Car Salesmen - OMG
 

My dear wife has a yen to replace her car. Considering the way she has cared for me for the last seven months of my illness and treatment - (ongoing) she deserves it.

So, we know what we want - a small car with a petrol engine and an automatic transmission, and a built-in satnav.
She fancied a Fiat 500X, or a Nissan Juke but there are many similar cars designed for women.

Today we drove to the next town to investigate what else is available.

First place - Renault:
"Oh we don't get many petrol - most prefer the diesel!"
"We only want one and we want petrol".
"Well the diesel is very nice".
"Are you prepared to guarantee that your DPF filters will NEVER cause a problem?"
"Oh don't believe what you hear in the media!"
"So you don't do Capturs with petrol engines?"
"Oh yes but they are rare!"
"Good bye - sorry to waste your time looking for a product that you sell but can't be bothered to find!" (I didn't say that).

2nd place - VW - we walk up and down the line. There are salesmen hiding in the office - apparently scared of contact with would be clients. We leave.

Audi dealers - a salesman comes out and shows us one model twice as much as our stated budget. We thank him and remind him of what we are looking for. He gives us his card and tells us to check in "from time to time". Ah- so you want US to chase YOU to sell us a car?" (I didn't say that").

3rd Peugot/Fiat/Mazda dealers.

We find a most interesting Fiat. Then after a while we find a salesman.
He tells us that it is sold "Doesn't say so". "Well it is, happy hunting".

We move along and I find a Nissan Juke. I walk into the sales area - "Excuse me can someone help us with the Nissan outside?"
"That's a used car" say a small boy wearing a suit and tie, "we are new sales".
I'm getting riled now. "Well young man, why don't you go and find me someone who can help us?" "Oh, (shrugs) OK".

An older gent ambles out and asks if he can help.
"Yes, we'd like to look at this car, can you show us around?"
"Oh, it's just come in" (so?) He ambles off, then after a few minutes returns - "I have to get the key number".
He ambles off again, then the car clicks open, so Jane climbs in.
So she's sat in it, keyless entry so can't switch it on, but no salesman.
We get fed up so close the doors and go to walk away.
The salesman ambles out again - "are you OK?"
"Well we are, but we were getting lonely - can you tell us about the car?
"Well, it's just come in".
I find myself getting managerial but hide it "Firstly is it petrol or diesel?"
"I don't know - he opens the petrol filler lid, and looks inside - "It's petrol"
"Well done! - and what is the mileage?"
"I don't know - it's just come in". He stands there as if that is an answer.
"Well, would you like to find out?" He ambles off again.
Jane looks in the glove compartment and finds a load of paperwork - it answers what we need to know - we close the doors and walk of, tired by the effort.
Salesman ambles out once more - and I say, "We'd like to test drive it, bit not now, so give me your card and we'll get in touch".

He looks worried - "Oh, I'll go and get one for you".
We get into my car and drive away.
Jane says if that was the best car in the world I wouldn't buy it from him!

I'm wondering how these guys can call themselves "salesmen" ?

sheesh!

and, after you decide which car, you only have about 8 more hours until the terrible ordeal is over! i'm keeping my car until it dies.

oh, and it isn't just salesmen, it is saleswomen too who are that way.

play music!

A "Yen" is about a penny so I can see why the salesmen were less than helpful :D

Just injecting a little humor into a painful experience.

I encourage you to mail a copy of this post to every place you visited.
Send two copies, and address one to the sales manager and the other to the general manager.

they'll be tripping over their feet trying to make you happy.

car salesman do understand word of mouth, but sometimes have to be reminded of how it works.

I've just been through all this and found much the same thing. You research cars on the internet and then go to see them only to find the car is not there.

I asked one salesman about a particular car and he said it had just come in but didn't know where it was (not prepared to find out).

Another had 2 identical cars in model and age but that were £1000 difference in price. I asked why and he couldn't tell me. I knew it was because, according to their web site, one had done an extra 10,000 miles but I wasn't going to tell him.

However, I did find a few I would happily buy cars from if only they had what we were looking for and were prepared to offer inoffensive part ex.

At least they are not as slimy as they used to be. T'was the time I'd test drive at least 6 cars to make sure I got the right car and the bonus was that I could let down 5 dealers.

Ended up buying from Toyota dealer - they were fantastic and ticked every box plus a few more.

I must say I have always found Japanese manufacturers dealers to be very good. Those and family run businesses the big groups haven't yet managed to put out of business.

Renault??. They still make them? :)

Last time I bought a new car was 6 years ago last May. My poor Civic coupe has 170K+ miles on it.

The car is great. The experience buying it was a 2 1/2 - 3 hour pain in the backside. I hate car salesmen and the whole car buying hassle.

Best of luck SM!

Kind of the same thing in England as here is sounds like :).

Over here in the States, most dealerships (at least in my area) have "Internet Sales" and online inventories. This doesn't get you past the dreaded closing pitches, but for me anyway it saves all kinds of time and trouble.

So step one, do your own research online. Yes, it'd be nice if all the salesmen knew all about their products, but they don't, so don't expect what you will not get.

Step two, narrow it down to a list. I start wider than many folks, maybe 10 car models, but you can start with fewer you really want to look at as well.

Step three use the Internet inventories at nearby dealers to find out if they have the car on your list you want to look at/drive. You'll still have to deal with the confused sales folks, but at least you'll have a sense the car is there and you'll be able to say you want the to test the one with petrol engine, candy-apple grey paint, and the self-irrigating garden plot option on the roof.

Knock your list down to one two three models you like after than, and use the Internet Sales option to get quotes on price.

It's gotta be a bear to do car shopping if you are still feeling under the weather.

Saw a commercial for this the other day. Looks very cool.

https://www.carvana.com/

https://www.carvana.com/[/QUOTE]
So, we know what we want - a small car with a petrol engine and an automatic transmission, and a built-in satnav.
She faen?ncied a Fiat 500X, or a Nissan Juke but there are many similar cars designed for women.

And what are other similar cars designed for wom

My brother had his own used car dealership for many many years and then after he had to get out for health reasons, he sold new cars for a Toyota Dealership the last three years before he retired. I sympathize and completely understand your bad experiences . My wife and I have had many of the same.

Now, let me tell you some of the stories of all the rude, stupid, inconsiderate, arrogant, foul-mouthed, wastes-of-time, folks he had to deal with every single day of his life. Some of these wonderful folks troll car dealerships just for fun, never intending to buy a car. ...Never mind, I would run out of space.
It's a tough and crummy business. A lot of good, well-run Dealerships go through salespeople like water because it's so easy to find people who want to spend six days a week and 60 hours sitting around until someone shows up for a draw of $12-15,000 a year and make a whopping $100 when they sell a new car. :rolleyes:
Maybe you can now see why you got such great service. It isn't right but that's the way it is.
The General Manager of the dealership my brother worked for literally begged him to stay and offered him fewer hours, no Saturdays and no evenings.
He was the only salesman to make his draw and receive a bonus almost every month. Why, because he had to to put food on the table and he wasn't fortunate enough to live rent-free with parents. He also has a work ethic, something that has become increasingly foreign here in America.

Given a choice between buying a car and getting a root canal, I'd take two root canals.

way back in the olden days, one of my Saturday jobs was working in ashoe shop.
First day, the manager told me to stand outside and look at all the shoes, note their features and prices, then go into the storeroom and memorise what we had and what we didn't.

That's what we did, plus size up the customer and offer alternatives.


Reminds me of the sales guy that sold me my first Collings - he asked me exactly what I wanted , (wide necked dread) - he worked to gather together a Martin, Santa Cruz, Bourgeois, and Collings. He got a sale.

The idea of finding the product for the customer, rather than sit and wait for a customer for your stock, is, perhaps, old fashioned.

Where is the like button on this site???? :D

So, we know what we want - a small car with a petrol engine and an automatic transmission, and a built-in satnav.
She faen?ncied a Fiat 500X, or a Nissan Juke but there are many similar cars designed for women.

And what are other similar cars designed for wom[/QUOTE]


The first objective was a Renault Captur,