Incredibly, a Used Car Salesman is cloying, insulting, racist, pushy and presumptive.

A preface: I bought the car because I badly wanted the car.

Okay. I go searching for a nice used Nissan Quest. It will be my third. I love 'em. I find one listed at a local dealer. Go and look. Out of my price range. The salesman is just so goddamned overly friendly. I don’t have ANY use for strangers who call me " bro ". I’m not your “bro”. I’m a fucking commission with a pulse to you, asshole.

So. The car is too pricey, but on the way back to my car we walk by a Quest. Older, but primo. With plates, clearly owned by someone inside. He looks at me, asks me to wait. Turns out the current owners are inside at that very moment, trying to turn it in on trade for a new car. Bingo ! I put down a hunnerd dollars, a few days later the deal goes through.

So far, I’m “bro”. And I get clapped on the back several times, which I detest.

The day I am to go and buy the car, I get a call. Spoken in the most insultingly stereotypical Asian accent, a voice says, " Hello, this is X-Town Nissan, The car you are waiting for is ready to be picked up, along with some fried rice and pork dish. " I literally said, " Uh, hello??" It was this dick calling me, trying to be amusing. He said, " Oh just kidding around, Mad Dog. " I’ve now been promoted from Bro to Mad Dog. Am I lucky or what?

I said, " Well, my Asian daughter and I will be coming in to get this car in a few hours, okay BRO ? " Dead silence. Then he laughed and said, " Oh heh, good one. See yo soon Bro. "

I repeat this to my daughter, who is South Korean. We both pack into the wife’s car, get dropped off and walk in. The guy sees me, sees daughter, goes completely white. All of a sudden, that Teflon slick façade is shot to shit. Asshole. He comes over and says, " Hey, okay, well the car is ready and this is John, he’ll be taking all of your info okay there, Bro? " Couldn’t even LOOK at my daughter, who is 15 and eyeing him rather coolly.

I got one more Mad Dog out of him but it was a lame attempt. Seriously considered talking to his manager but what the hell- for all I know his manager is more racist than he is and what is the POINT? I am not going to change this fuckwad’s mind set if I DO complain to management.

Lesson to daughter? Rare will she meet a racist whose mind set can be altered through a confrontation. And, confront when it will be of some practical use, unless you are so outraged that you need to confront to maintain some self-respect.

I was offended for myself AND my child, but I chose not to blow it up into a big deal. Perhaps I was wrong there, but I saw no value in it.

I must say, this speck of shit singlehandedly reinforced every bad stereotype of a used car salesman that I’ve ever heard in my life.

I know that the righteous thing would have been to walk away with my money and tell him in a loud voice for all of the customers to clearly hear just what I thought of his awful racist comments.

Maybe I’m just tired of the fighting in this regard, I don’t know. I do know that anything I did would have made zero difference to this prick. -sigh-

Cartooniverse

I recall a thread or two where I thought that you blew a supposed racial slight out of proportion. Now we have this incident where I think that you were way too kind. I wouldn’t have thrown a loud tantrum in front of everyone. I would have definitely had a talk with the salesman’s manager before I let the deal go through. At the very least, he would have been reprimanded and you could have gotten a better deal on the Nissan.

I think you did the right thing by avoiding a direct confrontation with the [del]asshole[/del]salesperson.

Now that you’ve bought the car and driven it off, do the right thing again, call the dealership, demand to speak to the manager, and calmly but politely ask them what they plan to do about…

If their answer is not satisfactory (and I, personally, would be demanding the salesperson’s head – but I’m not you and this is very much your call), I would inform them that you will be taking this matter further – and follow through on that (BBB? Some other organizations that deal with this sort of stuff? Are they a certified dealership for some make of new car – maybe contact the manufacturer and inquire if they want to be associated with a dealership behaving this way… There should be more than one way of hurting them).

You behaved correctly (IMHO). You didn’t cut off the nose to spite the face, and got the car on what I assume would have to have been a decent deal. Now don’t let them get away with this racism!

Yeah, you totally gave that guy a commission. I’d have pitched a real fit. Well, actually I probably wouldn’t have been able to make my brain process what I’d actually heard. I’d have decided surely it had been a hallucination, because… really? I’m glad you brought your daughter in - it’s good for kids to see that assholes are generally real cowards.

Mayn… Mayn, bro… Bromayn… Dog! High five!

I’m speechless.

I agree with the first part, no sense harming yourself to “get back” at a guy like this. The second part… I’m not sure it’s worth it to go huge lengths to get the guy fired or disciplined.

If the manager/owner is on your side, you won’t need to do anything more than mention it to him in a polite phone call. If the manager isn’t on your side, all the BBB’s in the world aren’t going to do a damn thing to even get the salesman a stern talking to.

I don’t think he’s racist. I think he’s so incredibly stupid that he ought to have his brain replaced with a rapid chinchilla. It would improve his intelligence, and then we could see the Chinchilla piloting his body like a robot.

Specifically, where is the racism? The car is made in Asia. Fried rice is an Asian dish. If you bought a Porsche, he might say it comes with bratwurst and sauerkraut, or a Chevy comes with hotdogs and apple pie. I say you over reacted, and taught your daughter to over react as well. Nice going, Bro.

Ha ! That’s funny. Nice baiting; not rising to it. Moving right along.

Not sure the BBB would do anything. However, the racist remark is impossible to prove, as I am the only one who heard it. Yes, Nissan is a Japanese-owned company and if I routinely wiretapped my own phone calls, I’d have the guy. In fact, if I had a tape of it, the CD-ROM would have already been duplicated and sent on to Nissan North America. However, that’s illegal in the state of New York. Pity. :slight_smile:

I really do get unhinged with racism and I am still trying to figure out what to do about this sad speck of feces. I do wonder if the best thing to do would be to ask for a meeting with the Dealership owner, the Manager and this guy and very quietly describe what happened. Tell them that I know he made a commission and that pains me because he is the on the floor face of their dealership, and this was his level of behavior.

As I said in my OP… what would that really do? Which windmill do I tip at and what does it accomplish?

Fear Itself, no, I don’t believe the salesman would have done that. Quite a stretch. Nice try at rationalization though.

When’s the last time you heard a racist joke, comment, or accent that was directed at a German? 1945, maybe. Gimme a break.

Write it down, in a letter.
Type it up, as if you were going to send it to the dealership.
If it seems too petty in cold, hard type, junk it.
If it doesn’t, re-write it, & send it to Nissan USA’s home office. By registered mail. Demand action.

I would let management know. We are talking about an Asian company, and they need to know that they are employing someone who not only gets off on Asian stereotypes, but also shares them with customers.

No, his boss may not care. But the boss’s boss (or his/her boss) might.

If you don’t think the guy should be fired over this, make the note general so no one is specifically identified. Maybe management will have a meeting with all the staff and give them all a stern talking to. Meanwhile, the jerkwad will be sweating in his boots, wondering if his name was mentioned.

What was the salesman’s race?

I think so far you handled it well - it’s too bad a creep got your commission, but you sort of have to resign yourself to that happening whenever you go buy a car. :smiley:

He was way over the line for your usual brand of car salesman asshole, though. I’d call his manager and tell him the story just as you’ve told us, but I wouldn’t expect much action. The manager is probably a bigger asshole, and that’s why he got promoted. I’m a firm believer in “management sets the tone,” too - this guy acts the way he does because that’s the norm at this dealership.

You know, we were looking for a used car a couple of years ago, and there were any number of(male) car salesmen who acted like I wasn’t there and talked to my husband instead (including the guy who got mad at me because I said his piece of shit Neon or whatever the hell they’re calling it now handled and sounded like a piece of shit. Which it did. I guess you’re not supposed to say anything honest to these guys.) The occupation really seems to attract the losers.

I think you missed this part.

Think Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and see if it doesn’t sound racist.

Somehow I did. That changes everything. I withdraw my snark.

Burn the sucker. Report him to not only his manager but to Corporate as well. Mention legal action. CC to the local BBB and newspaper. Make the little shit sweat a little, at the very least.

Fear Itself, I’m glad to see you did miss that line. I was really worried you had been taken over by bodysnatchers or something.
Cartooniverse, I’d send a polite note to the dealership’s management, and state explicitly that while you wanted the car enough to go through with the deal, you’re not going to be eager to use them for maintenance. Whether you’d planned on doing maintenance via the dealership or not, it’s the sort of potential financial hit that should get some action, I think. Alas, whether it will is another question altogether.

Overall, I do think you responded as best you could have.

I dont see why you didn’t just say, “Excuse me” to the salescritter and then walk to his manager and tell him exactly why you weren’t going to be buying a vehicle from his dealership.