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Dealerships will have a policy, most require a salesman to go along on test drives, but some let you take the car yourself, they just get your phone number and license. Rare though, only my local mazda dealer permits that.
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humfrz..... its weird when you don't put that at the bottom of your posts |
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Yep this is how mine went. Then again, my salesman was only 22 (I'm 24) so we actually had kinda a bromance enthusiast test drive lol. He really sold me on the car (I was looking at a Cooper S at the time). They also gave me $3700 more on my trade than any other dealer offered. I love my dealership sorry you had a bad experience! |
This is exactly why I "ordered" my car. I wanted a whiteout manual with 0 options as I change almost everything anyway. They put a request to get one from the allocation that matched it and put a huge "do not drive do not wash SOLD sticker on it.
I got it from the same dealership as you. I sold cars as a "kid" and still remember a guy taking a GSR integra, used, out for a test drive. He did a full on burnout out of the lot and damn near put the car into a pole. This started the policy that no customers drive them off the lot at that dealership. |
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Yep, I used to till several folks commented it was redundant since "humfrz" appears on the side bar. So, I quit "signing". Do you think I should start signing off again .. ?? humfrz ..... or not |
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I'm planning on talking to the big manager tomorrow about the whole ordeal so we'll see if he cares for the better. Somewhat unrelated, the clutch on these FRS's has such short travel! It was really hard to get used to a pedal that hit bottom so quickly. The thing I liked the most about the car was the seating position and the shifter, my god that thing was tight! The only downside I found was that the car felt really hesitant to go up in revs. I thought my GTI was a dog above 5,500 rpm but this car seemed to go up the revs slower than my current car. Maybe it had something to do with the meathead salesman ripping it a new one.... |
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Yep, the clutch takes some getten used to. For example, I came out of an 06 Miata, where I had to push the clutch pedal half way to the front bumper to get it to function. The first time I clutched an FR-S, the salesman jumpted cause I hit the floorboard so hard. The shifter is "tight" especially when cold .... just the way they are. I found that my FR-S didn't spin up real fast till I had about 5,000 miles on it ..... now the red light (shift light) (set at 6,200) flashes at me before I know it. Of course, that car you drove was most likely driven by that salesman before and it was fixing on tossing a couple of rods ....:confused0068: I suggest you give another FR-S a spin .... :) humfrz |
Salesmen...sometimes I can't tell if they're jerks because they can tell you're not going to buy the car or if they're really just that clueless about customer service. On my Scion test drive the salesman came with us ad made my wife sit in the backseat. The 6'5" (really no other salesperson could take this drive...) jerk proceeded to continually reach into the center console area and dash trying to show me the stereo (which I already said was going to be replaced if it were my car) while allowing me only to go around the block. At least he never offered to drive, lol.
Needless to say I had a much better experience at Subaru and had no problem buying the BRZ instead. Got it cheaper than the FR-S too, FTW. |
I originally went to Autonation Toyota in Winter Park as well and the salesman I had told me he would "allow me to drive the car so he could show me that I did NOT want the car". He told me it was small, not practical, and far too uncomfortable and that he was doing me a favor by telling me all this. He actually made me want to go next door to the Lexus dealer and buy an IS250.
Needless to say I did not end up buying my FR-S from them. Some salesmen just seem to not want to sell the car or in the case of a Toyota dealer just know absolutely nothing about the FR-S. |
Sounds like the asshat sales bro just wanted an excuse to drive the car. I'd never let the sales person drive a car I was thinking of purchasing.
Thankfully, I got mine about a day after it came off the truck. Nobody touched it except the porters, and I was the first person to drive it off the lot. :D |
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The Hyundai dealer let me take a Genesis Coupe home with me for the day. I had to give them my drivers license, insurance, and a $200 deposit (refundable) on my credit card but signed nothing else. Maybe I look too trusting... |
This thread should reinforce that it probably is not a good idea to buy a "demo" car at the dealership regardless of the discount. It is unfortunate that someone will buy that car .... and then a new thread will re-appear here about their car being a lemon.
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I left a voicemail and an email for the general manager since saturday. No calls yet. I guess they really dont care at that dealership
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That makes me SMH. If you can't drive a car properly just don't.
The last BRZ I sold, the customer was 18 and a little new to driving manual. I was waiting for him to hammer the thing but he was actually very gentle on the car and wasn't shifting above 2,000RPM. It was such a tame test drive that when we got back to the lot I asked if he trusted me to drive it with him riding shotgun. He said yes so we did a Chinese fire drill and I drove it after him; something I can say I've never done before. I didn't beat on the car of course, just drove it a little quicker and a lot smoother than he did, so he'd get a feel for how it could drive. Went around some corners and revved it up to 4k rpm just to give him a little taste. After that he bought the car. Then I gave him some tips on where the best shows were put on and what sanctioning bodies he could join in order to do auto-x, track days and drifting. I realize I'm one of few salespeople who would ever do this, but know that we're not all bad guys. Just mostly ;) |
Central Texas dealership here. I was given the keys and told to come back in a reasonable amount of time. No salesmen, nothing...all by myself. 40 minutes later and one big smile, I bought the car.
They offered me $750 for my trade. I politely told them to eat it, and I sold that car for $3500 one week later. I actually sold it within 15 minutes of posting it on Craigslist. First person to call took the car. Sure, it was a 2003 Ford Focus with 125k miles, but it was pristine, KBB excellent was $3500, and that's exactly what I got no questions asked. $750 on trade was an insult, and almost made me walk away. Hindsight is 20/20. Had a salesmen gone with me on the test drive I would not have driven like an idiot and hence probably wouldn't have fallen in love with the car. The net result is I would not have bought it and would have ended up with the car a SHOULD have bought, but didn't. So now everytime I crawl my overweight American ass in a tiny little jap car hoping my neighboors aren't watching my ungraceful somewhat controlled fall into the seat, I can think about the evil sales tactic my dealership used to get me to buy it. Then I get a few miles down the road and the driving experience with the marvelous steering and excellent gearbox make me forget all the negatives. At least until I try to fit my supersized coke through the little tiny window... |
haha i test drive new cars for fun and i beat this shit outa em.
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wanna learn more about how to be badass No problem bro, first you gotta wear shades during the night, and wear obey and diamond only
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That is completely unacceptable! This now makes me wonder how many cars suffer a shit fate from non-broken-in abuse later down the road.
Got mine delivered with 16kms. But all it takes is 2-3. But always in the back of my mind, did the dirty salesman get his few "special runs" before he handed you the keys? Makes you wonder. |
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It was wednesday this week and the manager for the Winter Park branch hadnt answered my email/voicemail, so I wrote a gigantic wall of text email to Autonation corporate explaining all that went on. It took less than 12 hours to get an answer and on thursday I had a sales manager from Autonation Winter Park apologizing profusely and offering to earn my business again. After some talks and a pretty good deal on a new FRS 10 series that wasnt beat on by Slick Shifts McQueen (who was no longer at the dealership) I ended up signing paperwork today and taking home #1617. To make up for my lost time and gas they also gave me 100 bucks towards parts so I got me some mudguards and the rest I will save for an oil change later. The financing guy was pretty awesome, had an accent that would convince you to even trade in your mother.
All in all a bad experience but a good result. Gonna post the pic on the 10 Series thread since I hate spamming the same thing across different topics. |
Happy ending after all. Added you to the Registry if you don't mind.
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I've always grown up with the ethic of treating something that isn't yours better than if it was your own. That said, I hope that d1ckface saleman meets that day where his prized new car takes a huge shit on him out of warranty because some d1ckface salesman like himself decided to rag his new car before he got handed the keys. Karma!
Great that things worked out. |
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They tried to low-ball me on my trade in but I haggled with them for a couple of days to get a decent deal and finally got my Whiteout (after I had them truck one in from Clearwater). I feel bad that your experience was so horrible with them. Mine wasn't so bad. But I do understand how one bad experience can taint your view of the dealership as a whole. You can try the Scion dealership off of I-4 between Conroy and John Young. They had a lot of inventory the last time I was there (but seemed less keen to work with me). Either way, I hope you get your car soon. Then go hit Dike Road off of Howell Branch. It is short but fun corners :burnrubber: |
That's a horrible thing to do to a car, especially when you're trying to sell it to the guy in the passenger seat. I won't get to even drive mine for months after i buy it unfortunately. However, I have driven a FT86 (I'm in Japan at the moment) and loved it. Dealerships here let you take it out on your own. Very awesome customer service even though it's hard to understand them haha
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