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

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

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Thankyou4calling

10,596 posts

172 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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On the topic of service

I’ve bought lots of cars ( and other items)

I’ve never let poor service , and I’ve had plenty, put me off.

As an example the last car I bought, it was prepped poorly, missing paperwork, key, filthy still.

Eventually the paperwork and key were found and £50 deducted for a valet which wasn’t done.

A disinterested sales person who didn’t even watch me struggling to get my new steed off the forecourt or help me hook up my phone.

No coffee offered either.

But I’d done loads of research, the car was what I wanted at a keen price so I bought.

Would I return? Yes! Again I bought the car, didn’t want to jump through hoops and I expected the service shortfalls and factored them in.

gothatway

5,783 posts

169 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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lord trumpton said:
For me (and again no disrespect to the genuine salespeople in this thread) but the sooner new car retail goes online for the ordering/finance etc and the showrooms are set up just for viewing/ test drives/servicing ie the sales totally removed, the better.
The last time I bought a new car was in 2002. Bought and paid for online, hop on a train to get it and drive it home. Painless. I think the outfit was called JamJar - are they still going and why doesn't everyone do that ? I remember that the local main dealer was represented by the usual obnoxious salesman so I had absolutely no qualms about looking over the model on their premises and going elsewhere to buy.

Wooda80

1,743 posts

74 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
lord trumpton said:
For me (and again no disrespect to the genuine salespeople in this thread) but the sooner new car retail goes online for the ordering/finance etc and the showrooms are set up just for viewing/ test drives/servicing ie the sales totally removed, the better.

Time for a change
Just like every other form of retail, that's undoubtedly the direction in which things will move. Indeed we've all been able to do that for some time now, with sites like Carwow etc and manufacturers' own online sites like these

https://www.buy.ford.co.uk
https://www.bmw.co.uk/new-cars/buy-your-bmw-online

So that route is there for you already if you prefer. Presumably the ones still using physical car showrooms for the time being are doing so because they see some value in it, whether that is in the experience, the convenience or the ££s

4941cc

25,867 posts

205 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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lord trumpton said:
The predictable cat and mouse game with the sales tactics and some fat sales manager sat in hs glass cave giving the figures out to the subservient sales lapdog who runs back and forth turning a 2 minute process into a 2 hour ordeal is painful.

Time for a change
Completely agree, after 20 years of it!

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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4941cc said:
Completely agree, after 20 years of it!
I spent two hours in Merc yesterday the guy wanted to know all about me and how I wanted to pay. Barely talked about the car. Came out having not sat in one, not discussed anything about the car and it was clear he knew lots about PCP bit fk all about the car.

Kizmiaz

230 posts

87 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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Sheepshanks said:
The latter two are unlikely as it was a Sunday and he wasn't appropriately dressed. I wouldn't expect the receptionists boyfriend to be sitting there, and anyway, he was 2x her age, so also unlikely.

On the balance of probabilities he was a used car salesman. He looked like a used car salesman too.
What a fking stupid comment. Probably did the same with you and decided to stay there. All my love....a used car salesman. x

akadk

1,478 posts

178 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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IMO the key thing holding back new online sales is true price transparency, but the likes of carwow are starting to change that.

The key thing holding back used car online sales is distance selling regs.

Elroy Blue

8,686 posts

191 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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I rang a dealer and made an appointment to test drive a Mercedes A220 last week. Said I’d be happy driving an A250 if an A220 wasn’t available. No problem they say, we’ve got both. 45 minute drive to the dealer. On arrival, nobody seems to know about my appointment. Eventually they work out the guy I spoke to was ‘busy’. When I eventually sat down with someone, he looked at the computer and said “let’s go”. He then mentioned it was an A180d, but was and I quote, “use the same”. When I pointed out it was nothing like the same he offered me the opportunity to drive the diesel then drive something else with a petrol engine, because I’d apparently get an idea what they were like to drive.
Declined the offer, whereupon he looked at the computer and said I should’ve known because someone had rang me to tell me a petrol wasn’t available. This was a downright lie.

I was pretty set on doing a deal on one, but certainly not at that dealer.

Mexman

Original Poster:

2,442 posts

83 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Butter Face said:
You are a complete dhead sometimes rofl

Probably a PH’er waiting to buy a car with cashhhhhhhh rofl
Probably just had a weekend full of time wasters and bored after dinner dog walkers messing him around all day, takes a 5 min break to chill, have a bite to eat, and then some other wker time wasters walk in just to 'browse around a new Touran'.
I can feel his pain from here.
Maybe, correctly, judged you by the sound of it.?


mylesmcd

2,521 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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Mexman said:
Butter Face said:
You are a complete dhead sometimes rofl

Probably a PH’er waiting to buy a car with cashhhhhhhh rofl
Probably just had a weekend full of time wasters and bored after dinner dog walkers messing him around all day, takes a 5 min break to chill, have a bite to eat, and then some other wker time wasters walk in just to 'browse around a new Touran'.
I can feel his pain from here.
Maybe, correctly, judged you by the sound of it.?
That is what I thought too.

People forget it is a two way transaction. You start being a prick, you get prick service.

Also - it seems the above (not quoted) poster has a pre conception that is hindering his buying of a car.

Earthdweller

13,435 posts

125 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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Elroy Blue said:
I rang a dealer and made an appointment to test drive a Mercedes A220 last week. Said I’d be happy driving an A250 if an A220 wasn’t available. No problem they say, we’ve got both. 45 minute drive to the dealer. On arrival, nobody seems to know about my appointment. Eventually they work out the guy I spoke to was ‘busy’. When I eventually sat down with someone, he looked at the computer and said “let’s go”. He then mentioned it was an A180d, but was and I quote, “use the same”. When I pointed out it was nothing like the same he offered me the opportunity to drive the diesel then drive something else with a petrol engine, because I’d apparently get an idea what they were like to drive.
Declined the offer, whereupon he looked at the computer and said I should’ve known because someone had rang me to tell me a petrol wasn’t available. This was a downright lie.

I was pretty set on doing a deal on one, but certainly not at that dealer.
I had very similar at a VW Dealer except I went in and had a chat with a salesman and told him I wanted one of two cars ( Golf GTD/Passat Cc) both new .. we agreed that I would come back the following Saturday at 9am and I could drive them both back to back .. I went through all the prequalify stuff and he appraised my px etc and i watched him write the appointment in his diary before I left

I rocked up at 9am on the Saturday morning, a time he suggested as it would be quiet, I went in and asked for the salesman who I had made an appointment with to be told it’s his day off !

Another salesman came over and I explained what had happened.. all he said was .. we sold one of the demos this week and the salesman who is off ( who id made the appointment with) had the other one at home as it was his demo

No apologies no offer to sort anything out just indifference and a wasted 40 mile round trip for me

I was fuming .. a couple of days later I bought a new BMW .. and since then have had 5 BMW’s, a mix of new and used

I was px’ing an Audi A4 and my wife at the time was driving a Passat and our previous cars had been VW/Audi for 10 years

If id had great service and bought a new golf GTD that day I’d imagine I’d have gone back and maybe he’d have sold me the next five

Mexman

Original Poster:

2,442 posts

83 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Another observation from yesterday.
Nice, warm, sunny day, first one for a couple of weeks.
Our pitch is a long oblong sort of shape that can be driven through and around if that makes sense.
What is it, with people and classic/old cars that seem to thing that we are going to be impressed by there 'classic' cars cruising up and down the pitch as if to say 'look at me/my car, come and have a look's?
They don't even stop or get out of the car, just cruise around deliberately trying to make eye contact with you, so to show off.
Yesterday's included some American 50s pick up thing, and a 2.8i Capri... rolleyes
No remote interest in stopping, getting out and looking at cars, just driving around car dealers forecourts with the intention of showing off.
Just fk off, no I am not interested, and will blatantly just ignore them, pretending I hav'nt seen them and will not give them the satisfaction of eye contact.
Sad.

Mexman

Original Poster:

2,442 posts

83 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
OTOH we wandered into our local VW glass palace, part of a large group, last weekend wanting to have look at Touaran. "New or used?" asked the receptionist. I said new, and she said "we haven't got one in the showroom". I asked if there was another one we could look at and she huffed and said there aren't any salesmen available. There was a bloke sitting at reception who looked just like a salesman - he stretched back in chair and watched what was going on but didn't say anything. We all stared at each other for a few seconds, then we turned and walked away.
Another observation for you.
Let me tell you a trade secret.
Most salespeople HATE selling 7 seaters/MPV type vehicles.
Because normally it involves 5 feral kids running around screaming, a bored wife shouting at said kids whilst in best Primark tracksuit bottoms, a clutch of bloody Isofix car seats being dragged around the showroom, a full on woolley jumper type 'Father' (of at least one of the screaming brats), who knows it all better than you do, all the seats in the back of said MPV being torn out, moved around, swivelled around, folded up, and generally messed with, littering the showroom, and 2 incontinant drooling fat Labradors pissing all over the place.
And will they EVER put the fking things back in the car correctly?
No, you lucky if they find there way back to the car in one piece normally.
Try being a car salesman having to contend with this st for the 3rd time on a Sunday afternoon .



Edited by Mexman on Sunday 12th May 16:59

The Mad Monk

10,474 posts

116 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Mexman said:
Another observation for you.
Let me tell you a trade secret.
Most salespeople HATE selling 7 seaters/MPV type vehicles.
Because normally it involves 5 feral kids running around screaming, a bored wife shouting at said kids whilst in best Primark tracksuit bottoms, a clutch of bloody Isofix car seats being dragged around the showroom, a full on woolley jumper type 'Father' (of at least one of the screaming brats), who knows it all better than you do, all the seats in the back of said MPV being torn out, moved around, swivelled around, folded up, and generally messed with, littering the showroom, and 2 incontinant drooling fat Labradors pissing all over the place.
And will they EVER put the fking things back in the car correctly?
No, you lucky if they find there way back to the car in one piece normally.
Try being a car salesman having to contend with this st for the 3rd time on a Sunday afternoon .



Edited by Mexman on Sunday 12th May 16:59
Apart from that, is there anything you DON'T like about 7 seaterMPV buyers?

Wooda80

1,743 posts

74 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
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@ Mexman

Haha, I know exactly the kind you mean. Until recently I worked for a Jaguar dealer and on days like today we'd regularly get someone ( not always the same person ) park an E-type in the car park and come in the showroom. The recurring theme of the conversation would be "Nice, not a patch on my car though..... Of course, I've got a proper one, you know..... ( go on, ask me, please ask me, I'm dying to tell you )"

The other thing that I've always noticed, wherever I've worked, is people driving in and immediately turning round and driving out again. Anyone else notice these drive-bys?

We've studied them and it's not that they were going in the wrong direction and used us to turn around ( which would be fair enough ) nor that there are huddles of salespeople looking daggers at them through the showroom window. Sometimes they would drive slowly along the pitch glancing at each car in the display . I'm curious to know what it was that they saw - or didn't see - that made them change their mind about coming in.

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
I do wonder at how so many people, who are patently unsuited for customer facing roles, end up in car sales. I read so often complaints of rudeness, dismissiveness, lack of people skills etc. Courtesy should be an immediate response, not just something reserved for people you don’t deem “time wasters”. Be professional; it is a profession after all, albeit an unskilled one.

Having said that, nearly all of the sales execs (from young uns to seasoned veterans) I worked with were so full of st they squeaked turning round, so some of the fighting talk you read on here, is no doubt in reality a pitiful kind of servile obsequiousness.

I hear great reports of a poster on this thread from an ex-colleague of mine, so in amongst the shysters, wideboys, spivs, and crooks, there are some great salesmen, but they’re few and far between. And I approach this from both sides of the issue.

Sheepshanks

32,541 posts

118 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Mexman said:
Another observation for you.
Let me tell you a trade secret.
Most salespeople HATE selling 7 seaters/MPV type vehicles.
Because normally it involves 5 feral kids running around screaming, a bored wife shouting at said kids whilst in best Primark tracksuit bottoms, a clutch of bloody Isofix car seats being dragged around the showroom, a full on woolley jumper type 'Father' (of at least one of the screaming brats), who knows it all better than you do, all the seats in the back of said MPV being torn out, moved around, swivelled around, folded up, and generally messed with, littering the showroom, and 2 incontinant drooling fat Labradors pissing all over the place.
And will they EVER put the fking things back in the car correctly?
No, you lucky if they find there way back to the car in one piece normally.
Try being a car salesman having to contend with this st for the 3rd time on a Sunday afternoon .
Dealing with us, a couple of grandparents with no kids (or dogs) in tow should have been a breeze then.

I don't know - I go into showrooms with the idea in my head that someone is going to be slightly interested in selling me a car. But it hardly never happens.

Oddly the best new car purchase experience was wife's current Tiguan, bought from the next but one nearest dealer after a bit of very rapid back-and-forth through CarWow. Went in and met the guy to sign the docs and he was great f2f too.

Mexman

Original Poster:

2,442 posts

83 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Simonium said:
I do wonder at how so many people, who are patently unsuited for customer facing roles, end up in car sales. I read so often complaints of rudeness, dismissiveness, lack of people skills etc. Courtesy should be an immediate response, not just something reserved for people you don’t deem “time wasters”. Be professional; it is a profession after all, albeit an unskilled one.

Having said that, nearly all of the sales execs (from young uns to seasoned veterans) I worked with were so full of st they squeaked turning round, so some of the fighting talk you read on here, is no doubt in reality a pitiful kind of servile obsequiousness.

I hear great reports of a poster on this thread from an ex-colleague of mine, so in amongst the shysters, wideboys, spivs, and crooks, there are some great salesmen, but they’re few and far between. And I approach this from both sides of the issue.
Oh, I don't know, OK, I may not be a master cabinet maker or a cornice plasterer, but unskilled?
I think there is a certain 'skill' in knowing how to manipulate a deal and a customer, knowing what to say, not what to say, and when to say nothing at all.
A lot of people have no people skills whatsoever and would be terrified being put in the situations that we are.
Closing techniques vary from salesman to salesman but they should all follow a basic same pattern, knowing what a car values at without relying on CAP or glasses is a skill in its own right, and takes years of experience to master.
Unskilled? No I don't think so.

mylesmcd

2,521 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Simonium said:
I do wonder at how so many people, who are patently unsuited for customer facing roles, end up in car sales. I read so often complaints of rudeness, dismissiveness, lack of people skills etc. Courtesy should be an immediate response, not just something reserved for people you don’t deem “time wasters”. Be professional; it is a profession after all, albeit an unskilled one.

Having said that, nearly all of the sales execs (from young uns to seasoned veterans) I worked with were so full of st they squeaked turning round, so some of the fighting talk you read on here, is no doubt in reality a pitiful kind of servile obsequiousness.

I hear great reports of a poster on this thread from an ex-colleague of mine, so in amongst the shysters, wideboys, spivs, and crooks, there are some great salesmen, but they’re few and far between. And I approach this from both sides of the issue.
I think a few things lead to unsuited people working in car sales.

You guys who haven't worked themselves out yet, but like cars and hair gel, almost always do a stint at it. Another trait I have noticed is you cant always tell who will be good at it and who will not. I have see some Irish farmers arrive on the lot, only to be earning healthy 6 figures within a year or two. Obviously they are exception rather than rule and there are a lot that dont make it 6 weeks.

The company I cut my teeth with (only 5 years ago mind, aged 34) have a huge turn over of staff. So much so that they constantly recruit.

Dedders

144 posts

95 months

Sunday 12th May 2019
quotequote all
Mexman said:
Another observation for you.
Let me tell you a trade secret.
Most salespeople HATE selling 7 seaters/MPV type vehicles.
Because normally it involves 5 feral kids running around screaming, a bored wife shouting at said kids whilst in best Primark tracksuit bottoms, a clutch of bloody Isofix car seats being dragged around the showroom, a full on woolley jumper type 'Father' (of at least one of the screaming brats), who knows it all better than you do, all the seats in the back of said MPV being torn out, moved around, swivelled around, folded up, and generally messed with, littering the showroom, and 2 incontinant drooling fat Labradors pissing all over the place.
And will they EVER put the fking things back in the car correctly?
No, you lucky if they find there way back to the car in one piece normally.
Try being a car salesman having to contend with this st for the 3rd time on a Sunday afternoon .



Edited by Mexman on Sunday 12th May 16:59
I’m really glad I’ve not purchased a car from someone with an attitude like yours.
The last car I purchased used was a 7 seater and yes I had my son who was 6 months old at the time with me. The salesman was polite and helpful and even offered to try the car seat in the car. He sent us out on a test drive on our own and on return we agreed to buy the car at the advertised price as I knew it was a fair price. Both of us treated the other with respect and were polite to each other. It was a quick and easy transaction and someone I’d happily recommend and buy another car from.
Not all salespeople are the same just like not all customers are the same.
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