Denied a GT86 test drive because I wouldn't commit to buy

[markmullen]

Clivey said:

Nice.

To the salesmen here: What are your feelings with regards to people who come in to look at cars "in the metal" but tell you straight away that they don't want to waste your time and are just enthusiasts having a dream?

No problem at all, I spend time talking to them, I'd rather have 100 of them than 1 penniless dreamer trying to play billy big bks and pretending he is in the market.

[Fast Bug]

markmullen said:

No problem at all, I spend time talking to them, I'd rather have 100 of them than 1 penniless dreamer trying to play billy big bks and pretending he is in the market.

What Mark says

[HTP99]

Clivey said:

To the salesmen here: What are your feelings with regards to people who come in to look at cars "in the metal" but tell you straight away that they don't want to waste your time and are just enthusiasts having a dream?

We have a young lad; 12ish, who pops in every couple of months with his mum for a look and likes to take a few photos of the cars in the showroom and the used cars we have for sale; he has a Tumblr account and clearly likes the older more more normal car.

Myself and my colleagues are happy for him to take photos and to help him if required; he has a particular penchant for Dacia.

[Zoobeef]

HTP99 said:

We have a young lad; 12ish, who pops in every couple of months with his mum for a look and likes to take a few photos of the cars in the showroom and the used cars we have for sale; he has a Tumblr account and clearly likes the older more more normal car.

Myself and my colleagues are happy for him to take photos and to help him if required; he has a particular penchant for Dacia.

Thats not just Hammond and May is it and youve not recognised them?

[POORCARDEALER]

No problems with that at all, even make them a coffee if im not busy...

[Clivey]

Fair enough.

Out of interest, have any of you ever taken someone for a drive knowing full well (after they have admitted rather than you guessing) that they can't afford the car? I seem to recall reading something on here (meaning these forums, not this thread) about an Aston-Martin salesman doing just that after seeing just how smitten someone was with one of the cars.

[markmullen]

Clivey said:

Fair enough.

Out of interest, have any of you ever taken someone for a drive knowing full well (after they have admitted rather than you guessing) that they can't afford the car? I seem to recall reading something on here (meaning these forums, not this thread) about an Aston-Martin salesman doing just that after seeing just how smitten someone was with one of the cars.

Many times, with me driving, just to give them a taste. I usually let the children sit in one of our F1 cars and have their photo taken, it'd make an awesome profile pic for their Facebook.

[POORCARDEALER]

Clivey said:

Fair enough.

Out of interest, have any of you ever taken someone for a drive knowing full well (after they have admitted rather than you guessing) that they can't afford the car? I seem to recall reading something on here (meaning these forums, not this thread) about an Aston-Martin salesman doing just that after seeing just how smitten someone was with one of the cars.

I regularly took "enthusiasts" out in Ferraris, Astons and various other exotica.....if they were like minded and loved the cars and I had a bit of spare time, no problem.

[woody2846]

Clivey said:

Fair enough.

Out of interest, have any of you ever taken someone for a drive knowing full well (after they have admitted rather than you guessing) that they can't afford the car? I seem to recall reading something on here (meaning these forums, not this thread) about an Aston-Martin salesman doing just that after seeing just how smitten someone was with one of the cars.

Done it a few times on Subaru, the STI and BRZ in particular. A few years ago we had a very nice Exige and a dad and son came in and the 14 year oldish son fell in love with it-I wasn't very busy so took him out for a spin.
.....doesn't really happen with Saab and Ssangyong.

[Clivey]

I would suggest that's more than fair! As I said earlier: If you're not busy, treating dreamers like that and giving them a good experience costs you little and leaves people with a great impression of you / the company that just might pay dividends in the future (the nearest thing in my line of work is letting them have a demo of a high-end gaming PC, which I do if we have a suitable one for them to try, even though that isn't often as we generally build to order).

Anyway, from that, I take the message to be that you much prefer dreamers to be honest and that they're more likely to get positive treatment from salespeople if they are.

[monamimate]

OK, I'm confused now...

We have read page upon page about how salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters... and now we have a page full of them telling us how they love chewing the fat with car fans, showing them around the workshop or making them coffee... yet they don't have time to let a possible long shot customer take a test drive...

C'mon...

[Fast Bug]

monamimate said:

OK, I'm confused now...

We have read page upon page about how salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters... and now we have a page full of them telling us how they love chewing the fat with car fans, showing them around the workshop or making them coffee... yet they don't have time to let a possible long shot customer take a test drive...

C'mon...

Not every spare minute is action packed, some sundays can be quiet

And it helps if you're open and honest about things instead of giving it billy big balls when not having a pot to piss in (see Maserati thread)...

I took a young guy out in a 996 GT2, sunny Sunday, no customers, 2 salesman in and I'd not driven one so why not. He was in the right place at the right time

[unrepentant]

monamimate said:

OK, I'm confused now...

We have read page upon page about how salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters... and now we have a page full of them telling us how they love chewing the fat with car fans, showing them around the workshop or making them coffee... yet they don't have time to let a possible long shot customer take a test drive...

C'mon...

See, you missed the point completely.......

[Alex]

woody2846 said:

Done it a few times on Subaru, the STI and BRZ in particular. A few years ago we had a very nice Exige and a dad and son came in and the 14 year oldish son fell in love with it-I wasn't very busy so took him out for a spin.
.....doesn't really happen with Saab and Ssangyong.

Bell & Colvill?

[woody2846]

Close but no I work at Ian Allan.

[John Smyth]

unrepentant said:

monamimate said:

OK, I'm confused now...

We have read page upon page about how salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters... and now we have a page full of them telling us how they love chewing the fat with car fans, showing them around the workshop or making them coffee... yet they don't have time to let a possible long shot customer take a test drive...

C'mon...

See, you missed the point completely.......

As I said before, just ban walk-ins if customers bother you that much.

[monamimate]

unrepentant said:

monamimate said:

OK, I'm confused now...

We have read page upon page about how salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters... and now we have a page full of them telling us how they love chewing the fat with car fans, showing them around the workshop or making them coffee... yet they don't have time to let a possible long shot customer take a test drive...

C'mon...

See, you missed the point completely.......

Did I?

I don't think so. You either have time to spare or you don't. Can't have it both ways.


Which bit of "salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters" did I miss then? That is your and the other salesmen's point, isn't it?

Edited by monamimate on Saturday 1st March 09:52

[NPI]

Fast Bug said:

Not every spare minute is action packed, some sundays can be quiet

People tell you it's best to avoid weekends but we bought our last new car on a Sunday - biggish dealer but the place was deserted and it was really noticeable that the couple of times the 'phone rang the excitement level increased amongst the staff!

I think we did well on the deal as they didn't want the day to end without selling anything.

[limpsfield]

monamimate said:

Did I?

I don't think so. You either have time to spare or you don't. Can't have it both ways.


Which bit of "salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters" did I miss then? That is your and the other salesmen's point, isn't it?

Edited by monamimate on Saturday 1st March 09:52

What they have said makes perfect sense.

You have a bit of spare time in your job. Would you rather spend it talking to an enthusiastic nice person or some Walter Mitty bullstter? I can completely understand why the tyre kickers don't get test drives or time.

[monamimate]

limpsfield said:

monamimate said:

Did I?

I don't think so. You either have time to spare or you don't. Can't have it both ways.


Which bit of "salesmen are so busy that they must carefully allocate their time and resources by qualifying punters" did I miss then? That is your and the other salesmen's point, isn't it?

Edited by monamimate on Saturday 1st March 09:52

What they have said makes perfect sense.

You have a bit of spare time in your job. Would you rather spend it talking to an enthusiastic nice person or some Walter Mitty bullstter? I can completely understand why the tyre kickers don't get test drives or time.

Perfect sense to the salesmen here, maybe.

Not to the others here who are simply interested in testing a number of cars before deciding.

So you're saying that despite all the sales folk here telling us how they are under pressure to make targets, to meet their bosses' expectations etc, they would rather spend time molly coddling spurious "enthusiasts" than follow up on a long shot of a sale by offering a test drive?

Oh, come on...


To quote our friend above: "you've missed the point"