Loadsa money doesn't always mean loadsa brains...

[Ahbugger]

Working with people again kinda sucks, selling a posher brand of car doesn't help as much as I'd hoped. I've clearly had a false picture of the world: I expected people who could afford this type of car would be driven, smart, good with people... you know, all the things our teachers told us would land us in good jobs. Well amongst the occasional doctor or lawyer are hordes of dribbling morons, desperate to borrow more and buy a little status. It only really irks me when they're arseholes to be honest (I actually feel quite bad for the nice ones who are stretching themselves too much). Anyway, good or evil I've heard some silly things this week:

"I was hoping for somewhere between £150 - £200 per month."
Really let's do some maths. The car you're looking at costs £60,000...

"I'm not too fussy on timings, I might not even buy it to be honest. What deal are you going to give me?"
Yes, lets spend hours arguing over the price of something you never intend to buy. Sounds great.

"Can <cars> park themselves?"
"Yeah if you have <optional thingumy> let me show you how it works."
"Do I have to come with you or can you just call it over?"
Leaving aside the fact that the question was a bit silly have you forgotten about the steps you just walked up and the two doorways you just went through?

"Can any of these tow 2 1/2 tonne unbraked? Ideally I'd like one that can do 3."
Nothing short of agricultural machinery can - maybe not even then. Please get off the road before you kill someone.

"I'm sure my trade in is easily worth £..."
Not even close. We don't make this shit up and you can even find its value on at least three different websites for free before you start looking at cars costing twice your annual salary.

[wolfie]

"Can any of these tow 2 1/2 tonne unbraked? Ideally I'd like one that can do 3."
Nothing short of agricultural machinery can - maybe not even then. Please get off the road before you kill someone.

Don't know what brand you sell, but there are a number of Volvo models which can safely tow an unbraked 3 ton trailer (the 670 and 780, for example). Of course, these are probably a bit bigger than what the customer is looking for.

[Ahbugger]

Don't know what brand you sell, but there are a number of Volvo models which can safely tow an unbraked 3 ton trailer (the 670 and 780, for example). Of course, these are probably a bit bigger than what the customer is looking for.

*googlegooglegoogle*

Yup. That'd do it.

At least I have somewhere to suggest to them now (other than the funny-farm).

[Nunavut Pants]

...selling a posher brand of car doesn't help as much as I'd hoped.

As an acquaintance of mine who is in the local (-ish) Porsche club frequently says, "You don't have to be smart to own a Porsche!"

[notalwaysright]

RE: Post title.

Nooo, money doesn't equal brains. When I lived in my home town I used to play "count the luxury vehicle" while driving. Some days I'd choose Porsches, some days BMW convertibles, whatever. Yet nearly daily I encountered those special folks who stand with their Porsche Cayenne or Escalade doors open into the street while standing either talking on the phone, or talking with a group of friends. All with the door mostly in the street that I was trying to drive on.

Or it was fun to watch the special snowflakes park their cars in the no parking zone in front of the post office. Others followed suit until nobody could use that road. Traffic backed up further and further, some people trying to cut down the adjacent one-way street going the wrong way. I could probably film this and make some serious money. It rivaled some of the "stupid driver" compilations I've watched on youtube. It's worth mentioning that the same building complex housed a very popular brewery, so there were some people who just wanted their beer, lol.

[cindybubbles]

Maybe they drank their brains away? Or were trust fund babies when growing up?

Or, most likely, are they dirt-poor EWs who are trying to keep up with the Joneses?

[Seshat]

Sadly, I think it's the 'dirt-poor keeping up with the Joneses' in far too many cases. We've all seen people who think that if they can borrow it, they must be able to afford it.

[Ahbugger]

Sadly, I think it's the 'dirt-poor keeping up with the Joneses' in far too many cases. We've all seen people who think that if they can borrow it, they must be able to afford it.

Dirt poor is pretty rare. The Type A really stupid customers are the people who turn up with £15k negative equity carried over from trading in nearly new cars all the time and wanting their second brand new top of the range car in 18 months. I've not been doing this long but so far none of these people have been poor in terms of their income, they're just immensely greedy and bad with money. The people I'm talking about shouldn't have to borrow anything and could easily be driving a well specced, comfortable car with no debt and years of life left in it. They just can't bring themselves not to piss money up the wall. With they type of incomes we're talking about they must be wasting money hand over fist in all parts of their life to be in this sort of mess.

I have 100% sympathy for people who genuinely struggle to fit all the necessities of life into their budget (been there) but virtually none for people who easily can but just don't want to live within their means. I look forward to my hard saved pension being taxed to hell to support these people when they retire with nothing but their platinum credit cards to live off.

There is light at the end of the tunnel (and this time it's not an oncoming train): I have found a few good budgeters. Case in point a chap I had in today. He had a crazy low budget (£200 per month) and wanted to use his trade in to pay off the last of his debts - so no deposit. Eventually he started to move a bit and finally edged up to where he could just afford the car he wanted on just about the craziest deal we could have offered him. He was itching to up the spec a little bit but wouldn't even move £3 per month from the base model once we'd finally got him to the point where he could get it. I felt quite bad for him (assuming he was really stretching himself for something he really wanted) until he began to fill out the finance form and put his annual income down as £80k .

Hats off to you sir! You will live comfortably and retire very early.