Car sales people

[sawters]

dealers

with my recent dealer communications, i got phone call after phone call from the dealer - he was really keen to please and sell me a tig. When i told him i had bought private, he just said good luck with the car and hung up!
NICE GUY HEY.

Funny thing was i was thinking of looking at a new golf as well - i know where i wont be going back to!

[guest12345]

with my recent dealer communications, i got phone call after phone call from the dealer - he was really keen to please and sell me a tig. When i told him i had bought private, he just said good luck with the car and hung up!
NICE GUY HEY.

Funny thing was i was thinking of looking at a new golf as well - i know where i wont be going back to!

what do you expect the salesman to say? you told him you are no longer in the market to buy, the salesman have to move on to other customers, if salesman have to satisfy everyone, who make an enquiry but buy another car, they would need 100s of them.

[mmanda]

I wasn't wearing a suit, but then Essendon isn't really 'suit' country. I was well enough dressed, in my fifties, and can afford to buy any car in their showroom (or Audi's for that matter).

On a similar topic....I rang Camberwell VW on Saturday with a question. Salesman promised to ring back in 10-15 minutes (and took all of my details). It's now Tuesday...still waiting.

This must be how Essendon conducts business, even 7 months after this post. I went in there over a week ago, sat in a GTI Demo in the yard for a good 15mins. Had several salesman walk past me, ignored me. Then I walked into the dealer ready to talk and wanting a test drive.... nothing, nada.. not one person acknowledged me. So I left. Then went back last Saturday and had the same experience again, however, this time I made eye contact with a salesman. He told me to sit at his desk, I sit down and he keeps me waiting there another 10 mins. I was just about to leave when he finally walked over.

I won't be buying there. And thats a shame cos its my closest dealer. In fact, they probably wont get my servicing business either... I'll go somewhere where my business is appreciated!

[jb747]

The whole experience of buying a new car is, well, interesting.

When we were looking at the Tiguan, Burwin were far and away the nicest to deal with. We probably expected that, as our R32 came from there, but the salesman we dealt with then had moved on (to Audi). They were just good all around. Not one other VW dealer that I visited when Tiguan shopping gave me a positive vibe.

We decided that we really wanted something a bit bigger than the Tig, and were very interested in the Q5. Also decided to have a look at a couple of other brands too. First place we visited was Audi in Canberra, as we just happened to be driving through there on holidays. We were upfront about not being locals, nevertheless they made sure that we had a good look at the entire range, and willingly gave us drives of a couple (they were the only dealer that I've seen who had a demo with each of the four engine options).

Back in Melbourne we started looking seriously. Now, I do not have the time, or inclination, to drive around to every dealer in town. Nor am I likely to buy at RRP. I visited two dealers (the closest)...Doncaster Audi, and Penfolds. Now, as far as I'm concerned Doncaster had 'form' with me....I'd tried to buy an S3 from them a couple of years ago, and the treatment was so shoddy that I complained to Audi (and bought a VW), but they're close, and I figured my previous experience may have been an abberation. Well, I don't think they've improved at all. Even though they had a demo available in a form that we hadn't driven, they weren't even slightly forthcoming with regard to a test drive. Not quite as rude as previously, but not much help either. Offered price was the worst we saw.

By contrast, Penfolds were delightful. Couldn't have been more helpful with regard to drives. Initial price was basically RRP.

At this point I contacted (by email) every Audi dealer within a hundred kms of Melbourne, with the exact specs that I wanted, and asked them to tender. This is the point at which it always becomes amusing, as many go out of their way in their attempts to get you to the showroom. About a third (irrespective of brand) actually come back with a price straight away, and a couple of others after giving up trying to get me to actually visit them. At this point Audi Melbourne jumped to the top of the game, with an extremely good offer. Brighton were RRP, but came back with a good offer after ringing me up. Doncaster rang me with a price that was RRP plus a lot. When I pointed out that they weren't in the running, and suggested their pencil needed to be a lot sharper...the response was they 'they don't do business this way'. My guess was that they don't do business; with me, anyway.

Penfolds were left with last offer (and they were not told what the other offers were), as they'd been very good with giving us cars. Their pencil was sufficiently sharpened and they got the sale.

In a couple of years, I intend becoming a grey nomad, and a Q7 sounds like a good tow vehicle. I guess I'll only need to talk to Penfolds, Melbourne, and Brighton....

[Chook47]

I just purchased a Passat through Pickerings in Townsville and was impressed. They gave me 5 minutes for a browse and then approached with an offer of help. The sales asistant was generally knowledgable and helpful without being imposing. They chased a car down from another dealer in SE QLD and confirmed a swap with the dealer was possible that day. Any emails or phone calls with questions were replied to promptly and nothing seemed to be a problem. Im not sure I got the best price, but considering there is not a lot of choice up this way it was pretty close. In the end my trade was not worth what i needed and they came to the party with a competive offer.
On the other hand my lease company offered a car from Austral in Brisbane with a couple of extras with a similar price. So I gave them a call and did not feel comfortable at all. Pressure, Pressure, Pressure was the name of the game and i didn't like it! I could just tell that this would not be a fun experience. So I blew them off.
At the end of the day Im extremely happy with the car so far and I was happy with the sales service. I guess the next hurdle will be the first service in 15 000k's. I hope my opinion stays the same.

[mikinoz]

I think all in all the "deal" took around 20 minutes or so and I picked my car up the next week. I'm pretty damn happy with how everything went when dealing with Nepean Motor Group.

Funny how we got a totally different response when we went to talk about a Highline Multivan - one person spoke to us then referred us to a guy clearly in the midst of doing a deal - 30 mins later I left and won't go back for sales - but the service department are better than my other experiences.

Swings/Roundabouts.

[Gti4Eva]

with my recent dealer communications, i got phone call after phone call from the dealer - he was really keen to please and sell me a tig. When i told him i had bought private, he just said good luck with the car and hung up!
NICE GUY HEY.

Funny thing was i was thinking of looking at a new golf as well - i know where i wont be going back to!

You basically told him you didnt need his services... He wasnt rude but I mean he probably has other calls waiting. he needs sales....

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My experience was bad but maybe I was rude... I went to look at Golfs at the car yard.... The dealer and I was talking for about 2 mins (everything was peachy) then I told him that the Golfs looked a little plain but I did say the GTi was nice.... He then says to me,"well hey mate you can always buy a ferrari?" I said yeah I suppose you are right and walked off. I was formally dressed as I was in my hospital placement clothes so maybe he thought I was bussinessman wasting his time

It was early in the morning around 9 am, no1 else was there...

[Wolfgang]

A workmate shutup a very persistant dealer even though my boss had already told him he bought a car from elsewhere.

When the dealer rang he responded with: "Are you bloke who sold him that Merc! It's fantastic. Had a drive of it the other day it goes like nothing else. You gave him a really good price for it too. He is really happy with it. Thanks mate!"

Never heard from the dealer again.

(He bought something better than a Merc, an 03 Passat 4Motion )

[platzie]

It's interesting how diverse the customer service at different VW dealers is. A while back we were up at Maroochydore on holidays when we noticed a red R32 for sale at the VW dealer on the sunshine coast. So we popped in to have a look at it. We were approached straight away, told him we weren't actually local and that we just wanted to have a look. He pretty much said he would take us for a test drive just because its fun and we didn't oblige. So we hoped in the car and drove off on one of the best test drives i've had, was really impressed with the car and the salesman, he really displayed what this car was capable of. As a result it got us seriously in the market for one.

Came back down to Brisbane and went to look at an R36 at Austral, stood around for a while, climbed through a few cars and didn't get any ones attention. So we went and approached a salesman who didn't really seem happy to see us. We told him we were interested in seeing the R36 and the 3.2L V6 Passat they had for sale. He questioned why we would want a petrol Passat and told us they haven't sold a non-diesel Passat in over 2 years! (yeah, right). Anyway, he didn't seem that interested in simply unlocking the car for us let alone taking us for a test drive. He had no idea about the options for the car or the pricing and told us that the computer system had crashed... In the end he came back and said that he didn't know where the keys for the R36 were, he thinks he left them in another car which had been taken by one of the other salesman. If that's true, i find it pretty disgusting that they can lose the keys to a $70,000 car. If he had of taken us for a test drive, you never know we could have been as impressed as we were with the R32 and bought it, but instead we left the salesman on his date with his right hand under the desk.

I dont think Austral quite understands just how much good customer service is as a selling tool. Had we previously been in the market for an R32 before visiting VW on the Sunshine Coast then that salesman would have definitely picked himself up a sale. It sure seems that because VW is the flavour of the month Austral don't think they have to work for their sales. In fact i've been to wholesalers and auctions and gotten better customer service than at Austral.

[pra32]

Before I bought my R32 in early 08 I had a choice of going to Austral which I can see from my office car park or drive all the way down to Highway VW which would be 30 mins maybe more away. The decision in the end was an easy one. I would have spent at least 45 minutes down at Austral looking at R32s only and not one ounce of help. When I finally approached a salesperson he quoted me RRP + on roads. Highway on the other hand were very helpful and I bought from there. And they gave me a better price.

I was down at Austral again just recently looking at the Golf R they had down there. After 20 mins of no action I left. Go Austral!

[platzie]

Someone should steal one of their cars, after that, whenever they see someone near one of their cars they will be sure not to ignore you

[yowie]

Before I bought my R32 in early 08 I had a choice of going to Austral which I can see from my office car park or drive all the way down to Highway VW which would be 30 mins maybe more away. The decision in the end was an easy one. I would have spent at least 45 minutes down at Austral looking at R32s only and not one ounce of help. When I finally approached a salesperson he quoted me RRP + on roads. Highway on the other hand were very helpful and I bought from there. And they gave me a better price.

I was down at Austral again just recently looking at the Golf R they had down there. After 20 mins of no action I left. Go Austral!

The only thing I disliked about our experience was this, having to listen to staff hanging poo on a dealership from which they appeared to be refugees.
No-one likes to hear negatives.
They had the sale and put it at risk.
Having said that, the opinions coming about Austral are consistent and agree with my experience which didn't progress beyond the phone call which was basically dont come in if you are going to try and haggle.
So I didnt