Tweet
They never ask questions!
I work in sales (not automotive, but major capital investments) and I've been taught to ask questions about the customer's needs. Examples might include: What do you drive now? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? What are the implications of what you don't like (hopefully worded better than that)! What are you hoping the new car might provide you? From there, we can perhaps have a decent conversation about the car and how I plan to use it.
All I got asked was: how much do you want to spend, what's your trade-in and how long are you prepared to wait? If anyone had bothered to ask me, they would have learned that the things most important to me were servicing costs and ease of getting the car fixed. Not one person asked me, and I would have paid a premium for a dealer who offered free pick-up and drop-off. So, I shopped around, got the cheapest price and will simply take the car to the nearest VW dealer.
Cars are the typically the second-most expensive purchase any of us make (after a property), yet the sales guys treat the consumers with a fairly high degree of disdain. I spoke with four dealers - they all got told I wanted a particular trade-in and a particular purchase price. I never shared with the dealers what another dealer quoted me, and simply asked them to give me their best deal. I reckon that's ethical, and it's what I expect of my customers.
I got quoted multiple different prices for exactly the same car and options. I got $2k variations in dealer delivery charges. I was told things which I knew to be factually incorrect about the car. I got told they wouldn't bother giving me a trade-in because the car wouldn't be available for six months. A dealer twice implied I was a liar when I had in fact been completely honest (related to the prices I had been quoted by other dealers as well as vehicle availability).
I finally bought from a guy who was straight with me and simply quoted me a sharp changeover price with a vehicle available pretty quickly. To be honest, the joy of buying the car is eliminated by the behaviour of many of the sales folks. I suspect they get treated like s**t by a lot of customers who try to be too smart, and take a pre-emptive approach by showing disdain for the punters, but all I really wanted was to be treated with the respect one would expect when you are spending in excess of $50k.
Do I have a recommendation? Yeah, shop around, be honest and find somebody who treats you with respect. The sales manager at Central Coast VW was very straight with me, but couldn't match the price I was quoted elsewhere.
Oh, and if you're buying a BMW, speak with Paul at Trivett Parramatta. He ticked all the boxes for me, but unfortunately I didn't want to stretch my budget to the Beemer. He's solid-gold.
If anyone from VW is reading, you might want to think about getting some of your sales people trained in client-centred sales approaches. And maybe test them on their product knowledge. It's pretty woeful.
I work in sales (not automotive, but major capital investments) and I've been taught to ask questions about the customer's needs. Examples might include: What do you drive now? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? What are the implications of what you don't like (hopefully worded better than that)! What are you hoping the new car might provide you? From there, we can perhaps have a decent conversation about the car and how I plan to use it.
All I got asked was: how much do you want to spend, what's your trade-in and how long are you prepared to wait? If anyone had bothered to ask me, they would have learned that the things most important to me were servicing costs and ease of getting the car fixed. Not one person asked me, and I would have paid a premium for a dealer who offered free pick-up and drop-off. So, I shopped around, got the cheapest price and will simply take the car to the nearest VW dealer.
Cars are the typically the second-most expensive purchase any of us make (after a property), yet the sales guys treat the consumers with a fairly high degree of disdain. I spoke with four dealers - they all got told I wanted a particular trade-in and a particular purchase price. I never shared with the dealers what another dealer quoted me, and simply asked them to give me their best deal. I reckon that's ethical, and it's what I expect of my customers.
I got quoted multiple different prices for exactly the same car and options. I got $2k variations in dealer delivery charges. I was told things which I knew to be factually incorrect about the car. I got told they wouldn't bother giving me a trade-in because the car wouldn't be available for six months. A dealer twice implied I was a liar when I had in fact been completely honest (related to the prices I had been quoted by other dealers as well as vehicle availability).
I finally bought from a guy who was straight with me and simply quoted me a sharp changeover price with a vehicle available pretty quickly. To be honest, the joy of buying the car is eliminated by the behaviour of many of the sales folks. I suspect they get treated like s**t by a lot of customers who try to be too smart, and take a pre-emptive approach by showing disdain for the punters, but all I really wanted was to be treated with the respect one would expect when you are spending in excess of $50k.
Do I have a recommendation? Yeah, shop around, be honest and find somebody who treats you with respect. The sales manager at Central Coast VW was very straight with me, but couldn't match the price I was quoted elsewhere.
Oh, and if you're buying a BMW, speak with Paul at Trivett Parramatta. He ticked all the boxes for me, but unfortunately I didn't want to stretch my budget to the Beemer. He's solid-gold.
If anyone from VW is reading, you might want to think about getting some of your sales people trained in client-centred sales approaches. And maybe test them on their product knowledge. It's pretty woeful.
Comment