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

[Jonny Wishbone]

soxboy said:

Can’t blame him for trying, especially if he hasn’t actually got in stock what you actually came in for. He’s just doing his job of trying to sell what they’ve got in.

Whilst you didn’t want finance, there may well be those that would be ok with spending say £100pm max over 36 months to get in a newer model.

I disagree.

I have absolutely no axe to grind with car salespeople and have generally had positive experiences in my time. However this kind of thing is what perpetuates the (for the majority, unfair) stereotype.

In any other walk of life, if you tell somebody something and they proceed to completely ignore what you said, you’d find it rude. To then waste your time to top it off it off makes it more egregious.

I imagine if the dude had said something like “I don’t have a car in your price range but I’d love to sell you one, leave me your details and I’ll call you as soon as we get one” he’d have a far better chance of making a sale. He would also have freed himself up to make a sale with somebody else rather than wasting his own time.

Edited by Jonny Wishbone on Saturday 14th May 11:15

[Trevor555]

Jonny Wishbone said:

In any other walk of life, if you tell somebody something and they proceed to completely ignore what you said, you’d find it rude. To then waste your time to top it off it off makes it more egregious.

Edited by Jonny Wishbone on Saturday 14th May 11:15

When I started in Renault sales the first thing I was taught was to ignore the line "we're just looking today, not ready to buy yet"

Sold so many cars to people who said that.

It's just sales training, they'll always try to sell you what they have.

And trying to find people a car?

In almost every instance when we had offered to try and find them a car, when I called to offer them something, theyd already bought.

Online buying is the way to go if you find them hard work.

[valiant]

soxboy said:

Can’t blame him for trying, especially if he hasn’t actually got in stock what you actually came in for. He’s just doing his job of trying to sell what they’ve got in.

Whilst you didn’t want finance, there may well be those that would be ok with spending say £100pm max over 36 months to get in a newer model.

Can only sell what you’ve got in stock!

Can’t really blame him as he thought there’d be half a chance of shifting it especially if financed as it wouldn’t make a huge difference to the monthlies over three years or whatever. His job is to sell cars and what he can get his hands on.

No use taking your details for a car that may not be available for months, if ever, as you’ll just move onto a different dealer group who may have what you want in stock but may be a little further away than you originally wanted.

[Milner993]

Jonny Wishbone said:

soxboy said:

Can’t blame him for trying, especially if he hasn’t actually got in stock what you actually came in for. He’s just doing his job of trying to sell what they’ve got in.

Whilst you didn’t want finance, there may well be those that would be ok with spending say £100pm max over 36 months to get in a newer model.

I disagree.

I have absolutely no axe to grind with car salespeople and have generally had positive experiences in my time. However this kind of thing is what perpetuates the (for the majority, unfair) stereotype.

In any other walk of life, if you tell somebody something and they proceed to completely ignore what you said, you’d find it rude. To then waste your time to top it off it off makes it more egregious.

I imagine if the dude had said something like “I don’t have a car in your price range but I’d love to sell you one, leave me your details and I’ll call you as soon as we get one” he’d have a far better chance of making a sale. He would also have freed himself up to make a sale with somebody else rather than wasting his own time.

Edited by Jonny Wishbone on Saturday 14th May 11:15

I have a lot of sales experience in the motor trade and I can tell you that all customers give you price X to start with and almost always end up paying price Y.

Everyone has has three price points in their mind, A) what they tell you they have, B) what they actually have, and C) what their willing to go to.

However their is a fine line between selling and being too pushy, something I'm afraid big dealer groups fall down on a lot of the time because of how they operate.

[Boringvolvodriver]

Milner993 said:

I have a lot of sales experience in the motor trade and I can tell you that all customers give you price X to start with and almost always end up paying price Y.

Everyone has has three price points in their mind, A) what they tell you they have, B) what they actually have, and C) what their willing to go to.

However their is a fine line between selling and being too pushy, something I'm afraid big dealer groups fall down on a lot of the time because of how they operate.

This is what I have done in the past from what I was taught in a negotiations course.

Go into any negotiation with your Mother in Law

M - must achieve - what I don’t want to pay over for the car/price to change
L - Like to achieve - a deal that would be lovely and my least amount to change
I - intend to achieve - a realistic figure ie the middle of must and like

[NeilPot]

Are we ok to post experience of buying a new car?

Looked online for a new C350E what must have been 4 years ago. Got a price significantly lower than list so walked into my local dealer and asked ‘I’d like to but this car, in that colour, and this option please, for £y’.

The salesman wasn’t too sure what to do, test drive, finance… no that’s ok, we’ll place a deposit and pay cash / bank transfer…

Few presses on the calculator and ‘someone from upstairs will have to call you, they run on different pricing’.

Received callback - and after a short while I placed the order.

£39k (ish) retail down to £32500 (incl the govt incentive).

[Easternlight]

Boringvolvodriver said:

This is what I have done in the past from what I was taught in a negotiations course.

Go into any negotiation with your Mother Law In

M - must achieve - what I don’t want to pay over for the car/price to change
L - Like to achieve - a deal that would be lovely and my least amount to change
I - intend to achieve - a realistic figure ie the middle of must and like

Fixed that for you

[Sheepshanks]

Boringvolvodriver said:

Milner993 said:

I have a lot of sales experience in the motor trade and I can tell you that all customers give you price X to start with and almost always end up paying price Y.

Everyone has has three price points in their mind, A) what they tell you they have, B) what they actually have, and C) what their willing to go to.

However their is a fine line between selling and being too pushy, something I'm afraid big dealer groups fall down on a lot of the time because of how they operate.

This is what I have done in the past from what I was taught in a negotiations course.

Go into any negotiation with your Mother in Law

M - must achieve - what I don’t want to pay over for the car/price to change
L - Like to achieve - a deal that would be lovely and my least amount to change
I - intend to achieve - a realistic figure ie the middle of must and like

In sales in another field we were trained that the ‘art’ of selling is to convince the customer to pay the price that you want them to pay, not the price that they want to pay.

Basically, anyone can sell by being the cheapest - it’s getting the customer to pay more than the lowest possible price that makes the company money.

[Rob 131 Sport]

NeilPot said:

Are we ok to post experience of buying a new car?

Looked online for a new C350E what must have been 4 years ago. Got a price significantly lower than list so walked into my local dealer and asked ‘I’d like to but this car, in that colour, and this option please, for £y’.

The salesman wasn’t too sure what to do, test drive, finance… no that’s ok, we’ll place a deposit and pay cash / bank transfer…

Few presses on the calculator and ‘someone from upstairs will have to call you, they run on different pricing’.

Received callback - and after a short while I placed the order.

£39k (ish) retail down to £32500 (incl the govt incentive).

That’s broadly how I buy my cars by paying in full by bank transfer (without finance) except I always do for a Pre Reg’s or Ex Demo’s.
However with the shortage of new / used cars, the customer does not have the buying power and must work with the salesperson to achieve a realistic price.

[vikingaero]

papa3 said:

Admin fee is a personal favourite of mine. Our policy is "priced on the road". Screen price includes 12 month warranty, 6 month tax and MOT/Service as required.

The problem we face is the competition always being £500-750 cheaper when advertising.

It doesn't often bother us as we don't pump out of territory where we can avoid it. Our business is built on local reputation and price isn't why most customers visit.

On the odd occasion we encounter it though it is endlessly trying to explain that the price difference will vanish upon buying the car. Age and experience teach me that some customers are better not sold to however.


Many comments here of £99/199 admin fee. We often see £500 admin plus tax, add ons and even fuel charge.

I can see where the notion comes from. A big group selling hundreds per day at a few hundred quid adds up.

I've bought quite a few cars from Car Giant and they have a £99 admin fee which I don't mind paying as the cars are significantly cheaper than a glass palace dealer. The other thing is that if you buy another car within a year, they waive the charge.

It's the local dealers that charge an admin fee that get me - the wide boys. We have a local dealer that charges £199 admin fee AND a 3 year warranty:

This headline price of the vehicle is £13,999, plus a £199 admin fee, plus a 3 year gold spangly bks warranty of £1,299, making a total on the road price of £15,497.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

it's the con-artistry manipulating prey on the vulnerable bks of the back street trader that does my head in.
Last year I looked for a Ka for my daughter and ended up at some place in the back side of Reading to look at a car that was at the price point I wanted, only to be told that there was an admin fee and warranty cost, so it was around £150 more than advertised. And then if you chipped him a bit the warranty is taken off. So it was an underwhelming experience and I did feel that they were there to rip off the uninitiated. A sort of win/lose mentality when it came to negotiations.

I used to be a car salesman 20 years ago, and got fed up of this attitude - trying to lift someone's leg up all the time. It's true that buyers are liars, but a bit of decency and common sense generally got people on side and you ended up with a deal that both parties were happy with.

I still remember the words of my sales manager upon arriving to work one morning to find that a customer that I had 'dealt' had 'cocked' on the deal over night. Walking through the showroom to a chorus from the other sales guys of 'you've had a cocker, you've had a cocker' was amusing.

My pep talk from the sales manager went something like.. "every once in a while you'll get a cocker. They are the bain of the industry. You just have to get hard with them. Tell them they are having the car, tell them the finance is coming out anyway, tell them their name is on the V5, tell them anything to stop them from cocking. 50% of the time it works, and 50% of the time it doesn't.. But when it does, they come shuffling in on handover day and you can have a quiet chuckle behind their backs as they busily commiserate between themselves about the stter you've just stuffed them into'!

Hopefully the game has move on since then.

[Blakewater]

Are many dealers still pre-registering cars? I went past a Vauxhall dealer today and there was a row of pre-registered Crosslands and Corsas outside.

Are dealers losing salesmen and struggling to recruit in the current climate? There was a big banner outside the Renault showroom saying, "Sales staff wanted, apply within."

[Mikebentley]

Toyoda said:

Previous owner of a car I'm looking at is "ALD Automotive" a contract hire company. Do they just hire to companies and so it's likely to have been a multi user vehicle or do they lease to private individuals?

Both my leased Transit Connects were via ALD they ran Ford lease finance. Think they are in Bristol near the M4.

[DSLiverpool]

Prestige dealers - How much do Forex and crypto millionaires pay you to borrow motors for the ‘gram? Is it a common thing?

[anonymous-user]

Dynion Araf Uchaf said:

My pep talk from the sales manager went something like.. "every once in a while you'll get a cocker. They are the bain of the industry. You just have to get hard with them. Tell them they are having the car, tell them the finance is coming out anyway, tell them their name is on the V5, tell them anything to stop them from cocking. 50% of the time it works, and 50% of the time it doesn't.. But when it does, they come shuffling in on handover day and you can have a quiet chuckle behind their backs as they busily commiserate between themselves about the stter you've just stuffed them into'!

It's st like this that gives car dealers their reputation. Like our travelling friends, it's the 99% that give the 1% (who are the dealers on here, of course ) a bad name.

Dynion Araf Uchaf said:

Hopefully the game has move on since then.

A pound to a penny it hasn't.

[anonymous-user]

papa3 said:

On the odd occasion we encounter it though it is endlessly trying to explain that the price difference will vanish upon buying the car. Age and experience teach me that some customers are better not sold to however.

Eh? You're not doing someone a favour by selling them a car. They're putting food on your table. People aren't buying cars from you because you're amazing people. I don't get this attitude. And how will the price difference vanish? If your car is £500 more than a similar car down the road, then the customer WILL be £500 worse off by buying it from you.

[stevemcs]

OnTheBreadline said:

papa3 said:

On the odd occasion we encounter it though it is endlessly trying to explain that the price difference will vanish upon buying the car. Age and experience teach me that some customers are better not sold to however.

Eh? You're not doing someone a favour by selling them a car. They're putting food on your table. People aren't buying cars from you because you're amazing people. I don't get this attitude. And how will the price difference vanish? If your car is £500 more than a similar car down the road, then the customer WILL be £500 worse off by buying it from you.

I understand what he mean's every so often you get a customer who just isn't worth the potential trouble that you know they will bring. You are better off losing a sale rather than ending up in a world of pain.

[itcaptainslow]

stevemcs said:

OnTheBreadline said:

papa3 said:

On the odd occasion we encounter it though it is endlessly trying to explain that the price difference will vanish upon buying the car. Age and experience teach me that some customers are better not sold to however.

Eh? You're not doing someone a favour by selling them a car. They're putting food on your table. People aren't buying cars from you because you're amazing people. I don't get this attitude. And how will the price difference vanish? If your car is £500 more than a similar car down the road, then the customer WILL be £500 worse off by buying it from you.

I understand what he mean's every so often you get a customer who just isn't worth the potential trouble that you know they will bring. You are better off losing a sale rather than ending up in a world of pain.

Exactly this. Some customers are not worth the grief, time or money you’ll expend on trying to make them happy, because you never will.

[Fast Bug]

I have customers that I will never sell another van to. I've declined to do business with another, he got very stty with me and complained to my fleet director. Who backed me as he knew how much grief the customer caused with every order.

[lornemalvo]

I'm thinking about buying a 2 year old Touareg TDI. Depreciation wise, are cars like this expected to fall off a cliff? Would it be a huge financial mistake?