Most liked posts in thread: Your most memorable car buying experience.

Not a buying story, but one from the other side of the desk.....

Under the "there's an ass for every seat" rule.

I was the sales manager at a big Porsche dealership and I had ordered a white 944 with a red interior - red interiors were rare on anything in the mid '80's so I thought by having something unique it would sell better. When the car came in it was awful - it had nice red seats, but almost everything else in the car, carpets, door cards etc were black!

The car sat and sat, I was almost to the point of having the seats recovered in black to sell the car, when he walked in......

The fellow said he was a preacher, and that day he was wearing.......





wait for it....................



A pair of black pants, a red shirt and a white sports coat!

I walked him straight back to that car, his eyes lit up and an hour later he drove it home...........at sticker! :biggrin5:

 

A colleague had just paid off of a ship after a 4 month voyage, he had a wad of cash and he wanted to buy a new Porsche. He went to a Porsche dealer, wearing what he always wears, denim bib overalls, red Converse high top tennis shoes and a flannel shirt.

The Porsche sales people completely ignored him, so he went down the road and bought a Mercedes Benz. He said that the Mercedes people treated him real nice.

He did drive his new 560 SL to the Porsche dealer to show them his new car.

 

In the early 70's Roger Penske owned a Chevrolet dealership in the northern suburbs of Detroit. In 1972 I was at his dealershiip looking at used Corvettes. I ended up buying a used '71. The purchase was all very pleasant. The good news came after the purchase. In those days the dealer would give a 30 day guarantee on a used car. The car was only a year old but it had already run out of the new car warranty that used to be provided back then. Immediately I began having small, nagging problems with the car and made a number of trips back to the dealership. Finally they seemed relieved to tell me that my 30 days were up and there would be no more consideration for any problems I might have.

To let you know what kind of a guy Roger Penske is: I wrote him a very polite letter explaining the various problems I had experienced and also any and all the little nit picking things that were still on the car. I played up the reason I bought a car from him in the first place was because of his reputation in the automobile business. I received a letter from Roger stating that any and every problem I had with the car would be taken care of properly and that I would be provided a loaner while the work was being done. The car ended up being as good as if it were new.

Edit: Just to give you an idea of what inflation means; the car (convertible) cost me $4,200.00.

 

I've had so many cars over the course of my 45 year driving career, it's hard to single out any one experience. Some have been great and others have been just so-so... I too have walked away when it wasn't looking good. The last time I bailed was when the local Jaguar dealer didn't take me as seriously as he should have, hence leaving me know choice but to go to the East Bay Area to get my wife's new XF. Big mistake Rob, huge!

I'll have to say though, my greatest positive experience and greatest overall score was when I bought my Classic Mini a couple years back. The car was owned by a friend of my racing buddy, who owns a large bit of acreage where we store the race trailer. He's got a very large barn on the property and it's been full of cars and motorcycles for years. Though I never saw much of the inside of the barn, I had been told that he had a real deal, rare Mini in there. It was a Sunday, and my wife and I had just come home from 10 days in Hawaii. While looking through the Mini Mania website, in search of some parts for my 64 Cooper, I decided to take a look at the cars listed for sale first. I spotted this very cool car for sale in my area and thought that barn in the background of his photos looked somewhat familiar. Even more familiar was the front of the race trailer out behind that barn. I picked up the phone and called Bob, the owner, and asked if I could come look at the car provided it was still for sale. Well, sure he said and in an hours time I bought the Mini on a gentleman's handshake. Cash was exchanged four days later and the rest is history.

 

Not a car story but similar to the ones above. In the mid '80s I was sales manager in a computer store when a guy came in in ratty jeans and a worn tee shirt. None of my sales people thought he was worth the time. So I talked to him about what he needed. Turns out he was the it buyer for the Dayton public schools. It was a nice sale and a good relationship. Taught my sales people a lesson.

 

This thread is turning into a what oil is best & how often to change it thread. No one will ever agree on either & the same goes for this thread. :yesnod:

Change your oil every 5,000 miles with an OEM or Mann filter. Mobil 1 0w40.

 

I've got 2 dealer stories. First one which most all of them do and it annoys me to death.. I test drive a used wrangler and they test drive my trade-in and one of the first things the salesman asks is "where do you want your payment" to which my answer is "as low as possible" After a couple of back and forths of that I finally told the guy if you can get it down to $150 I'll take 2 of them.. The sales guy in the next cubical almost fell out of his seat, he actually leaned around and gave me the thumbs up as my salesman when back to talk to his people..

Second story. On a Mitsubishi lot. Manager takes keys to my trade to check it out and salesman takes me to front lawn where his car is sitting to take me on a test drive. I'm in passenger seat and he cranks the car and is going over this that and the other on it's options etc. He gets out to run in and get a tag to put on it. I sit there for bout 10-15 minutes and get out leave car running and both doors open, and walk back inside. I walk over to sales manger desk to ask for my keys and he says well what do you think of it. I said I don't know we never left the front lawn with it. Sales guy came inside and left me out there and I haven't seen him since and by the way your car is still running out there and I left..

 

I'll do one at a time.

It was spring '93 I wanted a new car. A coupe and ti had to be American made since I called on US manufacturers. I had a great deal on a left over '92 Probe GT. When my mom saw it she want one too. She had an old Sable. I told her there was 1 '92 left at the dealer and it was red.

So we went to the dealer. She checked out the car and loved it. It was loaded and stickered at $18k. I told the sale guy let make a deal and she'll write you a check. After a little back and forth. I just told him go take this to the boss $10k out the door everything included.

The owner came back he was about my age and just bought the dealer from his dad. Introductions were made. He asked what I was trying to do. I told him I was trying to get rid of his left over inventory that he'd already lost money on AND that car was going to keep sitting there because the new model was on the lot.

He looked at my for a few minutes, then said fine write it up.

My mom drive home very happy.

 

I was that guy on the side of the desk where the drawers opened for an adversarial type sales dealer for a few months. Mid-eighties, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Jeep, Renault and Yugo dealer. We did all the tricks to get you buy the car today. I hated it. Except for when I'd take the Mustang SVO's or Thunderbird Turbo Coupes out for test drives.

 

There's no question some of 'em do it "wrong".....I worked for one of those guys too, for a couple of months then I headed off for greener pastures.

Here's one of my favorite car buying experiences from my side of the desk...

I was working at a Porsche dealer as the parts manager, one of my customers was a "regular", he was a drunk and was in buying parts to repair his cars about every month. One day he asked me if I knew anyone who could work on a Ferrari. I told him I could, so he said come out and have a look.

He lived in a development called Lakewood, way out on the east side of town and it was the dead of winter. When he opened the garage door it was like sunshine coming out from under the door - not the lights - the car that was in there, sitting on jackstands - a 1970 Ferrari Dino in Ferrari red! God it was gorgeous.

Instead of working on it I offered to buy it on the spot - we shook hands and I spent the next three months in the coldest garage in the world, winter wind coming off the frozen lake. He had blown the engine instead of wrecking this one and could not get it back together again, but he had all the parts so I went to work on it. Sometime in early March I turned the key for the first time, a few days later I drove it home!

 

OK, rather than starting a pissing match with an unarmed man, I'll just agree to disagree.