Bottle of wine with your new car, Sir?

[K1W1]

That is one thing that really annoys me, when you go to a car dealership that sell a specific brand of car and they don't even know them that well. It is there job to know everything there is about the cars they sell! It basically makes you doubt anything they say and look for your business elsewhere.

Modern society and salespeople being treated as low life lepers is the cause of that. It has nothing to do with a particular dealership or the car industry in general it's simply that the profession of selling no longer exists and like many of the professions and trades new people in those roles are not trained and not instilled with any professional ethos or pride in what they do.
Does the salesperson at JB HiFi know anything more about the TV you are looking at than what you can read on the front stickers?
Does the salesperson at the department store actually know anything about fitting the clothes you are trying on?
Does the guy who came around to measure your house for guttering know anything about guttering or was he flipping burgers at the drive through last month?
You are going to have to live with it because within 10 years you will be buying your car from a web site or at best a booth at a shopping centre staffed. sometimes by a blonde with brochures who will assist you working the purchasing kiosk. The first time you see your car will be at delivery which may either be a flat top truck at your house or a large warehouse like "delivery centre" that will have all the appeal of a doctors waiting room.

[PhillipAudiDealer]

Modern society and salespeople being treated as low life lepers is the cause of that. It has nothing to do with a particular dealership or the car industry in general it's simply that the profession of selling no longer exists and like many of the professions and trades new people in those roles are not trained and not instilled with any professional ethos or pride in what they do.
Does the salesperson at JB HiFi know anything more about the TV you are looking at than what you can read on the front stickers?
Does the salesperson at the department store actually know anything about fitting the clothes you are trying on?
Does the guy who came around to measure your house for guttering know anything about guttering or was he flipping burgers at the drive through last month?
You are going to have to live with it because within 10 years you will be buying your car from a web site or at best a booth at a shopping centre staffed. sometimes by a blonde with brochures who will assist you working the purchasing kiosk. The first time you see your car will be at delivery which may either be a flat top truck at your house or a large warehouse like "delivery centre" that will have all the appeal of a doctors waiting room.

Some of Us actually care and love our Job!!!! Some Give others a Bad name ... Some customers treat us like S**t .. Some Customers love some of us... They way of the world.. I am not a super techinical person so sometimes when some asks me about something to do with gear ratios etc etc I am clueless. Although I can use park assist like a champion.. .. I am a devil at launch control... And I really hope that most of my customers feel the love.. It is a very hard to please society.. Most people just expect things these days.. not all but most..

Soap Box moment over.. smiles Phillip



We always are a full tank no matter how big the vehicle.. We use to have a local wine at delivery in a wine cooler .. This year I have decided that Dendy Cinema tickets were a nice little thank you.. Something customers can share with there friends and a like,..

[onyertod]

We only have ourselves to blame.

When we bought our Octavia we got a voucher for $50 worth of accessories. I just had to throw in another $25 and I had enough for a set of genuine Octavia floor mats!

But as for knowledgable sales people and freebies at collection time, we only have ourselves to blame. In general people will cross the road to save pennies.
We want everything at a discount and we want it now. How many pizza hut delivery drivers risked life and limb speeding because if it was late the fat scrounging git who ordered it wanted it for free?
Jobs are dumbed down because computers do the work that used to require trained people. Mediocrity rules.
Wonder what the commission is on selling a Chery J1 hatch?

[K1W1]

Some of Us actually care and love our Job!!!! Some Give others a Bad name ... Some customers treat us like S**t .. Some Customers love some of us... They way of the world.. I am not a super techinical person so sometimes when some asks me about something to do with gear ratios etc etc I am clueless. Although I can use park assist like a champion.. .. I am a devil at launch control... And I really hope that most of my customers feel the love.. It is a very hard to please society.. Most people just expect things these days.. not all but most..

I'm well and truly on you side but the reality is that salespeople who know and care are few and far between these days. When I was taught the basics of sales it was a three week training course then when I was taught the basics of car sales it was another couple of days training followed by fairly extensive mentoring for several months. That just doesn't happen any longer. We used to employ sales cadets who just did the rubbish jobs and spent time watching and learning and being trained, one of the cadets I employed in 1985 is still in the car business today with a very successful career behind him. I haven't seen a cadet on a car yard for years, if they exist I don't know where they are but what I have seen on car yards are plenty of people with titles like "sales consultant" who know less about the business of selling and who appear to care less about the business of selling than many of the 17 and 18 year old fresh faced cadets we had.

[SKODA vRS147]

Good cars shouldn't need things like that.
At least, we get full tank of fuel and 12months rego. Also, on some models there was a free insurance at the beginning of the year, it's better than wine.

I do like wine, but i'm with you on this.

[SKODA vRS147]

I only got half a tank from Steve Jarvins when I picked up my Superb. Miserable bastards. Glad they don't sell Skodas anymore.

That does not surprise me at all from Steve Jarvins.
I dont like saying it but they deserved what was coming to them.

[SKODA vRS147]

That is one thing that really annoys me, when you go to a car dealership that sell a specific brand of car and they don't even know them that well. It is there job to know everything there is about the cars they sell! It basically makes you doubt anything they say and look for your business elsewhere.

When I bought the skoda through Wes at Trivett (free plug )....I was extremely happy. Full tank, 12 months rego, free tint and kept in the loop the whole time the deal was being processed and the car being delivered. If that is the service I get, then don't worry about giving me champagne! I'm already happy!

+1 From me on the Trivetts plug - I also dealt with Wes and he was great.

[woofy]

I mist admit, I did buy the car due to George actually knowing about it. The guys at Preston are pretty up there so do well.

I would be out of a job if I didn't know the technical side of things, I have to know the best part of 1500 intricate products, kits and systems and be able to know about the other 1000 within a short bit of investigation.

And most of the time apply that to a customer on the fly, so when there are a few models with most of the time under 10 options I would hope they know that much, I bet most salespeople can work out their commission on fly.....

[sh|tbmxrider]

Whats this Full Tank nonsence?

Car Salesmen sell cars, not fuel.

You say they are stingey bastards, well, lets flip it around, after you, the customer screws, and screws, and screws down the price, why would you expect otherwise... You want to pay as little money, and he/she wants to earn as much as possible...

Did you purchase the car at full RRP? No? Then shhh, you.

[woofy]

Wrong, they sell an experience, the car is just part of it.

The wanky Audi sales guys at Richmond even use that phrase directly! It is true, noone buys a car they buy an experience, so if it's crap they will avoid it. If that experience has a minimum expectation of petrol then people will feel cheated. Little things count and I've found the dealers who have the full tank, little delivery gifts also tend to be the better place to go to and also tend to do better.

You get out what you put in...

[bobski]

Look at it this way. How many people get shirty if they get a brand spanking new car and don't get a full tank of fuel, then go on to complain about it to their friends/family/message board.... That little bit of extra satisfaction makes the difference, so I'm sure good dealerships would factor in needing to put $80 of premium into each new car when doing the haggling.

[Transporter]

Yeah, I think that the full tank of fuel is nice, but to say that someone goes to buy a car from the particular dealer only to get the gift and for experience? I don't think so.

But hey, maybe next time some dealers will give us a cheeseburger and fries with a new car .

[brad]

Whats this Full Tank nonsence?

Car Salesmen sell cars, not fuel.

You say they are stingey bastards, well, lets flip it around, after you, the customer screws, and screws, and screws down the price, why would you expect otherwise... You want to pay as little money, and he/she wants to earn as much as possible...

Did you purchase the car at full RRP? No? Then shhh, you.

Couldn't agree more. Explains why a lot of the cars come with low oil, low coolant & low washer fluid. Thank goodness they offset it by giving us extra air in the tyres & leaving the shipping blocks in the springs.

Seriously, would you be happy to buy a carton of discount beer with some of the bottles only half full?

[Antiplastix]

I d rather have extra air than flat spots on my tyres. A bloke at work just bought a XR6 ,all 4 tyres had flat spots from sitting in the holding yard for umpteen months.

[woofy]

I think my comment went over a few heads. Cars for the most part are very emotional purchases, yes there are practical constraints, but noone buys the RS over the 1.8 TSI for any real practical reason, same with the GTi etc.

Thats a basic example, but most purchases in our lovely consumeristic society are based on experiences. A non car example is why everyone went and bought blu ray players and LCD screens. LCDs are only just coming up to a CRT quality, sure they are bigger, but before HD, a 76cm WS TV actually had the same resolution in SD. The rest was the emotional experience and the hype. 68cm were big for a long time for a good reason, they were the right size for living rooms.

Things like petrol and little scrimping weigh on peoples heads. In a game were Skoda aren't front of mind, they don't want to be saving $40 and losing a repeat sale of 40k down the track. The petrol debate comes up in every car forum, but the end result is the same, if you bought from a dealer that stiffed you on petrol and one that didn't you most likely already will be favouring the former, and again its your experience with buying that car.

I'm due to changeover soon and front of mind for me is that George has left Richmond Skoda and the rest of the crew there haven't caused very positive experiences, I would like a Superb, but again DSG issues and some people I know that have had them, have tainted my experience. I almost diverted there on the way to the office just before, but thoughts of seeing another numbnuts there from the Audi part really put me off so I didn't.

On the other hand at the Mazda dealer, they keep in regular contact, even though my 6 is 5 yrs old now, and I've had nothing but a good experience with them, so getting another 6 keeps coming back to me. Again none of this is to do with buying a car, but all purely the experience of it.