The One Where the Car Salesman Pissed Me Off
May 17, 2007 at 10:12 AM
by Ashleigh
Or .. how we take a long time to make decisions, or how you shouldn't be rude to prospective buyers.
I don't know about you, but The Husband and I take an incredibly long time to come to a decision about buying big-budget items like cars. We are also irrationally swayed by any hint of rudeness or annoyance on the part of the salesperson.
When I was doing my driver's licence I must have asked for catalogues from pretty much every small car manufacturer within a 10 km radius of our flat. I read through them, looked up reviews online, looked at the cars themselves in the showroom and worked out details. When it finally came time to buy a car, we went to the only showroom who had been helpful, told them what we wanted, test-drove our car, and bought it immediately.
Doing the research beforehand lets you make an immediate decision when you finally get around to handing over the cash.
So, I saw this advertisement in the newspaper from our own dealer, where we bought our current car. They're offering a 24 hour test drive on a Daihatsu Materia.
It's not the most attractive car, but it has good reviews, and more importantly it's a not too expensive step up from our current car, a Mitsubishi Space Star. It's also more fuel efficient and supposedly drives nicely.
Our car is due for replacement in January 2008 when it reaches 100 000 km and needs lots of work done on it. I know it's only May 2007, but I'd like to know what I'm doing before the end of the year so we can budget and plan.
Anyway, I went into the dealer on Tuesday afternoon, and asked the director about the test drive. He said I should ring to book it and then they'd place me on the agenda.
So I rang yesterday. And I got hold of someone who couldn't understand why a person might like to have their plans finalised 8 months in advance of when they actually want to replace the car. Sigh.
So I didn't get the testdrive.
I got told to come back in a few months time even though I'm already a customer and I was very likely to just buy one of these cars when it came time to replace mine.
Now I'm pissed off with the dealer and I'm looking at other cars.
Comments
Hmmm, I can definitel relate to your feelings - a few years ago I was looking to replace my car in NZ, and took my Dad 'along for the ride' with me. Went to a large dealership, where the salesman immediately went to ask Dad what he was looking for (ignoring me) ... Dad said straightaway that it wasn't for me, it was his daughter that was looking ... the salesman's reply "so, what is your lovely daughter looking for?" That was like a red rag to a bull - my reply was "the lovely daughter is standing right here and speak for herself ... I'm looking for a Mazda with non-negotiable items of 4-door, manual with aircon" etc etc ... the guy look suitably embarrassed, but as I said to Dad, even if I'd found the most perfect car in the world at that dealership they wouldn't have made a sale from me ... ever! Bless salesmen, they still have a lot to learn about customer service! :/
With you too! Aggrivating, annoying anything! This is the kind of attitude that freaks me out anytime, is this a Dutch thing? You know: like you should be grateful they allow you to bring your money? And the sad thing is, it's not only cardealers...
yeah, that is annoying as hell.
I�m glad I found a GREAT car dealership in a town close by, that services my care even though it wasn�t bought there (another �dutch thing). They always live up to their promises, they always arrange everything (coffee, and alternative rental car, etc.) and they even hold the door open. Gotta love that. My next car is definitely coming from their store... the gentleman-ness won me over.
It's amazing how short-sighted some people can be. If you were a newly-qualified driver and/or a new customer, maybe their reaction would make sense. Oh well, their loss!
Very short-sighted of them. I'm impressed with your planning though. I can never get myself to believe in six months time actually arriving, so tend to do everything at the last minute.
Yep- I am with you. Michael and I test drove cars while he was here over Easter. We said we will be buying a car .Probably at the end of June. We aren't exactly sure of the time, but we WILL be buying one. At the dealer where I have my car inspected / worked on etc.. we actually looked at two cars . The salesman said he would work up an offer for a SUV for me and a cabriot for Michael. With my van as a trade in . My van is three years old and from the same brand as the SUV would be. That was a month ago and he hasn't even bothered to call us. Apparently they don't actually have a need to sell cars. We will be going elsewere.
I think it is perfectly reasonable for you to want to test drive right now.
May 17, 2007 2:46 PM