Now pointy car purchase!

Sporky

olafgarten said:

You could wait for the new Supra, that will probably be around your budget. 

I was "invited" to put a deposit on one, but (a) I think it'll be a bit thuggish, and (b) the local Toyota dealers to home and work are both bloody awful.

dbphoto

One of my neighbours has just bought a new Lexus LC500 2+2 coupe and it’s bloody lovely (but then it should be for around £75k)

Sporky

Alpine may have knocked themselves out - just spent 9 minutes in a web chat thing trying to find out the rough delivery time, only to have the bogwoppit tell me he can't tell me and I should contact the dealer. The web chat is on the dealer's web site. The website for the actual specific physical showroom.

stickyfiddle

Sporky said:

Alpine may have knocked themselves out - just spent 9 minutes in a web chat thing trying to find out the rough delivery time, only to have the bogwoppit tell me he can't tell me and I should contact the dealer. The web chat is on the dealer's web site. The website for the actual specific physical showroom.

That's actually rather impressive level of dumbassery. Did said bogwhippit pass the Turing test?

Sporky

Hard to tell - it seemed a bit more flexible than a normal expert system and there wasn't that feeling of a "click" when a person takes over. I've emailed the dealer with the question (and whether there's a demonstrator) and suggested they have a look at whether it's worth having a chatbot...

dbphoto

The web chat bogwoppit (WTF does that mean?) will be sitting in some random office somewhere, possibly not even in the UK.

Sporky

Bogwoppit was a children's story by Ursula Moray Williams.

The word then got used for those weirdos who hang out in the toilets at bars trying to get you to give them tips for handing you the paper towels, and I've since used it to describe anyone whose job is a waste of everyone's time and money.

I don't get why you'd have a useless web chat thing. We have one on our website at work which is always answered by one of Sales Support - they can answer most peoples' queries, and they redirect for complex stuff. Standard delivery time shouldn't be hard to answer.

stickyfiddle

dbphoto said:

The web chat bogwoppit (WTF does that mean?) will be sitting in some random office somewhere, possibly not even in the UK.

Probably true, but then it's almost totally pointless

dbphoto

I installed web chat on my site but it drove me and my guys nuts after a month so I removed it.

I can only see it working for larger business with a dedicated sales team, but I'm thinking the bigger the business the less likely that sales support team will be in individual branches and more likely all in an office somewhere.

Sporky

I got a reply from the dealer, so setting up a test drive for early December. Looks like a year's waiting list but they want rid of their Premier Edition demonstrator. I wonder how brutally it's been ragged...

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/24/590x/Alpine-A110-Premiere-Edition-888427.jpg

Lodious

Please buy it, they look amazing :-)

FX_Munkee

Sporky said:

I got a reply from the dealer, so setting up a test drive for early December. Looks like a year's waiting list but they want rid of their Premier Edition demonstrator. I wonder how brutally it's been ragged...

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/24/590x/Alpine-A110-Premiere-Edition-888427.jpg

<cough/>

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/chris-harris-alpine-a110-fire 

Sporky

Well, as I'm not planning on buying a pre-production prototype I'm not too fussed.

They do want full list price for the demonstrator, though that's still less than any on Pistonheads or similar.

Steffo

The Morgan would be my choice, but have you considered a threewheeler? Apart from not fitting your requirements at all is perfect for a mid-life crisis and bags of fun. And leaves a bag of change for a mid-life crisis guitar or two...

Sporky

I do think the 3-wheeler is ace, but completely the wrong sort of ace.

And I have too many guitars. I only play none of them.

Sporky

I now have a customer visit tomorrow which takes me literally right past the Lotus and Morgan dealer.

This sort of message from the universe surely cannot be ignored.

Sporky

Hmm. That didn't go well.

You'd think if you walked into a specialist dealer with enough money to buy anything on the forecourt that you'd get a chance to try to buy something. They only have one Morgan person, and they were on holiday. The Lotus chap walked right past me (despite a "Hello") to chat to an old friend. So I tried some of the other people but each one only does one make.

Alpine are back in the lead.

Garthy

What about a Corvette? They get a hell of a lot of repeat owners too so must be doing something well.

Strat_a_tat_tat

Sporky said:

Hmm. That didn't go well.

You'd think if you walked into a specialist dealer with enough money to buy anything on the forecourt that you'd get a chance to try to buy something. They only have one Morgan person, and they were on holiday. The Lotus chap walked right past me (despite a "Hello") to chat to an old friend. So I tried some of the other people but each one only does one make.

That's a poor show.  Which dealer was that?

Sporky

I got a call and a suitable apology, so back in a couple of weeks, booked for tests of the Morgan and the Evora 400.