Dealers

Mr.Boots

Wondering what other peoples experiences of dealers are?
I have been looking for a new car over the past few weeks and have been in and out of many dealers showrooms.
Out of the 10-15 dealers i have viseted, i still havnt found one with good customer service, most were only very average, some were truly disgraceful.
I just cant understand the mentality, i am going in to spend 35k of my money and its like its to much trouble for most of them to show me cars, give me test drives, call me back with prices ect ect.
Probably the worst were Stuarts in Dublin, after phoning them back myself 6 times to get prices ect, i am still waiting for a reply........
Another disaster was Donohoe's in Eniscorthy, the sales guy didnt even know the post July prices, even though they are on their websites, he was so poor at his job it was a joke and i walked out laughing, i wouldnt buy a box of nails off these guys let alone a car.
I think alot of sales staff in dealers have had it good for to long and have forgotten how to SELL.
Whats other peoples experiences .....Good and Bad???

Mr.Boots

Anyone?

unkel

Mr.Boots wrote: »

have been looking for a new car over the past few weeks and have been in and out of many dealers showrooms.
Out of the 10-15 dealers i have viseted, i still havnt found one with good customer service

Can you be a bit more specific? What kind of car are you looking for for your budget of €35k? New or new to you (second hand)? Do you have a car to trade in and if so, what is it?

Biro

I agree with you. It's shocking how poor they are. I'm never taken seriously. Even if I were only half interested, why is it not worth their while make a phone call when they say they will? It's so annoying.

fricatus

I've been going around doing a bit of research (changing car sometime in the next year) and I find that a lot of them are very snobbish about the car that I'm currently driving ('99 Mitsubishi Carisma 1.6 with 120k miles on the clock). There's this sort of disbelief that (a) such a car can run that far, and (b) that I would want to hang onto it for even another minute.

I got the same sort of thing from a guy in a well-known tyre shop. I wanted a new set of tyres and he was all into selling me the budget brand that they had, since his assumption was that I'd be trading the motor in within no time. He nearly died when I told him I wanted Continentals. He asked me in disbelief "are you holding on to that car?" like it was something only an escapee from the loony bin would do.

Maybe to him that's like dressing a mongrel up in a Dior poodle-suit, but I commute 45 km each way every day in all weathers, and I wanted decent rubber holding me to the road...

Zube

I'd say most of us have had bad experiences with dealers. I just go in assuming I'm dealing with trained monkeys, that way if they do anything right it's a pleasant surprise for me and a free peanut for them.

Woodgate

unkel wrote: »

Can you be a bit more specific? What kind of car are you looking for for your budget of €35k? New or new to you (second hand)? Do you have a car to trade in and if so, what is it?

He's not asking that.

GoneShootin

I find dealers to be the biggest shower of wasters overall. There are some good ones out there but for the most part my experiences with them have been poor. Perhaps if I went in with cash instead of a trade I might have gotton a better response. Sometimes it's like they don't want your business!

Biro

fricatus wrote: »

I've been going around doing a bit of research (changing car sometime in the next year) and I find that a lot of them are very snobbish about the car that I'm currently driving ('99 Mitsubishi Carisma 1.6 with 120k miles on the clock). There's this sort of disbelief that (a) such a car can run that far, and (b) that I would want to hang onto it for even another minute.

I got the same sort of thing from a guy in a well-known tyre shop. I wanted a new set of tyres and he was all into selling me the budget brand that they had, since his assumption was that I'd be trading the motor in within no time. He nearly died when I told him I wanted Continentals. He asked me in disbelief "are you holding on to that car?" like it was something only an escapee from the loony bin would do.

Maybe to him that's like dressing a mongrel up in a Dior poodle-suit, but I commute 45 km each way every day in all weathers, and I wanted decent rubber holding me to the road...

I know exactly what you're talking about. But I think that extends even beyond dealers, the general public seem to be unable to comprehend the concept of owning a car of that age. They judge your car by the question "What year is it?". They also assume that when you change it's to come up in years!

Padraig Mor

The vast majority of main dealer sales staff are absolutely hopeless. I've been to all the following round Cork in recent months, looking to spend up to €50k:

O'Leary BMW
Keary's BMW
Turners Cross Audi
Turners Cross Mazda
Drive Mazda
Drive Jaguar
Drive Ford
Abernethy's Ford
CAB Ford
Grandon's Alfa
J&P Volvo
Kearys Lexus
McCarthy Saab

Of these, only O'Leary BMW, Kearys Lexus and Saab were in any way professional. Salesmen in all the others were morons, twats or - usually - both. I felt I actually had to congratulate a dealer who returned a call!

The Ford salesmen in particular were a shower of incompetents - should I really have to tell the dealer what the engine range line up is? Or what engine is in his own personal car???!! Lads, not everyone wants to buy an underpowered base model you know!

Most of these guys fail to realise that things are changing - if you want to sell a car you have to SELL the car.


In case E92 reads this: the Saab dealer had a full post VRT price list several weeks ago. Seemed to be full reductions and extra in some cases.

Zube

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Of these, only O'Leary BMW, Kearys Lexus and Saab were in any way professional.

All true, but if I want a car, I'm not going to let the sales monkeys put me off.

captainosull

Padraig Mor wrote: »

The vast majority of main dealer sales staff are absolutely hopeless. I've been to all the following round Cork in recent months, looking to spend up to €50k:

O'Leary BMW
Keary's BMW
Turners Cross Audi
Turners Cross Mazda
Drive Mazda
Drive Jaguar
Drive Ford
Abernethy's Ford
CAB Ford
Grandon's Alfa
J&P Volvo
Kearys Lexus
McCarthy Saab

Of these, only O'Leary BMW, Kearys Lexus and Saab were in any way professional. Salesmen in all the others were morons, twats or - usually - both. I felt I actually had to congratulate a dealer who returned a call!

The Ford salesmen in particular were a shower of incompetents - should I really have to tell the dealer what the engine range line up is? Or what engine is in his own personal car???!! Lads, not everyone wants to buy an underpowered base model you know!

Most of these guys fail to realise that things are changing - if you want to sell a car you have to SELL the car.


In case E92 reads this: the Saab dealer had a full post VRT price list several weeks ago. Seemed to be full reductions and extra in some cases.

Your looking at BMWs, Audi's, Mazda's. Jags, Fords, Alfas, Volvos, Lexii and Saabs??? Is it any wonder none of them take you seriously. Should they roll out the red carpet for you too? Get a grip, do some research, narrow down your list a tad, and work from there

Cionád

captainosull wrote: »

Your looking at BMWs, Audi's, Mazda's. Jags, Fords, Alfas, Volvos, Lexii and Saabs??? Is it any wonder none of them take you seriously. Should they roll out the red carpet for you too? Get a grip, do some research, narrow down your list a tad, and work from there

Eh, he's got 50k to splash out. Going to the dealers to get the best look/feel at the cars, and haggle on the price is hardly unreasonable.

Padraig Mor

captainosull wrote: »

Your looking at BMWs, Audi's, Mazda's. Jags, Fords, Alfas, Volvos, Lexii and Saabs???

I'll look at whatever I want to thank you very much. (BTW do you really think I tell dealers about the other marques I'm looking at too?!).

Should they roll out the red carpet for you too?

No. A bare degree of competence and product knowledge would suffice

edit: The Audi A6, Mazda 6, Alfa 159, Volvo S80 and Saab 9-3 (a mixed bag to be sure) were all cars I considered before test driving them - but not after.

cashmni1

captainosull wrote: »

Your looking at BMWs, Audi's, Mazda's. Jags, Fords, Alfas, Volvos, Lexii and Saabs??? Is it any wonder none of them take you seriously. Should they roll out the red carpet for you too? Get a grip, do some research, narrow down your list a tad, and work from there

Thats the point. Padraig is the CUSTOMER. The customer is king when you (the dealer) want his money. You sell he buys.
He can do what he likes, ask what he likes and with the bones of 50k, to spend, piss in the corner of the showroom, if he likes!!
Anyway, I have to agree with the OP. Yes the dealers had it too good for too long and still havn't got the message. Unfortunately for them, it looks like a lot of money will be tied up in stock for a very long time.
I herd a story about Turners Cross motors renting more land just to store more cars.
On the face of it, a lot of smaller dealers might go out of buisness over this "hump" in the sector. Not good.

givyjoe81

Lads, you get better customer service buying a Dan bar down your local sweet shop. Truly awfull.

Im only a car owner the last year or so and in that i have come across so many rude and arrogant muppets in dealerships, its truly astonishing. Logic would dictate that as the amount of money you spend on an item or service goes up, so would the level of customer service, clearly dealers employ this logic in reverse.

There are one or two I have come across that were alright but really, your trying to get someone to spend a rake load of cash on something, manners should be a base starting point.

GoneShootin

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Turners Cross Audi
Turners Cross Mazda

Add Turners Cross Mazda to that list. I tried to deal with some fella there and I may have well have been speaking to the wall.

ismynametoolong

Bottom Line is Dealers dont want trade ins they are stuffed with second hand cars as a result I suppose you cant blame them if they dont jump up all enthusiastic like when another punter comes in looking to trade.

Zube

ismynametoolong wrote: »

I suppose you cant blame them if they dont jump up all enthusiastic like when another punter comes in looking to trade.

Yeah, bloody customers coming in with their money, what a nuisance. Do they think I joined the motor trade just to waste my time trading motors?

setanta

Well, just to give one different view - I bought an '06 Hyundai Santa Fe from HB Dennis in Swords about 6 weeks ago and I have to say the service I got was excellent - salesman was very good, nice attitude, knew his stuff, gave me a crap price on my trade in (but then again so did eveyone else) but still I was happy to have done the deal. It helped that it was a nice showroom, open on a Sunday, with a play area for the kids and tea and coffee for the missus.

Now as soon as I post this I'm sure there'll be numerous posts slagging off HB Dennis as the worst of the worst but I don't care, I was happy and felt I was treated well :-)

Biro

captainosull wrote: »

Your looking at BMWs, Audi's, Mazda's. Jags, Fords, Alfas, Volvos, Lexii and Saabs??? Is it any wonder none of them take you seriously. Should they roll out the red carpet for you too? Get a grip, do some research, narrow down your list a tad, and work from there

????

"Hello... I'd like to enquire about the A6 please".

"Huh? You can't be serious... sure you've just come from the Lexus dealer, the Saab dealer and the Volvo dealer, and you're going to the Jag dealer when you leave here... I can tell by the look of ya that that's what you're at. I can't sell you a car! You're obviously not serious!"

"Ya got me there, I'm not. I like wasting time!"

traco

I would say most of the post here are reflective of the attitude encountered in many forecourts around the country. Hopefully this will change now that things have cooled off a little.

It should not matter if you are spending 5k or 50k - you know how hard you had to work to earn that or will have to work to pay it back therefore some common courtesy and consideration would go along way.

BTW, I walked out of several garages towards the end of 06 when I was ordering for January delivery. I was selling private as I have always done and buying straight, I was buying at the high end of the market and spending 90k. I had made an appointment with one dealer, taken the morning off work and drove 30 miles to test drive this car - when I got there I was told it was at the airport. Clowns. Needless to say my response was colourfull.

In the end I dealt with a nice chap, answered my questions, got the info if he didn't have it and was able to correspond by email - he got my business.

Don't put up with any rubbish and vote with your feet - you're the customer and don't have to take it.

captainosull

Any dealer who thinks your serious about spending 50k will obviously roll the red out for you and rightfully so. So either they dont think your serious about it, or think your bluffing. And in fairness after a couple of MONTHS of looking around and complaining, you still dont even know which car or marque you want to buy!!! They are taking you as being a tyrekicker, and Id have to agree. Its not the salesman your looking to buy its a car. In all honesty have you not narrowed down your list at all after all this time?

Padraig Mor

captainosull wrote: »

Any dealer who thinks your serious about spending 50k will obviously roll the red out for you and rightfully so.

You'd think so.

So either they dont think your serious about it, or think your bluffing. And in fairness after a couple of MONTHS of looking around and complaining, you still dont even know which car or marque you want to buy!!! They are taking you as being a tyrekicker, and Id have to agree. Its not the salesman your looking to buy its a car. In all honesty have you not narrowed down your list at all after all this time?

If I'm spending 50K (or not......no need to spend it all!) I'll take however the hell long I'll like!


P.S. I have a 520d ordered for July. Was between that and the Mondeo in the end (which will probably surprise some).

Anan1

Biro wrote: »

????

"Hello... I'd like to enquire about the A6 please".

"Huh? You can't be serious... sure you've just come from the Lexus dealer, the Saab dealer and the Volvo dealer, and you're going to the Jag dealer when you leave here... I can tell by the look of ya that that's what you're at. I can't sell you a car! You're obviously not serious!"

"Ya got me there, I'm not. I like wasting time!"

Don't feed the troll, Biro.