Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all.

[Bet2502]

Never been in car sales before but been in various sales for past 15 years. Looking for a new challenge after 10 year.
Been offered a job in a JLR main dealer in car sales. 90% of people seem to say don’t bother. Silly hours. Can end up working for less than min wage. Pressure to sell everything only the car itself. Tyre kickers galore wanting the sun and moon. Spend half your day doing everything except trying to sell cars running after service garage, pdi, invoicing , moving cars etc etc
I understand every job has its pros and cons, is car sales really that bad especially at a main dealer.
What could you realistically be able to earn as an average salesman

[cayman-black]

Sounds like a good job to me, most of the LR salesman i know don't do fk all.

[irish boy]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I like those a lot. Good friend had a 262, the engine is a good step up from the 245...minimal difference on paper but you really notice it. Pulls very well. If I was looking I'd certainly pay to get in to one over a 245, I'd buy it just before the 3 year warranty ended, get anything rectified and extend it with VW, I'd also avoid white, seems to be the kiss of death. It was the only no cost option on the cheap 2 year lease they did in '15.

[Mexman]

Bet2502 said:

Never been in car sales before but been in various sales for past 15 years. Looking for a new challenge after 10 year.
Been offered a job in a JLR main dealer in car sales. 90% of people seem to say don’t bother. Silly hours. Can end up working for less than min wage. Pressure to sell everything only the car itself. Tyre kickers galore wanting the sun and moon. Spend half your day doing everything except trying to sell cars running after service garage, pdi, invoicing , moving cars etc etc
I understand every job has its pros and cons, is car sales really that bad especially at a main dealer.
What could you realistically be able to earn as an average salesman

That's about it in a nutshell

[Mexman]

Dimebars said:

How would a salesman usually deal with this......

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I would be seriously pissed off.
Due too collect today and wants to renegotiate the deal.
Deposit would be kept and told in no uncertain terms that the deal will not be renegotiated.
What if the salesman had phoned this goon up and said to him "sorry Mr customer, I have just had a better offer on the car you have put a deposit on, and I have sold it to him instead"
You would go ballistic.
This does happen very occasionally, but the customer will not get anywhere/anything with this approach.
Very bad form.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

What car are you talking about? The numbers don't mean anything to me. Congrats, anyway.

[Countdown]

Mexman said:

What if the salesman had phoned this goon up and said to him "sorry Mr customer, I have just had a better offer on the car you have put a deposit on, and I have sold it to him instead"
.

Easily done if the Dealer is lacking scruples

"I'm sorry Mr Customer. Unfortunately we've found a major fault with the Audi A4 that you were going to buy. The brakes don't work/it's 3 cars welded together/ it has £50,000 outstanding finance/it was written off by our mechanic during the PDI".

Hard for the customer to prove otherwise.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

And some tits tonker, don't forget the tits.

Congrats on the Touareg - not really my thing but the ones I've driven have been very competent.

[Sheepshanks]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You could have gone the whole hog and got a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

[HTP99]

DSLiverpool said:

If I ask a franchised main agent to find me a specific used car will they throw the enquiry in the bin after a day or is there a online system to flag up a matching car to enquiry?

If it is something that we have a pretty good chance of getting; 9m-1 year old Captur petrol manual or diesel auto, that can be sourced easily from Enterprise then I'll keep your details and make a few phone calls, if it's a pre registered anything then I'll just bin your details as we rarely pre register and I'll guarantee you'll find one elsewhere within a few clicks of a mouse.

Same with non franchised stuff; we will retail decent non franchised trade ins, I've had people enquire on a non franchised bit of stock which has recently been sold, they will say "if you get anything similar, give us a call, you know what I want", like the most recent one; the chances of us getting a 2 year old Audi A1 auto again are pretty much nil!

[DSLiverpool]

HTP99 said:

DSLiverpool said:

If I ask a franchised main agent to find me a specific used car will they throw the enquiry in the bin after a day or is there a online system to flag up a matching car to enquiry?

If it is something that we have a pretty good chance of getting; 9m-1 year old Captur petrol manual or diesel auto, that can be sourced easily from Enterprise then I'll keep your details and make a few phone calls, if it's a pre registered anything then I'll just bin your details as we rarely pre register and I'll guarantee you'll find one elsewhere within a few clicks of a mouse.

Same with non franchised stuff; we will retail decent non franchised trade ins, I've had people enquire on a non franchised bit of stock which has recently been sold, they will say "if you get anything similar, give us a call, you know what I want", like the most recent one; the chances of us getting a 2 year old Audi A1 auto again are pretty much nil!

Ta - Young sales guy seems keen but I'll keep looking, the BMW dealers seem to not put all their stock on the trader.

[talksthetorque]

Mexman said:

Dimebars said:

How would a salesman usually deal with this......

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I would be seriously pissed off.
Due too collect today and wants to renegotiate the deal.
Deposit would be kept and told in no uncertain terms that the deal will not be renegotiated.
What if the salesman had phoned this goon up and said to him "sorry Mr customer, I have just had a better offer on the car you have put a deposit on, and I have sold it to him instead"
You would go ballistic.
This does happen very occasionally, but the customer will not get anywhere/anything with this approach.
Very bad form.

How about if the mileage was as much out as was described by the OP in that thread?
51k instead of 49k would you think another couple of hundred was fair?
It might be that the dealer was using the car and forgot to amend the advert, but I'm not sure I'd be lhappy if I was being told my deposit was being kept when tthe mileage was not as advertised.

But, yeah, was already a bit flaky and found a reason to bail as far as I can see.

[Dan W.]

talksthetorque said:

How about if the mileage was as much out as was described by the OP in that thread?
51k instead of 49k would you think another couple of hundred was fair?
It might be that the dealer was using the car and forgot to amend the advert, but I'm not sure I'd be lhappy if I was being told my deposit was being kept when tthe mileage was not as advertised.

But, yeah, was already a bit flaky and found a reason to bail as far as I can see.

you would maybe get a token gesture, some mats or fuel but that's it, The adverts will always say mileage and spec need to be confirmed.

[Fox-]

talksthetorque said:

How about if the mileage was as much out as was described by the OP in that thread?
51k instead of 49k would you think another couple of hundred was fair?
It might be that the dealer was using the car and forgot to amend the advert, but I'm not sure I'd be lhappy if I was being told my deposit was being kept when tthe mileage was not as advertised.

But, yeah, was already a bit flaky and found a reason to bail as far as I can see.

This has happened to me twice now, current car was advertised as 4.5k and actually had 6k. I don't think it was deliberate, it was owned by the dealer from new and they presumably don't update the adverts all that often but I do wonder what would have happened had I showed up with 25% more miles on my PX

[silentbrown]

Dan W. said:

you would maybe get a token gesture, some mats or fuel but that's it, The adverts will always say mileage and spec need to be confirmed.

Surely if you put down a deposit before viewing, then find it's not as described...?

[Dan W.]

silentbrown said:

Surely if you put down a deposit before viewing, then find it's not as described...?

Well yes if he has done that he can have a refund at any stage due to not seeing the actual vehicle. whether its described or not he could have a refund if he wanted due to distance selling.

I would say the mileage between 2k difference on that age or miles 49k could be sorted out, if someone is going to cancel due to the mileage being slightly wrong then usually they have buyers remorse

[Eyersey1234]

Fox- said:

talksthetorque said:

How about if the mileage was as much out as was described by the OP in that thread?
51k instead of 49k would you think another couple of hundred was fair?
It might be that the dealer was using the car and forgot to amend the advert, but I'm not sure I'd be lhappy if I was being told my deposit was being kept when tthe mileage was not as advertised.

But, yeah, was already a bit flaky and found a reason to bail as far as I can see.

This has happened to me twice now, current car was advertised as 4.5k and actually had 6k. I don't think it was deliberate, it was owned by the dealer from new and they presumably don't update the adverts all that often but I do wonder what would have happened had I showed up with 25% more miles on my PX

When I PXd my old Fiesta against the current one I had done about 800 miles in 2 weeks on the old one and the garage weren't bothered, they probably sent it straight to auction though as it was 12 years old

[ITP]

Wouldn't be surprised if the 51k mile car which was advertised at 49k miles was the dealer trying to capture people who put 'up to 50k miles' in an autotrader search....
In reality, condition will matters more than 2k miles but its the mindset that would put me off. What else will they bend the truth on?

[Chris-DC5R]

steve-5snwi said:

Depends on the car, i've made sure the correct conti MO tyres have been put on AMGs and Michelin PSS on M135s ... but others have had acceleras... personally I hate it but if on paper you buy a car for £5000 and sell it for £6000 according to HMRC you have made £1000. So thats what you will pay VAT on. Now if it costs you £250 to prep it for sale, then £500 on branded tyres you have only made £250 profit but the Vat man will still take £166 in VAT So your profit is less than £90. Now if your budgets cost £200 you have made an extra £300 ......

For me if it was a dealer I would accept budgets (it doesn't mean i agree with it) but i would not accept it from a private seller as it means they scrimp on running costs. I guess its why i'm out of car sales given the place i worked for loves cheap tyres and replica wheels .......

Just to get one thing straight, VAT is a tax on the consumer and not the business. The business activities are, or at least should be measured on net figures with VAT applied which the consumer foots. The business just acts as a third party who collect and transfer over the VAT.

The business will also pay to the suppliers the VAT on the tyres, repairs etc and this reclaim this amount back.

Businesses looking at VAT as a tax on theirselves is hugely flawed and frankly, incorrect.

[thebigmacmoomin]

PAUL RUN said:

YEP....I am getting that feeling...
the amount of 3-5 year old cars I am coming across that say "not been serviced yet as not required" is amazing....ie a fiesta st 2013 with 11,000 miles and never been serviced
yet service book says "12,500 miles OR 12 months which ever comes first"

I hate this. I have mine serviced every year, even though its every 3000 miles rather than Ford's 12500 miles interval.