Dealers

[Snowboy]

Over the past few weeks I've been in a whole bunch of dealerships.
I'm looking to change 3 cars into 2 cars so I've been into everything from Alpha Romeo to Volvo looking at compacts to 4x4s.
(I know Zonda would have made the full alphabet, but there aren't any dealers near me).

I'm sure it's not news to a lot of people here, but I've been amazed at how the crap dealership can cloud my judgement of a car.

I've been to 2 BMW dealerships – the first was incredibly friendly, welcoming and knowledgeable – the second ignored me for ages, knew nothing about the car and argued every comment I made. (I'm not sure I like the lemon interior", "But it's very popular sir", "I find the gearchange a bit long" – "Actually Sir, it's a short gear change".)
Had I been in the second dealership first I would have hated BMW as a brand.

Merc, I assume, have a policy of not bothering customers who are browsing. Because I've been totally ignored in two dealerships until I asked someone for some help. Even though we've been standing talking about a car 6 foot from a salesman desk he didn't even say 'Hello, if you have any questions just ask, otherwise I'll leave you to look'

Alpha refused a test drive unless I booked an appointment, and the kid dealing with us knew very little about the cars. 2 of the demos he shows us had broken bits of trim too.

Audi almost insisted on a test drive before I did anything else, and we actually pretty damn good as a dealership – they always offer a drink as soon as you walk in and always seem to have plenty of staff.

Lexus invited us back in 20 minutes for a test drive, then had us wait for another 20 when we arrived because they were busy.

Volvo were friendly, but they had no stock to look at or test drive.

Range Rover were good as a dealership, friendly, accommodating, good with the test drives.

Subaru were great – and the salesman was quite happy to boot the cars about the lanes.

Obviously all dealerships and franchises are different.
But, it's really effected my opinions of certain brands.

Funny old world.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Frankly if you've recently visited all that lot "for a test drive" I suggest you remain anonymous when you visit the next one.

[Snowboy]

Why's that?

[RobCrezz]

• Alfa

[Deerfoot]

Snowboy said:

Alpha Romeo

[Shaw Tarse]

Deerfoot said:

Snowboy said:

Alpha Romeo

Snowboy said:

Alpha refused a test drive unless I booked an appointment, and the kid dealing with us knew very little about the cars. 2 of the demos he shows us had broken bits of trim too.

[Snowboy]

Yep.
Still, it keeps the spelling Gestapo happy, so that's good.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Snowboy said:

Why's that?

'cos it sounds as though you're going around driving everything. When they ask what sort of car you're looking for, what do you say?

[Snowboy]

What do I say?
I say I'm looking for 2 cars.
A smallish cabrio with a bit of flair to it, and a 4x4 suv with a decent boot and hefty engine that doesn't drive like a barge.

I've not encountered any problems at all.

[TonyRPH]

OP, to be fair - it doesn't look as though you know what you really want.

Going into a dealership knowing exactly what you want helps.

But frankly, you sound quite vague, and also sound like a bit of a test pilot.

[balls-out]

TonyRPH said:

OP, to be fair - it doesn't look as though you know what you really want.

Going into a dealership knowing exactly what you want helps.

But frankly, you sound quite vague, and also sound like a bit of a test pilot.

He sounds like a man who wants to buy 2 cars to me. Sounds like what any half decent saleman should be delighted to walk through the door.

[Snowboy]

TonyRPH said:

OP, to be fair - it doesn't look as though you know what you really want.

Going into a dealership knowing exactly what you want helps.

But frankly, you sound quite vague, and also sound like a bit of a test pilot.

I agree with all points, but in a positive way,

In the friendliest way possible I'll answer each point in turn.

I don't know exactly what I want, if I did I wouldn't need to test drive or look at cars.
I went in knowing which of their models I wanted to look at, but I didn't know what engine size or spec I'd need until looking/driving.
Test Pilot – yes, to a degree. But after my testing I now know what cars I want.
Isn't that the point of dealerships and test drives?

[TonyRPH]

Snowboy said:

I agree with all points, but in a positive way,

In the friendliest way possible I'll answer each point in turn.

I don't know exactly what I want, if I did I wouldn't need to test drive or look at cars.
I went in knowing which of their models I wanted to look at, but I didn't know what engine size or spec I'd need until looking/driving.
Test Pilot – yes, to a degree. But after my testing I now know what cars I want.
Isn't that the point of dealerships and test drives?

Fair comment.

[Jasandjules]

TonyRPH said:

OP, to be fair - it doesn't look as though you know what you really want.

Which is when a good salesman identifies what would be useful and then shows you which of his cars would suit?

Whereas in stark contrast I find when I go to view a car I know exactly what I want and have a salesman trying to sell me something else!

[mercfunder]

Snowboy said:

Merc, I assume, have a policy of not bothering customers who are browsing. Because I've been totally ignored in two dealerships until I asked someone for some help. Even though we've been standing talking about a car 6 foot from a salesman desk he didn't even say 'Hello, if you have any questions just ask, otherwise I'll leave you to look'

I wouldn't take it personally, Mercedes salesmen ignore you, even when you have bought a car from them.
It must be some conditioning process they go through.

[McMacro]

Filter down what you want by doing research online. I was down to two when I got the Volvo, Audi or Volvo. Test drove both, both the size I needed (new family 'n that). Preferred the Volvo. Easy

Saves a lot of mucking about with your time, and the stealers.

edited to say: mind you, I had to test drive the 2.0 diseasel as they didn't have any T5's in stock. Not quite the same, but took the gamble. Volvo are excellent to deal with though, great service from them.

Edited by McMacro on Friday 16th September 10:41

[Snowboy]

McMacro said:

Filter down what you want by doing research online. I was down to two when I got the Volvo, Audi or Volvo. Test drove both, both the size I needed (new family 'n that). Preferred the Volvo. Easy

Saves a lot of mucking about with your time, and the stealers.

I did lots of research.
But, in my opinion it's still worth checking out a car that the right size and price range just to be sure.

No amount of online research can prepare you for revelations like,
"The footwell in the passenger side of the Volvo SC60 is oddly angled and twists my ankle."
"The evoque back doors are really small"
"The Merc M Class feels both too small and too big at the same time"
"The little undersize hairdressers car that I was never going to buy ended up going right to the top of the list"

Anyway – this thread seems to have taken quite different direction to what I expected.
Whatever… it's good to talk.

BTW - which Volvo did you go for?

[McMacro]

Snowboy said:

BTW - which Volvo did you go for?

V50 T5 R

[TonyRPH]

Snowboy said:

....
Anyway – this thread seems to have taken quite different direction to what I expected.
Whatever… it's good to talk.
...

Sorry OP - but my initial impression upon reading your post, is that you seem to have gone for quite a diverse range of vehicles.

This led me to make the "test pilot" comment.

[2slo]

McMacro said:

Volvo are excellent to deal with though, great service from them.

Definately not in my experience. My new XC70 D5 went back to the supplying dealer 6 times for engine management related faults which, on several occasions, came to my attention when it suddenly went into limp home mode. Bloody dangerous as it wouldn't rev when that happened and twice occurred when I was exiting busy junctions. The dealers were clearly guessing what to replace, eventually they fitted a whole new wiring loom (or so they told me). Their inability to fix the fault at an early stage was one issue, the other was their inability to offer me any sort of courtesy car when my less than 1 year old £30k Volvo had been recovered for the 2nd/ 3rd/ 4th+ time. I took that up with the dealership manager who could only tell me that all courtesy cars were being used by customers getting their cars serviced and he had nothing else to lend me. They had about 30 used cars on their forecourt at the time. The worst customer service I've ever experienced and I won't be going back.