Is anyone here a car salesman?

DanR

At the end of the day all businesses are there to make money, bar some charity's.

We make it via selling cars so if there's a deal to be done I'd rather do it and move on but the joys of the internet means the days of thousands off a used car are gone as why would you come to view my Octavia at £18,000 when 15 mile away same car is £17,000.

This means there is less scope to discount and does mean PX prices are a lot keener to keep stock prices right.

You do get some groups that will run big margins but they are generally happy to sell less cars.

If you need to make £20,000 profit a month you could sell 10 cars makeing £2000 each or twenty making £1000.

Now if you assumed both dealerships looked after the customers and they had a positive experience the dealership that took more sales has more advocates out there pushing your brand.

Im a firm believer that brands should look to retain more profit in their new cars but price them more realistically.

Look at Vauxhall for example who discount like mental and price up a new Insignia at list and what they are on forecourts at three years old.

thecolourbox

When we bought our car, to he honest there wasn't anything any of the sales people offered by way of assistance that was any use whatsoever so in the various places I just told them to leave us alone as we will know what we want when we see it.

Two places the sales person ignored this, first was Arnold Clark where I was followed for ten minutes at a distance of 10 yards which quite frankly weird, then he went off on one when I said I wasn't interested in one of those Peugeot go karts so I told him to do one.

The second was partially my fault as I had to engage with him in order to test drive a Yaris (at the hell hole that is Car Craft). But he was one of those that made a massive song and dance about trying to get me the best deal, kept buzzing off back to his manager to verify the deal with his boss etc, even exchanged mobile numbers so I could phone him back and arrange to chose the deal etc. He comes back saying "right this is rock bottom we've knocked loads off the price so let me know when you're happy and we'll do this". Thankfully though in the meantime I'd gone on their website to see of they had any other of the same kind of car etc. And spotted this very same car £1500 cheaper online than their so called " best price" which is quite a big difference on a bloody Yaris. I showed him my phone screen and just waved him goodbye. Cheeky bastard still tried to sell it me at the online price. That said from what I've heard since then, I did rather better out of it by not giving them any of my business! As somebody else has said, the sales process is a good indicator of after sales process as well

paulnb57

Thanks for all the interesting replies, we ended up negotiating a deal that we were happy with, with a small amount of finance, car is now being built......

DanR

@thecolourbox if you had invested £750,000 into building a car showroom then spent £1,000,000 on buying 100 used cars.

Then drove past on a Saturday afternoon and saw customers walking around your forecourt while your staff you were paying were just sat inside drinking coffee how would you feel?

Moe_Zambeek

DanR said:

@thecolourbox if you had invested £750,000 into building a car showroom then spent £1,000,000 on buying 100 used cars.

Then drove past on a Saturday afternoon and saw customers walking around your forecourt while your staff you were paying were just sat inside drinking coffee how would you feel?

Based on my recent experience, you'd feel just like the owner of the franchised Merc garage I visited in November or every Audi and VW place I've ever been in.

This is one of the main reasons I've had 4 Subarus from a local family owned place, although I do love the cars too

DanR

So your saying that the Subaru dealership staff never approached you and just left you alone until you waved your debit card and pointed at a car?

Moe_Zambeek

No, I'm saying the Merc, VW and Audi people all sat on their arses and *completely* ignored me, whereas the Subaru people asked if they could help, knew their stock, gave me some keys and said 'come back in an hour or two'. Then the sales guy did some numbers, we negotiated, no one got up from their desks to check if they had authority, no persistent attempts to sell me stuff I had already told them I didn't want, no pressure. At that point the debit card was waved, to take the £100 deposit and the balance on collection a week later. Very easy. 

The franchised Merc palace in particular was funny, I went in, spoke to the receptionist, told them which car I was interested in, and she said someone would be right over. No other customers on the site. After 10 minutes wandering aimlessly, the guy from the Smart car section took pity on us and came over and asked if he could help though he then said he couldn't do anything with Mercedes. We left after that.

DanR

See this is the dilemma.

You're unhappy that nobody spoke to you, colourbox was unhappy that someone spoke to him.

The manufacturer mystery shops generally expect you to speak to them within 2 minutes.

Whatever we do someone will complain we're doing it wrong.

Ive had customers want to discuss £30,000 Superbs with details on finance when they have ten minutes.

The FCA expect any finance presentation to include a full explanation of any products they are eligible for, to find eligibility we have our terms of business that we have to explain followed by an eligibility questionnaire, were also timed have to give a minimum of two minutes on each product and we have four.

The FCA also do mystery shops so we have to do it properly as I wouldn't like to be the person who costs the branch a fine and suspension our credit licence so if we're not given the time then you won't get figures.

Be interesting to know which motor group the Merc, VW and Audi belonged to.

EricTheWeary

When we bought MrsTheWeary's car we had pretty much decided what we wanted and went out expecting to spend £7k (or whatever it was) that day. Went to two VW dealers were we kicked tyres, went to the loo and tried to get someone to talk to us. Then we went to the Seat dealer with whom we had a friendly conversation, a cup of coffee and bought the car. 
I don't think there is a dilemma, if it's only between being ignored or given a ridiculous sales pitch then that's a problem but if someone speaks to you like a reasonable human being and is pleasant and helpful I'm pretty sure most people find that acceptable. 

This morning I went with my son to a DJ shop. It's a bit out the way and we were the only customers in there. The chap behind the counter did speak to us but couldn't be arsed to move from having his feet on the desk. This is a place with little passing trade and we were asking about a specific product so I think we seemed like a potential sale but he couldn't be arsed to move ten foot to show us something. His time so precious that with no other customers in the shop a  potential £300 sale didn't matter. Afterwards we went to Costa and I was served by a pleasant, helpful young woman who should probably be selling VWs or DJ equipment. Honestly, I'm not asking for a lot.

thecolourbox

DanR said:

@thecolourbox if you had invested £750,000 into building a car showroom then spent £1,000,000 on buying 100 used cars.

Then drove past on a Saturday afternoon and saw customers walking around your forecourt while your staff you were paying were just sat inside drinking coffee how would you feel?

@DanR ;I'd probably feel more peeved that my sales person tried to mug off two potentially naive first time buyers by charging 1.5 times their own asking price as some kind of bargain basement deal.

It's not that I wanted to be ignored, it's nice to be greeted and asked if they can help, but surely if the answer is a polite no thanks that's reasonable? We knew our budget, we knew what size of car we wanted, we didn't need finance, so literally all we required was a test drive when we found one, and somebody to take our money assuming all is in order. There was nothing for the sales person to need to do, if they had the right car they'd have got the sale - we were well researched so knew the cars available in our bracket, and I had to assure the Arnold Clark tit that I had eyes and therefore did not need a running commentary of which car was which, I was quite capable of reading the names on the back and the prices on the front thank you very much!

Moe_Zambeek

DanR said:

See this is the dilemma.

You're unhappy that nobody spoke to you, colourbox was unhappy that someone spoke to him.

The manufacturer mystery shops generally expect you to speak to them within 2 minutes.

Whatever we do someone will complain we're doing it wrong.

Ive had customers want to discuss £30,000 Superbs with details on finance when they have ten minutes.

The FCA expect any finance presentation to include a full explanation of any products they are eligible for, to find eligibility we have our terms of business that we have to explain followed by an eligibility questionnaire, were also timed have to give a minimum of two minutes on each product and we have four.

The FCA also do mystery shops so we have to do it properly as I wouldn't like to be the person who costs the branch a fine and suspension our credit licence so if we're not given the time then you won't get figures.

Be interesting to know which motor group the Merc, VW and Audi belonged to.

I agree, it's hard to keep everyone happy, but in the Merc case I was interested in a specific car on their forecourt; I told the receptionist exactly that and asked if someone could get the keys so we could have a look. To my mind, that should be enough to signal I'm not just browsing and that I'm actively asking for help. To be ignored in that situation was enough to signal they were either not interested or were just poorly organised. 

The odd thing is this was Edinburgh Merc, who are with EasternWestern motor group, who are usually very good (including their VW and Lexus group who we visited this time round).

olafgarten

I had a good experience recently with buying a car. It was already a grand off the lost price as it had been sat at the dealership for a month and a half. Managed to negotiate 2 years servicing and another grand off. The salesman seemed honest enough but he walked in the opposite direction of the office space to go and check with his boss. 

robgilmo

Car dealers round here buy shit heaps at auction then sell them on for way way more than you can buy privately. Tight margins my arse.