It's Not a Museum

[Pimento]

Hey i have no problem giving advice, im a little blunt but we ca nwork it out.

Nissan was the previous dealerhsip i mentioned making the BIG bucks at. They have hidden rebates that make the mable to play with numbers, and most of the m kink paperwork up to force an approval. Plus Nissan financing will approve everyone witha 700+ beacon, and you can tack ANYONE on to the loan without re submitting it. It leaves alot of loop holes for dealerships to rake in cash.

BIGGEST advice i can offer is to tell the dealers that youre goign between that you are NOT trading anything in. Then when you get the "best deal" throwi n your trade. It will be a fair and honest number, realistic, and give you the chance to see the dealers true colors. Since i dont have the $4000 markup in my trucks that say...a GM guy does, he can use gross to shwo you a better deal.

I never suggest paying full sticker, just dont get too greedy. When a dealer give you the remote start and a little extra off, then says "thats the best i can do" its typically an indication of "this is the best deal i can offer and still pay my sales man enough to make it worth your while"

Remember, if i make money off of you, when you lose an expensive key, or have an issue, ill go to the ends of the earth for you, if youre rude and call me a liar, haggle me down to nothing then still dont think youve got a good deal...i might not even say hi when you come back.

[HYHYBT]

Call right after they leave, call after 1 day, 3 days, 5 days then weekly for 2 weeks then every 2 weeks for a month, then every month after that. Most sales people are required to do it regardless of personal opinion.

Are you required to continue doing this even after being informed that I've already purchased a car elsewhere? I only ask because one did that to me... though, to be fair, it was email: I'd had the sense not to give them my phone number

[Merriweather]

I
I only had two bad experiences, out of the nine or so dealerships I stopped at; one was not the salesman's fault, but his manager's.

We've had more good than bad experiences, but the worst one really takes the cake. Went to a well established lot (same family owned several dealerships, both new and used, been there for years). This was back in WA state, BTW.

We needed a mid priced newer used car. Nothing outstanding about the dealership, not one of the "we never haggle" places or anything.

First, the guy was pushy. We liked one car, he suggest another, etc. Talked us into a test drive of one that had come in recently, then spent the entire time in the back seat going on (and on and on) about his church, his kids, his church, his trustworthiness, his church, his wife, did I mention his church? Sorry, small talk is ok, trying to sound like a "regular trustworthy guy" is fine, but I don't need your church memberhip, when meetings are, where you meet, how many kids you have and more. At couple of times I had to risk being rude to ask him to please shut up (not in those words) so we could hear the engine of the car he wanted to sell us!

I wasn't terribly impressed with the car, and it had a few odd sounds (which he conveniently couldn't hear). Caught hm backpeddling on something that had been/was going to be fixed. A few discrepencies - I think it was really a matter of it had just come in and hadn't been totally checked over and he was trying not to admit that or just didn't have all his info right. As long as certain things were checked over before papers were signed, whatever.

So we still weren't convinced we wanted it, he takes us into the dealership and sits us at his desk. We get his business card and a flyer for his church So he wants to sell us the car. Tells us the full price he'd already said. We either asked if he could go lower or suggested a slightly lower price (and yes, slightly lower).

He takes the most offended look I've seen, starts in with how he couldnt' possibly do that, I swear by the tme he finished I expected violinists to come out and play. Basically, the whole dealership would go broke if he lowered the price on that one car, I'm not kidding.

By this point we were both just fed up with this guy anyway, no way were we going to buy a car from him, but I do have my limits on how SC I'll let myself become So I just made some comment, not rude, but not exactly "nice", something like "I find it hard to believe lowering the price by (some very low amount, like $50) would mean you lost money and the dealership would go broke". Ok, maybe SCish, but we'd put up with a lot from this guy already. And not THAT bad a thing to say.

The guy went ballistic, called out a manager, told him we were accusing him of lying to us, that we should be kicked off the lot. The manager, without even listening to us, proceeds to scream (and I do mean scream) at us, at this desk which is in the general showroom of the dealerhip, crowded with customers. Yelling at us to get off his car lot, to never come back, that we should be blacklisted from every dealerhip in town, he hoped no one would sell us a car.

I'm not kidding, I'm not exagerating. To this day, I have no idea what we did to get treated that way, I've never been treated that way in my life. All I can come up with is that something underhand was going on with that car, and some of our questions made them think we had caught on, and they wanted to make sure we were could not buy the car, would not come back, and hopefully had enough people hear enough to make them think it was us causing trouble to get even with them if we went to any authorities.

I sent a letter to the main owner of the dealerships, but it was ignored. I even considered the media but a. it was our word against theirs and b. DH was still in the Navy, near the end of his career, and they dont' take kindly to calling attention to yourself - most commands, if anything happens with the locals, the base tells you to make it right or else, no matter who is right, they don't care about individual servicemen, just about good will between the locals & the military in general.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

unattended customers make us get yelled at, because to most managers a deal starts at "Just looking.

A deal only happens with a customer relationship. "Just looking" is usually the starting point of that relationship and where it goes from there can make or break the sale. It's a saying we've all heard but first impressions matter and let me tell you the first impression I get of a salesperson determines a lot about whether I will buy from them.

Awhile back my wife and I went to a local Honda dealership. We aren't able to buy at present but may be able to in a couple of months. Both my wife and I mentioned this directly to the salesperson who approached. He was nice, not too pushy and we even test drove a vehicle with him but he burned things right after that when he asked "Are you ready to start crunching some numbers tonight?"

NO. Way to NOT listen to what BOTH of us told you at the start. I was seriously offended that he asked that (I understand he might have been required to but to me it demonstrated a lack of active listening, which is a good skill for any salesperson). I also made a point of not leaving any of my contact info, I took one of the salesman's business cards instead.

I've done the contact management thing in the past and while I understand the point, some folks take it too far. One salesman called my dad just over three hours after we left the lot and proceeded to call three times a DAY for a week, only stopping when my dad threatened to have harassment charges filed against him if he didn't quit.

[Pimento]

Are you required to continue doing this even after being informed that I've already purchased a car elsewhere? I only ask because one did that to me... though, to be fair, it was email: I'd had the sense not to give them my phone number

No lol. When my customer informs me of his purchase elsewhere he gets "Aww, well congratulations, im glad you found something you liked and i hope i can get your business next time around"

Sometimes if i had alot of rapport built with my customer hell get a "Well, sorry to hear that, shoulda bought a Honda, just kidding" kinda deal, and one customer i got along with really well and called him on his year anniversary of owning his new vehicle....his other sales person didnt and i got referrals from him until i left the city i was in.

[Damien]

I have had mixed experiences when i was shopping for a car for my brother. I was with my dad at the time. Dad was in his car while I scoured the lot looking for the gift.

Note - I don't drive, never have, never will - until I get around to get a modified car (cause ima gimp y'see?) <-- this is important later.

Anyways, first dealership I went to, I was browsing the utes (small trucks in Australian), and was approached by a salesman - no problems initially - usual greetings and a question of what I am after - so I told him, I was after a ute for my brother.

He asked me why not for myself as well - I laughed it off stating that I need modifications or I can't drive properly. His response had me walking away:

'Oh you're a retard then?' - joking or not, no sale

He chased after me thrusting his card in my hand - I took it, made a mental note of the number (for a complaint) and tore it up in front of him and threw it in the bin.

When I called to complain, the manager started the hard sell. I told him that under no circumstances are we ever buying anything from his lot, ever.

A day later, we went to another dealership - literally 3 doors down from the first one.

The salesman approached - greeted and asked what i am after - once again no problems, but this dude was awesome!

I told him what I was after, a ute for my brother, he asked about one for me - I explained about modifications needed and he was 'oh, I have some information about that if you'd like', to which I replied in the affirmative.

He and his manager cme out with quite a bit of information about modifications that another comapny can make ad that at any time I am ready then they can help arrange it. Then the salesman helped me around the lot looking for the ute for my brother.

We found exactly what we were looking for at a good price - it was within the budget (even with extended warranty) so we were quite happy to buy it outright.

Then the salesman organised for the ute to be delivered to us!

[Ashaela]

Ashaela, I just have to ask...was one of the bad experiences at Nissan in San Marcos? They have pissed me off so badly, that I will never own another Nissan.

No, I actually didn't drive any Nissan cars.... It was the Honda dealership in San Marcos where I test-drove a Civic. The experience was so bad that, like I said, we went to Howdy Honda in Austin to drive it again because my attitude toward the car itself was biased by the behavior of the salesmen.... The car itself ended up #2 on my list, and if circumstances had fallen out differently (right time-right price kind of thing got me the Focus I have now) I would have been quite happy buying one.

[Imprl59]

If you want a long but interesting read about the "life of a car salesman" go to http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying...2/page001.html Interesting to read the other side of that story too.

Steve B.

[protege]

Ugh. I've run into my share of sucky auto sales idiots over the years. Why is it that some of them seem to think that insulting the customer will make a sale? Yeah, like I'm really going to buy a car from an asshole...

...like the guys at a certain Chevy dealer that's "minutes from the mall." Many years ago, I had a car get totaled (yep, the Tempo). I was already a bit surly, mainly because I was in pain--getting whiplash and taking a steering wheel to the face will do that Anyway, my father and I are driving around, looking at cars, when we happened to pull in that place. We're not even out of the van yet...when it happened. One of the guys came out, and said that unless I was willing to buy a car that day...he wasn't going to walk the lot with us Did I mention that I was already in a shitty mood? I actually told the guy to go fuck himself, and that we were going somewhere else. I got into the van, and my father went in...and reamed out the manager. One of the other guys attempted to salvage a possible sale, but even after test-driving a Geo Storm (and scrubbing about 50% off the life of the tires ), it wasn't going to happen. They'd already lost my business, and I haven't been back since. No great loss--I got a helluva deal on a 3-year-old Toyota Tercel at another dealer

Fast forward 6 years, and the Tercel is getting replaced. Again, I checked out all the dealers...except that Chevy place This time, I found myself wanting to strangle a salesperson (who later got fired because he pissed off the wrong customer...) at the Mazda dealer, because he'd insulted me. How? Well, my father and I showed up there one night after work. Keep in mind that I'm still in my suit from the office. Anyway, this douche starts going on about how young people can't afford anything because they don't know how to budget. Not insulting me *directly,* but I knew what he was getting at. At the time, I could have bought the car outright. He should have kept his mouth shut, since appearances can be deceiving. Lucky for him, I liked the car, and bought it. Zoom zoom zoom

But, I know that all auto sales folks are *not* like that. Well, except for those two douches, and another at the Toyota place (who I got fired...after he'd screamed at me because I wasn't buying a car after a test drive). The *majority* of them are just doing their jobs--yet because they work in the same industry, unfortunately, they get labeled as con artists, scammers, and other nasty terms.

In fact, at that same Toyota place...I ran into some good fortune in 2007. That is, the Mazda had failed its state inspection twice, and I had to unload it. Some other sucker could fix it, I was done with it. After some creative funding, I found that I could trade in the old heap, cash in some investments, and then finance whatever was left. But, before presenting that plan (and possibly wasting someone's time), I had some help. That is, my father had purchased several cars there, and knew quite a few of the higher-ups. They said it would be no problem--just bring in the old title and my checkbook. In fact, they actually got the car a few days early...and had it ready for pickup on my birthday

In that case, I have no problem with those guys. They really do want my business, and if I have to get another car, I'll probably get it from them. Also helping...is that one of the service managers has an old Porsche 356, and we usually talk about sports cars when I'm down there

[flutes_and_fabric]

I want to know if this can be called a bait and switch or just a mistake:

I looked for about a month before I found the car I wanted. The salesperson I got stuck with was one of those "hey little lady where's the man?" types. I let him know that I wasn't that kinda girl pretty quickly and things got a little better. We negotiated for a while and came up with a deal. He then called me and said to come pick up my car. I told him I'd be there in a few hours. Plenty of time to get back to me if there's a problem, right? Nope. I walk in and he says "Oh, the car you wanted was sold. I thought I saw it out there, but it was actually the model with the sunroof and all the extras, but that's ok. It'll just be a little more." Yeah, $5,000 more. Don't worry, I got that car at LESS than the original price for the other car we had negotiated because of all the trouble, and I wasn't even sucky.

[HYHYBT]

Sometimes if i had alot of rapport built with my customer hell get a "Well, sorry to hear that, shoulda bought a Honda, just kidding" kinda deal, and one customer i got along with really well and called him on his year anniversary of owning his new vehicle....his other sales person didnt and i got referrals from him until i left the city i was in.

I actually got the same model, but from the dealer here in town.

Another one, neither where I wound up buying nor at the dealer that kept emailing me, was the first test drive I did. The salesman couldn't or wouldn't buckle in; he said something about some kind of medical condition... anyway, the seatbelt alarm kept going off every half minute the whole time. And at another dealership, which has since gone out of business, I was test driving a Beetle. It drove well, but was uncomfortable to sit in and an ugly color, and I also decided I felt safer in a larger car. I'd told him before getting in the car that I was not ready to buy yet, just considering different types. And I told him, upon getting out again, what I didn't like about the car, and repeated that even if I'd liked it I wasn't ready to buy yet. He still managed to keep me there two hours more with figures and such, and I still don't know how... or why, for that matter.

As for the car I wound up with, I have no regrets either over it or who I bought it from, and would gladly do it again... except, of course, that if I *needed* to again after only five years I wouldn't want the same kind

One thing I do wish: that car makers would go back to offering different interior colors. I don't mean a choice between gray and tan: up until the mid 90's or so, believe it or don't, cars also came with blue, red, etc interiors, usually matching the paint. I miss that, and my car would look *so* much better from the driver's seat with the inside the same dark red as the outside. Actually, it's one of the reasons I hope we keep Grandma's car in the family until it wears out: the blue interior. You simply cannot get them anymore.

[draftermatt]

Pimento, I applaud you for selling cars, especially in this time, if my original post offended you I apologize as that wasn't my intention, but after re-reading it, it kinda came off that way.

The only bad experience I had with a car salesman was this lot had a 91 Ford Explorer with "11,000" miles on it. We talk to the salesman and it's actually "111,000, I can't get that extra 1 to print for some reason"

So we're disappointed but we end up seeing a Jeep my GF (now wife) liked. The salesman made some smart ass comment about me being stupid (or something) so I responded "Well I don't fraudulently get people to come to my lot to see a truck with 11,000 miles on when I could easily write a 1 on there with a pen".

He told me to do it if it bothered me.

My future (current) mother-in-law stopped me from reaming the guy out.

We ended up buying the Jeep (I now drive it 8 years later) but we had problems with the trade in.

I laugh a little when I drive past there now and look at the bank that sits where the car lot used to. Got torn down about a year later.

I'm a car guy, maybe car salespeople can sense that about me which is why I haven't had the problems some of you have. That or maybe I just look like the kind of guy who will walk away without issues.

Last car we bought the finance guy couldn't stop raving about how good my credit was. That made me feel good.

[RetailWorkhorse]

One guy even lifted his small kids one by one to sit on the hood of MY truck!

Had that been MY car, he'd be a DEADMAN. With a STICK. NO ONE touches my car but me and my parents. Even EQ's not actually allowed to mess with it.

I've been on car lots before, and I was on a couple while looking for a used Jeep Wrangler (I got the Grand Cherokee Limited instead when I couldn't find a Wrangler with a hardtop in the area I was in). No one's even approached me to say "hi there, little boy, where's your Daddy?"