Why do car dealers take low offers so badly?

Owen

DubTony wrote: »

Admiration was not what I felt at the time. A good kick in the hole was closer to my mind.

That's actually funny

When I used to sell cars, even if I knew I was about to insult someone with the trade in price for their car (Due to no control of my own), I would always do my level best to keep it courteous and empathise with the customer. When someone's buying a new car, they subconsciously need confirmation that the last car they bought was a good 'un too - so even if someone's car is worth 2k and they think it's worth 5k, you talk their car up, not down. And if someone's car is a ball of dung - it's their[/b] ball of dung, and insulting it is like insulting one of their kids. Not on.

Cuddlesworth

You do all realise that because of the weakness of the Sterling why it is so obvious to buy cars from England now. But if the Sterling stays weak you will see price increases from new cars in England as its going to cost them more money to buy them in.

IE, A "new" car, that's been sitting on a lot the last few months in England is going to cost them roughly 30% more to replace in the same way its 30% cheaper for you to buy it.

Its not fair to say Irish Dealers need to get real, this is not going to be a long term situation, prices will level out again.

Anan1

ned78 wrote: »

When I used to sell cars, even if I knew I was about to insult someone with the trade in price for their car (Due to no control of my own), I would always do my level best to keep it courteous and empathise with the customer. When someone's buying a new car, they subconsciously need confirmation that the last car they bought was a good 'un too - so even if someone's car is worth 2k and they think it's worth 5k, you talk their car up, not down. And if someone's car is a ball of dung - it's their[/b] ball of dung, and insulting it is like insulting one of their kids. Not on.

That's called professionalism - unfortunately, it's always been in short supply in the motor industry.

GB15

To the OP can you tell us the asking price of the car was? This would at least put your 5K below asking into perspective.

-Chris-

Not that it excuses rude behaviour, but I'd also like to know more details of the car/price for context.

rebel.ranter

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

IE, A "new" car, that's been sitting on a lot the last few months in England is going to cost them roughly 30% more to replace in the same way its 30% cheaper for you to buy it.

This is going to be the interesting bit, and not just for the motor industry. I think it will have the effect of effectively killing Sterling as a currency for good.

The weak value might sound great when you are buying goods but in real economics we need to have a strong US Dollar & a Strong £ sterling so it is cheaper for the rest of the world to buy our Euro goods.

smash

tell us the car and garages....

FrankieD

You have no idea the amount of time wasters that sales men get in every day and when there stuck talking to one they lose two genuine customers because there time is taken up and no i'm not a sales man but i've worked with a fair few. Maybe they taught you weren't serious because of the low offer. Jan is never a good time to buy second hand stuff as its when most people buy there new cars. Hold off for a while till there stocks build up and they need the space for new ones, then you'll grab a real bargin

Johnny Utah

DubTony wrote: »

20 years ago my old man brought a 4 year old Renault 18 into the dealer he bought it from to trade in against a new one. I don't remember the prices quoted or offered but I do remember that the trade in price was fair. The old car was on the forecourt at the £100 more than he'd given my dad while selling the new car at £500 less than the list price. Everyone was happy.

4 or 5 years ago I went into Belgard Motors to enquire about a 2 litre Mazda 6 auto. The price was €32k. I was trading a 4 or 5 year old Renault Megane which at the time was selling at around €8k. Mine had only 20,000 miles on it and was absolutely mint. I was offered €2,500. As I got up to leave he said this.

"Maybe you're looking at the wrong car. Maybe you can only afford a Mazda 3."

This was bad enough, but then he followed up with this beauty.

"Look, the new car is €32,000. We make our profit on that. We won't sell your car because it's not our brand so we'll move it on in the trade. We'll sell that for about €5,000 and the other guy will sell it for 7 or 8. It's a fair offer"

Not only did they want a full profit from the sale of a new car, but they wanted a profit from my trade in for looking at it in their car park for a day or two.

Now I know everone has to make a profit, but insulting your customers and then expecting them to hand over their hard-earned is a bit rich. Message to car dealers and salesmen. It's back to the 80's boys. Wake up and smell it.

My parents had a similar experience recently too. They went to trade in their 320d to the BMW main dealer they had brought from. They have bought 3 brand new cars off this dealer in recent years, and got all the servicing done there as well.

Their own car is absolutely spotless, low mileage- 20k after 4 years, and the salesman took it for a spin. He said that he would ring them back a week later as he had to clear stock first. He never called back, so my parents got in touch with him a few days later. The trade-in value he allowed for my parent's car was so insulting that you would have to be a simpleton unfamiliar with basic arithmetic to even consider his offer. Furthermore, he wasn't allowing any discount on the list price, (even though there were extras worth a few thousand added on), which is fair enough as I accept that he has to make a profit, but he wasn't allowing a fair trade-in value for their own car. The car dealers have had it easy for too long. They want to make huge profit on both the new car and the trade-in car.

Needless to say, my parents walked away, and the dealer lost himself a sale.

-Chris-

Johnny Utah wrote: »

Needless to say, my parents walked away, and the dealer lost himself a sale.

Did your parents go to another BMW dealer to give them something to compare that dealer's offer to?

reverandkenjami

Johnny Utah wrote: »

My parents had a similar experience recently too. They went to trade in their 320d to the BMW main dealer they had brought from. They have bought 3 brand new cars off this dealer in recent years, and got all the servicing done there as well.

Their own car is absolutely spotless, low mileage- 20k after 4 years, and the salesman took it for a spin. He said that he would ring them back a week later as he had to clear stock first. He never called back, so my parents got in touch with him a few days later. The trade-in value he allowed for my parent's car was so insulting that you would have to be a simpleton unfamiliar with basic arithmetic to even consider his offer. Furthermore, he wasn't allowing any discount on the list price, (even though there were extras worth a few thousand added on), which is fair enough as I accept that he has to make a profit, but he wasn't allowing a fair trade-in value for their own car. The car dealers have had it easy for too long. They want to make huge profit on both the new car and the trade-in car.

Needless to say, my parents walked away, and the dealer lost himself a sale.

When was this?

Johnny Utah

AudiChris wrote: »

Did your parents go to another BMW dealer to give them something to compare that dealer's offer to?

Yes, they got a quote off another BMW main dealer over the phone- 4k better without even seeing the car!

Bear in mind the first garage that they went into was where the car was originally bought by my parents, plus they had the full history of the car as it was only ever serviced there.

Ultimately, my dad has decided to keep the car for another year or two at least. It's in very good condition and has very small mileage- I told him he'd be mad to get rid of it.

reverandkenjami wrote: »

When was this?

Around November 08.

-Chris-

Johnny Utah wrote: »

Yes, they got a quote off another BMW main dealer over the phone- 4k better without even seeing the car!

That's quite a difference. The dealer won't do much business with pricing like that!

scanner1

4 years ago I tried to sell my 01 Laguna II , and they were retailing at the time for around 8-11K, I kept note of the replies I got from the dealers - of the 20 I went to 15 would not even give me a price 8 of them actually told me they would not touch that piece of sh*te, the best offer I got was froma a renault dealer for €2k. I decided then to hold on to the car , still have it now didnt cost me anything in the last 3 years and hopefully flog it now for around €1k. but what I couldnt get over was the rudeness and the level of insults i got about the car, I actually called in to a garage 2 years ago to look at a car my sister had driven and the salesman started to run away from me he said "I dreaded talking to you when you drove in in that bucket"

reverandkenjami

Johnny Utah wrote: »

Around November 08.

Wonder if the dropping value of the second hand market was at work here.. With the cheaper uk cars the irish market has to adjust

fasty

I made an offer of 11,500 on a car being sold at 13,000 back in December and the salesman told me that we were wasting each other's time.

I replied that he had my number and he laughed at me!

It didn't stop him from ringing me the weekend after I visited him and every couple of weeks since then despite me telling him "I thought we were wasting each other's time".

The car is unsold 7 weeks later.

I bought a car for 1,500 instead and saved my money.

carface

sorry op but have read this thread over and over again.Are you expecting people to side with you on your account of events???. you dont do yourself any favours.So you just happened to be passing a dealers forecourt on a saturday with the price of a certain car in cash in your pocket.you decided on the spur of the moment to buy it.when given minimum price which in any forecourt includes servicing,valet,warranty.by the salesperson you pluck a figure of 5kish less to offer then expect to be begged for your business.
To your surprize you got told to f...k off. you proceed on to another dealership and get told to f..koff again.
look around you people from all sectors all being hit hard in our current postion hotels/factorys/shops/filling stations etc. as you say it costs nothing to be nice.Nobody likes a smug boll..ks in good times r bad.
Far from piss somebody off you provided a chance for somebody to vent their frustation on you.
it looks pretty clear you researched what a similar car would cost you and
made sure you bid less in case you got taken up on your low bid before you set out. why not post the figures involved it would add a tiny bit of credability to whatever you hoped this thread was ment to point out????

Padraig Mor

fasty wrote: »

I made an offer of 11,500 on a car being sold at 13,000 back in December and the salesman told me that we were wasting each other's time.

I replied that he had my number and he laughed at me!

It didn't stop him from ringing me the weekend after I visited him and every couple of weeks since then despite me telling him "I thought we were wasting each other's time".

The car is unsold 7 weeks later.

I bought a car for 1,500 instead and saved my money.

I had a look at a 2007 Mondeo Titanium X last summer. Priced at 39k - Ford's post-July pricing had not been released at that stage but I knew that a new one post-July should be coming in at under that price. Offered 30k and was laughed at...... They're still trying to shift the car, except at 25k now - and I'd guess you'd have it for 20.......

HashSlinging

Why go to a dealer, the best prices at the moment are on private sales.