When I was 18, I took my sister to look for cars at used dealerships (not to buy anything, just so she could get a feel for what kind of cars she liked). The sales guy came by and asked us what we were looking for, I said "just browsing"

He persisted "what are you looking for?"

I said (as if I were looking for myself) "nothing in particular, just something reliable and fun to drive."

"You look like you're in pretty good shape, you must be a good driver... I have special car to show you." (We walk over to a VW Corrado)

"Not everyone can handle a car like this, but I bet you could -- it's made for the autobahn!"

I said (playing along) "oh yeah, it must be fast then?"

"Oh yeah, it'll do 180 all day long!"

Well, what else could I say but "I don't think I handle it..."

 

pcar964-

Wow, I forgot about this experience until I read yours. My mom lives in SLC, Utah...which gets a lot of snow. I took her into the Audi/Porsche dealership there and man, what idiots. My mom trusted my judgement and just wanted a car that would work better in the snow.


myself: "Hi, I'm here with my mom. She would love to trade in her year-old Lexus 300 ES and pay whatever difference for either an A6 or an Audi Allroad. If you don't want to take her car in on trade-in, she'll sell it on her own but she would still like to write a check and walk out today with a new car."

salesman: "Oh, you don't want an Audi. You want a Passat. It's the same thing for half the price."

myself: "That may be, but own an S4 and have really loved it's performance in the snow. I think she'd just prefer to get the A6 or Allroad."

salesman: "Tell you what, I'll get the keys for the Passat and you tell me."

myself: "Again, if it's all the same to you, we'd rather not."

salesman: "Well, we won't even talk about the Audi until you've driven the VW."

we left.

Man, that went against everything I thought I knew about sales; having a salesman trying to 'down sale' me while I'm begging to pay for the more expensive car.

unbelievable.

 

On the surface that may seem true, but if they have a better markup on that Passat or they've been sitting on that car for a long time, it makes more sense for the salesman to push it.

 

phantomias, that is amazing. The funny part is, these people actually think they're being slick salesmen! haha

 

Bout a year ago last Christmas received call from salesperson at Theives, I mean Reeves Porsche. It seems they just took in a very low mileage gt3 on trade and I should hurry in. It was a very busy Sat afternoon but I rushed up to the dealership anyway. The car was a beautful red gt3 with low miles (911 actually) but it had a large ribbon wrapped around it. Not only could I not drive it, I couldn't even open the doors. Salesperson said they wanted to keep "911" on the odometer til the car sold. I think they honestly assumed somebody would buy the car whithout a test-drive, let alone buy it without sitting in the GD thing.

Jack

 

cute idea.

 

Let's see. I'm 56,,,, so, that means I can expect some nice 52 year old babes !

 

half your age + 7 - so, 35?

 

I feel the same way about my sales guy. He takes his 993 turbo to PDE regularly and actually knows more about the car and its option than I do!

 

Try to sneak that by the Carrera GT guys.

 

so i walked in to Beverly Hills Porsche and sat down with a sales advisor...i started to discuss options. i asked how much an option was, which apparently was the indicator for him to start a lecture. he began by telling me that the cost of options shouldn't matter...."i don't get people that argue about the options...i mean, if you can't afford a rolex, don't buy one....go out a buy a breitling instead until you can afford the rolex"

at this point, i looked down at the breitling i was weearing....and thought "hm, time to go"

even more amazing was that i was asking the price of the Power Package!!!! sorry for quibbling, but 20% of the price of the car is pretty freakin significant where i come from

m.

 

I guess in Beverley Hills a Porsche is a "poor" man's car.

 

Wow, these are great! ITs unbelievable to this people really say this stuff! I could never imagine working somewhere and honestly giving someone a crap story!

Surprisingly I have always been taken seriously when I walk into the local Porsche dealerships, and I am quite thankful for that! My appearance is more "Harley store" than Porsche. Most sales people usually become very responsive and interested once we start talking and see I actually know my sh*t too. I have had funny stories with other cars though!

When I wanted to order my 20AE GTI I had to call like every dealership in the state, and then my surrounding states. VW obviously forgot to inform their dealerships that they were releasing a rare and limited model. Half the dealerships told me the car doesnt exist. The rest (dealer allocation was limited to just a couple cars or so) told me there were no more left in the country and I had to buy the one on their lot. Others told me the option I wanted doesnt exist. They would just order my a normal GTI and it would be the same. (HA!!!!!!) Finally a dealer in a neighboring state KNEW what I wanted, and had an allocation for the car and the option (only one option was available). Car was not even built yet so I had to wait, but it worked out.

When a family member wanted to buy a new car-- We checked out several... Mercedes M, Lexus, Toyota, BMW, etc... This was right before the Cayenne was released. That would have made their decision much easier though. At Toyota we were looking at some crappy SUV and the sales guy took us around, and we drove it, blah blah blah. Anyways, he wanted us to drive this one other one but forgot the key and said to wait with the car and he will go grab it real quick. While he was gone for a minute, some other sales guy ran up to us SCREAMING!!!!! "GET AWAY FROM THAT CAR!!!!!!!! DON'T TOUCH IT!!!!!! GET AWAY!!!!!!!" I mean like a freaking lunatic! HAHAHA. My jaw hit the floor! I will just say, Momma don't take sh*t and he got an earful! Rest assured, we did go away and never went back.

That dude must seriously have been off his meds. Ide be ashamed of my own business to have such employees!!!

 

What could he have been thinking? Seriously... Did he think you were trying to steal the car or something? I'm just wondering what in the world made him start screaming like that.

 

This thread says an awful lot about how sales people see the customer. Let's count the ways...stupid, gullable, dangerous, thieves...

You wonder where these ideas come from. Does sales training put these ideas into their heads? Do the "old hands" teach them these things? Do they learn them from real life experiences?

What's perhaps more concerning is that they have "prejudged" you before you even open your mouth.

You have to wonder whether there is a better sales model out there (did Saturn fail because of the cars or for some other reason?) that would make it easier/comfortable for the customer to buy, and still make the sales guy and dealership money? And I'm talking about real live human contact here not an online selling operation.