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

[A1VDY]

Countdown said:

jamoor said:

Lemming Train said:

BrabusMog said:

shuzzy said:

Appreciate this is only one side of the story, but if this even remotely resembles the chain of events, its truly shocking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7qpUqwLS9o

40 mins video, any chance of some cliff notes as there's no way I am sitting through all of that lol

I thought the same but it's actually a good watch.

Handbuilt british car in poor quality shocker.

He should have bought an LFA.

At 31:09 is the point the dealer doesn't want them as a customer and they just say everything is broken

Edited by jamoor on Wednesday 25th December 01:29

I think he's got some fair points tbh.......

Poor quality car as well as spelling on that paperwork... 'if the car is not ALOUD to warm up properly'.
That should be enough to just walk away in itself..

[soxboy]

HTP99 said:

Wow, going into January 2020, it's like the tap has been turned on and is on full flow, so far this month we have been mega busy; phone calls, walk ins, Internet enquiries, it has not stopped.

It's not just a motor sales thing. I work in commercial property and we were dead in q4 last year, but as soon as the election was out of the way it's gone mad with enquiries and appointments.

[HTP99]

soxboy said:

HTP99 said:

Wow, going into January 2020, it's like the tap has been turned on and is on full flow, so far this month we have been mega busy; phone calls, walk ins, Internet enquiries, it has not stopped.

It's not just a motor sales thing. I work in commercial property and we were dead in q4 last year, but as soon as the election was out of the way it's gone mad with enquiries and appointments.

Yep, spoke to my daughter yesterday who is a retail manager, she said exactly the same thing.

I did mention in another thread which was asking about Q1 2020 car deals and what was likely to happen, that as we now know now about Brexit; whether what is happening is a good or bad thing, we now have a definate course of action so everyone knows where we were so it is likely to become busier.

[Deep Thought]

I'm following another thread on another forum where people have found that Motability no longer sell their cars to the public. All now go through private trade auctions only.

This is borne out by a cursory look at BCA's Motability listings where you now have to be a Silver Card Holder or higher to even view the stock list let along bid.

Is there anyone in the trade who has heard the actual reasons why Motability have done it.

We could all speculate as to why, but curious if anyone has heard the specific reasons why

[Andy JB]

Okay so whats the trade position on diesel trade in's, do you still accept them or offer silly money these days?

What with unclarity of emission regs from Govt and higher taxation for some cars, the market has clearly fallen for used and new dervs and i assume this severely impacts used prices.

In many ways its all a bit unfair to those who owned dervs before the announcements making resale values plummet. fair enough if you chose to buy one new then pay the penalty, but if you own one already...... my own exmaple A6 3.0 TDVI has a DPF & Euro 4 compliant but now has £530 tax makes it worthless, yet remains a superb car in many ways & i generally despise diesels.

[undred orse]

HTP99 said:

soxboy said:

HTP99 said:

Wow, going into January 2020, it's like the tap has been turned on and is on full flow, so far this month we have been mega busy; phone calls, walk ins, Internet enquiries, it has not stopped.

It's not just a motor sales thing. I work in commercial property and we were dead in q4 last year, but as soon as the election was out of the way it's gone mad with enquiries and appointments.

Yep, spoke to my daughter yesterday who is a retail manager, she said exactly the same thing.

I did mention in another thread which was asking about Q1 2020 car deals and what was likely to happen, that as we now know now about Brexit; whether what is happening is a good or bad thing, we now have a definate course of action so everyone knows where we were so it is likely to become busier.

Given that things are looking up at the moment are the discounts/cheap apr/deposit contributions getting reduced? It seems to me that the deals that were available are not still out there and/or there is less advertising of offers.

[undred orse]

Another question - sorry.

If someone legitimately rejects a new car within the 30 day period and this is accepted by the manufacturer what is the approach to a replacement car? Specifically if the car in question was bought under a very limited stock and time additional promotion or allowance which is no longer available will the dealer be allowed to factory order which would take a few months a replacement on the same terms as the original deal or is the approach that the original contract ends with the rejection and any new order is just that subject to the terms at that time?

I can see this from both points of view in that the buyer just wants his car while the dealer is reliant on the manufacturer to allow an order on old terms. Additionally if the terms had improved no doubt the buyer would want to benefit but would not want to pay more if the offer was no longer available.

Thanks for any comments.

[Driver101]

How long would you say is normal to sell cars of £30-40k value from a garage?

Looking through the classifieds there is a whole heap of cars that Autotrader identifies as low or great pricing, but have been up for sale for 6-12months.

I didn't used to notice dealers managing to keep cars for so long, but it is becoming more common. Why?

[Wooda80]

undred orse said:

Another question - sorry.

If someone legitimately rejects a new car within the 30 day period and this is accepted by the manufacturer what is the approach to a replacement car? Specifically if the car in question was bought under a very limited stock and time additional promotion or allowance which is no longer available will the dealer be allowed to factory order which would take a few months a replacement on the same terms as the original deal or is the approach that the original contract ends with the rejection and any new order is just that subject to the terms at that time?

I can see this from both points of view in that the buyer just wants his car while the dealer is reliant on the manufacturer to allow an order on old terms. Additionally if the terms had improved no doubt the buyer would want to benefit but would not want to pay more if the offer was no longer available.

Thanks for any comments.

In my experience resolving new car rejections ( Jaguar ) was much easier and much more likely to result in acceptance than a request to reject a used car.

I don't work there any more ( since 2017 ) but the process went like this:
1) Customer selects their replacement car, the dealer calculates the consignment price from manufacturer
2) Dealer sets the trade in price for the rejected car ( yes, this can be a licence to print money from the dealer's point of view ).
3) Manufacturer approves trade in price and pays dealer the difference between 1) and 2) as a discretionary bonus.
4) Dealer raises invoice to customer for sale of new car and purchase of old car showing a nil balance

I've had occasions where the customer has chosen to add additional options to the replacement car and just paid the difference, another time we offered a customer a car that had been in stock for a while and manufacturer agreed to make an additional contribution towards the extra features it came with.

As the difference in cost [ 3) above ] is usually more than covered by the profit margin that the manufacturer has in the second car it's often a quick and cost effective way of making a problem customer go away.

[Jakg]

Bit of a cheeky request - can anyone get the VIN from a reg? I'd like to look up some options (BMW) before I view a car.

Donations to charity in return, obviously

[jamei303]

If someone test drove a new car, and during the drive you had a good chat with them about the model, and they told you they definitely wanted to buy one, and would look forward to your email so they could reply with the exact spec so you could provide a quote... how long would you wait before emailing them. Would you do it later that day, the next day, or maybe a few days later?

It's not like there aren't other dealerships I can get quotes from, I just thought as they went to the trouble of giving me a test drive it would be only fair to give them my business...

[Butter Face]

Jakg said:

Bit of a cheeky request - can anyone get the VIN from a reg? I'd like to look up some options (BMW) before I view a car.

Donations to charity in return, obviously

Send it to me if you'd like.

jamei303 said:

If someone test drove a new car, and during the drive you had a good chat with them about the model, and they told you they definitely wanted to buy one, and would look forward to your email so they could reply with the exact spec so you could provide a quote... how long would you wait before emailing them. Would you do it later that day, the next day, or maybe a few days later?

It's not like there aren't other dealerships I can get quotes from, I just thought as they went to the trouble of giving me a test drive it would be only fair to give them my business...

I'd normally do it straight away, gets it done and sorted. Maybe some confusion that they think you're going to email them with the spec you want quoted on? It's happened to me when I've followed someone up a few days later to find they were waiting for me to email them with my email address when they had it on a card the whole time You could make the first move and send an email, depends on how bothered you are with giving them a chance?!

[jamei303]

Butter Face said:

I'd normally do it straight away, gets it done and sorted. Maybe some confusion that they think you're going to email them with the spec you want quoted on? It's happened to me when I've followed someone up a few days later to find they were waiting for me to email them with my email address when they had it on a card the whole time You could make the first move and send an email, depends on how bothered you are with giving them a chance?!

Thing is I don't have their email and they didn't give me their card. I am only 90% sure I can remember their first name

I made this clear as we parted, "I don't have your contact details but you have mine of course, so email me and I'll get back with specs".

Good point though, I suppose their computer might have lost my email or something. I guess I could phone and try and track them down.

Just wondering if it was common to let people brew for a few days for some reason?

[Sheepshanks]

jamei303 said:

If someone test drove a new car, and during the drive you had a good chat with them about the model, and they told you they definitely wanted to buy one, and would look forward to your email so they could reply with the exact spec so you could provide a quote...

Don’t understand the process here - when I’ve test driven cars and wanted to buy one I’ve sat down with salesman and done the deal. Or, if I didn’t want to proceed, made my excuses and walked away.

[HTP99]

jamei303 said:

Just wondering if it was common to let people brew for a few days for some reason?

No, not common but some people do get sidetracked without updating their diary first "sort quote for jamei303" and then forget or they have a "do it later" attitude which invariably means it doesn't get done.

I have a colleague like this; both points, I have worked with him for 12 years and no matter what my manager says to him, he still doesn't do certain things properly and is also poorly organised so things do get missed and invariably one of us has to sort it as the call always comes in on his day off!!

Given my many years doing this job I have found , salesmen as a rule are generally very badly organised and invariably make their work harder for both themselves and their colleagues, I'm not blowing my own trumpet, however I am organised, I know exactly what is going on and rarely have issues, I really struggle when I look at my disorganised colleagues and see them sorting out problems and issues that are all their own doing which wouldn't be there if they just made a few simple changes to how they operate, I guess it is just a mindset!!

Edited by HTP99 on Thursday 23 January 09:15

[jamei303]

Sheepshanks said:

Don’t understand the process here - when I’ve test driven cars and wanted to buy one I’ve sat down with salesman and done the deal. Or, if I didn’t want to proceed, made my excuses and walked away.

I booked the test drive via the manufacturer's website, it was a one-hour appointment slot and we finished the drive at a train station so I could get a train to a meeting.

I thought it was pretty normal to do things by email these days?

[undred orse]

Wooda80 said:

In my experience resolving new car rejections ( Jaguar ) was much easier and much more likely to result in acceptance than a request to reject a used car.

I don't work there any more ( since 2017 ) but the process went like this:
1) Customer selects their replacement car, the dealer calculates the consignment price from manufacturer
2) Dealer sets the trade in price for the rejected car ( yes, this can be a licence to print money from the dealer's point of view ).
3) Manufacturer approves trade in price and pays dealer the difference between 1) and 2) as a discretionary bonus.
4) Dealer raises invoice to customer for sale of new car and purchase of old car showing a nil balance

I've had occasions where the customer has chosen to add additional options to the replacement car and just paid the difference, another time we offered a customer a car that had been in stock for a while and manufacturer agreed to make an additional contribution towards the extra features it came with.

As the difference in cost [ 3) above ] is usually more than covered by the profit margin that the manufacturer has in the second car it's often a quick and cost effective way of making a problem customer go away.

Thanks for the reply.
Things have moved on. The rejection was accepted - although they had no choice as they couldn't identify the fault let alone fix it that was causing limp mode even after 3 weeks. The manufacturer have said no to the replacement car. Great. I traded in 2 of their products both from the same dealer to get this car and now I'm without a new car and the 2 originals both of which I liked but was prepared to see gone only to get into this new one.

To say I'm gutted doesn't cover it. After 11 cars from the manufacturer all bought new over the years it just shows they really don't give a damn about customers. Not the dealer's fault at all as the manufacturer simply wouldn't offer the same terms creating a gap of about £7k at least. The problem is I really like their products but don't know if I can bring myself to hand over any more money to them after their treatment of an "innocent party". I didn't cause the fault but I'm the only one to suffer here. I'd better stop now as the more I type the angrier I get.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

undred orse said:

... I really like their products but don't know if I can bring myself to hand over any more money to them after their treatment of an "innocent party".

I'm amazed you'd even consider it. If their treatment of you makes you angry and you're disappointed with their performance, why would you bother?

[anonymous-user]

jamei303 said:

Sheepshanks said:

Don’t understand the process here - when I’ve test driven cars and wanted to buy one I’ve sat down with salesman and done the deal. Or, if I didn’t want to proceed, made my excuses and walked away.

I booked the test drive via the manufacturer's website, it was a one-hour appointment slot and we finished the drive at a train station so I could get a train to a meeting.

I thought it was pretty normal to do things by email these days?

Mercedes by any chance? I can only assume they have more customers than cars to sell as they never call you back.

In my experience Ford, Renault or Honda would be chasing you.

[Sheepshanks]

jamei303 said:

I booked the test drive via the manufacturer's website, it was a one-hour appointment slot and we finished the drive at a train station so I could get a train to a meeting.

I thought it was pretty normal to do things by email these days?

It's been discussed on here a few times, but the retail motor industry just doesn't seem to do email much.

Obviously everyone would be guessing as to why the guy didn't contact you but perhaps he just made a judgement that you weren't seriously interested. Or there's some sales psychology going on where he wants you to chase him. Or....etc

I don't know how it works but would have expected that for test drives organised like that, the manufacturer would want qualification and feedback.