Dealerships are terrible

[Phishin]

I'm in the market for a new vehicle. Time to retire the ol' K1500. I've been to nearly all the dealerships in my area: Chevy, Ford, Subaru, Honda, etc. etc. I won't go into a Chrysler store, no way. But anyway, I'm so tired of the same routine. The sales people in all the dealerships are either or high-energy and ignorant of the products they are trying to sell OR they are almost non-existent and don't seem interested in selling you a car anyways. What is going on? How can the 6 or 7 dealerships in my rural area all be so bad? Then I found this article today: http://time.com/money/3826562/buying-cars-online-hate-car-dealerships/ I'm not sure this is the answer, but if you work for a dealership to sell cars, why not be an informed salesman and have some tact when someone walks into your shop looking to drop $30-50k?

 

[CKN]

Work with the Internet department initially and don't waste your time going to the dealership. When you decide on the vehicle-negotiate price with the Internet salesperson-then go to the dealership for final inspection and sign the paperwork. If you go to the dealership to test drive, and the sales person is bad-just give your first name and no contact info so you can deal with the Internet guy when you get home. Unfortunately, the dealerships have the way of selling cars locked in through legislation. Look at TELSA MOTORS-the want to sell cars factory direct and they are having a tough time due to franchise laws. It is what it is.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Best is narrow down to few vehicles, then use one of the car buying sites to get competing price from dealers in your area. Once you have several prices from dealers email 1 or 2 dealers with lowest price asking for more reduction, then go to the dealer that gives you the lowest price. You can get in and out in less than 1-2 hours, assume you get pre-approved finance with local credit union or bank.

 

[Lolvoguy]

Originally Posted By: Phishin

But anyway, I'm so tired of the same routine. The sales people in all the dealerships are either or high-energy and ignorant of the products they are trying to sell OR they are almost non-existent and don't seem interested in selling you a car anyways.

That's what you get when you (the dealership) hire people with little to no secondary education and offer them nothing but commissions on sales. Add to that the stress these salespeople have from their sales managers makes for one terribly stressful work environment that repels customers. Have a little heart and try to reason with one of them. I'm sure you'll find someone who can carry a conversation and who's willing to work with you to get you what you want, at a reasonable price

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Phishin

I'm in the market for a new vehicle. Time to retire the ol' K1500. I've been to nearly all the dealerships in my area: Chevy, Ford, Subaru, Honda, etc. etc. I won't go into a Chrysler store, no way. But anyway, I'm so tired of the same routine. The sales people in all the dealerships are either or high-energy and ignorant of the products they are trying to sell OR they are almost non-existent and don't seem interested in selling you a car anyways. What is going on? How can the 6 or 7 dealerships in my rural area all be so bad? Then I found this article today: http://time.com/money/3826562/buying-cars-online-hate-car-dealerships/ I'm not sure this is the answer, but if you work for a dealership to sell cars, why not be an informed salesman and have some tact when someone walks into your shop looking to drop $30-50k?

Absolutely right, especially considering most new vehicles these days cost as much as a small house...

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Portsmouth Ford are selling NEW 2015 F250 4x4 in my area for 27000. Well, at least ONE ... Then its a F O R D ;( I am sort of enamored with the Dodge rear Coil spring, 4 link rear suspension in their trucks now - shades of B-Body GM

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: Lolvoguy

Originally Posted By: Phishin

But anyway, I'm so tired of the same routine. The sales people in all the dealerships are either or high-energy and ignorant of the products they are trying to sell OR they are almost non-existent and don't seem interested in selling you a car anyways.

That's what you get when you (the dealership) hire people with little to no secondary education and offer them nothing but commissions on sales. Add to that the stress these salespeople have from their sales managers makes for one terribly stressful work environment that repels customers. Have a little heart and try to reason with one of them. I'm sure you'll find someone who can carry a conversation and who's willing to work with you to get you what you want, at a reasonable price

You don't need a secondary education to sell cars. It's not difficult to have product knowledge. You just have to read what the factory provides. Toyota for one (my kid used to sell Toyotas) has a great app that lists everything you want to know about a particular model for the salesperson-all you have to do is use it. I would imagine most manufacturers have something similar-at least in printed form. The commission model stinks. With few exceptions that's why you never sell the same salesperson twice at any given dealership. You work 60 hours a week and no matter what the deal is it seems every car is a Mini-yep that's a 100 bucks for the salesperson-tough to make a living that way.

 

[Lolvoguy]

Originally Posted By: grampi

Absolutely right, especially considering most new vehicles these days cost as much as a small house...

Where are these houses? I'd like to buy a house there. Heck, I could afford to pay cash for a few homes at that price

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: grampi

Absolutely right, especially considering most new vehicles these days cost as much as a small house...

Didn't know most cars sell for $800,000. Sad thing is they bring in people to teach the sales people to do all the things people complain about. They pretty much force our sales guys to get a customer name, cell, and email and if they do not buy they want them to pretty much harass them until they buy. When I bought my Mustang and my mom bought her Fusion, we cut all the sales people out and went directly to the General Manager of the dealer. That way he did not have to pay comission to a sales person.

 

[mrsilv04]

I was just trying to buy another Town and Country (used), and the salesman at the mega ChryslerJeepFiatCadillacFord dealership in the capital city, was more interested in selling me a $1200 paint and fabric protection plan (reminder: this was a used vehicle), and some sort of glass protection plan (which I cared so little about that I didn't even listen) ... that he absolutely forgot to get the sale. He was also stressing on how they turn over their inventory every 30 days (a lie), and how that some other salesman is looking for this van, so I better go hide it in behind the building while you decide (yet another lie). Never mind that this was a Chrysler CPO vehicle with no owner's manuals whatsoever, a scratched windshield from a bad windshield wiper, and it needed a front fender removed and repainted due to stress crack in the paint... and the metal was rusting underneath. Yeah, I stood up and walked out. Buying from them would have been a Landmark of a mistake.

 

[SuzukiGoat]

Be sire to get two competing dealerships into a pricing war...save you some money.

 

[Chris142]

You can't expect the salesman to know everything and every option on every car in the lot. I sure could not. But I would familiarize myself with say one type that's a big seller and try to only sell those.

 

[Spazdog]

I think it is a requirement that car salespeople not know anything about the products. The salesperson who went on the test drive with me was telling me about the RS package Cruze and how fast the V6 was. The Cruze does not come with a V6. The saleswoman that sold my wife her car knew a little about the small CUVs on her lot. Nothing about anything else. Didn't even know what a Chrysler 200 was. Actual quote: "Oh, these are really nice. When did these come out?" I honestly can't think of any salesperson in a Dealership that was really a car guy. Fast talking fake smile guy? Lots of those. Younger guy just chipping away at a paycheck. Few of those. Middle aged but still attractive female re-entering the job market? Yep.

 

[JTK]

It is a different game these days. I know the sales staff in all my local mega-dealerships seem to be constantly busy pushing paperwork, clicking the keyboard and fielding calls. You could walk the lots for hours and not have anyone hound you. I'm with the above suggestion that you start the process online and go from there. I've gone that route with most of my vehicle purchases since ~1999. I've gone as far as not even seeing the vehicle, nor test driving it! Did it all over the computer/phone, only to go to the dealership to sign and drive.

 

[Lolvoguy]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal

Sad thing is they bring in people to teach the sales people to do all the things people complain about. They pretty much force our sales guys to get a customer name, cell, and email and if they do not buy they want them to pretty much harass them until they buy. When I bought my Mustang and my mom bought her Fusion, we cut all the sales people out and went directly to the General Manager of the dealer. That way he did not have to pay comission to a sales person.

Riiiight. You do realize the commissions still get collected and go to the dealership, right?

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Lolvoguy

Riiiight. You do realize the commissions still get collected and go to the dealership, right?

Literally, the sales person on my car is the General Manager. I already bought it on D-Plan so I was buying it for under dealer invoice. That just allowed the dealer, my employer, to not have to pay another person in the process. I also had them skip the detail since I didn't want the dealer installed swirl package.

 

[Lapham3]

I know 'they say' that a good salesman can sell anything-and I realize since I've been a 'car guy' might know a bit...but I've about never run into a sales type who REALLY KNEW cars. I usually have more knowledge about the products-seems like too many lazy folks to me.

 

[DB_Cooper]

It is hard to sell cars honestly..pressure to maximize the "gross" and very, very high overhead costs. A totally antiqued expensive product distribution system that the customer must pay for eventually. Georgia makes more money selling the car via sales tax than the salesman will. Talk about a silent partner! Do your car shopping on Craigslist, eBay or local ads With Care and avoid the retail sellers. Best to buy from an individual. Avoid the used car lots that are placing ads like a private seller. If you do buy at a retail car sales company..you will have to pay for the mega parking lot with showroom, advertising, utilities, no-show relatives on the payroll and the owner's mansion/free demo/big vacations.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Does a sale person know anything about the car he/she selling ? How about a saleman insists that the car I was looking at has 16-valve in a 6-cylinder engine ? 4 cylinders have 3 valves and 2 cylinders have 2 valves to have 16 valves ?

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: Lolvoguy

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal

Sad thing is they bring in people to teach the sales people to do all the things people complain about. They pretty much force our sales guys to get a customer name, cell, and email and if they do not buy they want them to pretty much harass them until they buy. When I bought my Mustang and my mom bought her Fusion, we cut all the sales people out and went directly to the General Manager of the dealer. That way he did not have to pay comission to a sales person.

Riiiight. You do realize the commissions still get collected and go to the dealership, right?

Not only that, but I bet it's inefficient for the general manager to be doing sales, he probably ended up with the commission, he probably would have preferred a salesperson to handle it. I only expect them to know how to fill out the paperwork. When I went to buy my car, I knew more about it than the salesperson. It was a used car so he actually passed me off to someone else in the department that knew about the car I was interested in. He was pretty good, but wasn't familiar with recent recalls or problem areas of the car which I checked out first.