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

[Saweep]

itcaptainslow said:

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.

I always try and explain to my clients that sometimes you just have to fire your customer.

Some people's money just aint worth it.

[papa3]

OnTheBreadline said:

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.

Read the post. Other dealers quote £x in the advert but add admin fee, road tax, fuel etc on transaction. Our price is inclusive of all of these.

What looks cheaper is not. Hence will vanish.

People do buy from us because of who we are. It's a thing called reputation, based on service and built over decades.

You prove my point that some people are just not our kind of customer.

[papa3]

lornemalvo said:

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?

If you're not in a desperate rush I'd wait a few months.

High spec SUV's, especially premium brand models, are now experiencing a price correction after months of price rises.

Diesel is less in favour now but hurts less in large models.

[NelsonM3]

itcaptainslow said:

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.

The best sale is the one you never made. I repeat this at least once a week when I get one of “those” customers.

[Zedboy]

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?

I’ve just come out of an ALD managed Audi… they look after our 450+ multi brand fleet. Great support, always insist on main dealer parts and service and no skimping. I signed off a £3k+ service 10 days before returning the vehicle at end of lease. A good experience

[Sheepshanks]

Zedboy said:

I’ve just come out of an ALD managed Audi… they look after our 450+ multi brand fleet. Great support, always insist on main dealer parts and service and no skimping. I signed off a 3k+ service 10 days before returning the vehicle at end of lease. A good experience

How did you sign it off if it's not your car?

I've taken cars in for service towards the end of lease, only for the garage to call me and say the lease company maintenance controller won't authorise it. One company we used insisted we had them MOT'd before return at 3yrs so the garage did the MOT only - and failed it!

[LouD86]

Fast Bug said:

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.

Oh I love those days! We have several I don't wish to deal with anymore, I jus tell them straight. Generally though in Commercials we don't get too much hassle.

[SirCarsAllot]

Looking to get some insight from the dealers on here with regard to the 150-250k bracket?

I know we’re seeing some corrections the last couple of months but is this equating to the cars actually selling?

there seems to be a fair bit of movement in the (my particular interest) Aventador and even the Murcielago market but only the last couple of weeks all of a sudden like dealers are getting the feeling of an impending big drop and letting them go at a bigger discount on the screen price.

Obviously i’m trying to negate (as much as possible) future losses, though i’m expecting some as its not the perfect time to buy, just trying to work out how hard to haggle..

Any insight at this end of the market?

[ian2144]

Is it still acceptable to look for a discount on the asking price, if not trading in ...?
I'm an ageing retired Gent, with almost 50 years of happy motoring behind me.
I don't recall ever paying the full price. I never got shirty or nasty with a dealer salesman, but certainly walked out and went elsewhere on a fare few occasions.

[The Rotrex Kid]

ian2144 said:

Is it still acceptable to look for a discount on the asking price, if not trading in ...?
I'm an ageing retired Gent, with almost 50 years of happy motoring behind me.
I don't recall ever paying the full price. I never got shirty or nasty with a dealer salesman, but certainly walked out and went elsewhere on a fare few occasions.

Absolutely. You can ask, worst they can say is no!

I'd actually prefer to give a bit of discount to someone who asks for it, rather than giving it to someone on the proviso of taking finance (something we don't do anyway) who then cancels it.

[alangla]

The Rotrex Kid said:

ian2144 said:

Is it still acceptable to look for a discount on the asking price, if not trading in ...?
I'm an ageing retired Gent, with almost 50 years of happy motoring behind me.
I don't recall ever paying the full price. I never got shirty or nasty with a dealer salesman, but certainly walked out and went elsewhere on a fare few occasions.

Absolutely. You can ask, worst they can say is no!

I'd actually prefer to give a bit of discount to someone who asks for it, rather than giving it to someone on the proviso of taking finance (something we don't do anyway) who then cancels it.

Is that the same across the board? For the last couple of cars I've bought, the "discount" in the overall package was achieved by fudging the trade-in value rather than taking anything off the screen price. The dealers seemed very unwilling to move on that at all. I am, however, perfectly happy to accept that I may have "mug" tattooed on my forehead.

[kiethton]

alangla said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

ian2144 said:

Is it still acceptable to look for a discount on the asking price, if not trading in ...?
I'm an ageing retired Gent, with almost 50 years of happy motoring behind me.
I don't recall ever paying the full price. I never got shirty or nasty with a dealer salesman, but certainly walked out and went elsewhere on a fare few occasions.

Absolutely. You can ask, worst they can say is no!

I'd actually prefer to give a bit of discount to someone who asks for it, rather than giving it to someone on the proviso of taking finance (something we don't do anyway) who then cancels it.

Is that the same across the board? For the last couple of cars I've bought, the "discount" in the overall package was achieved by fudging the trade-in value rather than taking anything off the screen price. The dealers seemed very unwilling to move on that at all. I am, however, perfectly happy to accept that I may have "mug" tattooed on my forehead.

Are you looking new or used?

if new the following worked well for me a few months back:

Check out all of the car brokers and get the best offer. Go to a local dealer and ask them to match it. Take that matched quote to another dealer and ask them to beat it - order there and then if they do.

[alangla]

kiethton said:

alangla said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

ian2144 said:

Is it still acceptable to look for a discount on the asking price, if not trading in ...?
I'm an ageing retired Gent, with almost 50 years of happy motoring behind me.
I don't recall ever paying the full price. I never got shirty or nasty with a dealer salesman, but certainly walked out and went elsewhere on a fare few occasions.

Absolutely. You can ask, worst they can say is no!

I'd actually prefer to give a bit of discount to someone who asks for it, rather than giving it to someone on the proviso of taking finance (something we don't do anyway) who then cancels it.

Is that the same across the board? For the last couple of cars I've bought, the "discount" in the overall package was achieved by fudging the trade-in value rather than taking anything off the screen price. The dealers seemed very unwilling to move on that at all. I am, however, perfectly happy to accept that I may have "mug" tattooed on my forehead.

Are you looking new or used?

if new the following worked well for me a few months back:

Check out all of the car brokers and get the best offer. Go to a local dealer and ask them to match it. Take that matched quote to another dealer and ask them to beat it - order there and then if they do.

It's been used for the last few. Haven't had a new car for a while unfortunately, though I did do the above on the last couple of occasions when I was buying new & it worked reasonably well.

[Dan W.]

Never hurts to ask for a discount, Just in the current climate they most likely will say no.

We never get offended if people ask for discounts.

[The Rotrex Kid]

alangla said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

ian2144 said:

Is it still acceptable to look for a discount on the asking price, if not trading in ...?
I'm an ageing retired Gent, with almost 50 years of happy motoring behind me.
I don't recall ever paying the full price. I never got shirty or nasty with a dealer salesman, but certainly walked out and went elsewhere on a fare few occasions.

Absolutely. You can ask, worst they can say is no!

I'd actually prefer to give a bit of discount to someone who asks for it, rather than giving it to someone on the proviso of taking finance (something we don't do anyway) who then cancels it.

Is that the same across the board? For the last couple of cars I've bought, the "discount" in the overall package was achieved by fudging the trade-in value rather than taking anything off the screen price. The dealers seemed very unwilling to move on that at all. I am, however, perfectly happy to accept that I may have "mug" tattooed on my forehead.

Just personally, it's easier and more straightforward to show it how it is:

Your PX is worth £X
We will sell your our car for £Y
The cost to change is £Z

Too many times I have seen other dealers try and tie people up in knots by giving overblown part exchange figures etc etc and it just muddies the water IMO

[SirCarsAllot]

I guess this thread isnt the place to ask if sales are poor or looking to be

No px, no finance, just old fashioned wonga

Maybe there’s an independent gauge of the market that the trade use to track pricing? Other than wbac or AT us commoners use

[The Rotrex Kid]

IME used car sales are still doing very well. My site has cleared May's target and we are already circa 25% achieved for June.

I am actively looking and buying stock, values are still strong and some cars I still say 'Christ, how much!' when I see what people want for them.

New is a struggle, long lead times, spec changes, model changes, range reductions, it's all just a bit all over the place!!

[ian2144]

kiethton said:

alangla said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

ian2144 said:

Is it still acceptable to look for a discount on the asking price, if not trading in ...?
I'm an ageing retired Gent, with almost 50 years of happy motoring behind me.
I don't recall ever paying the full price. I never got shirty or nasty with a dealer salesman, but certainly walked out and went elsewhere on a fare few occasions.

Absolutely. You can ask, worst they can say is no!

I'd actually prefer to give a bit of discount to someone who asks for it, rather than giving it to someone on the proviso of taking finance (something we don't do anyway) who then cancels it.

Is that the same across the board? For the last couple of cars I've bought, the "discount" in the overall package was achieved by fudging the trade-in value rather than taking anything off the screen price. The dealers seemed very unwilling to move on that at all. I am, however, perfectly happy to accept that I may have "mug" tattooed on my forehead.

Are you looking new or used?

if new the following worked well for me a few months back:

Check out all of the car brokers and get the best offer. Go to a local dealer and ask them to match it. Take that matched quote to another dealer and ask them to beat it - order there and then if they do.

Probably new or pre reg, I'm past the stage of messaging about with second hand stuff.

[123DWA]

SirCarsAllot said:

I guess this thread isnt the place to ask if sales are poor or looking to be

No px, no finance, just old fashioned wonga

Maybe there’s an independent gauge of the market that the trade use to track pricing? Other than wbac or AT us commoners use

Atm I am actively avoiding deals with no PX. I'm about 20 cars short and I'd much rather take a deal with something else I can turn a profit on than sell it to someone with nothing to give.

[Sheepshanks]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Absolutely. You can ask, worst they can say is no!

Well you say that. What actually happened to me in small town VW dealer was the salesman gently touched my elbow and guided me towards the door saying "I don't think we'll be able to do business today, sir".