Dealer stories

[Razgriz]

My Toyota dealership seems to be pretty decent but the Subaru dealership was pretty terrible. Two different dealership groups and their online reviews seem to reflect my experiences.

Went to the Subaru to look at a outgoing '16 BRZ and asking about the series.yellow and about the trade-in of my GTI. Completely lowballed me on the trade-in, where the number was stupidly low that we weren't in the same ballpark. Asked about a test drive or setting up an appointment for a test drive since the car was in the showroom but wouldn't have been that difficult to get out but was told only after going through everything else would we be allowed a test drive since it was exotic sports car.

The Toyota dealership was willing to work with me on my trade-in. The salesman let me take a look at the different models they had, manual FR-S, auto RS 2.0 and the new 86 they had, test drove a couple, manual and auto to see how I liked them. Offered to get a car buried in the showroom if I needed a test drive of it as it was the one I was eyeing. Basically an overall good experience, didn't really haggle on price too much and came away satisfied.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Token11b

I received a call from the dealership I bought my frs from. It was a Volkswagen dealership. They told me blah blah blah we want to buy your frs because we need inventory. Give me 120% blue book value. Seems like a good deal. I mentioned my frs was not stock and they'd probably not want it back. Made an appointment for Sunday for shits and giggles. See if I can get a newer model with lower miles maybe. If not we'll take my wife's car in and try and trade it in for something else.

Originally Posted by Token11b

Oh and I used to sell hondas back in 2006/2007 I made it my goal to learn about all the different models that Honda offered, most of your typical customers don't want to know about the car. They want something that looks good, gets good gas mileage , and fits all the kids. Too much knowledge just confuses your clientele.

If you sold cars you then you know the whole "we need inventory we will pay way more than it is worth" line is pure bullshit and just a way to get naïve people in the door so they can overcharge for another. If they need inventory there are much less expensive ways for them to get it than paying over blue book for a car they haven't even laid eyes on.

[strat61caster]

+1 on most dealerships want their primary business to be moving cars off the lot with large margins, customers who know what they're buying (or are particular about it) and willing to drag out a deal are usually just a pain in the ass it seems.

I'll never forget the closest dealer to my house, I walked in asking about an FR-S
"Oh, we don't have any of those"
"Well can I order one? I'm willing to put down a deposit"
"No."
*Stand there blinking at each other for about a minute*
"Ok, thanks I guess"
Ever since they always have one or two on the lot. They seem to move about one a month.


They also charge double for every part I've walked I'm to try and buy vs. just about everywhere else, I was actually thinking about trying then again to get camber bolts but then realized I was being dumb.

[VoltsFRS2013]

The dealership I got my FRS from listed it online for $17,500 approx. It had 37k miles on it but was considered a "Toyota Certified" Vehicle. Online in the listing no where did they say I had to pay an extra few grand for the vehicles certification. I got there, argued for about 45 mins and left the dealership. They then called me on the phone as I was driving away and said, Come back! We'll just sell it to you for $17.5!

Long story short. they claimed since my Dad had financed a Camry ages ago through toyota credit that I qualified for the certification and warranty for free.

Kicker? First bill I get from Toyota claims I have a balance of $22,000, legit a joke. some dealers are out to get you, I swear. I'm still in the process of getting the balance lowered.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

If you sold cars you then you know the whole "we need inventory we will pay way more than it is worth" line is pure bullshit and just a way to get naïve people in the door so they can overcharge for another. If they need inventory there are much less expensive ways for them to get it than paying over blue book for a car they haven't even laid eyes on.

THAT'S SIMPLY NOT TRUE! ........ the dealer is ALWAYS sending us letters wanting to buy back mrs humfrz's Saturn ....... it's a CLASSIC you know ...... they don't make them anymore.

However, we're holding out for the demand (and price) to get even HIGHER ......




humfrz

[airjonny]

Stopped by a nearby Subaru dealer after a work seminar. First guy let me sit in the car. 2nd guy comes up and looks at me as if I was going to drive off with the car GTA style. They didn't let me test drive the BRZ, but I later found out that tons of Subaru dealers are very reluctant to give test drives of the BRZ and WRX. Overall not a bad experience, but I just thought it was weird that the guy thought some 20 something in a suit was going to steal a BRZ in broad daylight.

[TrackRider54]

Originally Posted by Token11b

They want something that looks good, gets good gas mileage , and fits all the kids. Too much knowledge just confuses your clientele.

I really don't expect a car salesman to know as much as I do about cars. I've studied them and loved them since I was about 6 years old. At 45, that gives me almost 40 years of being a car nut. Reading magazines, forums, and buying lots of cars.

But I do expect them to be honest. Don't make up crap.

One guy I used to buy cars from would always tell me, "I don't know $hit about cars, but I know how to sell them". I'd tell him what I wanted and what I thought a fair deal was....he'd tell me if he could do it or not. Really simple. He also let me take cars for overnight test drives. He claimed you don't know if a car is right for you until you spend some time with in your daily routine.

[Imrac]

Back in 2012 I went over to the Scion Dealer ship to test drive a FRS. The sales guy straight up laughed at me and said, "Sorry, we don't have any available to test drive. But I can get you a test drive in a TC. It's basically the same car, just a different body." I laughed and declined politely.

[Yousend]

I had just missed my bus after work, so I had 30 minutes to kill and a Toyota dealer across the street. I decided to walk in and since I was just wasting time, I saw a beautiful car and gravitated towards it. That was in 2013 and the first time I had heard or seen an FR-S.

So naturally, a 23yo kid walking around an FR-S, a salesman approaches me. Talks to me about how much of a fun ride it is and how it has 200HP. To me that was a lot, coming from low powered golf. He then proceeds to ask me if I want to do a test drive, which I quickly accept. He told me that there's no good roads nearby to make the FR-S shine (Which is true, suburbs, with no fun roads nearby) but he knows a spot where you can take a high-speed corner, we'll go there and take it at high speed. All the while, getting to there he told me the following line: "Do not let the RPMs go below 4500, the car is meant to be driven that way". I was hooked. I took his card and said "Sorry, I'm not able to afford the car right now, but when I can I will come back". A year later, I did but the guy was no longer there...

I got one of the worst salesman possible, no test drive, uses all the tricks in the book to make you pay more. "You want to pay X per month? Yeah, just finance it for longer with higher interest rate", so I got a decent quote and then went to different dealers because I despised that guy. They were even worse. I went back to the first dealer because they had the better deal, but damn. I wish I could have had the guy who gave me the test drive. That guy loved the FR-S.

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by Borchert97

Here's a good tip, coming from someone who works at a dealership, screw walking into the door. Get with an internet sales associate instead, not only are they much more willing to work with you, you also get better deals with them.

I work at a Subaru so I can't say for sure that they all work like this but I've heard from sales people at my dealership that Honda and Toyota work similarly, the "floor sales people" as they're called, are the ones waiting to greet you up front in person, their goal is to make profit. The "internet sales people" are the ones who contact you after you request a quote online, their entire goal is to move inventory, so naturally you're going to get a better deal with them, when I bought my Toyota 86 I did so online, requested a quote on a 2017 blue Toyota 86 manual 90 minutes from me, got a call from a saleswoman within 5 minutes, went and bought the car the following day.

This times eleventy-billion. So many loser salespeople out there. I always have a much better time (no bs, good price) going through an internet sales or fleet manager.

[extrashaky]

My sales experience was pretty good when I bought my BRZ, but a lot of that is because I didn't have a trade and already had financing in place before I walked into the dealership. All we had to negotiate was price, and that was about a three sentence conversation consisting of an offer, a counteroffer and a meeting in the middle. You clear away a lot of the bullshit when you disable all their regular negotiation tools.

[Lynxis]

My buying experience for the BRZ was good but I was a bit of a shithead buyer that I think may have caused some problems with the sales people at the dealership.

I went in early spring to look at it, test drive and get a feeling for what my financing options were going to be. The sales guy was easy going and let me test drive it by myself but we couldn't click on a price that was going to work for me so I walked away.

Fast forward 2 months and it's mid summer and they still have the car and they just dropped the sticker price by $2000 and I've managed to save up a bit of money for a decent down payment so I head back over and the first guy I dealt with wasn't there. Now that the price dropped, there was more interest in the car so I wanted to seal the deal immediately so I dealt with a different sales guy and had all the paperwork filled out that day to pick it up the next day.

I went in to pick it up the next day and the original sales guy I dealt with was there and if looks could kill, I'd be paste right now... I guess it's bad form to deal with a different sales guy because the one who closes the deal is the one who gets the commission. I've never worked in sales so I didn't think about this at all until I mentioned the situation to a family member who pointed out that I basically gave the first guys commission away.

Anyways, dealing with the sales people at the local Subaru dealership has never been a problem for me and I'd happily buy from them again.

[Tcoat]

My sales experience at Toyota was outstanding. They didn't know much about the car but said so up front. Since it was still Scion they could not touch the price but they went well above and beyond with the free add ons so that I got a great buy.


Buying the wife's Impreza at Subaru was also a great sales experience. If anybody was interested in a BRZ from there they would get a sales guy that knows more than half this forum since he bought one of the very first ones in the country.


Not fair to say "most" or "all" sales people know nothing about the cars since their job is to sell them not be technical advisors. There is also a well know sales technique where you pretend to not know and let the customer do all the talking since they can talk themselves right into the sale.


Car sales is not something I would do well at since the first time some guy started spouting off about how much he knows and how little I did I would tell him to get the fuck out. I have to wonder just how many people that complain about bad salesmen brought it on themselves with their superior and antagonistic attitude.

[VoltsFRS2013]

As a follow up to my negative experience, I will post this experience. PLEASE, don't make fun of me. lmfao



So this was about a few weeks into my process of holding a Learners Permit to practice driving with my sister before I actually got my license in March (just a few months ago).

So I had been looking at MX-5s and FRS' for a while and me and my sister were out for a grocery trip out of town and it just so turned out that the grocery stores shopping center was located right next to a CarMax. I quickly looked online and noticed they had one of the Lava models 2013 in their parking lot and I made my sister drop me off there while she shopped

Upon going into the CarMax an older gentleman maybe in his mid to late 40s walked up to me and Shook my hand and asked how old I was and what I was in the market for. I told him I had just turned 17 and I was in the market for an FRS and noticed the one they had on their lot online and explained how I ended up in their showroom. A few moments later the guy took me out to the car, Unlocked everything and let me look around it and explained a lot about it (Basic information that I had already known from coming on here and talking to many of you)

A few moments later the guy goes, "so, would you want to be interested in taking her for a test drive?" I got a bit embarrassed and explained how I wasn't even fully licensed yet and the only car I had driven up to that point was a trashy mini van. Turned out CarMax policies allowed me to drive any of their cars under a Learners Permit which was crazy. So I call my sister up, she comes there and for about 20 minutes I drove in circles around the CarMax Parking lot going about 10 MPH while he talked about the interior goodies and how Insurance will probably be insane for my age, etc etc.

It was the funniest thing ever, the other CarMax reps were staring at us through the window chuckling and laughing about it.

Unfortunately once I got my license and turned 18 I went to another dealer and bought from them, but man that dealer was great. I do have to give a +1 to you Lava owners, car looks amazing in person, but Ultramarine is better