Sometimes the policy of the dealership is more to blame than the salesperson. My wife and I did visit dealer where the salesperson was a woman. This occurred in the fall of 1988 and some of the 1989 models were already out. At any rate, we were at a Pontiac dealer and the dealer had a leftover 1987 Pontiac intermediate (I think it was called the 6000). We were seriously going to buy a car. I asked about the straight out price and the saleswoman said she would ask her boss. I told her that our time was limited and to come back with the best price the agency was willing to make. I had a feeling the booth we were in might be bugged, so my wife and I sat there and didn’t say a word while the saleswoman was consulting with her boss. She came back and said that they could take $100 off the sticker price. I said that this price was completely out of the ballpark and I had a price on a 1988 Taurus which was much better. She replied, “That isn’t our best price” to which I replied that my time was limited and I was going back to the Ford dealer. I bought the Taurus.
My parents were in the market for an intermediate size Buick–I think it was called the Century. They went to the Buick dealer and were driving a Buick. The salesman, instead of listening to them tried to sell them a smaller Buick Skylark. He insisted that this was the car for them. My dad had never owned a Ford product, but they left the Buick dealer and went down the street and bought a Mercury Sable.
I want a salesperson, man or woman, who will listen to what I want to buy, comes up with a reasonable starting price, and knows the product. I went to a Rambler dealer back in 1965 and did encounter such a sales person. I told him that I wanted basic transportation and that I was interested in the Rambler American. After we looked at a couple on the lot, he said, “I think I have the car for you that will save some money”. The agency had a 1965 Rambler Classic 550 (bottom of the line), manual transmission, no accessories except a radio that had gone 7000 miles. I would get the balance of the warranty. That car was perfect for me–I bought it for $1750 and drove it well past 100,000 miles. Other dealers tried to sell me the top of the line 2 door hard tops which I didn’t want. When I replaced the Rambler, I was about 40 miles from home and we were looking for a newer car. I saw an AMC Gremlin at a Dodge dealer, so we drove in and asked about it. The salesman said right out “It’s a piece of junk, I don’t think you want that car”. When I saw that it had big wide tires and was raised up in the back, I realized he wasn’t joking. He then asked, “What are you looking for?” I told him that we wanted a car with bucket seats, my wife wanted an automatic transmission and, if possible, I would like air conditioning. He replied, “We just took in a car that is in the wash bay that I think fits what you want”. The car was a Ford Maverick Grabber–had the bucket seats, automatic transmission, power steering and air conditioning. We bought the car. The car did fit our needs. I don’t think the salesman knew that the Maverick rode like a wheelbarrow. I ran the Maverick over 100,000 miles with no problems, but I finally traded the car when I found I was spending more on Preparation-H than upkeep on the Maverick.
I think that there are honest salespeople. However, they need to work for honest dealers. When my son was in seminary, he took a job working for Sears in the hardware department. He didn’t like the policy of pushing Sears credit cards, so he would merely ask if they had a card and would be interested. He never took it farther than that even though it was Sears policy to give the Sears credit cards the hard sell. Even though he was on commission, he said the fun part of the job was at Christmas time helping women who were looking for a gift for their husbands or significant other. He would ask about their husband’s interests and then steer them to a particular type of tool. He said that even though the commission on a $20 item wasn’t much, it was more fun than a contractor who came in with a particular $700 compressor in mind and all my son had to do was write up the order, take the money and have it loaded on the contractor’s truck.
Salespeople serve a useful function if they know their product, will listen to the customer and do their best to meet the needs of the customer. I hope I can find one this week as I think our 20 year old washing machine croaked and will have to be replaced.
My daughter left home in 1992 to teach in Southern Texas. She went to the Saturn dealer where we lived, and bought a new one. No pressure. Fixed price. She was very happy with the purchase process.
That car ran great for her, until 2005. Someone hit the back of it, and though the car was still drivable it was labeled totaled. Something to do with those plastic body parts, and it was nearly 13 years old. She kept it and drove it. When her son was born, her husband said, “You are not driving my baby son in a tiny car like that.”
And, bought her a new Odyssey.
The Saturn gave nearly flawless service. Once, before Saturn McAllen opened, she was going north on a trip. She called Saturn in San Antonio to make an appointment for needed service. They put the whole crew on that job, and I think she was only in the shop like 40 minutes, then drove off on I-35 on her way to the Midwest.
The only problem she had was in the McAllen Saturn shop, when it was opened. They re-used a radiator hose clamp which then broke.
I think the difference was when GM forced Saturn to start using GM business practices.
For those who want to pick their salesperson by type…
WE have that covered.
From suits and ties to cowboys. From young to old. Male and female. local Navajo, mexican, white, arab, black, you name 'em, we’ve had 'em on our sales force.
But generally…
no matter who you pick…
They are selling by the practices and guidelines of the dealer they work for.
Still just a numbers game.
yeah, we all know its a numbers game. i just wish the sales people wouldn t feed you a line of bull, hoping you weren t savvy enough to know the game, thus giving them more commission when they upsold product.
i don t like the whole sales system. i say just do away with commission, pay the guys for the job they do, let them inform you of your options, not push them on you. if they can t do the job, and don t get any sales, well, replace them with someone who can. don t have too many salespeople vying for a limited number of sales. that just benefits the stereotypical pushy salesperson, which none of us seem to like.
but i m weird… anyway, it doesn t matter to me, because i won t be buying a new car.
i can tell you that the cable reps really irritated me. they just wanted to sell, sell, sell
Would you prefer women or man to sell your vehicle to you ?
I have no preference. I don’t care if you’re a man, woman or something in between. Your job is to provide access to test drives and facilitate the transaction. It is a bonus if you can answer any technical questions I may have but that would be rare as I have usually done all that homework before ever setting foot inside your dealership.
Are you more apt to trust women or men
Why would I trust anyone selling me anything?
Especially true of businesses that RELY upon games to obfuscate the transaction and slip in adders to bolster their bottom line.
And the other question is, do sales people prefer women or men customers?
I told the story before but some years ago our highly successful woman school supt. went down to the local GM dealer looking for a car. At one point when I think the sale was pending the salesman told her to come back with her husband to finish it. In no uncertain terms she told the guy that she was buying the car and not him. Knuckles dragging on the ground.
I think the quality of sales people has gone up over the years and frankly I have had better luck in the larger metro area than the small town but some of the dealerships still don’t get it. One thing to think about though is, based on some of the comments here and the customer techniques, think of the kind of treatment the sales person is in for right off the bat, whether he/she is good or not. They have got to get mighty tired of people coming in daily to challenge, scam, or skin them.
I just want three things. I want info on the models, features etc. Then I want them to come up with an aggreeable price, then I want them to go through all the hoops to get the car and get the transaction done and take care of any problems. Then I want all that in less than three hours to get out of there. I didn’t mind the last guy we had but we drove 40 miles home before we realized that we didn’t have any temporary plates. He did deliver them to us that night, but still its pretty basic stuff. Not to mention that he couldn’t find the 2nd key fob.
Triedaq My memory is not the best. I’m thinking the 1972 MG Midget was the last chrome front bumper year. I owned and drove many MGs manufactured from 1958 to 1966 that had plenty of room for the driver. They were supposed to accommodate a driver up to 6’4". I admit I was 5’10" and never had a problem. I have a female friend who has owned a 1975 MGB since new. She is under 5’ tall and could probably have a use for leg and arm extenders if MGs did not have generous fore and aft seat adjustments.
@agtrock–When I was a graduate student the first time around in the early 1960s, a fellow graduate assistant who rented a room at the same house as I did, bought a 1962 MG Midget. I was able to get in and out of that car. Later, when I came back from my second round of gradute school in 1971, we rented a duplex where the other half of the duplex was rented by a salesman who worked for a foreign car dealership. He was also in the National Guard and had guard duty once a month. When he had to be out of town for the weekend, he would bring me the keys to his MG Midget demonstrator and told me to drive it over the week-end. He said it was bad for MG products to sit for a day or more without being driven. I was always glad to help him out and give the MG Midget plenty of exercise I know that the 1971 and 1972 models I drove had chrome bumpers. They also had rollup windows. The 1962 my friend from my earlier days had side curtains.
@Bing–My son who was a sales person in the Sears hardware department and enjoyed helping women pick out Christmas gifts for their significant others, was observed in action by the owner of the local Ford dealer. He offered my son a sales position at the dealership. He thought my son would be great at helping women pick out a Ford. My son turned him down–he said he didn’t have the passion to sell cars.
The women sales people of which I am wary are real estate sales people. I have purchased three houses in my life–two of the times I bought the land and had a house built. The first experience was very good–we had a male real estate agent. He was very accommodating and worked well with the builder. The second experience was with a woman agent and she was very professional. My last experience was also with a woman agent and I didn’t trust her. I finally had to have a lawyer draw up the agreement. I’ve learned when dealing in real estate, to have a lawyer involved to make sure agreements are honored.
Bing I guess times change. Not that long ago a car salesman or service writer would lick their chops if a lone woman showed up. On my last new car purchase I showed up at the local dealership and informed the salesroom salesman that I had done my research and would not endure hours of BS. They sent me to the “internet sales manager”. The process became suddenly painless. He was very honest and upfront with everything. I informed him with a printout of the megadealer 60 miles away. He informed me that that dealer received “kick backs” from the manufacturer for volume sales. I informed him I was aware of that. I stated that if possible I would prefer to keep my money local. I truly believe in supporting local businesses thereby supporting local employees if possible. I ended up with a price over $2,000 less than the megadealer plus a moon roof for free as that was the only car they could find in my color with manual transmission. Of course paying cash in full may have been a factor.
With the total Mt. Everest sized load of BS around car sales and a consumer is supposed to take a car salesperson’s word as gold? That may work if the consumer knows the salesperson and has had a repeat relationship with them.
In the defense of sales people their jobs are on the line every minute and so if some BS is needed to move a unit off the lot they will resort to that BS rather than end up unemployed.
Debs wonders why the lack of trust. Well, if Debs is selling protection packages and so on then that act alone is why any trust should be withheld.
VDC, I should perhaps clarify; I don’t grill them to see if they know the answers, I grill them to see how willing they are to BS me. If they do answer with BS, I go on with the grilling just to see them sweat, If they field the questions with respect and without dishonesty, I’ll deal openly with them.
Our last 3 houses were bought from woman brokers. In each case, the woman broker was more sensitive to our family needs. One had also worked in a bank in the mortgage department and was a wiz at arranging financing.
The most pathetic excuse for a house salesman was a guy in the East, who 1) smoked a pipe!, 2) drove a lime green AMC Hornet Coupe!, and 3) had never heard of breath mints.
My wife predicted he would not last 6 months, and sure enough that’s what happened.
When we bought our last new car (08 Forester) we dealt with a guy named George. He was extremely knowledgeable and had a very low-key sales pitch. We were in the market for a small SUV and his dealership had the Subaru, Toyota, Mazda, and Honda brands as well as a few others. We looked for almost a year before finally purchasing our Subaru, and he always had time to answer questions or let us take test drives. George seemed to be very honest and would say he had to look it up if I asked him a question he couldn’t answer. It was a pleasure dealing with him.
On the other hand, buying a 2-year old Accord from a Chevy dealer in 1986 was a miserable experience. This sales guy was slinging the BS fast and furious, trying to sell all kinds of maintenance plans, warranties and insurance. Because we really wanted the car, I kept dealing with him. Finally, I told him the price I was willing to pay, and the only guaranty I wanted was that the car was not stolen and the dealer had a clear title. That finally shut him up.
These are the ones that stand out after a lifetime of purchasing cars - I bought my first car in 1970. I’ve dealt with both men and women, and didn’t notice any difference in the way they conducted business. Some good, some bad.
I go by the bet deal, gender makes no difference, next deal probably an internet purchase. Pat, he or she I care not.
Quoting @sgtrock21 “I’m thinking the 1972 MG Midget was the last chrome front bumper year”.
You’re close. The last full year for chrome bumper MGs, both Midget and the larger MGB was 1973. They switched to those ugly rubber bumpers in mid-year during the 1974 model run. It was due to the USA’s ugly bumper law that all cars suffered from in that era. Chrome bumper MGs command much higher prices than the later ones.
I only go to the dealership to drive the car and see how it fits. If I don’t get a good price right away I leave and do the rest of the negotiating by email.
That’s what we did a couple of years ago, Oldtimer. Everyone was surprisingly low pressure and we didn’t have to spend much time at the dealers beyond the test drive. Most of the sales people didn’t know much, but we weren’t looking for anything exotic, so they did OK.