be on its way. I say good for the dealers that choose to get in on the frenzy- rake it in while you can. But if I was buying one I’d be asking what the roadside assistance policy is, because if you break down where there is no dealer with the personel to service it, you could be in for a hell of a long tow.

Saw the GT-R in person @ LA Auto Show. Indeed beautiful, but still refuse to pay more than MSRP. As noted above, $90,000/$100,000…no thanks!

I said it before… Expect a $100,000 price tag.

Every dealer does this it’s the old supply and demand thing. You want it I got it whatcha gonna pay for it?

let the Gouging begin!

CA36: Nissan should sell these cars directly over the Internet. Ticket scalping should be a capital crime, and this is in that league.

Commodore: I agree. Nissan should benefit from the fruit of its labor, but dealers can b–w me. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Sd650: This is my mid-life Crisis car. Photos don’t do it justice.

Sorry, I just don’t see the appeal of this car aside from the great performance numbers you can’t even use on the street. I just saw it at the LA show, and frankly, this thing just ain’t pretty. It looks like a catalog of ricer’s bits thrown in a blender. Honestly, the Hyundai coupe looked a lot nicer. I’d rather have a Vette or Boxster and 20k (or more) left over for a boat or other toys. Sure, they don’t perform as well, but still more than you’d ever use on the street. They’ll sell as many as they can make, but since they are not making many, that’s not saying much. They’d never sell 30,000 of these at 70k. The only people interested are “gotta have its” with more money than brains, and 12 yr old car mag buffs that don’t have 2 nickles to rub together.

So????
Can someone please tell me what is Nissan doing wrong?
If a guy wants to drop 80,90,100k on this Supercar… let him!!!!
Go ahead Nissan…. mark up this incredible sexy machine.

Forgot to mention that I too saw this car. And it is so sexy I wanna have sex with it and have lots of GT-R babies….

JJT: Laws about ticket scalping are ****ing stupid. If I buy a ticket, I should own it and its implied value and therefore be able to do whatever I want with it.

Gouging…scalping…all scarecrows for people who can’t comprehend a little thing called free market.

hmm gee…what is the appeal of a ferrari, lamborghini, bugatti, GTR? you cant use any of them for their full potential on the street. we should all be driving a prius. or worse yet, a vw golf. yah, right. stick with your golf. ill have my GTR, thanks.

CA36: If you want a ticket, you should get it at face value

Boo Capitalism.
Hooray Communism!

Do you guys forget where you live? I bet if they called it “Freedom Pricing” everyone else would agree with it.

If I had a ticket and wanted to sell it, I should have the right to sell it for whatever someone else is willing to give me for it.

If you can wait out the “newness” period im sure you can pick one up for MSRP in about a year.

GSH,…I PLAY golf. Don’t drive one. But since you mentioned it I’d rather have a Golf R32 over this anyday. Not as ugly, and far more practical. As far as the Ferrari, etc you mentioned, they are rolling works of art and have a very high level of craftsmanship (which the japanese don’t even have a word for) in addition to being great performing cars, and should not really be mentioned in the same breath as any Nissan, no matter how fast it goes. It’s like saying that Seiko and Rolex are the same…it doesn’t make any sense, and never will. I am not at all saying this isn’t a great performing car, or even a great car in general, it just doesn’t look like 70k to me. It looks like 40k. It’s not even as good looking as the G37, for chrissake. Or the Z for that matter.

If I drop 80-90 large on a car, it better look damn good. Not like this one. I wan’t to get excited when I walk up to it, or the valet drops it off. This is just a mishmash of every bad Japanese/Ricer styling cliche IMO, and only those with hacked up Civics with coffee can exhaust would find it sexy or beautiful. Belongs on the cover of J.C. Whitney, not Robb Report.

Found an actual 2008 GT-R window sticker and how dealers will get around being held to the MSRP …

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k148/WaaaaHoooo/GTR_Sticker.jpg

WOW it really only gets 8-14mpg? Daymn

Select one and drive happily ever after…

2008 M3 + Stage III Dinan Upgrade
***************OR****************
2008 GT-R + $15,000 Dealer Markup
?????????????????????????????????

For this kind of money and bland styling combined with Nissan’s cheap ass pile of crap material suppliers…no F’ing way I would buy it for 70k let alone a markup of 15k or more!! What Nissan keeps its value?? This car is in a crowd at this price. Should be 40k with more volume. What a waste of money!!

Yes, it’s a handsome car, but $100k is just too much.

The performance of this car is insane. However, Nissan’s own Infinity badged G37 looks better to me.

People are bitching about 70k for this car? What are you going to buy faster for that price? The only thing close is a Z06 Vette. Jesus, there is just no pleasing some of you.

Hey, this is some hot Black Friday deals for cars I researched out.
Here is the list:
http://www.geocities.com/silverpl105/Car.pdf
Want to share with everyone and hear your comments

^ Futura tires and Monroe shocks sound interesting - check those out. Also the remote starter at $40, that’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen!

I finally had to do it. I got a leftlane account to discuss this car. How can a car with a 8.1 lb/hp. be as fast as a car with a 6.3 such as a 2007 zo6 corvette. I understand that this nissan has a good bit of technology but anyone that is knows anything about motorsport knows that this is what makes a car fast. It is the power to weight ratio. i read one article in motortrend in which the developer of the car stated that he ran a 11.7 with a trap speed of 149mph. That is quite possibly the biggest lie i have every seen. That car would be running much faster than 11.7s with that kind of trap speed. So i want everyone to just look at the facts instead of false undocumented reports.

It’s called Turbo lag

Sorry jonnycat do your research its not lag….let me explain….A 2001 hennessey viper 800tt for example. Runs a 10.0e/t at a trap speed of 139mph. Do your homework before you try to argue with me.

Now like i said to say that nissan is running a quarter mile at 149mph is just to simply put it a lie.

deantj: Tell us how you REALLY feel.

haha, sarcasm and the internet never go over well. LOL.

OO i see damn man sorry i was so mad after i read all of these articles on idiots that don’t know what there talking about commenting about a car that won’t live up to the hype….

this is a exclusive sports car…..good pricing.

The concept was a handsome coupe, but the production car has turned out looking like an HGH-jabbing lovechild of a Corvette and a Mustang. No matter how well it handles or accelerates, this caricature is not going to command premium prices after the fetishists have taken delivery.
.
That’s not to say that I wouldn’t love to rent one for the weekend when nobody was looking though…

Excuse me—Ferrari dealers are not allowed to sell their new cars above sticker. If you are lucky enough to get one from a certified dealer, then no mark up. Once you have the car then you can flip it, but if ferrari finds out, no more dealer cars for you.