Am I being unreasonable?
Discussion
Went to a local dealer yesterday to look at CLK.
Young sales man comes on the forecourt to show me round it pleasant enough guy.
At this point I've literally only sat in the drivers seat without the car on so not touched anything electrical and stuck my head in the boot.
Salesman asks if I'd be part exing my car to, to which I say yes.
Ask me how much am after to which I give my usual reply of you tell me.
Him and his boss give the car the once over and give the usual "very tidy" comments.
Young guy comes back 2 mins later, again asks what I'm after.
I say I'd like to think I could get 6 for it. Politely enough the guy says best we could do is 5 and maybe a bit of deal on the car.
I'm not too bothered by this as I sort of expected that figure.
Ok then I say how much is it going to cost to get me in that car.
Sales main gives me the price minus my part ex and says but we could maybe talk about something.
Fair enough, I ask to take the car for a test drive and again the young lad I've been chatting to says no problem, I hand over my licence and he heads inside.
Again comes back 2 mins later, this time not looking so happy.
Turns out his boss has said unless we "agree a price there is no point me taking the car out"
Utterly flummoxed by this I feel the red mist descend. To be fair the young guy seemed as perplexed as me. Agrees with my comments about my car being of similar ilk so insurance what not is obviously not a problem and that this is no way to sell a car.
Feeling somewhat insulted I told him to keep it and walk away.
Problem is now I did really like the car and it was not far off a deal I would have been happy with before we'd even sat down.
Would anyone go back?
Young sales man comes on the forecourt to show me round it pleasant enough guy.
At this point I've literally only sat in the drivers seat without the car on so not touched anything electrical and stuck my head in the boot.
Salesman asks if I'd be part exing my car to, to which I say yes.
Ask me how much am after to which I give my usual reply of you tell me.
Him and his boss give the car the once over and give the usual "very tidy" comments.
Young guy comes back 2 mins later, again asks what I'm after.
I say I'd like to think I could get 6 for it. Politely enough the guy says best we could do is 5 and maybe a bit of deal on the car.
I'm not too bothered by this as I sort of expected that figure.
Ok then I say how much is it going to cost to get me in that car.
Sales main gives me the price minus my part ex and says but we could maybe talk about something.
Fair enough, I ask to take the car for a test drive and again the young lad I've been chatting to says no problem, I hand over my licence and he heads inside.
Again comes back 2 mins later, this time not looking so happy.
Turns out his boss has said unless we "agree a price there is no point me taking the car out"
Utterly flummoxed by this I feel the red mist descend. To be fair the young guy seemed as perplexed as me. Agrees with my comments about my car being of similar ilk so insurance what not is obviously not a problem and that this is no way to sell a car.
Feeling somewhat insulted I told him to keep it and walk away.
Problem is now I did really like the car and it was not far off a deal I would have been happy with before we'd even sat down.
Would anyone go back?
Nope. I've never had a problem getting a test drive and wouldn't ever buy a car without one.
Even had 2 test drives from the Kia dealer I bought a Picanto from, once round the block in a brand new one (not a demonstrator, just an unregistered one they would still need to sell for the same price as new hence short test drive) and then a much longer drive in a 2009 car from the sales pitch.
Even had 2 test drives from the Kia dealer I bought a Picanto from, once round the block in a brand new one (not a demonstrator, just an unregistered one they would still need to sell for the same price as new hence short test drive) and then a much longer drive in a 2009 car from the sales pitch.
ks until I was sure I liked the car enough.missing the VR6 said:
It's the old adage, bums on seats sells cars. That's why we always try to get a test drive done before discussing any figures as the customer will hopefully be more excited about the car after a demo so more open to doing a deal.
Seems dumb not offering a demo, I'd look elsewhere.
Seems dumb not offering a demo, I'd look elsewhere.
- certainly helped sell me a Laguna II 
I bought a car two weekends ago from an indy.
I called to arrange an appointment on the Thursday and arrived as requested on the Saturday morning. He got the car out and left me to it whilst looking at my swapper.
We than had a provisional chat about figures. He then told me to take it for a drive, I gave him my driving licence which he copied and then told me to take as long as I needed. My wife and I were away for about 45 minutes in all, alone. It was a good chance to talk openly about the car without any distraction or sales talk.
Once back we got down to the finer deatails of the deal and shook hands about five minutes later.
It was the most enjoyable car buying experience I`ve had.
I called to arrange an appointment on the Thursday and arrived as requested on the Saturday morning. He got the car out and left me to it whilst looking at my swapper.
We than had a provisional chat about figures. He then told me to take it for a drive, I gave him my driving licence which he copied and then told me to take as long as I needed. My wife and I were away for about 45 minutes in all, alone. It was a good chance to talk openly about the car without any distraction or sales talk.
Once back we got down to the finer deatails of the deal and shook hands about five minutes later.
It was the most enjoyable car buying experience I`ve had.
Should have thought a bit before talking to you like that really and perhaps said.
something like:
"We both seem happy enough with the deal so no problem with a test drive. Obviously we normally prefer to do the figure work first rather than the other way round so let's go" or along those lines.
Fair enough a salesperson may not feel comfortable with someone who just walks in and says "I want to test drive that", but you were quite a long way down the route and had established what appears to be an amicable dialogue.
something like:
"We both seem happy enough with the deal so no problem with a test drive. Obviously we normally prefer to do the figure work first rather than the other way round so let's go" or along those lines.
Fair enough a salesperson may not feel comfortable with someone who just walks in and says "I want to test drive that", but you were quite a long way down the route and had established what appears to be an amicable dialogue.
I think you were not. The issue being that the boss was probably throwing his weight around and had made a judgement on you.
I would just go elsewhere, because sometimes little things like highlight, if there is any issues with the car, you have got the sales guys attitude to selling to you, the after-sales will be probably the same.
I would just go elsewhere, because sometimes little things like highlight, if there is any issues with the car, you have got the sales guys attitude to selling to you, the after-sales will be probably the same.
I've had this sort of thing before. It's particularly bad if you're a young bloke looking at something (slightly) sporty. I considered upgrading my daily driver to a Focus ST170 a few years ago. The bloke looked a bit concerned and asked if I'd ever driven anything of that performance before. 
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