Clueless Car Salesmen

The BBQ Pit
1

“What would it take to get you into this car today? … Now, I’m going to write down a number…”

Just when I thought I was in the 21st century, I stepped back into the attitudes of the 70s by making the mistake of trying to buy a car at an old school dealership.

Or maybe we just by chance got a young failed MBA who decided he’d try working for Uncle Larry at the family dealership, even though he had no people skills.

We walked in, told him we’d decided to buy a Corolla, what color, features, etc. we wanted. And what price we were willing to pay. Then just asked Yes or No – would he match our price or should we drive across town?

He was a young, hip-looking guy, but must have been in the middle of some training/pledge (& hazing?) period…

He talked down to us, told awkward jokes (Uncle Larry’s “Women Driver” jokes), and even pulled the “Well, I’ll have to spend ten minutes pretending to get approval from my manager…” bit.

I’m betting he wasn’t getting a price from the manager but a pep talk: “Don’t let the customer have any control. YOU take control! Don’t let them tell you about the car (when they discover you don’t know anything about that model). YOU tell THEM what they should know!”

He actually wheeled out the old clichés: “What would it take to get you into this car today?” (Ummm, come close to our price maybe?), and “How can you put a price on safety?” (I’m not, I’m putting a price on a Toyota).

After trying to interest us in other models, and fancy upgrade packages, we finally had to get a word in edgewise and remind him why we were there. And then, when we asked for his best price, he disappeared again, came back and wrote down an absurdly high figure.

“That’s your best price?” we asked.

*“Yes, well, that’s a very good price.”
*
“Okay, bye. As we told you, we’ve got a budget.”

*“But we need to come up with a fair price.”
*
“We did come up with a fair price – that includes a decent profit for you.” We say this as we stand to leave. He panics.

“But that’s not our FINAL priiiiice…” he whines.

“Excuse me? We asked you for your best price, and you wrote down a very large figure.”

"Well, well, that wasn’t the best price. That was just the price I wrote down.
I mean, that was with the upgrade package… " (that we’d said we didn’t want)

“All right, what is your best price?”

*“Well, it can be better than the price I wrote down.”
*
“OK, is your best price at all close to our price?” (he consults with Uncle Larry again)

*“OK, now, what would it take to get you into this car right now?”
*
“Matching our price. Look, we told you we didn’t want to waste our time negotiating. If you don’t want to sell us the car, we’ll shop around, and get it cheaper elsewhere.”

*“B- B- but…”
*
And as we walk out, he yells “But that’s not our priiiiice…”

2

Reminds me of a time we were (not that seriously) looking for a new truck. Checked out a dealers lot, and Billy-bob salesman attached himself to us. Long story short, we asked him what we’d get for our old truck. Much humming and hawing occured. I knew from research that the truck had a book value of 8k, and I could easily have sold it for that on the street given it’s good condition. I figured he’d offer us 4k - 6k - on the higher range if he really wanted to make a sale.

He came in with a “generous” offer of $1800. I just looked at him like he had a fungus growing out of his head. I said “well that’s that then.” And left. With him calling after us “I’m sure we could do better!”

He actually had the nerve to call me that evening (he had our # from some paperwork we’d filled out) and say that he had “special permission” to offer us $2500. I told him his offer was insulting, and implied that I was a complete moron.

We sold that truck several years (and many Km) later for $6500. I know that they need to make a profit buying and selling, but really - do they need to try to screw people over so much?

3

This happened a number of years ago, so it may have been quasi-acceptable; but a salesman blew his chance* by referring to my then-wife as “the little woman.”

Granted, she is just a shade over the “five-foot-two” of song, and at the time was about one-oh-five sopping wet; but she is emphatically not “little.” The salesman trailed us halfway across the lot, little realizing that I was doing him a favor by getting her out of there before she moidalated him.

*We knew what we wanted, we knew the dealer had it, and we knew from research that the list price was very close to what we wanted to pay.

4

Waaall, your little lady there didn’t need to go worryin’ her pretty little head about features and prices an’ all that. Just needed to know the color, is all…

5

That’s the way buying a used car works. If you didn’t want to haggle over a price, you could have given him your bottom line and your phone number on a card and told him to call you if he changed his mind and walked out. If you go to the next dealership and think you’re going to get a pat answer for what the best price is, I think you’re going to be disappointed and you’ll find all dealerships are “old school”. Don’t hate the playah; hate the game.

6

That’s how buying a used car USED to work. Nowadays, even Great Grandpa can and will go onto the internet to check out basic info and ballpark prices. The dealerships that are old school can hold firm, and they might be able to get a few people to play their game. There’s a new game in town, though, and when the old school dealerships get tired of watching potential customers walk out the door because they’ve insulted the customer’s intelligence, those dealerships might learn the new rules.

Or go out of business. I won’t weep for those dealerships that do fold. The old school was based on screwing the customers as hard as they could, and while that is good for the business in the short term, the dealerships will have to learn the new game.

7

I am 43 years old and have never bought a car, especially a new car. When I was younger, my parents bought me a few cars. Now where I live, I don’t need a car and I love it.

Personally, I abhor bargaining. I do because I do not want to argue with someone over prices. I hate the little games involved, with me matching wits with someone who has been trained in sales.

In everyday life, I do not bargain or haggle. I refuse to do so. I hate it, and find it totally unnecessary. When I buy something, I want to know what the price of something is. It is not my place to quote a price, I am buying, not selling. In a car deal, if the salesman asked me “What would it take to put you in this car today?” I would immediately grab my shit and walk out the door. Same as the real estate agent who always chimes this bullshit line after showing someone some property, “Well, I have two other bidders looking today…” If that was true, why isn’t the salesperson with them closing the deal?

I started a thread talking about my abhorrance towards bargaining and haggling.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=571610&highlight=bargaining

But to buy a car or a home, one has to go through this misery, this sales routine, how much are you willing to pay, and all that garbage. I’d rather be sodomized by a porcupine with a 13 inch rod.

8

Some people love to haggle. I’m not one of them. That’s why I’ve bought my last three cars from CarMax. It’s like buying a refrigerator; the sticker price is THE price, no dicking around. And you don’t walk out wondering whether you’ve been screwed or not.

9

IME, dealerships haven’t changed since the internet. Going on the internet before used car shopping won’t help unless you specifically know what makes, models and years you’ll be looking at. Even back in the day, there was KBB, and one could check basic prices there too but the salesman still haggled; that’s the game they’re taught to play.

10

…because you know you’ve been screwed, and exactly how much.

11

Heh. Not really; I got what I thought were fair prices for cars in excellent condition based on comparison pricing. I have no doubt that I could have gotten a better deal, though, if I had run around a bunch of dealerships, submitting competing “bids.” And I’m sure this is what a good haggler with time on his side would might do, which leaves me out.

They also have a 5-day “buyer’s remorse” clause. My wife decided that the car she got wasn’t quite what she wanted, and returned it 5 days later, no questions asked, no pressure.

No, I’m not a shill for CarMax. :slight_smile:

12

I’m not saying buying from CarMax is a bad idea; I would. Their cars are overpriced, but they overcharge everyone the same amount, and their median markup is probably roughly equal to that of a “normal” dealer.

In other words, CarMax is good for people who get hosed by regular dealers, and bad for people who don’t.

13

Agreed. A good bargainer, who’s done his research ahead of time, can beat CarMax’s price at an “old school” dealer. Someone who abhors bargaining and just wants a final number will get a better deal at CarMax than elsewhere.

14

Why didn’t you immediately ask for a different salesman when the guy started jerking you around? Or ask to talk to the sales manager? The guy was obviously completely clueless and inexperienced. Salesmen usually can’t help themselves, though: even when I come in completely prepared and even tell them that I’ve sold vehicles before, they can’t stop themselves from trying at least one old “if I could, would you?” ploy. I never answer that type of question, because it gets you going down a path you don’t want to walk.

15

You need to talk to “Chop” Tobin…he can get you a deal/screwing of a lifetime!

16

The last time I bought a car, I was pleasantly surprised by the dealer being respectful and kind. He wasn’t generous: I paid more than I wanted to. But it was within my budget and the actual car I got, while nothing special, is the most reliable I could have asked for. It’s not the game: it’s the player, or not.

17

When we were shopping for the Corolla five years ago (I give it two thumbs up after driving it for five years, digs, by the way), we actually encountered a car salesman who talked only to my husband (we made it clear that the car was for me). He’d ask my husband a question, I’d answer it, he’d ask my husband a follow-up question, I’d answer that; it was actually funny, it was so blatantly sexist. No, we didn’t buy a car from him. :slight_smile:

We ended up buying a car from a friend who worked at a dealership, and I wouldn’t recommend that - I felt constrained from bargaining more ruthlessly.

18

The tip I got from a patient is when they go to “talk to the manager” tell them “When you come back, if I hear any word from your mouth except ‘yes’ my offer goes down $1000”. Hold to this and keep dropping your price $1000 each time they say anything different. They’ll come around pretty quickly. I also find it useful to go car shopping when I have PMS. The only problem I have is that the last time I bought a car it needing a few add-ons and the next day they called to tell me that the charge would be $800 extra. I gave the guy 30 minutes to call back and tell me the car was mine for the price we agreed on or the deal was off, and he gave up pretty quickly.

19

This works especially well when you’re bargaining for emergency abdominal surgery. :smiley:

I found out last week that it’s not just car dealers using time-honored bullshit sales tactics. I went to a department store to buy Mrs. J. a jewelry item for our anniversary, and the saleswoman didn’t want to tell me how much it cost. “How much are you willing to spend?”* Cripes lady, just tell me how much the damn thing is selling for (this was at Macy’s, home of the 50% + 20% + 10% + an extra 15% with coupon jewelry “sale”, where it’s hard enough to figure out how much jewelry is going for even with an upfront price).

*I also needed clothes, but I was afraid that if I picked out what I wanted in menswear, the clerk would say “What’ll it take to put your butt in this pair of pants today?”

20

Same "talk to the husband story happened to me (which I’ll just paste from a previous thread):

I went with my wife to the car dealership so she could test drive a couple of cars after doing all her research, printing out Blue Book pages online, etc.

She kept asking the salesman questions about certain models she’d like to test drive, and he kept addressing all his answers to me. She’d ask another, he’d turn to me to answer, rinse, repeat.

After about 15 of these questions, I said to him “Why aren’t you answering my wife? I’m not here to buy a car.”

His response was more or less “Well you’re the one who handles the money (hah hah) why else would you be here (hah hah)”

My response was more or less “Seeing as how she’s the Controller / CFO for (large local company), she <a> handles the money and <b> I only gave her a ride, and now I’m giving her a ride elsewhere.”

We went to another Subaru dealer, their competitor actually, and she was treated immediately with respect and intelligence. We were given a great deal, and drove her car off the lot that day.

This is Portland, Oregon, not what I would call the Land of the Good 'Ol Boy. Baffling.