This Month's Car Sales Customer Awards

[Ahbugger]

The Golden Derp Trophy goes to...
...everyone who bought a 4WD vehicle to help them cope with the UKs two annual days of snow (oh the horror) but refused to have anything other than Summer tyres fitted. "Yeah, I bet you get good commission for them. Why should I buy 'magic tyres' when I've got a 4x4?"
I don't get commission for tyres thanks all the same, have fun sliding down a slight incline in your new car.

The Special Award for Clinical Bewilderment goes to...
The nice couple who insisted on getting a bizarre discount club offer of a few percent off pre-tax price and free metallic paint rather than several thousand off list, a nice deposit contribution and zero percent interest. They persisted despite having the numbers painstaking explained to them over a period of five hours first by me then by every managery sort of person we could find. "That's very good but we're entitled to..."
Right you are then.

The Bronze Medal for Unexpected Entertainment goes to...
The two scallies who utterly failed to steal a car from us and every other dealership in a 3 mile radius.
Special mention to the single PC Plod who bothered to turn up and wheeze up and down the pavement after them before giving chase with barely audible blues and twos on his rather camp looking patrol car.
Benny Hill music please.

Finally the Golden Asshat Trophy goes to...
...the guy who came in on one of our sales events, wanted £4k more for his trade in than it was worth, wanted £4k off the ticket price of something that was already reduced by £3k (so that's basically £11k off a £25k car). After lots of hooting that 100k miles was 'completely normal' on his four year old vehicle he went on to complain that we'd enticed him in with our clearly fake sale (£3000 not enough for you?) On his way out his final bit of non-triumph was getting out his smart phone, finding a lower valuation than we'd given him for his crapwagon and triumphantly waving it about saying "SEE, this company are really terrible! You should be offering at least half more than are!"
Well done sir. Drop by again soon!

[Nunavut Pants]

Re: the Golden Derp--


One of my favorite journalists from over your way made a couple of videos demonstrating the difference. Here is one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STaximkaQxo

[Ahbugger]

Re: the Golden Derp--


One of my favorite journalists from over your way made a couple of videos demonstrating the difference. Here is one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STaximkaQxo

Thanks, I'm actually going to load that link onto my desktop and play it to future potential award winners.

[Seshat]

The summer-tire driver in that video has much better skid handling technique than the average driver, too. He's got steering out of skids down to a fine art. Now I'm frightened for the passengers of the Golden Derp people. And nearby pedestrians, people in other vehicles, etc.

It doesn't take much for a slight skid to become a serious one, especially if you handle it badly.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Special mention to the single PC Plod who bothered to turn up and wheeze up and down the pavement after them before giving chase with barely audible blues and twos on his rather camp looking patrol car.
Benny Hill music please.

Ask and ye shall receive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUYbu5DJA1U

[RealUnimportant]

I have all-weather M+S shoes on my tiny old banger (weighs less than a ton, loves steep snowy roads others can't traverse) and snow chains for my FWD teutonic barge, in the event I get caught by surprise change in the weather. People who buy 4x4s & leave them on summer rubber terrify me!

[Chromatix]

This being Finland, winter tyres are *mandatory* at this end of the year, and ice studs are recommended. They're also permitted whenever the weather calls for them.

The Finnish driving course also includes specific lessons and practice on a skid pan, at night, and actually in winter. It's rightly considered one of the toughest and most respected driving licences in the world.

[Dreamstalker]

The nice couple who insisted on getting a bizarre discount club offer of a few percent off pre-tax price and free metallic paint rather than several thousand off list, a nice deposit contribution and zero percent interest.
Right you are then.

Ah yes, insisting on paying more because they're "entitled" to it (or in my case, reading the wrong sign but "the customer is always right" so if they want to pay more... )

[crazylegs]

..

Special mention to the single PC Plod who bothered to turn up and wheeze up and down the pavement after them before giving chase with barely audible blues and twos on his rather camp looking patrol car.

Given that the louder sirens cost more, as do finding a decent vehicle fitter who puts the siren in the right place (or even the right way around). In addition allowing complaints of 'loud sirens' to influence your buying decision is fundamentally flawed.

So yeah, sirens are rubbish these days.

[Ahbugger]

Ah yes, insisting on paying more because they're "entitled" to it (or in my case, reading the wrong sign but "the customer is always right" so if they want to pay more... )

We ended up getting one of the finance guys to fiddle it in the end and he gave them the better deal but made the invoice look as though we'd given them their special snowflake deal plus a bit extra. There was too much money involved to give them a worse deal just for a fleeting bit of vindictive pleasure.

That was a good few hours of my life that I'll never get back.

[Aria]

I've driven a 2WD with (bald) summer tires, in the winter. And there was ice on the roads. I was just VERY careful. I'd take a 4WD with summer tires any day. But my dad has both a 4WD and winter tires, he could really tell the difference when he used my Pathfinder.

[Ahbugger]

Glad you're ok and all but

Really?

[icmedia]

Ah yes, insisting on paying more because they're "entitled" to it (or in my case, reading the wrong sign but "the customer is always right" so if they want to pay more... )

I regularly have customers who refuse to let me give them $200 in trade-in credit for their old (valued at less than $50) smartphones because, "I know my rights-I'm allowed to keep my old phone!"

OK, then that will be $400 for your two new iPhones, cases, chargers, bluetooth headphones and FitBits...instead of owing me zero dollars and zero cents. You drive a hard bargain.

[Ahbugger]

I regularly have customers who refuse to let me give them $200 in trade-in credit for their old (valued at less than $50) smartphones because, "I know my rights-I'm allowed to keep my old phone!"

OK, then that will be $400 for your two new iPhones, cases, chargers, bluetooth headphones and FitBits...instead of owing me zero dollars and zero cents. You drive a hard bargain.

I suppose you could think of it as a self-administered charge on stupidity which (in the grand scheme of things) presumably subsidises your rather generous trade in offer for people who aren't dicks.

[LesserSouthernFroglet]

Last winter we had a lot of heavy snow in the higher areas - well, heavy for here anyway. Three Mondays in a row my friends got snowed in - they're up the top of a mountain with dirt roads. The second Monday I did the mercy dash for some urgent supplies in my Defender, which has mud/snow tyres.

I got up there, and back down, with ease. I only had to go to low-range when I hit their long, bumpy, hilly driveway.

The neighbours in a 4x4 with road tyres? Still digging their cars out several hours later after sliding off the icy driveway. There were also several 2WD vehicles off the road on the trip home. (yes, I did offer to winch them out, but they said they were fine and waiting for the snow to melt.)

Buying a 4x4 for snow driving is one thing but really, it makes not much difference if you don't equip it for the snow too.