Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all (Vol. 2).

[123DWA]

Mr Miata said:

Dear car salesman. I have a question for you.... When you get a car from a part ex. What do you think when you later find out that part-ex’d car is an absolute dog that the seller was getting rid off only because it had so many faults? If you re-sell these cars with a warranty, it must be a nightmare for you? And possibly a financial loss?

How do you deal with these lemons?

Normally you can spot people trying to do this a mile off. I had it last weekend with a chap trying to trade in a 320d xdrive, something wasn't right about him but I couldn't put my finger on it and sure enough when I drove his car the transfer box was skipping like mad. I have had it happen to me before though where someones dropped a lemon on me the only positive, which my boss pointed out, was at least they're not going to come back for warranty work on the new one

[Fast Bug]

Mr Miata said:

Dear car salesman. I have a question for you.... When you get a car from a part ex. What do you think when you later find out that part-ex’d car is an absolute dog that the seller was getting rid off only because it had so many faults? If you re-sell these cars with a warranty, it must be a nightmare for you? And possibly a financial loss?

How do you deal with these lemons?

I haven't taken a part exchange in many years since I moved over to fleet sales, but I don't remember taking a pup in. Although I did once take a Vectra in part exchange one saturday, we'd had a manic day and sold a couple of demos so my boss said take the Vectra for the weekend as it was taxed still (those were the days!). On my way to the pub that saturday evening the cambelt tensioner went as they were made of chocolate which took out the top end of the engine. Luckily I was close to the pub and managed to coast in to the car park

A colleague once took a Range Rover in part exchange that didn't go in to reverse, he wasn't very popular as we had to appraise the car including a quick run round the block and he obviously hadn't.

[bmwmike]

123DWA said:

Normally you can spot people trying to do this a mile off. I had it last weekend with a chap trying to trade in a 320d xdrive, something wasn't right about him but I couldn't put my finger on it and sure enough when I drove his car the transfer box was skipping like mad. I have had it happen to me before though where someones dropped a lemon on me the only positive, which my boss pointed out, was at least they're not going to come back for warranty work on the new one

My bolding - why not? I would

[HTP99]

Fast Bug said:

Mr Miata said:

Dear car salesman. I have a question for you.... When you get a car from a part ex. What do you think when you later find out that part-ex’d car is an absolute dog that the seller was getting rid off only because it had so many faults? If you re-sell these cars with a warranty, it must be a nightmare for you? And possibly a financial loss?

How do you deal with these lemons?

I haven't taken a part exchange in many years since I moved over to fleet sales, but I don't remember taking a pup in. Although I did once take a Vectra in part exchange one saturday, we'd had a manic day and sold a couple of demos so my boss said take the Vectra for the weekend as it was taxed still (those were the days!). On my way to the pub that saturday evening the cambelt tensioner went as they were made of chocolate which took out the top end of the engine. Luckily I was close to the pub and managed to coast in to the car park

A colleague once took a Range Rover in part exchange that didn't go in to reverse, he wasn't very popular as we had to appraise the car including a quick run round the block and he obviously hadn't .

Many years ago I took in an Espace II auto, for some reason I didn't drive it when appraising it, which is very unlike me.

My manager at the time drove it to the compound, on the way there it was written off in an accident, he came back all fine and just said "you are lucky, that Espace wouldn't get out of 2nd, I take it you didn't drive it when appraising it?!"

[The Rotrex Kid]

We’ve had some crackers

I took a 1 series in last year during lockdown, delivered the car, drove off in the 1 series and, bugger, rear diff was whining it’s tits off.

Luckily I was in charge and the only one in so I apologised to the trader and he was fine about it.

Sometimes I think it would be nice to swap jobs with the guy that buys all of our PX stuff, I’m sure he does very well on some stuff but some other stuff really pulls his pants down.

[Fast Bug]

I think you take the good with the bad. I don't take many part exchanges, but we do buy off a rental company I supply, they get collected when we deliver the ones and get taken straight to our prep centre where theyre meant to check them. Only they didn't get check for ages and one had a really bad accident repair. My boss didn't want to rock the boat with him so chucked it in to auction where it made a profit luckily. We make enough out of the rest we buy from him that we would've taken a hit on it

[HTP99]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Sometimes I think it would be nice to swap jobs with the guy that buys all of our PX stuff, I’m sure he does very well on some stuff but some other stuff really pulls his pants down.

Sold the wife's 500 Twinair to our trader, a week later I picked up a call from him, amongst the general conversation he let me know that the head gasket on the 500 had gone a few days after he'd bought it from me!

[Mikebentley]

Yesterday I went to a JLR franchise to drop off my recently purchased used RRS for snagging.

The car was purchased in May and when I initially collected it after 2 weeks wait the issues raised when first viewed had not been fixed. I have spent 8 weeks trying to get the car in to be repaired with little joy until this week. It transpires a “rogue” now ex salesman was the reason.

So yesterday I arrive in London at the appointed time 11:00am after 2.5 hrs driving. A lovely lady from service books my car in with me and we go through the list of issues. I then say I need to speak with the sales team as they have promised me a Defender loan car for the duration of my repairs. The salesman has not organised anything. After 3 hrs I am finally given a Velar and driven to the fuel station next door for them to fill it (arrangement was no cost to me). Before I drove off I noticed I couldn’t see out of the passenger side windows and half the windscreen and he had put £10 of petrol in this 400bhp V6.

The car (1500miles) had been covered with overspray. I then had to wait another hour whilst it was removed by their trained technicians and the car was fuelled fully.

So it took 4hrs to drop off a car.

Q: My observation is that proper clear and honest communication in all directions could have prevented this situation and made my customer experience better. Are these sorts of issues a consequence of the sheer scale of some operations? Is it the case that some companies pressurise their sales staff so much they dont have enough hours in a day?

[Mikebentley]

This is the damage “trained body shop technician “ did to the previously gloss black trim on the £80k+ Velar. I wouldn’t let him wash my feet so will be checking my black RRS very closely on return.

[Buster73]

My brother has just bought his wife an E Pace from a dealer about 90 minutes drive away after apathy from his local Stratstone branch.

When he went to pick it up , the salesman told him he’d now sold 13 cars to customers who live in the North East area so far this year .

Does this apparent apathy with certain dealerships out of your area lead any of the sales folk on here benefiting in a similar way ?

[Spleen]

Mikebentley said:

Yesterday I went to a JLR franchise to drop off my recently purchased used RRS for snagging.

Snagging?

[Mikebentley]

Spleen said:

Mikebentley said:

Yesterday I went to a JLR franchise to drop off my recently purchased used RRS for snagging.

Snagging?

It was easier than listing. It’s a 6 yr old RRS. When I viewed it and agreed to purchase there were some paint issues and a damaged trim piece that a rear door seal attaches to. It was agreed that they would be repaired as a condition of purchase and fixed prior to collection. They weren’t and I had to take the car on the day as otherwise we would be stuck without a car.

[Spleen]

Mikebentley said:

Spleen said:

Mikebentley said:

Yesterday I went to a JLR franchise to drop off my recently purchased used RRS for snagging.

Snagging?

It was easier than listing. It’s a 6 yr old RRS. When I viewed it and agreed to purchase there were some paint issues and a damaged trim piece that a rear door seal attaches to. It was agreed that they would be repaired as a condition of purchase and fixed prior to collection. They weren’t and I had to take the car on the day as otherwise we would be stuck without a car.

Forgive me, and I'm genuinely not being obtuse, I still don't understanding what you mean by snagging nor the explanation that 'it was easier than listing.'

[Buster73]

Spleen said:

Forgive me, and I'm genuinely not being obtuse, I still don't understanding what you mean by snagging nor the explanation that 'it was easier than listing.'

A list of faults that need sorting to his satisfaction.

Snagging being used as a cover all instead of listing them all individually.

A term normally used when noticing faults on a new build house.

[Spleen]

Thanks, genuinely never heard the term before.

[jimPH]

Spleen said:

Thanks, genuinely never heard the term before.

It's used in many industries, products often go through Non Conformance cycles for repair or just need to complete a bunch of minor quality issues that need addressing i.e. the "snagging list"

Next time you wash your car, you can snag it with a clean cloth (go over the bits you missed)

[HTP99]

Spleen said:

Thanks, genuinely never heard the term before.

Never heard it used ref sorting bits on a car, only when it comes to houses.

[Spleen]

HTP99 said:

Spleen said:

Thanks, genuinely never heard the term before.

Never heard it used ref sorting bits on a car, only when it comes to houses.

Aye, quick google says the same.

[Mikebentley]

Substitute snagging with “st that needs sorting”.

[Fast Bug]

I think most 6 year old cars are going to have a few bits that need doing, let alone a JLR product

Paint on the Velar looks awful mind you