The X in FRS is for extreme!

Most people care more about the location and amount of cup holders than anything power or handling rated. That and now blue tooth and touch screens are very popular. All you have to do is look at most Ford commercials to see that (as well as other companies).

I remember my Dad looking at a Camry hybrid a few years ago and the sales guy knew absolutely nothing about it. He ended up buying another BMW for several reasons, one for sure was the salesmen at the Toyota dealer knew nothing. The entire experience was terrible.

Just today I talked to a vendor that calls on me at work, and found out he used to sell Porsches. He was told on his first day that most of the customers would know far more than he would, and that he needed to research the brand, and don't say anything stupid. And he agreed that indeed all of his customers for the most part knew more, but he did learn a lot.

Along those lines, I did get to drive my co-workers 2011 911. Absolutely fabulous car! There's not much not to like. My 370Z is probably a little faster in a straight line, but the Porsche is better everywhere else!

racerdave600 wrote: Most people care more about the location and amount of cup holders than anything power or handling rated.

This is why I can STILL type "Alpha Romero" into Craigslist and get results.

In reply to The0retical:

Automotive sales people are there to make a living. Their talents and skills should be sales science based ( trust me there is a lot of skill and science to selling)

I know its hard to believe since we here are all motor-heads, but 90% of the car buying public buys a car because they have to buy a car. It's a grudge buy. The average consumer knows so little about cars and what makes them work that by comparison, the sales person sounds like an automotive engineer.The big "sales" focus in on the financing and the extras.

As for the 10% of us here, we pretty much already sold ourselves on the car before we walked in to the dealer. Smart move on their part is to recognize us for what we are and shut-up so we can close the deal with ourselves.

NOHOME wrote: As for the 10% of us here, we pretty much already sold ourselves on the car before we walked in to the dealer. Smart move on their part is to recognize us for what we are and shut-up so we can close the deal with ourselves.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I was buying a car once and the salesman I got stopped the transaction, went and got one of the techs (who was in the SCAA) and had him answer some of the questions I had. Smartest move he could have made.

When I bought my 370Z, the salesman was smart. He handed me the keys and let me take it out on my own, and when I got back, simply asked if I liked it. He also asked if I wanted to drive it for a few days to be sure. I didn't need to do that, and at that point we worked out the numbers and I was gone. Total time at the dealer, less than an hour.

By contrast, when I looked at the BRZ earlier the same day, the guy tried to go over every detail of the car, missing most of the points. Of course he concentrated on the cup holder, trunk release, etc., etc.... On the test drive, he did most of the driving, and then said they were told that people test driving these had to be supervised so as to not drive them hard. Total time at the dealer, almost 3 hours. It took almost 30 minutes to get the keys.

I also drove a Miata Club the same day. The Mazda dealer fell between the two. The salesman knew the car top to bottom and didn't oversell, but the dealership tactics sucked. Total time there, around 1.5 hours.

Interestingly, the guy at the Nissan dealer ended up selling an Altima to a lady at work a few weeks later, and she had similarly good experience. She had been looking for a particular color coupe and was having trouble. He found one a few states away, didn't charge extra to get there, and sold it cheaper than was advertised. Turns out he is their leading salesman and uses no pressure to do his job. I also never had the "let me get my manager" interaction that you get elsewhere. He worked out the deal and you were done.