How long does it/should it take to buy a car?
Discussion
Over the last 27 years my wife and I have gone though about 28 cars, more or less one change a year - main dealers, small dealers, family run and a few private sales. Overall never a problem and I've found it at a fairly pleasant and sometimes an enjoyable and pain-free experience. Until now..........
We decided that the wife's Q3 was a bit small and decided to buy a Discovery Sport and on Wednesday nearly 2 weeks ago called the local Land Rover dealer, told them we were away on holiday, put down a £500 holding deposit and booked an appointment on Saturday morning. So we wanted to take it for a ride, agree on P/X and do the deal. Arrived at 10.55 and it took just over 45 minutes faffing about to get in to the car and drive off, 15-20 minutes on the road and then back just after 12.00. Another 45 minutes or more faffing about looking at the Audi, taking it for a drive and then called Audi dealers to get a P/X figure. Then more faffing and waffle about how to finance it and we finally got it sorted at 1.30. Two and a half hours just to buy a car! After 2 hours in my wife had given up the will to live and was getting increasingly sort and shirty with the salesman (and she's not like that at all) and was mumbling about throwing in the towel and going to Audi for a Q5 instead.
It really was a bloody nightmare, but two things stand out. Not unreasonably they wanted a driving licence for the test drive and although wifey had forgotten hers I had mine so I thought no problem, but no they wanted my bloody National Insurance number as well and as I don't know it it caused all sorts of hassle. But nevertheless they got over that and despite wifey not having her licence she drive the car instead of me anyway!! The other right pain was the P/X. They have a "value your car" tab on the website and despite keying in the details while on holiday they could or would not accept that and at least 1/2 hour was spent just waiting for the Audi dealers to get back to them with offers. Inevitability they knocked us back and although £500 was not the end of the world it was more wasted time, and more to the point, what's the point of offering an online valuation. Even WBAC where better than that when I used them a few years ago.
So we picked the car up yesterday, and that took very nearly 60 minutes more. OK they have to explain the finance and we had to sign at least 10 times on god knows how many bits of paper, but FFS how many times does a salesman have to get up, get more paper from the other side of the showroom and photocopy stuff? As we were leaving the salesman told that that 55 minutes was some sort of record!!!
And as I'm having a rant - the guy used the word "sweet" so often we were sick of it; he was not sure of the standard features on the car (I knew more than him just from reading the brochure); the part number for the book liner I wanted and had correctly quoted from the brochure was "wrong". As we were leaving he offered to come with us to put 1/4 of a tank of fuel in it as a goodwill gesture, so why hadn't he done it before?
So all in all we spent three and a half hours in the dealer's showroom and on the drive. As far as I can recall nothing else we have bought has ever taken much more than an hour in total. We're pleased with the car and the deal is perfectly acceptable but the whole experience was frustrating, slow and somewhat shambolic. So - is how is just how it is with prestige dealers or was this as poor as we think?
We decided that the wife's Q3 was a bit small and decided to buy a Discovery Sport and on Wednesday nearly 2 weeks ago called the local Land Rover dealer, told them we were away on holiday, put down a £500 holding deposit and booked an appointment on Saturday morning. So we wanted to take it for a ride, agree on P/X and do the deal. Arrived at 10.55 and it took just over 45 minutes faffing about to get in to the car and drive off, 15-20 minutes on the road and then back just after 12.00. Another 45 minutes or more faffing about looking at the Audi, taking it for a drive and then called Audi dealers to get a P/X figure. Then more faffing and waffle about how to finance it and we finally got it sorted at 1.30. Two and a half hours just to buy a car! After 2 hours in my wife had given up the will to live and was getting increasingly sort and shirty with the salesman (and she's not like that at all) and was mumbling about throwing in the towel and going to Audi for a Q5 instead.
It really was a bloody nightmare, but two things stand out. Not unreasonably they wanted a driving licence for the test drive and although wifey had forgotten hers I had mine so I thought no problem, but no they wanted my bloody National Insurance number as well and as I don't know it it caused all sorts of hassle. But nevertheless they got over that and despite wifey not having her licence she drive the car instead of me anyway!! The other right pain was the P/X. They have a "value your car" tab on the website and despite keying in the details while on holiday they could or would not accept that and at least 1/2 hour was spent just waiting for the Audi dealers to get back to them with offers. Inevitability they knocked us back and although £500 was not the end of the world it was more wasted time, and more to the point, what's the point of offering an online valuation. Even WBAC where better than that when I used them a few years ago.
So we picked the car up yesterday, and that took very nearly 60 minutes more. OK they have to explain the finance and we had to sign at least 10 times on god knows how many bits of paper, but FFS how many times does a salesman have to get up, get more paper from the other side of the showroom and photocopy stuff? As we were leaving the salesman told that that 55 minutes was some sort of record!!!
And as I'm having a rant - the guy used the word "sweet" so often we were sick of it; he was not sure of the standard features on the car (I knew more than him just from reading the brochure); the part number for the book liner I wanted and had correctly quoted from the brochure was "wrong". As we were leaving he offered to come with us to put 1/4 of a tank of fuel in it as a goodwill gesture, so why hadn't he done it before?
So all in all we spent three and a half hours in the dealer's showroom and on the drive. As far as I can recall nothing else we have bought has ever taken much more than an hour in total. We're pleased with the car and the deal is perfectly acceptable but the whole experience was frustrating, slow and somewhat shambolic. So - is how is just how it is with prestige dealers or was this as poor as we think?
When I bought my first RS3 I had phoned the day before and said which car I wanted, would be paying cash, etc.
Got there the following morning and they took an hour effectively doing a character profile where they wanted to know what I was going to use the car for - as if they were going to suggest which model I should be looking at.
Later on they went through the usual finance crap and tried to tell me it could cost me less if I paid it off in full immediately - but couldn't explain how.
Only had about 20mins in the car but was in the dealer for a good 3 hours. Fortunately picking it up didn't take anywhere near as long.
Had an equally painful experience at another Audi dealer buying my second RS3 where they couldn't get to grips with the idea I wanted to trade the same model in for a lower mileage, better equipped model in a different colour. And then the usual "I really want to sell you this car" condescending bulls
t when it came to agreeing a price.
Had a much better time of it at BMW a few months ago.
Got there the following morning and they took an hour effectively doing a character profile where they wanted to know what I was going to use the car for - as if they were going to suggest which model I should be looking at.
Later on they went through the usual finance crap and tried to tell me it could cost me less if I paid it off in full immediately - but couldn't explain how.
Only had about 20mins in the car but was in the dealer for a good 3 hours. Fortunately picking it up didn't take anywhere near as long.
Had an equally painful experience at another Audi dealer buying my second RS3 where they couldn't get to grips with the idea I wanted to trade the same model in for a lower mileage, better equipped model in a different colour. And then the usual "I really want to sell you this car" condescending bulls
t when it came to agreeing a price.Had a much better time of it at BMW a few months ago.
I'd say it's generally been a good couple of hours, although a fair chuck is usually pauses while I wait for the salesman to make a new offer.
Last one was a bit quicker as got the pricing from Car-Wow and did most negotiation by email, even though the dealer was local. Also didn't do a test drive or p/x for that one.
Last one was a bit quicker as got the pricing from Car-Wow and did most negotiation by email, even though the dealer was local. Also didn't do a test drive or p/x for that one.
Small independent dealer here. We have all of our cars ready to drive away the same day. If you want it even valuing a PX and doing finance it generally takes no more than an hour to get you in and out.
Quicker I get you in and out the better, put as little obstacles in the customers path as possible. Don't quite no why main dealers still do all this nonsense.
Quicker I get you in and out the better, put as little obstacles in the customers path as possible. Don't quite no why main dealers still do all this nonsense.
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