One of my salesmen had driven home a used car one Sat evening, and he and the bride went out and met friends for dinner, but they parked someplace they shouldn't have and when they came out later the car was gone. He thought it had been stolen and we turned it in to the insurance co.
A week later the police called asking if that particular red car belonged to us (as it had our dealer plate on it). Turns out it had just been towed and had been sitting in their tow lot ever since.
I made him go bail it out on his dime, but that's not really the story......his wife had left a pan of lasagna in the back seat and it was summer.....after 5 days the car was .................well...............ripe doesn't exactly cover it - that cheese had turned and it smelled like vomit.
I had the best detailer in the city work on it, we even left it parked in the back lot with the doors open for a week but it was still rank. I told the guy if he couldn't find a buyer by the end of the month he was going to own it.
Then he walked in.....................
This guy had the worst cold I'd ever seen, and he was looking for a red one. The salesman took him straight to that car and an hour later he was an owner, and got a great deal on it!
Never saw or heard from him again, I don't know if his cold cleared up or he just thought they all smelled like that, but we never got a complaint.
One Sunday afternoon this nice couple comes in to look at a 944 Turbo. The salesman and the hubby went out for a test run.....an hour or so later, the wife was standing around in the showroom asking "Do test drives always take this long?" About an half an hour later the tow truck showed up with the salesman and her hubby.....
He lost it, rolled it sideways off a soft shoulder.
His insurance co. paid for it, but he did not get a new Porsche - ever!
He drove up in a clapped out Ford Escort with faded paint and a distinct list to one side, he was rumpled and disheveled looking and looked like he didn't have two dimes to rub together.
He also weighed 430 lbs, which probably had a lot to do with the Escort's list to port......
All my salesmen suddenly had something else to do so I welcomed him to the dealership and started a conversation as he walked straight over to the red 944 on the showroom floor. I knew he wouldn't fit, and so did he but he looked long and hard at it for a good 20 min while I answered his questions.
Finally, he told me he'd started a doctor controlled diet that morning and when he hit his target weight he'd be in to buy that car. I'd seen plenty of guys like this in my career, full of hopes and dreams, although they were usually fresh out of an Amway meeting but this guy was different somehow......
This was just after Jan 1st.....
Later in July the same guy walked into my showroom weighing 220 lb! We picked out a red 944 and he wrote me a check for it - turned out he was a divorce lawyer with a surprisingly good practice. He told stories about how people would snicker when he walked into the courtroom and made rude remarks to his back.....
He was a really nice fellow and we got to be good friends...in fact he handled a child support case for me, and won it too.
In October of the same year he came back to the dealership and traded the red 944 for a new dark blue 911 coupe, this time he was wearing a Saville Row suit, had a fresh haircut and was looking great at 185lbs. He'd lost a whole person in weight in 10 months!
Sadly that was the beginning of his troubles....he'd married his high school sweetheart (they were still together up till now) but now that he was no longer such a lump, her insecurities came on strong, and she started imagining him having affairs and leaving her. A year later she left him....
He was devastated and within a year after the divorce he was back over 300....I ran into him on the street - he had a new girlfriend and still had the 911, business was good (he had a unique practice, he only took men as clients. He said men just want to get it over with, where women want to make it hurt!) and he was slowly getting a handle on his emotions and eating.....
For most of my adult life, I bought new cars. Lot's of them. I was a pretty loyal GM customer, and every time I wanted a new car, I just got my self pumped up for the marathon arse-whipping I was going to have to endure to get a reasonable price on my new car.
In 1999, my wife was due for a new car, and had always dreamed of owning a Mercedes. So, I said, "Let's go and at least look at a Mercedes. We went to Park Place Mercedes, and as usual, I was armed with research, and ready to do battle.
We found the car she wanted, and we sat in the salesman's office, while he gathered up the paperwork. When he came back, he put a price in front of me, and I was shocked. It was the price I was prepared to except after five hours of BS.
The salesman saw my surprise, and said "We know are customers are smart people who do their homework, so we don't waste time getting to where we would eventually end up, anyway."
Wow!
In 2000, I bought myself my first Audi, and the experience was the same. I ended up buying my 2003 Audi from the same salesman. And, THAT is why a GOOD dealership doesn't fart around. They don't want to sell you "A" car. They want to sell you a bunch of cars.
Carl Sewell, who owns sever high-end car dealerships, and the MINI dealership that services my car flat out tells his employees that he wants to sell his customers EVERY car they buy for the rest of their lives. I bought my MINI used from a Mazda dealer, and Sewell MINI treats my like I am their best customer.
Ah, the appearances thing...A few years ago, I was looking for something nice at a fairly expensive independent jewelry store in Appleton, about 45 minutes where I live. It's my day off, a Monday, and I'm dressed in a pair of old, comfortable jeans and a Life is Good T-shirt. Now I'm not crazy wealthy or anything, but I've been working long enough that I can afford something nice for my wife on the rare occasions that she deserves it, which on this occasion was Christmas.
So I go into this renowned jewelry store, and saunter over to the diamond necklaces and earrings. And initially I'm being ignored for other customers, except for the occasional look out of the corner of the eye by the owner's (husband and wife), probably to make sure I'm not going to break through the display case and pinch something. It clears out to the point that one of them (him) finally comes over, and tries to gently steer me away from the diamond case to the cheaper semi-precious stones case, telling me I'd probably be more interested in that. No, I'd really like to take a look at a couple of the necklaces. And I get back a "Well, I think you might want to look at this first."
At that point, a friend of mine, a physician who lives in Appleton, happens to walk into the store, a one in a million coincidence. The owner's wife immediately goes over to him, says "hello Scott, shopping for your wife for Christmas?" Fairly obvious he's shopped there before and they know him well.
And he sees me, comes over and says hello with a big handshake, we talk for a minute or to about shopping for our wives, and the owners are taking this in. Scott says something to the effect of "take good care of him (me), he's up from Fond du Lac." At which point her husband immediately opens the diamond case and starts bringing a few pieces out. I laughed and said no thanks, I'm a little strapped for time now, I've been in here for awhile, and got the hell out of there.
We still laugh about it whenever we run into each other...
So now you know how I got my wife's Ford minivan here is how I got rid of it.
The van was long in the tooth. It was late fall the ac had quit so it was time for a new care for my wife. We now had 4 kids so I traded my pickup up for a Suberban. I was now driving a minivan, purgatory for a car guy.
I saw a 328is on a dealer lot so I stopped and drove it. Went back to make a deal. They said 300 and the van I said no you give me 300 and the BMW. The sales manager said no your AC does not work, I said your car needs a wheel baring. He laughed and said he would flip me for the 300. I told him I did not like the odds, he said its 50/50 what's not to like. I told him when 300 was on the line I wanted better odds. I told him lets trade keys and be done with it. He was fine with that but said you have to give me $15 for a drive out tag. I laughed and said no the temp tag was part of the deal.
That car brought me to BMW, I traded it for a convertable 328is, man I loved that car. It was an 86.
I traded it for my 02 mini in 04. The sails manager gave me 2 grand for it. I saw him a few years later, he had left the Mini dealer but was still driving my old BMW. I was glad it went to a good home.
It was Christmas eve day and I took my sister car shopping. She had totaled her car the week before. My dad was loaning her the money until the insurance settled up.
We looked at a number car and finally settled on a Mercury Tracer, Mazda Protege. Dad's condition of the loan it had to be American, he wasn't a car guy. It was late afternoon and the dealer's sales people wanted to get to the Christmas party. We sat down at the desk, the sales guy wrote it up. I change his number to something stupidly low but not insulting. He looked unhappy because it said this deal was going to take a while.
He went to the boss and came back about 15 minutes later all smiles and said "Merry Christmas". The boss signed deal. The next day as my dad, sister and I talked it over I grumbled I didn't go low enough.
And this is exactly why the back and forth has to happen, because if you simply sell the car for what the customer is asking they feel like they got screwed!:crazy:
Don't get me wrong I got a great deal on the car for my sister. It's just sometimes things are too easy.
On my wife's latest car we contacted all the dealers in the area to see what they had. The ones that had the car we wanted we talked to on the phone or over email.
If they were a little resistant I explained that I just bought a car from Dallas the year before and had it shipped up, so if I got the right deal I'd come get it. A number of them, not all, put their best foot forward.
I had the best offer from a dealer in Newark on a red one. My wife really wanted the screaming yellow. There were only 2 in town. One at a dealer I new would talk and one that happened to be close to home.
We went in to talk I told them I had a good offer from dealer on a red one but she wanted the yellow one. Theirs had the nav which I didn't care about. So I told them I take their's for the same number as the red one or I'd just go get it. 15 minutes later we had the deal.
I got the new car for what used ones were selling for. It was easy and I'm happy.
It was'86 and the Acura Integra had just come out. It was time for my wife's new car. We went to the newly opened Acura dealer and did the usual look over and test drive.
When it came time to talk they said since it had just come out they wanted sticker. I said you guys have a Honda dealer too right. How about I take the Integra and a CRX Si what can you do then? They brought back some very nice numbers and we drove the Intega home. I picked up the CRX a few day later.
I was friends with the sales guy, manager and service manager for years. I'd show them tweaks and tunes for the cars (in '86 there wasn't much Japanese tuning in the US and none in Ohio) and they got me parts at cost.
There are million stories like this.....I wonder how many are true and how many are just urban legends.
Mine went like this.....a very young couple - looked like no more the 16 - came into our dealership and wandered over to a red 911 on the showroom floor. Everyone ignored them so I went to talk to them, they were very shy, wouldn't make eye contact etc. I even offered a test drive just to see if they might come out of their shell a bit, but they said no thank you, took a brochure and my card and left about 20 min later - they wouldn't even get in the car!
An hour later I got a call from an attorney for the family asking what the total would be on the red 911 including tax and lic, and hour after that I had a check in full and the family chauffeur picked up the car. Never saw the kids again but their dad called one day and said thanks for helping them, turned out there were married and 18, and dad bought the car as a wedding present.
I only saw the boy once after that, in the service dept for the 1000 mile checkup......I don't know if they went off to college or what after that......I moved to Sandy Eggo shortly after that myself.
MCS02, as I said before, I was in the car business for about 30 years......I've seen it all and if you read my other posts above I described myself as being a sales manager for large San Diego Porsche+Audi dealership.
What you consider mind games, like the 4 square, is just a way of getting to a deal.....there are no games involved except trying to maximize the profit to the dealership - which is why they're in business. Of course they take your keys, how else are they going to appraise your trade in? An no, they don't throw them on the roof, that would be stupid and it's an urban legend. And of course they want you to keep the keys to the new car, they want you to imagine owning it and driving it home. That's not mind games, that's simply good salesmanship.
The thing you describe about listening on the phone is against the law, no legit dealership does that.
I think the issue you have is that you assume they're out to get you and go in with an adversarial attitude.
I approached a gentleman just outside the showroom floor one day and the first thing he said to me was "I don't expect you to tell me the truth, but what......"
I cut him off right there and said "We haven't even introduced ourselves and already you accuse me of being a liar? You don't even know me! Let's try this again, Hello - my name is....how can I help you?"
He did buy a new car from me that day, and over the course of the next 5 years bought many more, for himself, his family members and sent friends in to me too.
All you guys can complain about the lousy sales staff, but when you all want to buy a car at invoice or lower - you do know that salesmen are paid on a commission based on the profit from the sale? How much effort would you invest in a customer to make a $25 commission? Especially when he assumes you're a lousy lying cheat the minute he meets you and you haven't said a word to him yet?
