Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all.

[Dan W.]

Sheepshanks said:

I know you can't legislate for absolute aholes, but the general idea is to sell stuff, not alienate people.

You're always going to struggle if you make the alpha male look bad in front of his posse.

I Agree. but being sworn at by a random man who has no manners deserves to be show up.

I would never behave in that manner I really cant believe others would do it until I witnessed it

[PositronicRay]

Dan W. said:

Sheepshanks said:

I know you can't legislate for absolute aholes, but the general idea is to sell stuff, not alienate people.

You're always going to struggle if you make the alpha male look bad in front of his posse.

I Agree. but being sworn at by a random man who has no manners deserves to be show up.

I would never behave in that manner I really cant believe others would do it until I witnessed it

Charm the pants off em, that's the way. (Even Wilf)

[Dan W.]

PositronicRay said:

Charm the pants off em, that's the way. (Even Wilf)

Some people you have to bend over backwards to help and sell to, some people you don't want as customers in this example I went for the latter

[93DW]

Sheepshanks said:

I know you can't legislate for absolute aholes, but the general idea is to sell stuff, not alienate people.

On more than occasion we have refused to sell a car to someone based on how they act. The last one was a bloke who'd come to look at an 08 C30 done 120k for £1995, he picked the car to pieces complaining about bodywork and bolster wear then he claimed the full service history wasn't full because he services his cars every 5k, without fail and anyone that allows 10k before services was an idiot. at this point I was really hoping he didnt buy it so i didnt have to deal with him. Then he says he's not had a car properly for 18 months as he keeps rejecting them for not meeting his expectations & standards. At that point I put all the paperwork for the car away and told him it was no longer for sale.

[Sheepshanks]

Dan W. said:

Some people you have to bend over backwards to help and sell to, some people you don't want as customers in this example I went for the latter

I once had a hand very gently placed on my elbow to guide me towards the door in a small town VW dealer. "I don't think we'll be able to do business today, sir" he said.

My offence was to enquire if there might be some discount available on a new Polo for the missus.

[Dan W.]

Sheepshanks said:

I once had a hand very gently placed on my elbow to guide me towards the door in a small town VW dealer. "I don't think we'll be able to do business today, sir" he said.

My offence was to enquire if there might be some discount available on a new Polo for the missus.

And did you buy........

[Sheepshanks]

Dan W. said:

And did you buy........

Yes - from another dealer.

Maybe it was a thing with VW dealers in those days - a business colleague had the same thing happen in a Staffs town (mine was in Cheshire).

[Dan W.]

Sheepshanks said:

Yes - from another dealer.

Maybe it was a thing with VW dealers in those days - a business colleague had the same thing happen in a Staffs town (mine was in Cheshire).

I have heard similar stories, was told once by a customer who asked for a discount on a golf to try the Peugeot garage down the road that is more to your Budget... ouch such classy fob offs.

[S2r]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That's the one, never seen anything like it, most bizarre...

Anyway another question or 2, how many vehicles actually get rejected and if so, what sorts of things are they rejected for ? Not mine new one I hasten to add, as I think it's great (even though apparently I'm a badge snob who bought the wrong hot hatch) just remembering a friend with his 335i that at one point had most of the engine replaced and as he drove out of the parking bay at the dealers, the engine management light came on and it went into limp mode..!

[Fast Bug]

Sheepshanks said:

I know you can't legislate for absolute aholes, but the general idea is to sell stuff, not alienate people.

I've declined business a few times before. I've also told a very large company that I didn't wish to do business with them any more and they would have to order 20 odd vans a year elsewhere. There comes a point when the grief isn't worth the deal, this very much fell in to that category. Luckily my boss felt the same way

[Djtemeka]

We bought our Mazda 6 for about £7500. I did ask if there was any wiggle room and they said no. Fair enough, I then asked if they would throw in the tax. They agreed and we bought the car that day. If they said no to the. Tax then we still would have bought it.
Tax was about £100/150 or so. Small discount but saved us another bill on the day. Especially as £7500 is bags load of money to some people.

[Blakewater]

daemon said:

HTP99 said:

daemon said:

Blakewater said:

I understand some factories do have accessory bays for some accessories to be fitted, though I've seen Vauxhalls being delivered to dealers with those plain black five spoke wheels instead of proper wheels.

That IS the actual wheel. Theres a fitted wheel trim that goes over it which makes them look like an alloy wheel on the base models. The wheel trims will be in the boot, fitted at PDI

"Structure" wheels.

Yes, had just updated my post at the same minute you posted this.

Example....

I've seen fleet cars, like the maintenance guys fixing the fridges at the store where I used to work, with these wheels and no trims. I thought maybe the alloys had been taken off and replaced with those. Presumably the wheel trims were taken off to save them from a battering before the cars were returned to the lease company.

The Vauxhall dealership near where I work often has half a dozen or so identical Astras or Corsas on its forecourt. It sometimes does its own special editions as well. Sticking aftermarket alloys on, peeling the chrome trim off the grill and calling a Corsa an Si model is a common one. They once took half a dozen black Corsas and sprayed the roof, wheels and trim bits contrasting colours.

There was a John Player Special.

Crap Gold Corsa by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/37622437@N05/]

The roof of the red one faded to pink.

Crap Corsa by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/37622437@N05/]

Crap Corsa Wheels by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/37622437@N05/]

There were ones in green and blue as well.

I remember back in 1995, when Blackburn Rovers won the Premiership, the Blackburn Ford dealership took some white Fiestas, sprayed the bottom halves blue and sold them as Blackburn Rovers special editions. More recently Evans Halshaw put Zetec S bodykits and aftermarket alloys on Fiesta Edge models and sold them as special editions.

Are dealer special editions still something commonplace now?

[CSLM3CSL]

For the new guys. How specific is the target from the manufacturer? I.e if you were an Audi dealer would they say you need to sell 100 A3, 80 A4 and 60 A6? or would they say you need to sell 240 cars of any model?
Are the targets designed to trip you up and not pay out e.g you sold record number of Audis but because you didn't sell enough R8 V10 with all the extras you won't hit bonus?

[papa3]

Blakewater said:

Are dealer special editions still something commonplace now?

Wow, I haven't seen dealer specials for years. In the days when we had to take Motability cars back into stock at end of contract and most motability cars were 3 door Astra Merits in Flame Red, Rainbow Blue or Glacier White we used to do this.

Paint the bumpers body colour, throw on a set of Fox Alloys and whack on a coach stripe.

Haven't done it since the 90's though.

[papa3]

CSLM3CSL said:

For the new guys. How specific is the target from the manufacturer? I.e if you were an Audi dealer would they say you need to sell 100 A3, 80 A4 and 60 A6? or would they say you need to sell 240 cars of any model?
Are the targets designed to trip you up and not pay out e.g you sold record number of Audis but because you didn't sell enough R8 V10 with all the extras you won't hit bonus?

For us all that matters is the number. Manufacturers will give an expected model mix, from which our stock holding is derived, but all they want is a unit total. They will add model mix incentives from time to time, normally when they have a load of one model jammed up their bum.

Where they tend to try and catch you is the variable margin or standards payments. These are set criteria that are a requirement of being a franchised dealer.

[HTP99]

papa3 said:

CSLM3CSL said:

For the new guys. How specific is the target from the manufacturer? I.e if you were an Audi dealer would they say you need to sell 100 A3, 80 A4 and 60 A6? or would they say you need to sell 240 cars of any model?
Are the targets designed to trip you up and not pay out e.g you sold record number of Audis but because you didn't sell enough R8 V10 with all the extras you won't hit bonus?

For us all that matters is the number. Manufacturers will give an expected model mix, from which our stock holding is derived, but all they want is a unit total. They will add model mix incentives from time to time, normally when they have a load of one model jammed up their bum.

Same here, total numbers, however occasionally they may chuck in a curve ball and tell us to register a certain number of a specific model as they can't shift the, usually these will be pre-registered by us or they may offer further incentive to register these models.

An ex colleague sold Porsche 10 odd years ago, the dealer had to sell a certain mix, and the sales guys were targeted accordingly so for example; 4 911's, 3 Boxsters and a Caymen, if he didn't hit that particular mix then he was only paid £50 per deal.

[SaabOrient]

Thanks Mexman (and all contributors) - great thread.

I take my hat off to anyone that can do the sales exec job. I did it for a very short period (for Ford), in 2008. I lasted 2 months before quitting. Did okay-ish, (sales-wise), about 20 cars in all.

What drove me up the wall were the endless trips into the Sales Manager to eke out and agree the minutiae on the deals. This peed the customer off, and made me feel like I was 7 years old with no autonomy whatsoever.

There was also a policy of not revealing the bottom line figure of a finance deal to a customer. So, if the total payable was say £15k, we were encouraged not to highlight that, and simply repeat the monthly figure over and over.

The policy on px was also very loose, to say the least. We took in a tatty Fiesta one day for £2k. No-one even turned the key on it, let alone took it round the block, and were told to put it straight out at £4,495.

In all, the honest policies of the business seemed in very short supply. It was all smoke and mirrors and duping (if possible) the maximum out of the customer. The sales manager had a hugely inflated opinion of himself, but was in reality a witless moron.

It doesn't sound like your dealership operates like this at all, but this was the experience I got from Ford. Never again.

[Sheepshanks]

SaabOrient said:

There was also a policy of not revealing the bottom line figure of a finance deal to a customer. So, if the total payable was say £15k, we were encouraged not to highlight that, and simply repeat the monthly figure over and over.

Nothing's changed there - that was exactly what happened on the last two new cars, a Honda and a VW, I've bought.

[FiF]

Not finished the thread yet, but just to say this thread and another longer one I've been meaning to read has restored my faith in PH somewhat. I'd just voluntarily banned myself from a few threads around the place as getting sick of the tribalistic bickering, ie Brexit various, cyclist also various, SP&L to mention just a few, and seriously thought of sacking off the whole site, cue "I remember when it were all fields and TVRs round here."

So thanks to all for an interesting read. No questions, sorry. At least none on topic.

[PaulD86]

How often does it happen that a salesman would say "if I can do X then do we have a deal", genuinely not knowing if he can? Happened to me buying my Cayman and seemed odd. My (perhaps incorrect) assumption was always that if a salesman said "if I can" he actually meant he could and was trying to get the hook. The salesman did call me back 3 or 4 days after I walked away from the deal he'd countered with, apparently on the sales managers day off, and offered the exact deal I'd asked for. I picked the car up 3 days later.

Also do any dealers actively target different demographics of buyer with different sales staff? As an example, I walked away from a local dealer after the salesman wound me up with lines such as "my names Charlie, not charity" during discussions on price (we were a few hundred out on a 14k deal so not a huge gap). Two other people I know also walked away from the same salesman, but whenever I was in that dealer he always seemed to be getting on well with older customers.

Great thread btw. Very insightful.