BMW dealer...

[MDMA .]

Fox- said:

Monkeylegend said:

Over 2 million new car registrations so far this year, car salesmen must be doing something right.

Yes, because if it were not for those salesmen none of those cars would have been purchased.

Never once has the salesman been the difference between me buying or not buying.

1.1m of those sales are fleet though. Private sales are actually down this year to last.

[KTF]

Benjamyn999 said:

I have disliked the breed for many, many years. My wife chooses and buys her own cars but we go to the dealerships together. You can probably guess where this conversation is going. Recently she made an appointment with BMW dealer to test drive a new 5 Series with a credit card at the ready (so to speak). Salesman knew nothing about advantages or comparisons with E Class Merc. Just kept saying beemer was better but not why. Now waiting for Disco5 instead. And we would have bought on the day if only he had taken one millisecond to listen to us.

Did the JLR dealer explain the advantages and disadvantages of the Disco over the e-class and 5er? If they didn't know how did they get the sale if the BMW guy didn't so you walked?

If you wanted a 5er then who cares how it is better/worse than its competition. It's not hard to research this yourself.

[CaptainCosworth]

As in all walks of life, you get people who are good at their job and people who are crap. Someone who is good at selling cars will do well in a car dealership as they'll have enough people skills to get people to part with their money. As mentioned by others, their job is to get you a coffee, help you pick a colour, plug numbers into a computer, and seal the deal.

Can you imagine if all car salesman were car enthusiasts bores who would rave about the latest "active carbon alloy damper system" or spend half an hour talking about why their 4 wheel drive is superior to their rivals?

[RobM77]

Most of them know nothing about the cars they're selling either - try asking them a basic question! I'm on my 5th BMW now, so I like their cars, but I got fed up with the dealers years ago - I buy privately and my car is serviced by a BMW specialist in a shed

[andymc]

with all respect hairy arsed broad chested PH'ers are in the minority of buyers, you could always go next door buy the veyron and drive past him on the way out scoffing how you cost him £75 in commission

[Ultrafunkula]

David87 said:

. All the salesman does is operate the computer for me when it comes to ordering and paying for it. I'd much rather just order online, to be honest.

I expect that's just a matter of time...

If I buy a car from a dealer nowadays I expect the same experience as if I buy a telly from John Lewis. I've already done all the research (which is fun) so I just need to pay for the item.

[RobM77]

andymc said:

with all respect hairy arsed broad chested PH'ers are in the minority of buyers, you could always go next door buy the veyron and drive past him on the way out scoffing how you cost him £75 in commission

I'm not sure whether that's aimed at me, but I fully expect a salesman to earn commission and a dealership to make profit! My basic problem with their salesmen is that they usually know virtually nothing about the cars they're selling, so you can't ask them basic questions. I'm not talking about technical details, just practical things. Furthermore, I've known them lie when faced with questions they can't answer on a number of occasions. There's also the general attitude, as described by the OP.

[KevinCamaroSS]

I too would expect them to know about the products they sell, for example the standard kit on each level of the model, what extras are available etc.

[benjijames28]

If you are a salesman you should be an expert on the products your selling.

[93DW]

CaptainCosworth said:

Can you imagine if all car salesman were car enthusiasts bores who would rave about the latest "active carbon alloy damper system" or spend half an hour talking about why their 4 wheel drive is superior to their rivals?

I used to work at a Skoda dealer with a guy who had a 20k+ post count on Briskoda, amazing knowledge, could tell you exactly how haldex worked in different weather condtions etc but ultimately he didn't make a good salesperson and we had a fair few complaints about him being OTT. One that sticks in my mind was a lady who bought a Fabia SE 1.2 (I'm sure you can tell how much she was into cars from that) and he spent 4 hours doing the handover! In the end she had to be blunt and tell him she was leaving.

[RobM77]

benjijames28 said:

If you are a salesman you should be an expert on the products your selling.

This is what a BMW salesman once said to me after mis-selling me a car:

BMW Salesman said:

I shouldn't be expected to know everything about the cars I'm selling

The guy in question didn't know the answer to a simple question and lied instead of admitting this and just asking someone. He then offered me £7k less than what I'd just paid for my car to trade it in for another car that did have the feature I wanted.

[Ozzie Osmond]

ruhall said:

At the risk of being 'sexist', I've found that, often, the female sales staff are much better informed than their male counterparts and are happy to say if they don't know, and then find out, instead of talking a load of bull.

Interesting observation. I've bought two new far from female sales people and am inclined to agree with you.

Whichever way you look at it a "sales job" will inevitably be filled by a "sales person". You wouldn't expect to go to the workshop and meet a technician with great interpersonal skills but no knowledge of how to use the tools.

[chrisb92]

CrgT16 said:

I tend not to care much about it... I know the car before I buy it, I just want to test drive it, discuss the options and get the best deal, done. Recently ordered a new car, took 2 visits to dealership, one to spec it and get a quote, second one to have another 4K off and test drive... job jobbed. In total I think I spent 2h in the total of the 2 visits including test drive. Don't get why people need so much time to buy a car.

Go online do most of the research, go to dealer, spec and price, test drive and buy. Done.

I agree with this totally. Why would anyone who is a poster on PH be worried about the fact the dealer doesn't know anything? I bought my car from Audi and I told him what I wanted and could he get it... he then asked me what I wanted to pay. I told him - he walked off for 20 minutes and came back and could deliver, so I bought it. Simple.

I listened to him tell me how fast it was with 184bhp, which I just politely nodded and said yeah that will be quick, knowing full well to me it wouldn't. But to Joe public, it's a quick car, so I just went along with it.

The previous car was the same. I turned up to VW and said I wanted a Golf GTi and do you have any? He showed me what they had on a screen and I chose the one I liked the look of and agreed a price. Couldn't care less what he was wearing or smelt like, or how much knowledge he had of the car. He got me the price I wanted.

[itcaptainslow]

Ultrafunkula said:

David87 said:

. All the salesman does is operate the computer for me when it comes to ordering and paying for it. I'd much rather just order online, to be honest.

I expect that's just a matter of time...

If I buy a car from a dealer nowadays I expect the same experience as if I buy a telly from John Lewis. I've already done all the research (which is fun) so I just need to pay for the item.

Vauxhall tried online sales in the early 00's with the .com range. They don't do it anymore. Suggests it didn't work

[Agent XXX]

wker dealers. wker buyers.

[KTF]

RobM77 said:

benjijames28 said:

If you are a salesman you should be an expert on the products your selling.

This is what a BMW salesman once said to me after mis-selling me a car:

BMW Salesman said:

I shouldn't be expected to know everything about the cars I'm selling

The guy in question didn't know the answer to a simple question and lied instead of admitting this and just asking someone. He then offered me £7k less than what I'd just paid for my car to trade it in for another car that did have the feature I wanted.

Whats the back story for this then?

[chrisb92]

KTF said:

Benjamyn999 said:

I have disliked the breed for many, many years. My wife chooses and buys her own cars but we go to the dealerships together. You can probably guess where this conversation is going. Recently she made an appointment with BMW dealer to test drive a new 5 Series with a credit card at the ready (so to speak). Salesman knew nothing about advantages or comparisons with E Class Merc. Just kept saying beemer was better but not why. Now waiting for Disco5 instead. And we would have bought on the day if only he had taken one millisecond to listen to us.

Did the JLR dealer explain the advantages and disadvantages of the Disco over the e-class and 5er? If they didn't know how did they get the sale if the BMW guy didn't so you walked?

If you wanted a 5er then who cares how it is better/worse than its competition. It's not hard to research this yourself.

That's the weirdest thing I've ever read. Why would you do that? Not buying the car you want because the salesman doesn't know why it's better than the comp, something which you must know anyway, is a bizarre concept to me.

[IntriguedUser]

I understand the sentiments of this thread, however it seems as though there's a lot of you who are taking on a mystery shopper role. Asking questions you already know to catch out the salesmanship bad knowledge or to get a kick out of him/ her lying and making stuff up.

I can't say I've ever purchased a brand new car. But every used car I've purchased I've already pretty much made my mind up long before even contact a potential seller.

[Triumph Man]

itcaptainslow said:

Ultrafunkula said:

David87 said:

. All the salesman does is operate the computer for me when it comes to ordering and paying for it. I'd much rather just order online, to be honest.

I expect that's just a matter of time...

If I buy a car from a dealer nowadays I expect the same experience as if I buy a telly from John Lewis. I've already done all the research (which is fun) so I just need to pay for the item.

Vauxhall tried online sales in the early 00's with the .com range. They don't do it anymore. Suggests it didn't work

Thing is, it probably would work now. In the early 2000s the whole internet thing was still new to many people. These days a car buying app would probably work.

Also, had to chuckle at the bloke giving the Audi dealer a grilling on 4wd systems when he didn't even know that he was spouting "Haldex" incorrectly. A little information is a dangerous thing.

Edited by Triumph Man on Friday 28th October 09:57

[KTF]

IntriguedUser said:

I understand the sentiments of this thread, however it seems as though there's a lot of you who are taking on a mystery shopper role. Asking questions you already know to catch out the salesmanship bad knowledge or to get a kick out of him/ her lying and making stuff up.

I can't say I've ever purchased a brand new car. But every used car I've purchased I've already pretty much made my mind up long before even contact a potential seller.

Same here. I work out what make/model/spec I want, set up a few alerts on autotrader, etc. then wait until one comes in that matches what I am after and go and have a look at it.

Whilst non-PH people may need to be 'sold' a car, if you know what you want the process is always going to be a lot less painful.

I really couldn't care if the sales person doesn't know the nuts and bolts of the thing because I know that already. Doing it online would be ideal (for a new car anyway) but then there would be no 'haggling' over the price which is probably what puts a lot of people off.