AAhhh, brings back memories. I had a grandmother who did the same, plastic over the furniture and curtians, seems smoking out side would have been cheaper. When my grandfather bought a new car he had the seats covered in the clear plastic with heavy plastic floor mats. Speaking of dealers, my grandfather bought American Motors for the longest time. I remember going to the dealer with him on a few occasions and if I remember right they were on a first name basis, those days are gone.
Well.... as this thread slowly continues to drift off topic.....The picture above explains a lot about why we played outside so much as kids. Who can remember sticking to the furniture on a hot summer evening when there was no AC?? To keep,it on topic.... My dad had a friend that was a car salesman, when it was time to by a new car it was a quick and painless transaction. Total time, about 2 hours and most of that time was spent talking old times. No wonder I don't know how to deal with car salesmen. All that back and forth and yelling was alien to me.
I forgot to add that when my grandfather bought a new car he had them install the clear plastic seat covers (talking about sticking to something, use to hate the long drives to family reunions) along with some heavy duty floor mats.
I took a negotiations class once from a guy who made a living being a professional negotiator for large companies. Here is a recap of his story: His neighbor saw him out working in the lawn and stopped to chat, as neighbors do. The neighbor mentioned that he was buying a new car and was off to sign the papers in a few hours. The gaming instinct in the negotiator kicked in and he said "Want some help?" "Sure!" the guy said, so they both went to the dealership. The salesman meets 'em at the door and says "Got the paperwork ready to sign" and is introduced to the negotiator. "What brings you in today?" and the negotiator replies "I'm here to check out the car and to bring the price down. Nice to meet you." Sales guy: "Well... we have a mostly agreed upon price" Negotiator: "We will see about that. Lets go for a test drive!" So the 3 of them hop in the Chevy and start driving, the potential owner behind the wheel. They get several miles down the road and the negotiator swaps into the drivers position. A few miles more and the negotiator starts working the sales guy on pricing. "Can't go down any more?" "Nope", says the sales guy... "The car is in high demand... that's as low as we can go" and it cycles like that for 5-10 minutes. After getting no movement, the negotiator sees his target up ahead: a rival Chevy dealership! He says "Well... I wonder if those guys could give us a better price? Lets stop and ask 'em!". He whips the car into the rival dealership's lot and parks the new car with dealer plates and window sticker in the 'customers' parking spot. The sales guy is starting to freak out. The negotiator asks again if he wants to make another offer... if they even needed to talk to the 2 sales guys walking over to say 'hi'. Magically, without even picking up the phone, he found another $800 of discounts. Payback, for all of the hardball tactics ever used on consumers.
My Motoring Advisor was Brian at Checkered Flag MINI and he is fantastic. We went in to just check the cars out. I told him that I wasn't even certain if I wanted new or used. Brian's answer? Well just let me know what you want to look at I will get the keys, then you can take it for a drive. So what did I do? We wound up driving 3 different used ones plus a brand new one over the course of an 1.5 hours. Each time I came back Brian just tossed me a new set of keys and my wife and I went off again. Saga ended when I decided that a MINI was the car for me and I bought my awesome little Merlin with one month left on his original warranty. I now am a very big advocate for the dealership overall since their Porsche store has also treated me wonderfully and I did not even buy my Porsche from them.
This sums up my point. The FIAT dealership copied many of the 'external' features of a MINI dealership (Espresso-maker, computer terminals for customers, 'cool' chairs to sit in, 'Design Consultants', etc.), but they missed the key sales ingredient that makes the MINI brand enjoyable: fun. I can only imagine what being left alone with the sales manager might be like. BTW: The dealership (Fiat of Austin) never responded to my email. Another MINI requirement FIAT ignores... "Thou shalt write the complainers back".
Reminds me of the time I tried to unplug the A/C drain so cold water wouldn't spill onto my girlfriend's legs when turning hard right. The A/C and the crank pulley that wouldn't stay on cured me of VWs pretty much. I actually liked the plaid (and still do).
Hey - you can't blame VW for the fact that you left your windows open and wolverines ate your seats! :lol: As much as I hate to admit it here, the 6th-generation GTI I traded in on my MINI was one of the best cars I ever owned - not a single problem.