Joys of car buying...

[Belloni]

Currently my other half is in need of a new car, and I'm being dragged to help out. She knew what she wanted in terms of budget, deposit, and type of car so off we went to a few main car dealerships, first being an Audi one. We saw one on the forecourt that we liked in terms of price so went inside to talk about what she needed. He was a nice enough chap but when it came down to the sales part, I was close to laughing.

She does 25k miles a year, now unless there's been a huge development in petrol engines that I don't know about, she needs a diesel but he was banging on about the 1.4L petrol being a good choice for her. The difference she would pay in petrol and diesel would be vast no? Then came the price, she specifically told him she is fine with £250 a month, nothing more. He comes back with a price of £460 a month! Whilst he was trying to see if she could stretch anymore, I noticed on the screen the car was a black edition, something she had no care for and was £12k over the price of the one of the forecourt. It was a painful tactic of, let's go way over budget and see if you'll come down after lots of pressure and see if you could squeeze anymore. We left and I told her not to buy.

Then she went to another garage to test another Audi near her work, she liked the car etc then at 6pm that day, the guy was asking for a holding fee of £500 otherwise he can't hold the car (bearing in mind she said she wasn't going to make a decision anytime soon) I told her to tell him to jog on as it's not like there's a shortage of the car she wanted. Low and behold, she got an email at 7:30pm the same day that the guy had magically made a "deal" and if she puts a holding fee down, then he can hold onto the car till Thursday.

She's settled on a VW finally, and the salesman was great, credit to him.

Has anyone else experienced similar?

 

[kindai]

Youve just described the standard buying from a dealer experience.

 

[Haze]

Not sure about buying a wimpy 1.4l, but I thought people were starting to stay away from diesel cars

 

[MooMoo444]

It's pretty standard for salesmen to be pushy to be honest.

 

[Vern1961]

To be fair we didn't really encounter that with the Kia dealer, when buying our Sportage. We knew what we wanted and were very specific. The only attempt at a "hard" sell was for the extras like Gap Insurance, ding and dent cover or PCP (we had decided to buy outright). However the salesman was quite open that he had to politely ask the questions and expected us to politely decline, no less. Might have been a different story if buying used, perhaps.

Diesel seems to go in and out of favour but it does seem this time round the powers that be have a real bee in the bonnet about trying to eliminate, even though buses and trains will be using the stuff way after the mid century, in all likelihood.

 

[On Holiday]

Yep.

Ordering the new Civic Type R last month and could tell the sales manager didn't think I was a serious buyer, answers to my questions were very unwelcoming, presumably due to my age or that I had stopped by on the way back from work. Tried to push me towards a colour they had available straightaway (because they aren't selling many in that colour...) too.

Test driving a new Fiesta ST at few years back, after the test drive sat back at the desk and the saleswoman asked if I was ready to place a deposit, I said no and I quote "but you said you would - I'll have to go and get my manager".

Still, doesn't beat the "You're only 19, are you sure you want to spend £5000 on a motorcycle?" I once had from a Yamaha dealer about a bike that was 0% finance..

Mercedes Dealerships seem to be the best in my experience in terms of not being pushy or trying to up-sell.

 

[TripleT]

Not sure about buying a wimpy 1.4l, but I thought people were starting to stay away from diesel cars

Only when they're not needed. In recent years diesel has been forced on to everyone because "OMG MPGZ" so yes someone doing 8k a year should stay way clear of diesel (but that's always been the case really, just the press and salesman have been telling the general public otherwise). But someone doing 25k like the OP then diesel is generally the way to go!

 

[[TW]Fox]

Not sure about buying a wimpy 1.4l, but I thought people were starting to stay away from diesel cars

People who never needed them in the first place are but they still serve a useful purpose.

 

[adolf hamster]

Holding fee for an audi? Really?

Never trust things car salesmen say, when i was out shopping for my current car i'd kind of settled on 2l+, petrol, rwd and possibly auto. One dealer tried to flog me a chevrolet cruze saying "you wont find what you want in your budget range".

And yet not 2 hours after i'd bought exactly that (because, y'know, i'd done my homework and knew what i could afford all i had to do was find a nice example)

 

[peterwalkley]

From my and the wife's experiences in the last 5 years, Jaguar, Mitsubishi and Mazda were not pushy at all. My gut feel is that they all work on the principle that someone looking at them is fairly sold on the car already and is making sure they are right.

 

[rodenal]

Tends to vary by the franchise owner more than specific manufacturer in my experience - although I've always had notably good, non push service when talking to either Merc or Lexus

I suspect things are shifting a bit generally though, my last few cars have been particularly easy "I would like to pay X", bit of minor haggling then politely saying no to extras like gap etc with no great hard sell. Both Parks ford and West End Skoda (even if the follow on ownership wasn't great) had a a particularly easy sales process and done things when prepping the car u wasn't bothered with / didn't notice.

Suspect that so many people take cars on PCP or similar arrangements means there's no great push from the sales end for non finance type products

I will however never, ever buy a car from Evans Halshaw as they are still (and always have been) trained like a bunch of wideboy dodgy car dealers

 

[Steeps]

Always down to the way the franchise operates, unfortunately those tactics do tend to increase sales and the dealer is rewarded for it. Every 3-6 months someone new at my local Toyota dealer is handed my folder and calls me to try and sell a new car, as I know the model I have quite well I'm very specific with the spec I ask for and it amazes me how often the sales person will lie just to get you through the door (I asked about a limited edition colour that wasn't available once and he insisted they had one in their show room I could take for a test drive).

Agree with the Evans Halshaw comment, don't know anyone that's had a good experience with them either new or second hand.

 

[Ryan-3]

Stealerships. The majority of front line sales people usually aren't very knowledgeable about the products they're selling and just follow a set script given to them. Problem is, giving poor information about computers/TVs is bad enough as they're not cheap, but cars is even worse.

Recently had an MOT reminder from Arnold Clark. I had work done at their dealership, but by someone who worked there using his walnut blasting machine in their workshop. My MOT is due at the end of March anyway, so no idea who sent that.

 

[fergie128]

Had a great experience with the Taggarts Jaguar dealership when I ordered my new XF last November, they really couldn't do enough to help me. Gave me a weekend loan of one and helped me through the custom order and all the options when he realised there weren't any available close to the spec and colour I wanted.

On the flip side I went to the Ford dealer across the road earlier in the day and wanted to have a look at the Mondeo estates. They didn't have any but it ended up with the salesman trying to push me into the saloon and questioning why I wanted an estate anyway. Evans Halshaw I think.

Also felt like one of the local Merc dealers didn't take me as a seriously interested buyer either, must have been the jeans and hoodie I wore that day, lol.

Ordered the XF in Caesium blue, and I absolutely love it!

 

[ci_newman]

Sounds like a rubbish dealership, but actually you should seriously consider the new 1.4 TSI VAG engine. It's very fuel efficient, my wife's Octavia with the same engine returns 55-60mpg on a motorway trip. With the recent attacks on diesel, it makes sense to me to jump to small turbo petrol engines now.

 

[kevpuk]

So much down to the individual dealer, or perhaps franchise group?
My previous car, Mercedes CLS, was sourced via DtD (lucky dip dealer, best price) and the interaction when collecting was limited; however, visiting my local MB dealer was always a good experience, although didn't end up buying another MB. Similarly, local Jaguar and Lexus dealers were excellent, not pushy but accommodating whilst being ready to deal if I wanted to.
By contrast, local Audi supplied my wife's previous car (A1) back in 2012. When it came to look to changing, she was set on Q3 but same dealer was terrible - failed to have test drive car available on pre-organised appointment, tried to suggest we look at different car instead(!)....we tried another nearby Audi dealer, again pre-arranged appointment to drive a Q3, turned up and they didn't have the car, or suitably similar, available! My wife refused to go to back to either, or another Audi dealer, and now has a XC60 - Volvo were brilliant, listened to needs, understood exactly what we wanted (model, spec etc.), arranged test drive, matched CarWow price, shook hands more or less there and then.
Now the twist.....when I sold the CLS, I fancied a S3 - contacted (a different) dealer who had supplied a friend with an A6 Allroad and Q3 in the last 6 months, and said "this is what I want, this is what I will pay" where amount was what DtD pricing was.....salesman listened, looked at group stock and came up with pretty close match......called me back an hour later with a suggestion of a stock car they had, slightly different spec but all the crucial bits I wanted and at a price better than a DtD discount, available within couple of days. My choice then, either this car, the group stock one for less of a saving (only if they could secure it from other dealer, as price was tough) or factory build.......I went for the car they had, saved more £s and - frankly - was such a great deal.

TL;DR Individual dealers, individual staff even, some good, some not - can't really tar all with same brush

 

[Royal Fleet]

TL;DR Individual dealers, individual staff even, some good, some not - cant' really tar all with same brush

Agreed. We recently bought a second hand E Class. Basingstoke dealer was late, disinterested and the car wasn't in a great state. Compare that with Brooklands (incidentally the dealership owned by MB). Sales guy there knew everything about the car, was happy to let sit in traffic for 20 minutes on a test drive so we could stretch its legs on the A3. We didn't buy the first one we test drove but he worked hard to get one in the spec we wanted and then gave us a reasonable deal. The actual pickup was great with him spending another hour with me talking through how to use the car properly. He even offered to drive down to our house with a set of mats which weren't available on pick up.

TL;DR - even MB dealers are hit and miss - big thumbs up for MB Brooklands.

 

[Housey]

It's pretty standard for salesmen to be pushy to be honest.

Only really bad ones

 

[MooMoo444]

Only really bad ones

Maybe it's me