Car salesman mistakes

[XlR8TED]

I booked a test drive for a new Holden Astra 2 door a couple of years ago. Rocked up to the dealership, and let them know I'd arrived. 45 mins later, still standing there waiting, with no one bothering to assist.

I left & wandered up the road to Ford. Found a nice Lightning Strike XR and took it home a couple of days later.

[colossus]

Unfortunately I don't think these guys are the sharpest tools in the shed - When I am going to buy a car I research it first so I know all the ins and outs. Then when i am with the salesman I ask questions that I already know the answers to - to test how honest the person I am dealing with is and what their knowledge of the product they are recommending is.

E.g. Some time ago I was looking at a AU XR6 - I knew how much power it had, when asked the salesman responded "Oh I think its over 200kw, don't worry mate thats more than enough). Me - "I see, so whats the fuel consumption like (knowing it was around 12L/100)" Him - "Mate, these things are really efficient with their OHC, they will easy get under 10 around the city". Other little things too like not knowing the options list or safety equipment ect erks me.

They are just so full of sh$%^ - on wonder they get a bad name. Then the people that leap to their defense are like - "yes but there is such a high turnover its not fair to expect them to know everything". I'm sorry but I can pick up a brochure/browse the net and study a car for an hour the night before and I can guarantee you the next day I would remember everything about it. These guys are just lazy or dumb or both.

[hannem]

Went down to the local dealer (Ok it was the Mazda dealer, don't shoot me) Own a XR6 by the way.

Go down to look at the new CX9 after doing a bit of research on it so know what the difference is between the 2 models. You would think that the sales staff would also know, yeah fat chance, reckon I could have sold one to them.

I want to go down there and talk about the car not to have a bunch of "Not sures", "umms" and "I don't knows" Very disappointing.
Really need to know their cars if they want to half a snowballs chance in hell of flogging them off

Go for a test drive after they take a copy of my license, unfortunately with the nuff nuff in the back, head down the road and was doing 80 in a 70 zone. Ok I know it was speeding but to have the dude in the back saying "excuse me sir, you do know that this is a 70 zone and you are speeding" just rubbed me a bit the wrong way.
Said to him to stop stressing as you have my license details anyway if I get clicked by a camera, big deal.

I go to head off for a squirt on the the freeway, "no sir you can't go that way" WTF?? Go this way, turn that way, head straight, left here. Not enjoyable at all.

We start talking about where he is from and it is the other side of town and does not know this area at all, he just knows the "path" to take to test drive customers. Got to be joking me you tool. By this stage I just want to get back to the dealer a bugger of home.

If I an test driving I WANT TO GO WHERE I WANT, I WANT TO TURN THE CORNERS I WANT. I am taking it for a test drive not you, you idiot. Infuriating.

Get back to the dealer and talk price and he can't even do that without sliding off to someone else. These sales people need to be given some authority, balls, training, whatever to enable them to actually sell the cars not just be babysitters and crap me off.

[Nappa]

Originally Posted by hannem

Went down to the local dealer (Ok it was the Mazda dealer, don't shoot me) Own a XR6 by the way.

Go down to look at the new CX9 after doing a bit of research on it so know what the difference is between the 2 models. You would think that the sales staff would also know, yeah fat chance, reckon I could have sold one to them.

I want to go down there and talk about the car not to have a bunch of "Not sures", "umms" and "I don't knows" Very disappointing.
Really need to know their cars if they want to half a snowballs chance in hell of flogging them off

Go for a test drive after they take a copy of my license, unfortunately with the nuff nuff in the back, head down the road and was doing 80 in a 70 zone. Ok I know it was speeding but to have the dude in the back saying "excuse me sir, you do know that this is a 70 zone and you are speeding" just rubbed me a bit the wrong way.
Said to him to stop stressing as you have my license details anyway if I get clicked by a camera, big deal.

I go to head off for a squirt on the the freeway, "no sir you can't go that way" WTF?? Go this way, turn that way, head straight, left here. Not enjoyable at all.

We start talking about where he is from and it is the other side of town and does not know this area at all, he just knows the "path" to take to test drive customers. Got to be joking me you tool. By this stage I just want to get back to the dealer a bugger of home.

If I an test driving I WANT TO GO WHERE I WANT, I WANT TO TURN THE CORNERS I WANT. I am taking it for a test drive not you, you idiot. Infuriating.

Get back to the dealer and talk price and he can't even do that without sliding off to someone else. These sales people need to be given some authority, balls, training, whatever to enable them to actually sell the cars not just be babysitters and crap me off.

Sounds like you got to deal with the sales cadet. Propably very green and still learning the ropes.

Also at some dealers the manager has complete control over price and discount

[RG]

When I was looking for an AU XR8 I saw a nice silver one advertised as a SIII. Went to the car yard and noticed immediately this was no SIII. Orange side indicators, no body kit, 200kw engine & it was an early 01 model. Had a chat to the bloke and told him all this stuff only to be told "no, no you're wrong the SIII came out in late '00 and some were like this". Riight, ummm no. Seeya.

Had a great one last week. Went to have a look at a car for the missus, '01 Suzuki Baleno for 6k and had 73k on it. Real nice little car. It was a Sunday so I was expecting a bit of a difficult time and the car was up the back of the yard. Asked to take it for a drive and was promptly told "no problem, I'll move all these out of the way for you right away". I stood there shocked. Asked if it would be alright if we took it for a 1/2 hour or so "no problem, see you then". Called him up 20 minutes later asking if we could keep it a little longer as the missus uncle is a mechanic and we wanted him to look at it, "no problem, take as long as you need". Damn, this is a Sunday lol.

Needless to say we bought the car.

[GT450]

Many years ago stopped to look at an XB GT on a set of ramps that you could actually walk under. It was gold with the black accents and had the 351 decals etc and looked the goods at a distance. Walked under it and noticed no 9" diff no disc brakes no FMX. I asked the salesman and he assured me it genuine. It was too high to see under the bonnet. He looked at my XA 2V , removed the radiator cap and started running it down almost immediately. Anyway i told him his GT was not legit to which he took umbrage and i left by telling him if his mother and father had married he might be a much nicer person. Someone probably bought it thinking it was the real McCoy.
Cheers
GT450

[LTDterri]

Ive got plenty of stories but the most recent (last week) was at local Ford Dealer looking at Focus XR5 Turbo, asked about Cruise control and can it be fitted as not an option on XR5, dealer " No cannot be fitted at all " advised him this is a deal breaker as all my cars must have Cruise, says he will give me a brochure just in case comes back 25 seconds later....." Ive just spoken to the boss got one coming in next week with Cruise give me your number and I'll call you when it arrives.

[Spanrz]

This thread makes me ROFL.
Coming from the used machinery aspect, I hear all of these types of comments.

If customer asks me a question, and I know the answer, I'll state facts and explain why. If I don't know it, I tell them straight up " I don't know about that, I'll check for you". I don't BS.

However, when customers call in with certain "liquid" refreshments, things must be in your favour
Jeez, even the wifey laughs and shakes her head everytime I come home and head for the pantry with a bottle of red liquid refreshment.

But with the Car side of things, I bought an ED wagon a few years ago, for around $6 grand.
Went to walk around another yard, just to let things settle, looking at an EA Wagon in his yard, salesguy jumps out and says "She's a beauty, she's cheap". Said how much. "Only $5,500". I laughed inside.
It had over 300,000k's on it. The ED had only 230,000k on it. ED was far superior to EA (looks, paint, interior etc). The ED had everything I needed.
So this guy tried to sell it to me, then just said I bought an ED for roughly the same price with 100,000 less k's on it.
Hands went up in the air and backed right away.

[Addz08]

Went into a ford dealership when I was in the market for a BA XR Ute, had a chat to them, the salesman asked what I was looking at spending, so I told him, his reply was you won,t get much for that, my price was around what they were going for at the time, he said ok we'll have a look around for you and we'll let you know what we come up with, And guess what...They never called...Went to another dealership, found exactly what I wanted and at my price...

[RATT]

Originally Posted by hannem

Go for a test drive after they take a copy of my license, unfortunately with the nuff nuff in the back, head down the road and was doing 80 in a 70 zone. Ok I know it was speeding but to have the dude in the back saying "excuse me sir, you do know that this is a 70 zone and you are speeding" just rubbed me a bit the wrong way.
Said to him to stop stressing as you have my license details anyway if I get clicked by a camera, big deal.

I go to head off for a squirt on the the freeway, "no sir you can't go that way" WTF?? Go this way, turn that way, head straight, left here. Not enjoyable at all.

We start talking about where he is from and it is the other side of town and does not know this area at all, he just knows the "path" to take to test drive customers. Got to be joking me you tool. By this stage I just want to get back to the dealer a bugger of home.

If I an test driving I WANT TO GO WHERE I WANT, I WANT TO TURN THE CORNERS I WANT. I am taking it for a test drive not you, you idiot. Infuriating.

Get back to the dealer and talk price and he can't even do that without sliding off to someone else. These sales people need to be given some authority, balls, training, whatever to enable them to actually sell the cars not just be babysitters and crap me off.

Sorry to say but you obviously have not bought many new cars before, I could be wrong though..

Firstly, it seems as though you had a trainee who was not 100% with the product. It's best he says "I'm not sure" etc rather than making something up hoping you won't notice.

There are two critical things when a customer takes a car for a test drive.

1: For safety reasons, it's wise a dealer has a pre-organised test drive route. Why? Lets say the car breaks down, or customer pulls a knife on the salesperson and there is no phone reception or the phone is stolen. If they aren't back within a reasonable time, someone will head out to find them. Now considering the route is set, it will be easy to find someone.

2: Speeding. It is just not on. I don't care who you think you are or the fact that the license was given. That is beyond the point here. As a dealer they have a duty of care as well. You should not drive at excesive speeds on a test drive, whether it's 10 or 50km/h over, it is NOT ON.

Some dealers may offer overnight test drives, and there is a procedure for that too. A Loan car agreement is filled out and that covers both you and the dealer legally, putting the onis on you to not get caught speading etc.

I can't see how this is infuriating.

[Bushbasher]

When I was looking for our wagon I walked into the car yard of a certain, now retired, captain of the Crows on Main North Rd in Adelaide and after saying I was looking for a dual fuel AUII or III wagon, preferably factory fitted, I was told "nah mate, they didn't make a factory S2 dual fuel, they stopped with S1 and we wouldn't touch any dual fuel AU anyway unless it was very low ks' cos over 100k they start to lose compression and the heads need to come off and the valves changed"..... needless to say I walked away at that point and got back in my car and went up the road and found the one I ended up buying not 2 minutes away on the same side of the road. Not only that but my car was advertised promenently on the front page of that days motoring section of the Advertiser that the guy was reading when I wandered up to him in said yard :



Bushbasher

[Quicksand]

Originally Posted by flappist

With the great breadth of opinion on the actions of a car salesman in another thread

Speaking of which...i must be blind but i cannot find that original thread...where did it go?

[falconboy]

Originally Posted by Inducted_Breeze

Speaking of which...i must be blind but i cannot find that original thread...where did it go?

To the big thread heaven in the sky.

[NZEA]

Originally Posted by desGT

Went into a HSV dealer with son (he is Holden, I am Ford:-). We had been doing a bit of work and yeah, the jeans had seen better days. Salesman came out, took one look at us and walked away. Gave him a wave as I got into the Porsche.

HA! ...nice

[Quicksand]

Originally Posted by falconboy

To the big thread heaven in the sky.

hehe i see, i see...fair enough

[flappist]

The story of my 350Z.......

In Feb I needed a new car (100,000km reached) so I started looking around. FG was still months away, BF & VE were old tech and I needed one NOW not in 3 months or whatever (work car).

I wanted a RWD car with reasionable power and handling and reasionable resale retension. After sussing Ford, Holden, BMW, Mazda and Mercedes I thought that the 350Z looked like a reasionable option. All I needed was a test drive. As I tend to travel a lot I just wandered into Nissan dealers all over SEQ.

The question: What can you tell me about 350Z and can you organise a test drive?

Dealer 1: No mate, 350Zs are no good, we never sell them. (and you won't sell this one)
Dealer 2: Yeh 350Zs are great, we don't stock them but can order one for you. You don't need a test drive they are so good. (yeh right)
Dealer 3: 350Zs are for haidressers, you need a Patrol, MANs car (the short stature, beard, khaki shirt and akubra hat should have given this idiot away)
Dealer 4: Yeh 350Zs, jeez mate you just missed out, we sold the demo 20 seconds ago, give me a deposit and you will be first in line to test drive the new one. (and the horse you rode in on)
Dealer 5: 350Zs are great, we don't stock them as we are a rural dealership but I can get one for you to drive, there is a rotating demo from Nissan. (phone calls) The demo is an auto touring, they don't have a track coupe at the moment but I have arranged a drive for you but it is in Brisbane. Would you like to do that or I think I can get you a drive of a local one here but it is the old model. (yes this guy is keen and WANTS to sell me a car)

OK, this was getting nowhere. I rang Nissan customer service and asked them where I could get a test drive as I was a bit keen. After telling them the stories of dealers 1-4 there was a flurry of activity and the state manager rang me back with details of a dealer who had one as a demo. Cool.
I ring the dealer to confirm and organise as drive. Had to wait a week as the car had been pranged and was being repaired but they would get back to me when it was available.
Rang again a week later and there was no record of my firat call but they were happy to arrange a drive on saturday at 11 am.

I turn up at 10:55. "Hi I am here to see ***** for a test drive of the Z". **** was busy and the work experience kid's little brother was going to look after me but the Z was missing. The boy tells me the story of how the Z was pranged and where the Z is (salesman doing the saturday morning beach cruise)
11:30, I am bored, I wander off to other dealerships to look at the toys.
11:55 I wander back, ***** is still to busy to see me, I decide that if he does not come over by 12 I am out of there. He made it by 10 seconds.

Z turns up, paperwork done, I have 1 hour to play (at lunch time on Saturday in a popular tourist resort). I head west into the windy stuff. This is fun but the macca wrappers, dead cigarette packets and other crap that were hidden under the seats were a but off putting as they floated about the cabin.

I return, leave the back open and go to the F6 to get the empty suitcases I told the sales guy I wanted to test fit into the back.

Z is gone. I ask where it is. Apparantly I was interferring with a salesmans "pick up beach chick" game and he had taken it back.
I told the saleman that if I did not test the bags I was not going buy one. A quick flurry of phone calls and the Z is back with annoyed spiv chomppng at the bit while I put bags in back. Zoom, the Z is gone again.
Now the fun part: Attack of the killer scammer.

Into the office, what colour do I want?
Blue.
Ok, now that will be eighty something thousand dollars.
RRP is $68990, no trade, make me an offer.
Ah yes that is 68990 + GST + LCT + dealer delivery + tax + rego + insurance + + + + +
Um, no 68990 includes GST & LCT otherwise Nissan are going to get a visit from some very angry government departments.
Price reduced to 78000. Or do I want the demo and same $1500.
Hmm lets see, for 1500 I get an 07 plate instead of 08, 3 months less warranty and a car that has been driven for 2000km, mostly by salesmen cruising the beach, no thanks.
Well there are no blue track coupes in Australia and only one coming and we have is already allocated to us. (spiv alarm level 10)

As I am driving away I ring dealer 5 and ask if he can get me a blue track and how much, no trade.
Called back monday, there is only 1 blue, he has it on temporary hold and it will be low to mid 60s if I am keen. I order it then and there.

It arrives a bit later, deal is done at low 60s and I drive away.

Why is buying a car so bloody difficult sometimes?

P.S. If anyone is interested who dealers 1-6 actually are (some also sell Ford etc) in case you PM me.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by whiskieboy

As a long term ford engine plant employee, I have been told some absolute crap by salesmen who try to tell me things like " this 6cyl engine comes from the states" and I say NO I actually built that engine, he says no I think your wrong this comes from the states, of course by this time im cheesed off and express my opinion on how can he tell me what I do and dont do for a living, so I explain exactly what we do in the engine plant even give him an open invite to come see and he tells me im mistaken because HE KNOWS these engines come from the states.

So that's 16 hours to work in the morning and 16 hours to get home in the evening. How the hell do you find the time to build engines?!

[irlewy86]

1) Caterpillar salesman:-
They live in their own special world where GET can be used in capacity calculations and PTO power output is produced at the fly.

Of course the classic line " The 994 is the largest wheel loader in the world"

[irlewy86]

Originally Posted by Rodp

So that's 16 hours to work in the morning and 16 hours to get home in the evening. How the hell do you find the time to build engines?!

Think of the frequent flyer miles

[The Monty]

Had a salesman show me how good the "V6 twin turbo" R33 GTSt was. After I pointed out he was wrong on both accounts, I was told, no, its a V6 twin turbo (he was pointing to it with the bonnet open).

[RSgerry]

I had a salesman pull that classic stunt of asking another salesman if his client was still interested in the car I was looking at. Trouble was, I had just watched 'The Big Steal' the night before and started to laugh at him.

[fordel]

Originally Posted by LTDterri

Ive got plenty of stories but the most recent (last week) was at local Ford Dealer looking at Focus XR5 Turbo, asked about Cruise control and can it be fitted as not an option on XR5, dealer " No cannot be fitted at all " advised him this is a deal breaker as all my cars must have Cruise, says he will give me a brochure just in case comes back 25 seconds later....." Ive just spoken to the boss got one coming in next week with Cruise give me your number and I'll call you when it arrives.

Interesting, as there is no Cruise option for the XR5 at all.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by LTDterri

Ive got plenty of stories but the most recent (last week) was at local Ford Dealer looking at Focus XR5 Turbo, asked about Cruise control and can it be fitted as not an option on XR5, dealer " No cannot be fitted at all " advised him this is a deal breaker as all my cars must have Cruise, says he will give me a brochure just in case comes back 25 seconds later....." Ive just spoken to the boss got one coming in next week with Cruise give me your number and I'll call you when it arrives.

It can be done aftermarket and they would probably get one shipped and then get it done aftermarket as part of the delivery. There is definitely no cruise control in an XR5. It's also a deal breaker for me and I didn't want an aftermarket cruise control system.

[fordel]

Same with my old ST170, had to go aftermarket to get CC fitted.

[FPV+fteT3]

Looking to trade in my BA xr8 II ute 74000km immac.never bent dented etc.. went to ford dealer trade in on fgxr8 man, we have to drive to another location for valuation I drove around the block with salesman to a shed this bloke lifts hood checks k's didn't even look at lhs or rear of car. Salesman said were done I am thinking WTF get back to fraud dealer "ok new car is 38500 but I think I am going to disappoint you with your trade inn your car is only worth 18k it was 2y.o. before talking to salesman had a look around yard 1 x bf xr8 33000km 6sp. man same as mine 33k ba 6spd xr8 124000km 26k I thought my car would be worth somewhere between. Called a dealer in sydney described my car over phone offered me 23k went to see them got 25.5k for xr8 drove away in a FPV 2nd dealer is where I will go next time. Point to note my old xr sold for 29990 dealer said if you look after the fpv same way we will gladly trade again. See you in about 80k. :

[Daymoe]

Well my story isn't too great, but Mum was in hospital and Dad and I were bored, so we decided to check out some car dealerships.

First off we went into City Ford, straight away a car salesmen came up to us and started talking to us about buying a BA XR6 Falcon, after looking around for a while we left, went to a Peugeot dealer, again we were approached by a car salesmen but we told him we were only looking and he was okay with that, finally we went into a Lexus dealership, no one came up to us or even acknowledged us, we were wearing decent clothes and Dad was clean shaven and we were both looking decent, obviously not wearing suits or anything but no one ever even looked up at us even though we were showing interest in all the cars.

Now a good dealership story, earlier this year Dad got his Mazda 323 serviced at the Mazda dealership he bought his car from 5 years earlier, they had to keep the car overnight and arranged to get us a Mazda 3 hirecar, we came back and it was still out and all the Mazda 2s were out so he lent us his own car, the one he actually personally owned, a new Mazda 6 with only 500km on it. He even offered to deliver our car to us half way to the dealership if we wanted. Now thats what you call service! I was hoping for the RX8 parked outside but it was not meant to be haha.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by fpv84d

Looking to trade in my BA xr8 II ute 74000km immac.never bent dented etc.. went to ford dealer trade in on fgxr8 man, we have to drive to another location for valuation I drove around the block with salesman to a shed this bloke lifts hood checks k's didn't even look at lhs or rear of car. Salesman said were done I am thinking WTF get back to fraud dealer "ok new car is 38500 but I think I am going to disappoint you with your trade inn your car is only worth 18k it was 2y.o. before talking to salesman had a look around yard 1 x bf xr8 33000km 6sp. man same as mine 33k ba 6spd xr8 124000km 26k I thought my car would be worth somewhere between. Called a dealer in sydney described my car over phone offered me 23k went to see them got 25.5k for xr8 drove away in a FPV 2nd dealer is where I will go next time. Point to note my old xr sold for 29990 dealer said if you look after the fpv same way we will gladly trade again. See you in about 80k. :

Whoa. I think I deciphered some of it. Be thankful. I took my BA XR8 to several Ford dealers that didn't want to speak to me, wouldn't trade it at all.

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by whiskieboy

As a long term ford engine plant employee, I have been told some absolute crap by salesmen who try to tell me things like " this 6cyl engine comes from the states" and I say NO I actually built that engine, he says no I think your wrong this comes from the states, of course by this time im cheesed off and express my opinion on how can he tell me what I do and dont do for a living, so I explain exactly what we do in the engine plant even give him an open invite to come see and he tells me im mistaken because HE KNOWS these engines come from the states.

Don't you just hate the people who - despite being found out they are full of it and are wrong, will then continue to argue rather than admit they were wrong.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by hannem

Went down to the local dealer (Ok it was the Mazda dealer, don't shoot me) Own a XR6 by the way.

Go down to look at the new CX9 after doing a bit of research on it so know what the difference is between the 2 models. You would think that the sales staff would also know, yeah fat chance, reckon I could have sold one to them.

I want to go down there and talk about the car not to have a bunch of "Not sures", "umms" and "I don't knows" Very disappointing.
Really need to know their cars if they want to half a snowballs chance in hell of flogging them off

Go for a test drive after they take a copy of my license, unfortunately with the nuff nuff in the back, head down the road and was doing 80 in a 70 zone. Ok I know it was speeding but to have the dude in the back saying "excuse me sir, you do know that this is a 70 zone and you are speeding" just rubbed me a bit the wrong way.
Said to him to stop stressing as you have my license details anyway if I get clicked by a camera, big deal.

I go to head off for a squirt on the the freeway, "no sir you can't go that way" WTF?? Go this way, turn that way, head straight, left here. Not enjoyable at all.

We start talking about where he is from and it is the other side of town and does not know this area at all, he just knows the "path" to take to test drive customers. Got to be joking me you tool. By this stage I just want to get back to the dealer a bugger of home.

If I an test driving I WANT TO GO WHERE I WANT, I WANT TO TURN THE CORNERS I WANT. I am taking it for a test drive not you, you idiot. Infuriating.

Get back to the dealer and talk price and he can't even do that without sliding off to someone else. These sales people need to be given some authority, balls, training, whatever to enable them to actually sell the cars not just be babysitters and crap me off.

Yeah the same happened to me when I was looking for a BFII XRT. Hard to find a manual one and finally found one.
Had to go to the other part of the dealership to have a test drive and that took longer then the test drive. But I ended up going for a test drive in heavy traffic, could barely get the car over 40kph....so the deal was pretty much over then.
Still went and saw what they could do on the price, and the finance guy was a complete twat and quite forceful and trying to put me in a situation (financially) where I wouldn't be happy. So I started being a pain and difficult and started saying stuff like I didn't like the colour etc. Then I finally just walked out of there.
Also to top it off when they did the evaluation on my car they put a huge scratch in the window tint. Wont say who the dealer is as the mods might not be happy me naming a sponsor.

[Spanrz]

Originally Posted by irlewy86

1) Caterpillar salesman:-
They live in their own special world where GET can be used in capacity calculations and PTO power output is produced at the fly.

Of course the classic line " The 994 is the largest wheel loader in the world"

Easy......Easy there! I know a few of them! Lolz :nutsycuck
Yes, they are primed with the certain knowledge. But that's the Cat way of marketing.
Though some ex reps I know or used to know, well yeah, bit like that!
You are better off talking to a rep that was an ex mechanic! That's where some of them come from and their knowledge is a bit better than just a standard rep. It's all in the understanding.

There has been and always will be the arguement "Who's got the biggest" and I'm not talking about a man's appendage!

EDIT: Uh Oh, shhh, I better watch what I say, Daniel (big brother) is watching me ;)