Car Sales - what happened to you lot?!
Discussion
WonkeyDonkey said:
If you already have your commuting cars how come you're looking at an Audi as a weekend car?
Different strokes for different folks and all that but I wouldn't have thought they're that special or involving for just weekend jollies.
Surely the beauty of them kind of cars is that they are a more than capable daily.
My commute is a 140 mile round trip - whilst every mile of that was entertaining in the S3, it was just like throwing money away. bought a diesel Civic which turns a £45 daily cost to a £13 daily cost Different strokes for different folks and all that but I wouldn't have thought they're that special or involving for just weekend jollies.
Surely the beauty of them kind of cars is that they are a more than capable daily.
Buttttttt.. i need something fun to use on a friday to work or for the old outing - i would literally go out of my mind if the most exciting car in our fleet was a 120bhp diesel !
PixelpeepS3 said:
My commute is a 140 mile round trip - whilst every mile of that was entertaining in the S3, it was just like throwing money away. bought a diesel Civic which turns a £45 daily cost to a £13 daily cost
Buttttttt.. i need something fun to use on a friday to work or for the old outing - i would literally go out of my mind if the most exciting car in our fleet was a 120bhp diesel !
Fair enough, that's a longer commute than I'd be comfortable with so not surprised you want something different/nicer when not commuting!Buttttttt.. i need something fun to use on a friday to work or for the old outing - i would literally go out of my mind if the most exciting car in our fleet was a 120bhp diesel !
WonkeyDonkey said:
PixelpeepS3 said:
My commute is a 140 mile round trip - whilst every mile of that was entertaining in the S3, it was just like throwing money away. bought a diesel Civic which turns a £45 daily cost to a £13 daily cost
Buttttttt.. i need something fun to use on a friday to work or for the old outing - i would literally go out of my mind if the most exciting car in our fleet was a 120bhp diesel !
Fair enough, that's a longer commute than I'd be comfortable with so not surprised you want something different/nicer when not commuting!Buttttttt.. i need something fun to use on a friday to work or for the old outing - i would literally go out of my mind if the most exciting car in our fleet was a 120bhp diesel !
PixelpeepS3 said:
Wacky Racer said:
MrBarry123 said:
I don't think it's a reasonable expectation to have a RS3 as a courtesy car whilst your S3 is in for a service.
The vast majority of S3 owners won't upgrade to a RS3.
The end result would be some poor RS3 being ragged within an inch of its life by S3 owners, with the dealership having to spend a considerable amount on maintaining it, only for said S3 owners to buy another S3 or a Golf R etc.
Provided they are functional, safe and reliable, it's perfectly reasonable for a dealership to have a courtesy car fleet which is as cheap to run as possible.
100% this.The vast majority of S3 owners won't upgrade to a RS3.
The end result would be some poor RS3 being ragged within an inch of its life by S3 owners, with the dealership having to spend a considerable amount on maintaining it, only for said S3 owners to buy another S3 or a Golf R etc.
Provided they are functional, safe and reliable, it's perfectly reasonable for a dealership to have a courtesy car fleet which is as cheap to run as possible.
I struggle to believe that someone in an S3 wouldn't want to have the same platform but with it turned up to 11.
i had already made them aware i was changing, and i had an interest in an RS3 - no one even tried to qualify me, it was ignored.
The only expectation i had so to speak is that someone would follow up what i had been talking about.
Look, im a 'punter' - im not saying i speak for everyone but i'm sure i'm not alone. They'd be better off getting someone in sales to speak to me to see if it had legs, rather than spending 6 hours calling a list of names and numbers off a spreadsheet to see if they're thinking of changing.
Im in the f
king showroom, im telling them im changing and i even tell them what car im thinking of. How much easier does it get? As you generalised saying S3 owners wouldn't want an RS3, ill generalise too - Salesmen of today are either dim, dumb, lazy or not bothered about making a sale.
All service providers have had to trim their operating costs in the past 10-15 years to compete with internet providers. Having to spend £millions to meet manufacturer demands for fancy showrooms etc doesn't help, either.
Just buy from somebody else if they don't want your custom.
TarquinMX5 said:
What is an S3 anyway? You make it sound as if you drive some fantastic car and should be treated like some sort of god. An RS3, it's only a higher performance little Audi, it's not exactly a Pagani, is it?
All service providers have had to trim their operating costs in the past 10-15 years to compete with internet providers. Having to spend £millions to meet manufacturer demands for fancy showrooms etc doesn't help, either.
Just buy from somebody else if they don't want your custom.
Did think that. An S3 is about £35k so similar to the average A4 and less than the average for most other models. So if they are gonna suck up to people they probably do it on the guys who pay above average pricesAll service providers have had to trim their operating costs in the past 10-15 years to compete with internet providers. Having to spend £millions to meet manufacturer demands for fancy showrooms etc doesn't help, either.
Just buy from somebody else if they don't want your custom.
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 8th December 14:30
Incredible sense of entitlement mixed with pepperings of arrogance being expressed by some posters. Fortunately balanced by some grounded good sense attitudes by others.
A courtesy car is a courtesy car. Provided out of courtesy to minimise the basic inconvenience of leaving your car for a service for a day or so. If it is different to your car or even not to your taste or forces you to move a seat forward on a 3 door instead of having a 5 door, for example, so what? It is a free car which you have to “put up with” for a day. Unbelievable really.
For those that feel annoyed because no one is recognising their possible intent to buy another or feels communication could be better between sales and service...arrange a proper test drive with Sales. The Service Team is for servicing and the Sales Team is for selling. It isn’t hard to understand that is how it works. You may prefer it to work differently, but guess what? Often times it is what it is. Roll with it and stop feeling so “offended”. It is a ridiculous non issue in the grand scheme of things.
A courtesy car is a courtesy car. Provided out of courtesy to minimise the basic inconvenience of leaving your car for a service for a day or so. If it is different to your car or even not to your taste or forces you to move a seat forward on a 3 door instead of having a 5 door, for example, so what? It is a free car which you have to “put up with” for a day. Unbelievable really.
For those that feel annoyed because no one is recognising their possible intent to buy another or feels communication could be better between sales and service...arrange a proper test drive with Sales. The Service Team is for servicing and the Sales Team is for selling. It isn’t hard to understand that is how it works. You may prefer it to work differently, but guess what? Often times it is what it is. Roll with it and stop feeling so “offended”. It is a ridiculous non issue in the grand scheme of things.
Freakuk said:
This astounds me too!
I take my Porsche in for a service and they give me... a BMW 520D!!!
They don't sell BMW's but they're making a good case for me to go down the road and try a few. I wouldn't mind what Porsche they give me it's always nice to try something else in the range... A few years ago that was the case.
The daft thing is I doubt I'll buy another Porsche now as they have zero interest in retaining my business, this being one example.
Over the last couple of years I have had the following courtesy cars, none of which have been the level of car taken in but I don’t expect that as it’s just a service. I take my Porsche in for a service and they give me... a BMW 520D!!!
They don't sell BMW's but they're making a good case for me to go down the road and try a few. I wouldn't mind what Porsche they give me it's always nice to try something else in the range... A few years ago that was the case.
The daft thing is I doubt I'll buy another Porsche now as they have zero interest in retaining my business, this being one example.
Lamborghini Aventador - Audi A6 SE
Ferrari 488 - Alfa Gulietta
Aston Vantage - Jag XE
Range Rover SVR - Evoque ED4
Bentley GTC V8 - Audi A4
Porsche 911 - VW Polo
Porsche Cayenne - Porsche Cayman
Could you imagine the service costs if any of these garages were handing out like for like cars? Besides, most offer either driven or lorry collection as alternative.
PixelpeepS3 said:
I ask, "any chance of an RS3?" after overhearing another salesman offer to loan a customer his RS5 so he can get a feel for it - my guy says 'ill see what i can do'
While I agree with many of the comments on here that giving an RS anything for the day as a loaner to an unqualified customer is probably asking a bit much, my story is a much lower level car.Booked daughter’s Honda Jazz in for service a few months ago and asked for courtesy car – service advisor (unprompted) says it’ll be a Honda HR-V. Great, I say, we’re thinking of changing one of ours cars and I’d be keen to try HR-V.
Get there, and am handed the keys to a Jazz. I ask about the HR-V and got a shrug. OK, I didn’t make a fuss but the thing that baffles me is why say it’s going to be a specific vehicle and then give something else? Just baffling. Shortly afterwards we bought a SEAT Ateca. HR-V was always going to be a long shot, but it didn’t even get chance to show itself off.
Sheepshanks said:
I didn’t make a fuss but the thing that baffles me is why say it’s going to be a specific vehicle and then give something else? Just baffling.
Could have gone out the day before but the job over ran into a second day, could have been lent out to someone who's new HRV had come back with an issue so best to put them in a like for like car, it could have been in a crash, it could have a fault; any number of reasons really.HTP99 said:
Could have gone out the day before but the job over ran into a second day, could have been lent out to someone who's new HRV had come back with an issue so best to put them in a like for like car, it could have been in a crash, it could have a fault; any number of reasons really.
Of course. But my point was, it seems a bit dumb to say a specific car in the first place - it's setting yourself for a customer satisfaction fail. Mind you, that dealership is pretty crap - you'd think with Honda being on their arse in the UK they'd try a bit harder.Sheepshanks said:
Of course. But my point was, it seems a bit dumb to say a specific car in the first place - it's setting yourself for a customer satisfaction fail. Mind you, that dealership is pretty crap - you'd think with Honda being on their arse in the UK they'd try a bit harder.
The problem is NPS and the push to have high customer service survey results all the time so they likely promise to keep people happy and then leave themselves open to fail if an unexpected event happens. You'd be less impressed if they said, "we will have to wait and see"
You'd be on here asking why a dealershio can't organise things ahead of time.
Im sure we all hold ourselves and our colleagues to the same standarda we all expect from a dealer?
euphoricmess said:
You'd be less impressed if they said, "we will have to wait and see"
As I said, I didn't ask - they just volunteered that it would be a HR-V. What was disappointing was that having told me that, and me saying I wanted to try it, they failed to deliver it, or even register that I was interested.Sheepshanks said:
As I said, I didn't ask - they just volunteered that it would be a HR-V. What was disappointing was that having told me that, and me saying I wanted to try it, they failed to deliver it, or even register that I was interested.
You ended up buying something else. Did youbfollow up your interest with a test drive?PixelpeepS3 said:
if you read some of the other posts of mine in this thread you'll see the other point about sales & service not working together and the fact that when i was in the game, 7 odd years ago, it was different, we were different, we would use ANY opportunity to try and get a lead by working smarter and joined up.
My experience of buying new cars and using franchise dealers goes back 30+yrs. For the last 10 years I've also bought my "kids" cars so I'm buying a new car most years and visiting franchise dealers for service etc at least 4 times per year.I don't see that anything has changed in that time - I've always been gobsmacked by the apparent complete disconnection between service and sales. In the Merc dealer I used for 10 years, no sales person ever ever spoke to me in all the times I visited and several times I wandered around the showroom looking at cars, sometimes even getting in them front and back. Must be policy - I saw service customers ask for brochures and they'd just be given them with no attempt at even the gentlest qualification or introduction to sales.
Freakuk said:
This astounds me too!
I take my Porsche in for a service and they give me... a BMW 520D!!!
They don't sell BMW's but they're making a good case for me to go down the road and try a few. I wouldn't mind what Porsche they give me it's always nice to try something else in the range... A few years ago that was the case.
The daft thing is I doubt I'll buy another Porsche now as they have zero interest in retaining my business, this being one example.
Porsche USA will not allow a dealer to loan anything but Porsche cars. I’ve had a mix of Macans and Macan GTS. One I kept for 2 weeks. I will probably be buying a Macan GTS for our second car in the near future on the back of my experience of the courtesy car. I take my Porsche in for a service and they give me... a BMW 520D!!!
They don't sell BMW's but they're making a good case for me to go down the road and try a few. I wouldn't mind what Porsche they give me it's always nice to try something else in the range... A few years ago that was the case.
The daft thing is I doubt I'll buy another Porsche now as they have zero interest in retaining my business, this being one example.
Superleg48 said:
Incredible sense of entitlement mixed with pepperings of arrogance being expressed by some posters. Fortunately balanced by some grounded good sense attitudes by others.
A courtesy car is a courtesy car. Provided out of courtesy to minimise the basic inconvenience of leaving your car for a service for a day or so. If it is different to your car or even not to your taste or forces you to move a seat forward on a 3 door instead of having a 5 door, for example, so what? It is a free car which you have to “put up with” for a day. Unbelievable really.
For those that feel annoyed because no one is recognising their possible intent to buy another or feels communication could be better between sales and service...arrange a proper test drive with Sales. The Service Team is for servicing and the Sales Team is for selling. It isn’t hard to understand that is how it works. You may prefer it to work differently, but guess what? Often times it is what it is. Roll with it and stop feeling so “offended”. It is a ridiculous non issue in the grand scheme of things.
well said Sir, sums up this thread very well indeedA courtesy car is a courtesy car. Provided out of courtesy to minimise the basic inconvenience of leaving your car for a service for a day or so. If it is different to your car or even not to your taste or forces you to move a seat forward on a 3 door instead of having a 5 door, for example, so what? It is a free car which you have to “put up with” for a day. Unbelievable really.
For those that feel annoyed because no one is recognising their possible intent to buy another or feels communication could be better between sales and service...arrange a proper test drive with Sales. The Service Team is for servicing and the Sales Team is for selling. It isn’t hard to understand that is how it works. You may prefer it to work differently, but guess what? Often times it is what it is. Roll with it and stop feeling so “offended”. It is a ridiculous non issue in the grand scheme of things.
Superleg48 said:
Incredible sense of entitlement mixed with pepperings of arrogance being expressed by some posters. Fortunately balanced by some grounded good sense attitudes by others.
A courtesy car is a courtesy car. Provided out of courtesy to minimise the basic inconvenience of leaving your car for a service for a day or so. If it is different to your car or even not to your taste or forces you to move a seat forward on a 3 door instead of having a 5 door, for example, so what? It is a free car which you have to “put up with” for a day. Unbelievable really.
For those that feel annoyed because no one is recognising their possible intent to buy another or feels communication could be better between sales and service...arrange a proper test drive with Sales. The Service Team is for servicing and the Sales Team is for selling. It isn’t hard to understand that is how it works. You may prefer it to work differently, but guess what? Often times it is what it is. Roll with it and stop feeling so “offended”. It is a ridiculous non issue in the grand scheme of things.
Wow you've used a lot of words just to say you don't understand the point of the thread. A courtesy car is a courtesy car. Provided out of courtesy to minimise the basic inconvenience of leaving your car for a service for a day or so. If it is different to your car or even not to your taste or forces you to move a seat forward on a 3 door instead of having a 5 door, for example, so what? It is a free car which you have to “put up with” for a day. Unbelievable really.
For those that feel annoyed because no one is recognising their possible intent to buy another or feels communication could be better between sales and service...arrange a proper test drive with Sales. The Service Team is for servicing and the Sales Team is for selling. It isn’t hard to understand that is how it works. You may prefer it to work differently, but guess what? Often times it is what it is. Roll with it and stop feeling so “offended”. It is a ridiculous non issue in the grand scheme of things.
Customer service is an art - you either get it, or you don't - I see both your directorships are quite recent so maybe you're new to the business world?
I'll break down the points i am making, in case they've been lost in translation.
1) if a customer drives a 5 door, chances are they need the extra doors - if you can't supply a 5 door then at least acknowledge you cant offer it.
The fact this was ignored and not addressed shows a lack in understanding the customer (or even caring)
2) Sales don't work with service you're saying? i think i was saying that too? - but why don't they? If sales didn't sell, service would be out of a job. they all work for the same company who's SOLE purpose is to make money. I was asking WHY don't they - because they used to.
none of these facts changed my life in any way, i have no sense of entitlement, it was just an observation which led to questions on a thread.
Edited by PixelpeepS3 on Monday 10th December 11:13
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