Why do dealerships take cars home
Discussion
edc said:
Really? Take expensive new stock, drive it to deliberately drive down the value and cost so you can do that amazing thing that all sales and business people want to do which is sell for less than they could have? Seems like a long winded way to simply offer a discount!
Naivety is bliss.....
dealers get a huge discount from the manufacturer to register demos which they can't sell until they've done 2,000 miles. So it's in the dealers own interest to put miles on the car demo or not so they can then sell on and make a PROFIT......
CRA1G said:
edc said:
Really? Take expensive new stock, drive it to deliberately drive down the value and cost so you can do that amazing thing that all sales and business people want to do which is sell for less than they could have? Seems like a long winded way to simply offer a discount!
Naivety is bliss..... dealers get a huge discount from the manufacturer to register demos which they can't sell until they've done 2,000 miles. So it's in the dealers own interest to put miles on the car demo or not so they can then sell on and make a PROFIT......Demonstrators are a brand standard. This means that for a dealership to be compliant with the requirements of the brand they have to have a specified number of demonstrators and courtesy cars. Often the models of the demonstrators are specified by the manufacturer and sometimes they even demand a particular specification too.
It’s a thorny issue for many of us who have worked in the industry. If you travel outside of the UK you’d understand why, as dealers in the rest of Europe/the world have it much much easier.
We used o have neighbours who the bloke was a delaer principle for Audi local dealer and he usually came home in an RS version of some model every day.
They were used as normal cars, going to the tips etc. He'd change it every month or so.
His wie use them too. I remember she badly damaged the underside and some chassis components misjudging a country lane where we live ending up driving over a load of roadside rocks.
It was repaired and sold as a pre reg like all the others.
He ragged hem everywhere too.
They were used as normal cars, going to the tips etc. He'd change it every month or so.
His wie use them too. I remember she badly damaged the underside and some chassis components misjudging a country lane where we live ending up driving over a load of roadside rocks.
It was repaired and sold as a pre reg like all the others.
He ragged hem everywhere too.
Rensko said:
Maybe the cynic in me just sees it as a ploy to get you through the doors...
"Yep, sure we have XYZ out on the lot"
How do you know they can? "Yep, sure we have XYZ out on the lot"
- looks at lot, XYZ isn't there*
lord trumpton said:
We used o have neighbours who the bloke was a delaer principle for Audi local dealer and he usually came home in an RS version of some model every day.
They were used as normal cars, going to the tips etc. He'd change it every month or so.
His wie use them too. I remember she badly damaged the underside and some chassis components misjudging a country lane where we live ending up driving over a load of roadside rocks.
It was repaired and sold as a pre reg like all the others.
He ragged hem everywhere too.
The dealer principal I used to work for would use anything, but especially keen on the quicker exchanges that he’d drive crazily. It would be common practice to delay buying the car into the trade in order to use any outstanding tax and fuel naively left on the car. It was a common occurrence for customers not to get the correct refund for tax they’d already paid for because of this.They were used as normal cars, going to the tips etc. He'd change it every month or so.
His wie use them too. I remember she badly damaged the underside and some chassis components misjudging a country lane where we live ending up driving over a load of roadside rocks.
It was repaired and sold as a pre reg like all the others.
He ragged hem everywhere too.
Anything decent and quick that was deemed sellable would have a at least a week of all the salesmen ragging the arse off it before being given to the workshop and then valeters to sort out.
Pretty amateurish.
Magikarp said:
lord trumpton said:
We used o have neighbours who the bloke was a delaer principle for Audi local dealer and he usually came home in an RS version of some model every day.
They were used as normal cars, going to the tips etc. He'd change it every month or so.
His wie use them too. I remember she badly damaged the underside and some chassis components misjudging a country lane where we live ending up driving over a load of roadside rocks.
It was repaired and sold as a pre reg like all the others.
He ragged hem everywhere too.
The dealer principal I used to work for would use anything, but especially keen on the quicker exchanges that he’d drive crazily. It would be common practice to delay buying the car into the trade in order to use any outstanding tax and fuel naively left on the car. It was a common occurrence for customers not to get the correct refund for tax they’d already paid for because of this.They were used as normal cars, going to the tips etc. He'd change it every month or so.
His wie use them too. I remember she badly damaged the underside and some chassis components misjudging a country lane where we live ending up driving over a load of roadside rocks.
It was repaired and sold as a pre reg like all the others.
He ragged hem everywhere too.
Anything decent and quick that was deemed sellable would have a at least a week of all the salesmen ragging the arse off it before being given to the workshop and then valeters to sort out.
Pretty amateurish.
My understanding was that the cooking variants were likely to be allocated to salesmen, etc, but any of the high end stuff was more likely to be given to a senior manager (whether that be in sales, service, finance or in a support function) thus why something like an X3M is likely to have been off site at a weekend.
The last demo we drove was on site, but it was a weekday, we did ring in advance and book an appointment and ensure it was going to be there.
The last demo we drove was on site, but it was a weekday, we did ring in advance and book an appointment and ensure it was going to be there.
Petrolism said:
A lot of tyre kickers these days who make appointments, but don't turn up, don't like the spec, colour, etc. - which leads dealers not to bend over backward each time someone is "interested" in a car. the vast majority of the time the car will be ready for viewing, but if not - just ask them to commit a time and go see it.
Let's not forget the punters who come in to buy a used car and expect it to be as good as new. In general I think that if you rock up to a dealership unannounced, then you cannot expect a particular car to be there.
In my case I made an appointment to view a car. And I took a day off work to do so. I booked a morning appointment to maximise my day, and the sales manager expected me to come back at 4pm, because he decided his wife needed a car. That is unaccceptable. Sloppy happens a lot when I turn up at the appointed time and the car is at the back of the lot, it needs a jump start and 5 cars need to be moved.
In my case I made an appointment to view a car. And I took a day off work to do so. I booked a morning appointment to maximise my day, and the sales manager expected me to come back at 4pm, because he decided his wife needed a car. That is unaccceptable. Sloppy happens a lot when I turn up at the appointed time and the car is at the back of the lot, it needs a jump start and 5 cars need to be moved.
Jimny33 said:
Wow nice reply. Thanks - based on what. When buying any car I’d kinda expect it to be there, during a weekend when people would be coming in to look at cars. I thought that was why garages were there? Not a place where the sales people can take them home when they want to?
I'm with you on this. You get different types of buyers, I'm more the kind where I will do the research, speak to the dealer on the phone, book an appointment during a weekday morning etc. Pretty thorough as, like people on this website, I really like my cars and spend more time driving/buying/working/talking about them than the average Joe. Your experience however reminds me of car shopping with my dad/ Though he likes a motor he really CGAF about the buying process. He comes across as a tyre kicker, but actually by the time he is in a dealership he is 99% ready to make a purchase, and it is really just down to the sales manager to lose the sale for him not to make a purchase. The amount of times I have been involved in painful situations shopping with him where the first hour is spent talking about finance (he tends to buy cash), or trying to arrange a test drive but needing to fill in countless forms about what stage of his "search" he is, the dealers not being able to find the key for a certain car to test drive (that was an awkward one)etc.
Don't get me wrong - I completely understand that the dealers don't want to waste time with tyre kickers, but some people genuinely are light touch on these purchases and the key to a sale really is just a matter of getting them in the car.
sebdangerfield said:
They didn't 'lose' a sale though did they? They just didn't sell it to you. I'm utterly certain that they still sold the car and they're probably OK with that given that someone who refuses to buy a car just because it's not at the dealership be it out on extended test or with a sales person is probably going to be a royal pain to deal with.
Sorry mate but the moment you start thinking "I can just sell this car/house/investment/widget to the next guy" as a defence for a lost sale is the moment that you stop being a salesman. You whole raison d'être is not to be the guardian of the keys to a test drive, the filler in of forms and the wearer of pointy shoes, but to actually shift sales out of the door. If someone comes in the dealer with the slightest inkling of making a purchase and you can't get them at least in the car, then you have failed in my opinion.
james_zy said:
Jimny33 said:
Wow nice reply. Thanks - based on what. When buying any car I’d kinda expect it to be there, during a weekend when people would be coming in to look at cars. I thought that was why garages were there? Not a place where the sales people can take them home when they want to?
I'm with you on this. You get different types of buyers, I'm more the kind where I will do the research, speak to the dealer on the phone, book an appointment during a weekday morning etc. Pretty thorough as, like people on this website, I really like my cars and spend more time driving/buying/working/talking about them than the average Joe. Your experience however reminds me of car shopping with my dad/ Though he likes a motor he really CGAF about the buying process. He comes across as a tyre kicker, but actually by the time he is in a dealership he is 99% ready to make a purchase, and it is really just down to the sales manager to lose the sale for him not to make a purchase. The amount of times I have been involved in painful situations shopping with him where the first hour is spent talking about finance (he tends to buy cash), or trying to arrange a test drive but needing to fill in countless forms about what stage of his "search" he is, the dealers not being able to find the key for a certain car to test drive (that was an awkward one)etc.
Don't get me wrong - I completely understand that the dealers don't want to waste time with tyre kickers, but some people genuinely are light touch on these purchases and the key to a sale really is just a matter of getting them in the car.
At a "normal" dealership, it will only ever be very nearly new cars that are demonstrators and double up as someones smoker.
Normal used cars, should be onsite, the only exception to this is if a car that has recently arrived has to go off to bodyshop, or workshop to have its checks done, or valeting.
Normal used cars, should be onsite, the only exception to this is if a car that has recently arrived has to go off to bodyshop, or workshop to have its checks done, or valeting.
vikingaero said:
In general I think that if you rock up to a dealership unannounced, then you cannot expect a particular car to be there.
In my case I made an appointment to view a car. And I took a day off work to do so. I booked a morning appointment to maximise my day, and the sales manager expected me to come back at 4pm, because he decided his wife needed a car. That is unaccceptable. Sloppy happens a lot when I turn up at the appointed time and the car is at the back of the lot, it needs a jump start and 5 cars need to be moved.
Yep, there is absolutely no excuse if an appointment has been made, the car should be there.In my case I made an appointment to view a car. And I took a day off work to do so. I booked a morning appointment to maximise my day, and the sales manager expected me to come back at 4pm, because he decided his wife needed a car. That is unaccceptable. Sloppy happens a lot when I turn up at the appointed time and the car is at the back of the lot, it needs a jump start and 5 cars need to be moved.
However just turning up and expecting it to be there because it's advertised on the website, sorry, there could be any multitude of reasons why it isn't there (of which I detailed in a post a few pages back), you shouldn't expect to just turn up unannounced and it be there.
james_zy said:
sebdangerfield said:
They didn't 'lose' a sale though did they? They just didn't sell it to you. I'm utterly certain that they still sold the car and they're probably OK with that given that someone who refuses to buy a car just because it's not at the dealership be it out on extended test or with a sales person is probably going to be a royal pain to deal with.
Sorry mate but the moment you start thinking "I can just sell this car/house/investment/widget to the next guy" as a defence for a lost sale is the moment that you stop being a salesman. You whole raison d'être is not to be the guardian of the keys to a test drive, the filler in of forms and the wearer of pointy shoes, but to actually shift sales out of the door. If someone comes in the dealer with the slightest inkling of making a purchase and you can't get them at least in the car, then you have failed in my opinion.
What Seb has said is rather disingenious. Yes they lost the sale to you, but how do you know it was sold to the next guy? That car could have sat on the forecourt for 6 months or still be for sale a year later. In the meantime, you've delayed the process of getting new stock in to replace the car that could have been sold.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff