Inventory shortages have dramatically decreased supply, but Americans still want to buy cars. We all know this creates a situation where dealers can charge almost whatever they want for a vehicle. Pickups are always in demand, and you would expect a markup on something like a Raptor or a TRX, but this Nissan dealer takes the cake on a Frontier.
I got a tip from a reader who was searching for a cheap pickup in New England and he was flabbergasted as to what his local Nissan store was charging for a used truck!
“I’m currently shopping for a CPO or lightly used two to three year old Nissan Frontier in old man, 2WD, nothing spec. What I have found is absolutely criminal. Using Nissan’s CPO search tool, I found a 2019 S King Cab 2WD 5MT with less than 10k miles on it, priced over 5k more than MSRP when it was brand new. It’s within 10% of buying a 2022 D41 base model King Cab. I called the dealer, and of course the sales manager is not available (probably eating a large sub sandwich). I wanted to find out why a $15k truck is now $25k for no apparent reason other than “the used truck market is crazy right now” answer that I got from the pleasant junior sales girl. Please find the attached pics for reference.”
To recap this is a three-year-old, base model, Nissan Frontier with two-wheel drive and a manual transmission. I can’t imagine this configuration being desirable to anyone but a handful of Jalopnik weirdos, especially in New England where the 4WD would certainly be useful.
Apparently, this Nissan store thinks there is a big market for those weirdos and has decided to market this pre-owned truck for $5,000 over its original MSRP.
If you look closely at the ad, the original posted price was $28,314, that’s 40 percent over MSRP! I guess the dealership thought that might be a tad too ambitious for a pretty-basic used pickup and adjusted accordingly.
Marking up a used Frontier isn’t quite as bad as putting serious premiums on super cheap commuter cars, but it just goes to show how bad buyers have it right now. While deals are difficult they are not impossible. I just had a Toyota dealer in New England offer my client a brand new Tacoma and they took a few hundred bucks off the MSRP. I have to imagine there is a Nissan dealer willing to let a new Frontier go at a reasonable price.
(Tom McParland is a contributing writer for Jalopnik and runs AutomatchConsulting.com. He takes the hassle out of buying or leasing a car. Got a car buying question? Send it to Tom@AutomatchConsulting.com)