Car Shopping...

[Markus]

Glad to hear you liked the GTI. I have had my '10 GTI for 8 months and am very happy with it. I've been driving VW's for 9 years and have always liked their products for reliability and fun-factor. My local dealer (who I support for service and who I have bought 3 VW's from) is top notch, which for me has always been a strong reason for driving VW.

If you're into performance mods you should check out APR. I had my GTI's ECU reflashed and the power gains are really impressive, especially considering no hardware was changed out.

Check it out:  http://www.goapr.com/products/ecu_upgrade_20tsi_trans.html

[cyrus buelton]

It should be none of the car salesman's concern when I am going to buy a car.

You have to see what is out there, get pricing, do your due diligence, and then buy.



I don't think testing out a car and buying several months later is a bad thing.


Car Salesman want you to make snap decisions. The one VW dealer here tried that with me. Kept emailing me telling me how the car was being prepped, it was being detailed, it was shiny in the showroom waiting for me to pick up.

The first thing I said when I went to look "My wife and I are considering trading our 2004 in for a 2010 clean diesel jetta. They have more room and we like them. However, we are not fully sure if we want to buy right now, but we are starting the process at exploring this option."

If that guy doesn't want to do his job, then he can tell me to pound sand, until then..........treat your customer well.

 

[redxblack]

Ummm...far from the economy brand in Europe.  Or Asia for that matter. 

I would love to get a Skoda over here. I'm excited about the Fiat 500 coming soon. After my wife's new Corolla, I think I'm in line for a 500.

[lethe]

I would love to get a Skoda over here. I'm excited about the Fiat 500 coming soon. After my wife's new Corolla, I think I'm in line for a 500.

I believe we're getting the Abarth too.

[redxblack]

That could complicate my decision making process! 

[corey]

eesh... and i was excited for the euro(ish) focus!
love the abarth... ugh, maybe the waiting game IS in order...
christ, this sucks!

hey red....
go pens!

[zooom]

It should be none of the car salesman's concern when I am going to buy a car.

You have to see what is out there, get pricing, do your due diligence, and then buy.



I don't think testing out a car and buying several months later is a bad thing.


Car Salesman want you to make snap decisions. The one VW dealer here tried that with me. Kept emailing me telling me how the car was being prepped, it was being detailed, it was shiny in the showroom waiting for me to pick up.

The first thing I said when I went to look "My wife and I are considering trading our 2004 in for a 2010 clean diesel jetta. They have more room and we like them. However, we are not fully sure if we want to buy right now, but we are starting the process at exploring this option."

If that guy doesn't want to do his job, then he can tell me to pound sand, until then..........treat your customer well.

 

Cyrus, WTF are you smoking? Do you work for free? Do you put in the kinds of hours they do? Do you have any idea or concept of what or why customers like you make sales people twitchy and irritable?

1st.) it is VERY much a sales persons business as to when you are going to buy a car. He is there to SELL cars, not display them. They are SALES people, not retail consultants. This is the most basic thing in a transaction with said representative, as he needs to know if he is wasting his time with you as apposed to helping someone else who needs that time for to actually purchase something.

2nd. ) yes, you do, as a smart consumer have to do your homework somewhat and see what is what beforehand IF you are a smart consumer and not an emotional purchaser. Not every customer is a smart consumer. How many times have you purchased something, anything, regardless of value or money spent, based on just a simple desire or want? It happens with cars too. I had a guy buy a car from me because of the sound system and nothing else once. People have different values when it comes to their spending habits and what they are willing to buy and when and how. Not everyone has to follow the Jud school of thinking. They aren't wrong for doing otherwise.

3rd. ) Testing out a car and buying several months later of the same model and year and everything else is not a bad thing, but looking at a 2010 car with package 2 options in SEL trim is different than looking at a 2011 Model with package 1 options in SE trim. Besides, do you remember EVERY nuance and detail from a test ride from outside a 72 hour range? If you do, that is great, but unusual because more than 95% of new car consumers don't, especially when you start looking at many different cars. Those details start to run together and it becomes hard to distinguish, and that is especially moreso as time passes.

4th. ) Car SALES people are there to sell a car, through whatever means and tools they have available to them to use. They should use them as they see best based on personality types and experience. There are some that just don't have years of that or the tools and hence why maybe YOU had the experience you did. I am speculating on that front, but it is reasonable based on how you seem to present yourself.

5th. ) What you said, whether on Tiff's behalf or however you may have really phrased it, is how most every customer starts a transaction like that. THAT is normal. You sounded like, from what you say above, more than 70% of people who actually drive a car out of a dealership, any dealership, of any brand. People don't generally walk into a showroom to just look, unless their car is there for service and they have nothing better to do.

6th. ) HE IS doing his job. Why don't you go pound sand for wasting HIS valuable time. If you saw how much of a commision some of these guys make on a car sale nowadays, and you broke it down to how much time he spent with a customer in order to make that sale ( and I am talking from 1st initial contact,whether by phone, EMail, or walk-in, until delivery and you take the car home off of their lot), into an hourly wage, you'de NEVER work for that kind of wage. I would be more than willing to bet that, based on the kind of money he made, when it comes to a customer like you.

[muskrat]

4th. ) Car SALES people are there to sell a car, through whatever means and tools they have available to them to use. They should use them as they see best based on personality types and experience. There are some that just don't have years of that or the tools and hence why maybe YOU had the experience you did. I am speculating on that front, but it is reasonable based on how you seem to present yourself.
 

whatever tools?  I've been in sales 15 years+ and have never used "whatever tools" to sell anything.  I match a customer with their needs and if my product is suitable.  We all want the shiny DB9 or similar car but seriously, that commentary makes us all look bad.  A good sales person will understand his customer first! 

now, lets get back to regular programming

[cyrus buelton]

Cyrus, WTF are you smoking? Do you work for free? Do you put in the kinds of hours they do? Do you have any idea or concept of what or why customers like you make sales people twitchy and irritable?

I smoke parliament lights or Marlboro lights. I also throw in a Perdomo cigar every now and then.

1. I get paid for 40 hours a week. I work on average 60-70 hours a week. I just got off a conference call with individuals in a far off land. Not sure car sales reps have that responsibility or have a job where they manage millions of dollars.

2. Yes, I know quite a bit about the car industry. My cousin is an attorney for the state automobile dealers association.

3. One of my very good friends was a sales manager for 15 years before he moved in to Finance Manager.

I know what I am talking about.


due diligence.

Read it . Learn it. Love it. Absorb it.

Some of us budget money, time frames, expenses, etc.

When you live your life that way, you plan ahead several months before chunking down a lot of money or signing your name on a loan.

Sorry I can't walk in to a dealership and make a snap decision and purchase a car on the spot.

If that occurs........that is a damn good salesperson and a bad consumer.

That is Jud logic. Works in my life.

[zooom]

whatever tools?  I've been in sales 15 years+ and have never used "whatever tools" to sell anything.  I match a customer with their needs and if my product is suitable.  We all want the shiny DB9 or similar car but seriously, that commentary makes us all look bad.  A good sales person will understand his customer first! 

now, lets get back to regular programming

exactly my point, you assess your customer and do what you need to do and use what you have at your access to meet the customers needs for to make a sale. The tools, whatever they may be, are at your disposal to use as you see fit. This could be the phone, email, or in person communications, the use of rebates and incentives, or perhaps even just dangling a bright shiny new "fill in the blank" to provoke the emotions in said purchase. The point is, you, as a sales person (whether commissioned or rated on general sales numbers or however your performance may be evaluated) spend your time and energy to make that connection for to develop a speculative opportunity into a paying consumer. If you are in sales and you are not doing that, then either you are lying to yourself or you need to get out of the business.  Does it always work out, or can you always meet and satisfy the needs of your consumer? Maybe not, but you are there to make that attempt and use whatever tools you have at your disposal to do so.

Maybe you don't like my statement because I oversimplified, but it doesn't make it any less true. Also, FWIW, a good salesman isn't always defined by the consumer. A good salesman, or sales person, is one that produces results, regardless of circumstance.

1. I get paid for 40 hours a week. I work on average 60-70 hours a week. I just got off a conference call with individuals in a far off land. Not sure car sales reps have that responsibility or have a job where they manage millions of dollars.

2. Yes, I know quite a bit about the car industry. My cousin is an attorney for the state automobile dealers association.

3. One of my very good friends was a sales manager for 15 years before he moved in to Finance Manager.

I know what I am talking about.


due diligence.

Read it . Learn it. Love it. Absorb it.

Some of us budget money, time frames, expenses, etc.

When you live your life that way, you plan ahead several months before chunking down a lot of money or signing your name on a loan.

Sorry I can't walk in to a dealership and make a snap decision and purchase a car on the spot.

If that occurs........that is a damn good salesperson and a bad consumer.

That is Jud logic. Works in my life.

1.) I work 50 or so hours a week and get paid based on a 40 hour week and go above and beyond for some of my customers, regardless of the dollar amount involved, in the name of good customer service and doing the right thing as well as my job. I try and exceed my customers expectations when possible. I don't do it for free though, nor do I expect anyone to work for free. There is always some level of compensation somewhere in the mix, whether immediate or not.

2.) I know a bunch of people that work in the IT industry, does that mean I am a certified expert now? I also know a shit ton of people that don't do what I do, and does that make them experts at my job? That logic is about as water holding as a piece of tissue paper. Knowing someone who does something or other, does not equate to you knowing what they are doing and dealing with and all aspects involved, and to assume that ideal is just ignorant. Most people do what they do for a good chunk and period of time, in order to be good and successful at it. Chatting with someone over a detail or 2 or an aspect of things doesn't make you any better at their job as it would for them to be any good at your job if things were reversed.

3.) so, he is/was a good sales person and has evolved his results into furthering himself up the chain. Who knows how long he has been in F&I now, but while the basic concept of the game hasn't changed, the tactics used on a daily basis and some of the tools surrounding the game may have. Does that mean you know his job now? See number 2 that I just wrote. Along the same lines, I knew a guy that lived in Cleveland who was a bartender at the Winking Lizard. Does that mean I know all about Cleveland now? I am just using your logic to an extreme to make my point.

Due Diligence....well...I can understand using a financial industry trading and disclosure concept in application to car buying(when you are actually making that purchase, not wasting someone's time)...but I am certainly not going to make it my life like you make it sound like in yours. I am not an analyst or an accountant or CPA or otherwise bean counter. I deal with reality of peoples emotions and dollars and comparing to my competition everyday. You have to be flexible and able to do so on the fly with little to no notice. You have to do it without establishing a marriage to those movements, should situations  change, all the while nurturing your relationship with them.

Jud logic may have turned out without many hiccups for you thus far, but your logic in my world has more holes than a cheese grater. I find many problems with your logic, and I am sure I am not the only one.

[cyrus buelton]

We have differing opinions and you are right, my logic is probably flawed, like most people's in the world, I see the world through my eyes as I live it and enjoy.

I am not in sales, but work for a sales company, therefore, I can understand your wasting time comments. Not sure cars and medical devices are even remotely related, but sales is sales, and people's time is, people's time.

back to the originally scheduled posting of car shopping; it's tough out there.

[duccarlos]

It's simple. A guy walks into a dealership. it's up to the salesperson to sell the car right now. If the customer does not buy right now, then you should have made enough of an impression for the customer to either come back or at least recommend that dealership if an acquaintance is looking for that specific brand. Retail is the same everywhere regardless of what you're selling. If the salesperson can't close the deal immediately then they lost a battle. If the person goes away feeling like he's never going to go back there again, then they lost the war. Simple.

Now back to subject. When is the Fiat 500 going to be sold over here? I presume it will be sold through some other dealer like BMW selling minis. The 500 is a weird car. It's not as good looking as the other hatchbacks. If I was in the market, I would wait for the Focus, but would probably have the Impreza at the top of the list.

[Randimus Maximus]

Now back to subject. When is the Fiat 500 going to be sold over here? I presume it will be sold through some other dealer like BMW selling minis. The 500 is a weird car. It's not as good looking as the other hatchbacks. If I was in the market, I would wait for the Focus, but would probably have the Impreza at the top of the list.

My understanding is that Chrysler selected 165 dealers in 119 markets around the country to become Fiat dealers.

More info at the following links, although the on-sale date is not specified.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/31/report-fiat-wants-to-sell-50-000-500s-in-the-u-s-through-165-d/

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/11/chrysler-chooses-600-dealerships-for-possible-fiat-franchises/

[duccarlos]

50,000? That's ambitious to say the least. It will have to share the market, so it will have to be much cheaper than the mini. Plus it's an uglier car. I've never driven one so I have no idea how it handles. Is it comparable to the Golf?

[cyrus buelton]

weren't Fiat's historically unreliable?