Car Dealers - Good or Bad?

[onze]

Hello to all in Mb land. I thought that you may like to know about my experiences over the last 4 months when searching for my first Merc.
During this time I contacted 15 dealers, MB, specialist and general. My first approach was to receive essential information about the vehicle for sale which had been 'omitted' from their adverts.
Does the car have a light interior?
Does it have a full MB service history?
Is it the 2004 face-lift model?
Nothing too difficult I would assume but essential to me.
Via e-mail I had 4 replies.
By phone I received another 6.
5 more never returned the call.
Of the 4 that replied by mail, all were helpful and via phone only two. The rest were poor.
The worst example was from a MB dealership in the NW. Phone call made, car perfect,trade-in details sent. 24 hours no response. Phone again. Salesman unavailable. 2 hours later phone back. Same story. 1 Hour later phone back. My colleague has just sold the car. Why? Too busy to deal with you. Sorry! Well it was almost an apology. The best response was from an MB dealership who supplied my car. An MB specialist was not too far behind.
All in all the quality of salesmanship was generally awful as the difference between the best and mostly worst was huge. It is difficult to believe what they say or perhaps print. Remember CAVEAT EMPTOR! BUYER BEWARE! Health and Happiness.Rick.

 

[jberks]

Not too surprising.
Even when you get a response, it isn't always followed up.
When I bought my current E, 3 1/2 years ago I was after a 270 or 320cdi. I rang round and found a 320 in a dealership 30 miles away. The salesman agreed to bring it up for me to look at and in all, spent 2 hours with me, plus I guess another 3 hours travelling time. I quite liked the car, though I had a couple of misgivings so we sat down to discuss money. He made me an offer of a price for my E240 plus the difference and as an opening gambit I offered a fair bit less, figuring we'd meet in the middle. He said he couldn't agree to that but would speak to his manager and get back to me tomorrow.
I'm still waiting. So 6 hours spent, plus fuel and an interested customer lined up - didn't bother to call back. Go figure.
Mine was found on the dealer's forecourt and I ended up having to chase the salesman!

Just think how many more cars they could sell if the put some actual effort in, especially in the current climate!

 

[ricky s]

Quite agree, Had a chat with MB Northampton very recently regarding a new SLK, initially found the sales guy helpful and informative. Rang back to show a more indepth intrest next day, he was too busy to talk to me, he will call back, next day still no returned call. Rang again, managed to talk to him, I am very busy, what do you want was the basic reply!. As a result returned to my local MB dealership, to whom I find the sales people very ex Ford/Vauxhall style, push, push, with to genuine intrest in your needs, car wise, and not listening, just sign here please, now go away quickly I have another customer!. In the old days it felt special to buy a mercedes for a main dealer, not any more, and as I once pointed out to the service reception at local MB after recieving shoddy service, if I was looking for service such as they had provided me, I could have gone to Fords for that.

 

[Setanta]

Shocking....but brilliant.

Odd to say I know but when I was looking for another C140, I had no luck with private sellers and decided to try dealers and 'specialists'. The service, if you can call it that, was pathetic and in more than a few cases, outright lies.

Do they honestly think that after asking detailed questions over the phone/email to avoid wasting a trip, that you will change your mind when you drive 2 hours and see that yes, in fact, there is rust on the arches, the self-close does not work, the full history is not etc.

And some classic lines from them also. "I have been selling CL's for X years, they don't rust, any that do have been crashed". Yes. Of course.

Or: "yeah, tell me what you want to know and I'll decide whether it is worth my time to answer them"!! They have had the car nearly 27 months now!


But why were the ones that I dealt with brilliant while being useless?

Because of the sheer incompetence, lack of an effort to sell or just timewasting nonsense, it meant that my paths crossed with a private seller and I ended up with exactly the car that I wanted. Yes, I paid a lot for it but it was worth it rather than compromising on the ones that I did see.

In two instances, a little more effort/any effort would have made a deal happen but 20/20 hindsight, it worked out perfectly.

 

[television]

I found too, that all of the MB dealer adds were computer generated and bore no resemblance to the car for sale, even when I asked for the VIN hardly one rang me back

 

[*Thumper]

When your trying to dictates terms .... and that aint just the price ...... you will always have to work for it ..................... some make it a profession, thay are called procurment people, try talking to one.

The best way to play a car saleman, is to act dumb, and give him reason to chase you ....... ie. your an easy sell ........... right upto the point of singing.

When I was at that point, and the close came in ........I moved em another £200, and the saleman called his manager over to pretend he was giving the figures the once over, and although it hurt, he would do it .............. He paused too long..... I got up and said, I dont have time for these games ..... you've just proved to me my £200 was too little ....... I want £500 now, call me when ya wanna do the deal ............ I never got to the car ...........

Buying a car is a game ............ Play it, sometime ...its fun !!