No wonder car sales people STILL have a bad rep.

[Johnnytoxic]

Many cars have A/C and Cruise control, he should have emailed you the whole stock list and you could look for the ones that say AC / CC.

Not having no clue yourself of what car to get is asking for trouble. With a big purchase such as a new car, I don't have a salesman tell me which ones best. I do my own research and read reviews etc.

 

[Richie]

That's odd, I don't remember ever buying road tax on a second hand car, they've all had 12 months MOT and Tax. Even odder that he didn't want to do a deal for the sake of say £60-80

That £60-£80 could be what turns the deal from making a profit into a loss. Contrary to what most people think (thanks to t'internet making everyone think they are car salespeople) there is not always huge profits in selling cars. In fact, a large percentage of cars are sold at very low profits and, sometimes, they are even sold at a loss.


They are a company and so part of their aim is to make money. Profit is not a dirty concept, excess profit is.

 

[Adam]

Maybe that one car was suitable and with negotiation it would have fallen in to your budget?

Seems like you could have avoided a wasted trip by emailing/calling ahead to ask for specifics.

 

[Beansprout]

Profit is not a dirty concept, excess profit is.

But how much is 'excess'?

 

[Banzai_Joe]

Many cars have A/C and Cruise control, he should have emailed you the whole stock list and you could look for the ones that say AC / CC.

Not having no clue yourself of what car to get is asking for trouble. With a big purchase such as a new car, I don't have a salesman tell me which ones best. I do my own research and read reviews etc.

I would have done my research once he had shortlisted for me.
Otherwise there's just too many cars out there to try and narrow down.

Maybe that one car was suitable and with negotiation it would have fallen in to your budget?

Seems like you could have avoided a wasted trip by emailing/calling ahead to ask for specifics.

Actually yes. The only one offered was possibly negotiable, but i expected more than one option, and as it was another sales **** i dealt with, i wanted to see what the original fella had to say and whether he truly did have a list of cars to look at.....but he's not contacted me since.

 

[Banzai_Joe]

Your finance is not with the dealer but with a finance company. They don't offer better deals that anyone else would simply because you, effectively, brokered finance through them.


When you said you wanted to "change your car", did you mean part exchange with the dealer?

Yes, part-ex effectively. The new car would take on the remainder of the finance and add it to the new deal.
I know the finance is not with the dealership itself, but sometimes repeat business may help.
Clearly not in this case, lol.

 

[mrk]

What you have described can be put into auto sales sites like autotrader and you get a shortlist of cars that fit your exact requirements.

I don't understand why you didn't use such a site instead of phoning car 'sales' people.

You said you don't know what you want but you also say that you had an exact spec sheet that the car must meet so clearly you know what you want.

 

[Twirlywoos]

So,
i was looking to change my car and contacted the dealership where i got my current car from.
I told the guy EXACTLY what my requirements were and that if they coulnd't be met, within the budget specified then i wouldn't bother changing car.
He told me it would be best to come into the branch. To which i replied "Why? I've given you all the details you need to come up with a shortlist of what you can offer. Once you've got them email me the details, if any of them peak my interest then i'll pop in for a test drive. This will avoid BOTH OF US wasting time". He agreed (probably reluctantly)
Truly guys, what could have been a simpler statement?
I reiterated to him that on this occasion i was being fussy and that my criteria must be adhered to otherwise forget it.

Two days later i get an email from his saying:

Now, given that he had all the criteria INCLUDING max budget, would you not think that he must have some deals for me?
Well, rightly or wrongly, i did. I was so enthusastic about going into the branch that i rearranged my whole sunday around the visit.

Got there, the sales guy was busy (fair enough, i'd not made a specific appointment) so a different fella took down all my particulars again (why they weren't on file, ill never know) then presented me with......ONE car.....ONE! And way over my budget.

I was incensed and had the wife not been there i would have kicked off big time.
What a total waste of my time.
Of course he tried the old "IF we can get the price down to within your budget, is this the car for you?" Pretty much word for word what was said to me 6 months ago when i looked for a change of car" If i took the bait, then the next line would have been "Can we shake on a deal today?"

We left angry and bewildered at such obvious bs sales crap that i honestly didn't thibnk existed anymore, not since Minder left our tv screens.
I sent an official complaint in detailing the whole farce, and 2 days later still not had even a courtesy reply saying they are looking into it.

Jesus, it's no wonder they still get a bad rap.

tl:dr..............car sales man tried to BS me, wasted my time and deserves a good kicking!!!

What difference does that make? I would have kicked off anyway.

 

[Richie]

But how much is 'excess'?

That is for individual opinion I guess. There is no right answer as no one will agree on it

Yes, part-ex effectively. The new car would take on the remainder of the finance and add it to the new deal.

Ok, so how would you know what falls into your budget if you have don't know what value your p/x will get at the dealer? You have to take it in to let them see it.

 

[A.N.Other]

Just bought a Kia recently. The guy was absolutely fantastic.

'Don't get the kia carpetted footwell mats, get these - they're better and cheaper'.
'You don't need to pay for the fuel, they have to put some in to deliver it to you anyway'.
'Don't bother with the separate xyz plan, it's a waste of money if you're fully comp'

It went on and on. The guy broke every stereotype I had about car salesmen.

 

[boxman2000]

I'd just buy from autotrader, get a car check by AA and sorted! Selling car privately almost always gives a better return than via a garage.

 

[covenantuk]

That £60-£80 could be what turns the deal from making a profit into a loss. Contrary to what most people think (thanks to t'internet making everyone think they are car salespeople) there is not always huge profits in selling cars. In fact, a large percentage of cars are sold at very low profits and, sometimes, they are even sold at a loss.


They are a company and so part of their aim is to make money. Profit is not a dirty concept, excess profit is.

On anything but a "banger" it's very unlikely that £80 will turn from profit into loss (I've worked for both sales and service in various dealers in the past).

You need to think realistically. Is he going to drop £1000 on a £5000 car? No.

Dealers will drop on cars that "they" want to sell or if they're looking at a bigger picture such as their quarterly/yearly sales bonuses. Best time to shop for a new car is just "before" the new registrations as long as you can be flexible on make/model/colour as the dealers:

(a) Want to shift older showroom models
(b) Will be trying to make monthly/quarterly bonus targets from the suppliers which can be a worth a lot of money and will more than offset the profit they are missing.
(c) Know they have lots of trade-ins on the way

If you want a "new" car and want your exact spec/colour, then then best thing is to go via internet suppliers as the local dealer will rarely match them.

 

[Banzai_Joe]

What difference does that make? I would have kicked off anyway.

Lol, you don't know my wife!

Ok, so how would you know what falls into your budget if you have don't know what value your p/x will get at the dealer? You have to take it in to let them see it.

Oh, they quoted me a figure based on depreciation since they sold it to me 18 months ago. So i knew how much they'd give in part-ex and how much the outstanding finance was.
I currenlty pay xx amount per month and for a new car i was willing to go up to xx amount. So added to the fact that they knew what features i wanted on a car, they had all the relevant info to shortlist (or not) some appropriate cars.

I've done this method in the past and it's worked out for me. Get a decent sales rep and there's no reason why it shouldn't. I'm not obliged to buy one on the shortlist, its just a starting place.

 

[Hagar]

Sounds like estate agents, I am sitting with a cash purchase price in three building society accounts. Ask them to email properties within or slightly over my budget with specific requirements before they get onto rightmove ie as soon as they get instructions is too complicated for them. You might think that they do not want to sell a house quickly or match customers to clients.

 

[ZG002]

They more than likely thought they could take you for some crazy deal, What with you not having a clue about what you actually want. Who can blame them for thinking that?

I've been in the position of wanting a new car but not having a clue what one I wanted, I went off and test drove loads and did a lot of research, I sure as hell didn't email the dealers and ask them to show me what cars they have in this budget etc etc. It's just not the right way to do things. Dealers are a pita and will try to take you for every penny, Your only defence against this is knowing the product you want inside out and how much it is actually worth.

 

[Banzai_Joe]

Aaa... but i wasn't 'clueless' about what i wanted. I gave them criteria to follow, but wasn't too fussy about the make/model of the car as long as it had, x, y and z.
If they thought they could 'try it on'....they thought wrong!

At the end of the day, i haven't sorted a new car yet, and am not terribly fussed if i don't get one, so i've lost nothing but time wasted by the imcompetent oaf at the dealership.

 

[Theophany]

Salesmen

What's wrong with salespeople?

Essentially, they were trying to flog a big ticket item like a small ticket item. That is usually infuriating and wholly ineffective. Not only will they not sell the car to you on the spot like that, they'll probably end up ruining any chance of selling a car to you in the future as you'll remember the bad experience.

 

[Bald-Eagle22]

Was this a non franchised used car dealership ? If so what else did you expect ? I liken second hand car dealers to complete Arthur Daily , ****** and just all round scumbags. You will not get a reply from your complaint .

I have proved on two occasions they clock milage and I even had one done by trading standards once and got money out of them .

If it was a franchised used or new dealer then you should complain .

 

[Banzai_Joe]

PENTAGON, Vauxhall.

Resent the email complaint to another manager and this time i've had a response saying they'll contact me asap.
My friend works in HR there, so she's fighting in my corner, but also using my complaint to highlight the poor service, in an effort to put it right in the future.

 

[4T5]

Personally I think the Dealer knew he wasn't likely to get a deal out of you so just let you pass on by.
I do it myself when selling a motor, If an awkward Dude phones or comes round I go out my way to get rid & get somebody I can make some money from.
I bet if you had cash things would be completely different.