Had a wonderful experience at a dealer today.

If you couldn't pick it up, that was sarcastic.

I went to check out a 2003 Silverado 3500 Dually today at a dealer that is about an hour from me. I just happened to be in the area, so I decided to drop by. They specialize in selling clean trucks from the south.

I walk in and there was a guy sitting there at the reception area, I told him there was a truck I wanted to look at and he told me to go ahead and go out back and check them out.

Ok.

So I find the truck in the lot, look it over, then decide that I want to check out the interior and start it up. Its blocked in by about 5 other trucks, so I figured I'd see if he'd let me test drive it.

I go back in and find the sales guy, he asks me if I found anything I like and I told him about the Silverado. He says that its a great truck, it was from Texas (I figured, it still had the TX inspection sticker), and that runs great. So I ask him if I could check out the interior and hear it run. He then asks me when am I thinking about purchasing, I tell him within the next couple weeks. He then says: "Well I'm not going to do that and I'll tell you why. I tell everyone this......."

Oh great, here we go.

Basically, he says he won't take the next step in showing me the truck unless I am set to buy it immediately, because his inventory is constantly moving (which is bullE36 M3 because I have been watching his online inventory for the last month and every truck that was on it is still on the lot) and that truck could be gone this week. "As a matter of fact" he says, "I just got off the phone with a guy who's coming to look at that exact truck tomorrow, so it could be gone by then."

Yeah. Ok. Suuuuure. Haven't heard that before.

So, I told him that I was interested in it and I would be coming back, but if he sold the truck oh well, there are more out there and walked out the door.

I love car salesmen.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

I would have told him that he just cost himself a customer because you don't buy anything from E36 M3heads.

Then I would ask to speak to his boss.

It's weird when they actively try to NOT sell you a car. I've had a few who wouldn't even get from their desk to talk. I'm not sure I understand sales at all.

Well he was the owner. It's a small lot, but they specialize in trucks. I'm too nice of a guy to be an shiny happy person unfortunately. It's easier to just walk out.

And yeah, he didn't get out from behind his desk. Pretty sure he was just a lazy ass.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Life's too short to deal with people like that and I have no problem telling them about it.

If he's that much of an ass before he has your money, just imaging was he will be like after the sale, or even during it.

In reply to Toyman01:

Yeah I'm going to look elsewhere, which is disappointing because I really liked the truck and it was in my price range.

He definitely was full of himself and thought his E36 M3 didn't stink. He bragged that he's got the cleanest trucks in the Chicagoland area. When I told him that I was going to look at another dealer about 3 hours south of his, he told me he knew what dealer I was looking at (by name) and that they get their business because their trucks are too expensive.

I wonder if car salesmen get tired of tire kickers wasting their time? You've gotta figure they get this attitude from somewhere, and if you deal with the public day in and day out it's pretty easy to understand where it might have come from.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Could be a part of it.

Meanwhile, the dealership (three hours away from where I live) that I contacted regarding a unicorn (cloth interior, no sunroof, southern Mazdaspeed6 with new clutch and other bits and service records every 2500-3000mi going back to NEW) keeps sending me e-mail every day and they even called me at work yesterday. No, I don't want a new Edge. No, I don't want any of the other cars on your lot. I only wanted that specific car, which to you is just a ten year old used car but I have been looking for it for two years. I have the patience to continue to look for it. Please quit trying to contact me like some drunk dialing ex.

wow. if i've got something you want to buy i'm going to show it to you and try to get you to leave with it.

Knurled wrote: In reply to Keith Tanner: Could be a part of it. Meanwhile, the dealership (three hours away from where I live) that I contacted regarding a unicorn (cloth interior, no sunroof, southern Mazdaspeed6 with new clutch and other bits and service records every 2500-3000mi going back to NEW) keeps sending me e-mail every day and they even called me at work yesterday. No, I don't want a new Edge. No, I don't want any of the other cars on your lot. I only wanted that specific car, which to you is just a ten year old used car but I have been looking for it for two years. I have the patience to continue to look for it. Please quit trying to contact me like some drunk dialing ex.

i was going to look at a new truck a few weeks ago and they sold it the night before. got a call, text, and email saying they had great news! i told them unless the buyer backed out and the truck was still available, they did not indeed have great news. their great news ended up being that they still had one 3500 truck in stock that i should come look at. it was the opposite of what i needed, and cost 15k more.

I would have said OK, walked out, walked right back in, and asked to speak to the sales manager. Told him I would like to test drive that truck, and that THAT salesman refused to let me test drive it after I gave him an objection and a condition of me purchasing the truck is that he gets nothing of the deal.

Test drive it, and then if you like it, buy it, if you don't just say that.

Either way sales man is in hot water with his boss and if you do buy it, he is pissed.

After selling cars for 3 1/2 years at Carmax I really appreciate professional salesmen, and have zero patience for those that aren't. I would give anyone an hour of my time. I averaged 8 1/2 cars a month working 13 days a month.

In reply to patgizz:

We are not their market. Most car salesmen figure to put a person in something, anything, as long as it's something moving off of the lot. And most car buyers will buy something, anything, as long as they're leaving in something different.

My funniest dealership moment was when we drove to a dealership 2 hours away (oddly enough, Germain of Columbus - the MS6 I was interested in was Germain of some burg near Dayton) and I had our scan tool plugged in watching the transmission's shift times while the salesman nervously sat in the back seat blathering something or other about... who cares what.

Then when it came down to negotiation, the dealership guys were a little upset that he was planning on paying cash after negotiating the price down to $10k-ish

He ended up buying the car, he's still very happy with the car, I'm still jealous of how rust free his car is even after living in Cleveland for a few years.

I'm a salesman. OK, not cars or trucks, but still sales. If I get an interested person, I will really try to get a deal. I cannot comprehend the mindset of anyone like that. They don't want your money, others will be delighted to help you.

When I first test drove a Focus, the salesman asked if I was ready to buy today. I said you don't have the car I'm looking for. He said if you are buying today, we will find you a car. But if I wasn't buying today they wouldn't look? It was 6:15 Sunday evening. Bought one 4 days later at another dealer.

Keith Tanner wrote: I wonder if car salesmen get tired of tire kickers wasting their time? You've gotta figure they get this attitude from somewhere, and if you deal with the public day in and day out it's pretty easy to understand where it might have come from.

While I can understand that mentality, I also know that type of attitude doesn't sell trucks, especially on a small lot. I have been keeping track of the trucks on his lot (he has about 20) and every vehicle that has been on his website for the last month were all still on his lot today.

I don't think trucks are flying off the lot there.

I just bought a car not even a month ago. We were looking almost exclusively at dealerships. The thing that amazed me was how much they didn't listen or didn't care about my price limit. I told you 10 was the absolute top. Why are you showing me a car that is stickering at $14k. And then I had to listen to the schpeel about newer or less miles or both and therefor safer or more reliable. Shut up.

Had a very similar experience with a dealer last Winter. Went to look at a box truck with my dad that was advertised on CL and in a truck for sale mag. He needed a truck ASAP. He had the cash in his pocket. He and I called ahead. They knew we were coming and for what truck. Got there, heard it run, wanted the truck, wanted to take it for a ride. It was blocked in and they didn't want to move things around. Told them to call us when it was out and we never got the call. He ended up buying something else despite calling several more times asking if the truck was ready for sale yet.

mtn wrote: I just bought a car not even a month ago. We were looking almost exclusively at dealerships. The thing that amazed me was how much they didn't listen or didn't care about my price limit. I told you 10 was the absolute top. Why are you showing me a car that is stickering at $14k. And then I had to listen to the schpeel about newer or less miles or both and therefor safer or more reliable. Shut up.

"Hell yes, I'll take this $14k car for $10k. You sure know how to close a sale!"

People get so worked up over this stuff. It just doesn't bother me all that much. I don't tend to go to small mom and pop dealers. If I do use a dealer, it's usually the used car lot of a bigger new car franchise. When I get that same song and dance of "Well, it may sell tomorrow because there's tons of interest in it", my very calm response is "It's been here for xx weeks, if there was that much interest in it, you'd have sold it long ago... yet here it sits in the corner of your lot". 95% of the time, that changes the course of the conversation to a much more pleasant one. For the handful of schmucks who still give me crap, I just walk away. Kinda went through this when I was recently shopping V6 6spd Honda Accord coupes. Dealers would tell me "It's a rare car, it'll sell fast". My answer was "It's rare for a reason...almost nobody wants them" and I started walking through the facts with them....how many Accord buyers want a coupe? Of those few, how many spring the $$ for a V6? Of that very tiny number, how many want a manual trans?

I have to admit this is one reason I bought my '08 Grand Caravan from Car Sense, who have no-haggle pricing, typically a few $K below book value. Cars are nicely organized. Nothing blocked in. "Sure, fill out a form and take it for a test drive..." I looked at it. Slept on it. Went back the next day to buy it. No "Sorry. Now it's $3K more..." B.S. Just, "Hi Ian. Let's fill out the paperwork..." and I was out in maybe an hour.

Some folks get off on the whole negotiating deal... I do not. I got the car I wanted for a price I was willing to pay. They made some money. Everyone is happy.

My last dealership adventure was the local dealer had 2 cars I was interested in listed at the lot a mile down the road from work. I go and after 15 minutes they inform me "No,they are at our Syracuse store, and we do will not bring the car down unless you are definitely going to buy it". The consolation prize was "$14k honda with a sun roof? How about a $40k Audi convertable?" I thanked the salesman for his time and left.

my few visits to dealerships have been pretty pleasant.. but I knew what I was after and brought cash..

But for all the other salesmen I have been forced to endure, I am sure there is a special place in hell for car salesmen

Streetwiseguy wrote:

mtn wrote: I just bought a car not even a month ago. We were looking almost exclusively at dealerships. The thing that amazed me was how much they didn't listen or didn't care about my price limit. I told you 10 was the absolute top. Why are you showing me a car that is stickering at $14k. And then I had to listen to the schpeel about newer or less miles or both and therefor safer or more reliable. Shut up.

"Hell yes, I'll take this $14k car for $10k. You sure know how to close a sale!"

They didn't think it was as funny as I did when I said nearly that exact phrase.

Sales folks, like most people want maximum returns for minimal effort. It's just that they've put themselves in an industry with an unusually low success rate.

When eager, qualified buyers only purchase a car 15% of the time, where is their incentive when the customer is telling you "eh, maybe in a few weeks." It doesn't excuse E36 M3ty behavior, and a small lot certainly can't afford to let customers slip by, but I understand why the sales guy wasn't doing backflips to help you

Here's an example of a salesman screwing the pooch.

I had sent an email via the Ford website for a quote on a Focus RS.

The internet sales guy for a local dealer replied and provided their quote, info, etc.

So I arranged to meet up to check out cars, etc.

Did they have one in stock to demo? No. Mildly annoying, but they never said they did either so that's ok.

Did he take time to meet me? No he was busy with another customer and shuffled me off onto a newb. Nice kid, but at 26 he was just a kid. All he told him was that I was interested in a 2016 Focus.

So kiddo starts walking out to the lot and asks what I'm looking for and I mention the RS and well yeah they don't have any. Nor do they have any ST in stock either.

So ok, let's order one. He proceeds to walk me through the same website I went through to get the Internet quote (which means there was information thrown away there), he's only marginally clueless about things and there's not a lot of options to choose from for the RS. Get that all done and he prints the results out. Sigh.... Really?

So I sign and fill out the credit check info and realize the kid is likely to get the commission for the $45k of car I just ordered. Which I'm kinda glad about since his boss was too busy selling a used Fiesta to deal with me directly.

So I could have avoided about 45 minutes to an hour or more of screwing around if the car I was interested in was actually provided to the sales people or if they had read that information. If they didn't have the car I wanted (or similar), then they could have sent the order confirmation to me via email where I could have signed it digitally along with filling out the secure credit check form, etc.

I do not understand why car buying is still so incredibly stupid and beholden to the berkeleying dealers and their useless sales people. It isn't difficult, it's essentially a white good, put a price on it and then sell it. If you want to sell more and/or have return customers, listen to them, pay attention and be honest about what's going on.