Car salesmen that don't sell...?
Discussion
Buster73 said:
Ali_T said:
I've had the same attitude every time I've been in a BMW dealership. I've been in numerous time stop look at nearly new M cars and still haven't bought one because they never bother trying to sell them.
What a load of unbelievable rubbish , I've read it all now.
At the end of last year, me and the family popped into a Vauxhall dealer in Portsmouth, where the mrs fawned over a Mokka they had in their showroom.
She was poking and prodding around with it, giving it a thorough going over.
Despite the showroom being full of salesman (and no other customers), not one of them came over. It wasn't 10 minutes before closing, lunchtime or any other 'bad' time of day.
Kind of pissed us off, a bit WTF. Anyway as it happens it was a good thing, as it gave me an opportunity to talk her out of it!
She was poking and prodding around with it, giving it a thorough going over.
Despite the showroom being full of salesman (and no other customers), not one of them came over. It wasn't 10 minutes before closing, lunchtime or any other 'bad' time of day.
Kind of pissed us off, a bit WTF. Anyway as it happens it was a good thing, as it gave me an opportunity to talk her out of it!
Wills2 said:
valiant said:
Why is it always BMW dealers?
I know but they still managed to stumble their way (somehow!) to selling 2.25 million cars last year globally, still at least we know there are 2.25 million people on the planet able to communicate effectively with another human being....Wills2 said:
A good salesperson will have the skill set to acknowledge you without you feeling pressured and running away. At the end of the day if you want to buy a car you'll have to talk to someone (as scary as some might find that)
For me, i don't see the point of salesmen.if i want to buy a car , sure i want a test drive to see if its comfy and suits etc.
But i don't need a salesman, i work on numbers alone and once i have made a decision and will hunt the best price out.
Needs to be no different to amazon for me, and in fact if they started selling cars i would probably buy from them if they are the best package.
Each to there own i guess.
Sheepshanks said:
Wills2 said:
valiant said:
Why is it always BMW dealers?
I know but they still managed to stumble their way (somehow!) to selling 2.25 million cars last year globally, still at least we know there are 2.25 million people on the planet able to communicate effectively with another human being....
Arse no!Ares said:
With 5 mins to kill in the BMW main dealer showroom .
I am guessing they are used to dreamers/anoraks looking at the shiny performance cars wanting to show off their vast knowledge to the salesmen and enter into some kind of awkward nerd-chat.Maybe he was exceptionally good at spotting the fact that you were waiting for your own (reasonably new?) car and didn't want to waste his time chatting when he could be prospecting/catching up on warm leads?
daemon said:
R36vw said:
Cliftonite said:
I do not believe you. A Tesco bag? Never!
It does happen...a good friend of mine who has sold citroens all his life was gobsmacked when a regular buyer to the dealership he worked at turned up one day and bought one of the demonstrators digging a carrier bag(tescos too!) out full of cash to pay. Not the way most dealers like to work nowadays as counting it and then a trip to the bank to pay it in, is a ballache. ...at least he didnt ignore himHarrods - yes.
Waitrose - I will have to check, sir.
I've had mixed experiences with BMW, when I was checking out 1 Series as a potential company car. Wolverhampton showroom were pretty dismissive and uninterested, even when practically empty on the day in the question. Went to the Oldbury branch and it was the complete opposite, the girl came over and was extremely helpful, running me through trim levels and options etc, we even got chatting as her dad apparently worked for the same company as me, in a different area.
Audi, slightly better overall, Wolves branch were helpful, again ran me through the trims etc of the A3 and offered me a test drive 'whenever I'm free'.
Merc, not so great. I went to Wolves enquiring about an A Class for my dads new car, salesman was really quite rude. I asked him what PCP / finance deals we'd be looking at on the car in question, and he basically dismissed me with a turned up nose, saying that Merc don't di finance deals as the cars sell themselves. A month later my dad bought an SLK on a finance deal from them
Top marks go to MINI who have always been great, I think maybe because it's part of their brand image, but I've always had great experiences dealing with them.
Mazda too, have always been enthusiastic and helpful, throwing keys at me for test drives straight away.
I certainly don't need to be 'sold' a car, for all I care the sales staff could not be there at all, but when you do genuinely have queries and need some assistance, the way they deal with you and assist you can make the difference.
Audi, slightly better overall, Wolves branch were helpful, again ran me through the trims etc of the A3 and offered me a test drive 'whenever I'm free'.
Merc, not so great. I went to Wolves enquiring about an A Class for my dads new car, salesman was really quite rude. I asked him what PCP / finance deals we'd be looking at on the car in question, and he basically dismissed me with a turned up nose, saying that Merc don't di finance deals as the cars sell themselves. A month later my dad bought an SLK on a finance deal from them
Top marks go to MINI who have always been great, I think maybe because it's part of their brand image, but I've always had great experiences dealing with them.
Mazda too, have always been enthusiastic and helpful, throwing keys at me for test drives straight away.
I certainly don't need to be 'sold' a car, for all I care the sales staff could not be there at all, but when you do genuinely have queries and need some assistance, the way they deal with you and assist you can make the difference.
Superhoop said:
Two things make me think this is ballcocks....
1. Having worked in the motor trade for 25 years or so, this ^^^ is the most recycled story ever*
2. You ended with "True Story", so a sure sign it isn't.
I have a similar tale of being underestimated by a car dealer. 12 years ago, 17 year old me and 3 mates (on our college lunch break) went to visit a "Prestige" car dealer locally to view a 350Z I knew he had in stock. We parked around the corner on the street, all walked in and we were having a nose around the car, I was sitting in it when the sales man approached my mate "won the lottery have you lads?" to which my mate sheepishly responded "no, he's looking to buy" pointing at me in the driver seat, "Alright mate, won the lottery have you? Its a 20 grand car see? Maybe a bit out of your price range", I grinned at him and said "I should be alright..." he then states "Come on mate, pull the other one and stop putting your hand prints over my shiny cars, I have a Corsa out the front you can have a look at" with a massive cocky grin on his face. I simply laughed and stated (childishly) "f1. Having worked in the motor trade for 25 years or so, this ^^^ is the most recycled story ever*
2. You ended with "True Story", so a sure sign it isn't.
- funny how many people have a mate that walked into a BMW/Ferrari/Porsche/Merc etc.. dealer (normally in ripped jeans) and when they were ignored/ask to leave the showroom blah blah blah, "went down the road and bought one". Also strange that "the mate" always "goes back to the original dealer" in said new car (that obviously just happened to be in stock at the other dealer) to show it to the salesman that ignored him, and that said salesman always "gets the sack"
k it lets go, its st inside anyway" totally ignoring the knuckle dragger before leaving the showroom.2 Mins later we are back in the car, pull up at a red light right outside the front of the showroom, and the middle aged, fat car sales man is standing outside the showroom having a fag, he looks up and as he clocks us his face just drops - we were sitting in my 2 year old 330ci Convertible and I was genuinely looking into 350z's, I ended up buying a Cerbera from Henley Heritage instead
I do think it varies from dealer to dealer. For example I spoke to Ford about driving the new RS and the 5.0 Mustang, sales man has me booked in for a test drive a day after his demo arrives and will allow me to test it back to back with the Mustang all from a casual call. I also rang BMW Swansea and asked when they were expecting their M2 Demo, he confirmed he had one coming but didn't have a clue when it was coming in, couldn't tell me when I could receive a car if I ordered, when they were receiving their first car etc etc, he did tell me unless I put a £2k deposit down that day, I probably wouldn't get a car until 2018 - I rang Cardiff, dealer said he has the first car arriving in a matter of weeks, demo a week later and that if I gave him £1k he'd get me a car for March 2017 (which is what I was after anyway).
Ares said:
Theophany said:
If you're interested in buying the car surely you'd make that clear? I don't want to be convinced to buy a car and would be annoyed if I can't browse without being slobbered over. Does sound like he could've been a bit more personable in his response to your question, mind!
Not sure how i'd have made it clear, aside from a Dom Joly style announcement "I'd like to buy a car..."But the good salesman would surely sell, not just process an order/respond to an enquiry.
I can see where you're coming from, but I get the impression that car dealerships try to be a bit more like retail outlets now - you would walk straight out of a Bond Street shop if you couldn't browse without being pestered by a sales assistant. An uncle of mine runs a dealership in West London and this is how they've always operated - allow the customers to browse their stock and the salespeople are not there to 'sell' in the traditional way, but to inform potential customers of the benefits and drawbacks of each car, they're expected to know the full history of each car from memory etc. Obviously this approach would never work for car dealers where sales volume is crucial but perhaps for premium or 'aspirational' brands like BMW and Mercedes, the cars will tend to sell themselves anyway so the old ways of having to work for a sale are discouraged/not necessary/don't work as well these days.
The last two times I bought a car from a dealer, I approached them in the showroom to say I was interested in a particular car they had in stock. Much prefer it that way, personally!
daemon said:
R36vw said:
Cliftonite said:
I do not believe you. A Tesco bag? Never!
It does happen...a good friend of mine who has sold citroens all his life was gobsmacked when a regular buyer to the dealership he worked at turned up one day and bought one of the demonstrators digging a carrier bag(tescos too!) out full of cash to pay. Not the way most dealers like to work nowadays as counting it and then a trip to the bank to pay it in, is a ballache. ...at least he didnt ignore himA few weeks ago, I was idly looking at an absolutely immaculate low mileage XJR in the local dealer next to the DIY shed I actually went to. Salesman walking past came over and spent 10minutes chatting to me about it. He said they only had it up for sale, as it was from a regular customer, and exceptionally low mileage. At no time did he try to push a sale on me, but chatted quite friendly about the car. Upon leaving, he said, "If you'd like a test drive, on this or any other car, give me a call anytime". And he game me a nice Jag brochure for my grandson. Perfect
RVVUNM said:
If everyone took off their Jonny big trousers attitude and talked to the salesman instead off expecting him to mind read then you may get what you want. OP, why didn't you just say you may be interested in changing your car for the M3?
To be fair, I don't think it's even a case of him wanting the M3 or not, but that he asked a pretty simple, reasonable question and was shrugged off.Whether he's interested in the car or not, it doesn't exactly shout professionalism to respond to a potential customer that way.
Had a similar experience with Nissan in Warrington. We'd been across the road at the Ford garage looking at a Fiesta for the wife, where the salesman was very helpful - let us have a good look around the car then gave us some rough figures to work with, and suggested he could knock a good chunk of money off.
We also wanted to size up a Nissan Juke so walked in to the showroom, admittedly not long before closing, where we were ignored by every salesman. I walked around the car and tried every door but it was locked. Stood around for a minute or two but every salesman looked busy, or disappeared in to the office.
I generally feel that cars sell themselves, I don't want a salesman to 'sell' me the car. However, if you can't even get hold of the keys to have a look inside then it's not going to happen.
We now have a Fiesta.
We also wanted to size up a Nissan Juke so walked in to the showroom, admittedly not long before closing, where we were ignored by every salesman. I walked around the car and tried every door but it was locked. Stood around for a minute or two but every salesman looked busy, or disappeared in to the office.
I generally feel that cars sell themselves, I don't want a salesman to 'sell' me the car. However, if you can't even get hold of the keys to have a look inside then it's not going to happen.
We now have a Fiesta.
smithyithy said:
RVVUNM said:
If everyone took off their Jonny big trousers attitude and talked to the salesman instead off expecting him to mind read then you may get what you want. OP, why didn't you just say you may be interested in changing your car for the M3?
To be fair, I don't think it's even a case of him wanting the M3 or not, but that he asked a pretty simple, reasonable question and was shrugged off.Whether he's interested in the car or not, it doesn't exactly shout professionalism to respond to a potential customer that way.
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