Attention Portland Car Salespeople
Today my wife and I ventured to a few car dealerships to begin the annoying, evil process known as purchasing a new car. Random thoughts and notes… if you’re a car salesman, pay attention. If you’re not, you can just sigh.
- Running out of gas on the test drive is not cool.
- The whole “yeah my wife thinks the same thing” line would work better if you had on a wedding band.
- The change holder is not a feature you need to point out to me right away.
- If you can’t figure out how to open the trunk, I’m not going to trust most of your other so-called product knowledge
- I said I wanted to see the hatchback model. Telling me you don’t have one and then showing me a minivan is not the same thing.
- If it’s a used car, just call the damn thing a used car.
I hate buying a car.
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Blame the dealership. I had a friend who worked in the car industry. A lot of these guys are making minimum wage or barely more. They don’t even get the bonus of closing the deal. That is put in the hands of someone else. The dealerships usually error on the side of hiring too many people and paying them as little as possible. Turn over is huge.
at least you had a dealer there– when my wife and i went recently to a scheduled appointment we had, the salesman was nowhere to be found– and they didn’t even have a car for us to test drive.
at least you had a dealer there– when my wife and i went recently to a scheduled appointment we had, the salesman was nowhere to be found– and they didn’t even have a car for us to test drive. have you tried AAA autosource? we’re using them now and it’s working pretty well…
I used Costco’s no haggle service the last time I bought a car (seven years ago, but still…) It really reduced the car buying headaches.
Of course, that meant we’d already committed to a particular car model when we walked in the door…
If you know what you want, and you’re eligible for a credit union membership, see if the local credit unions have a “car buying” service. You tell them the make/model/features/color you want, and they locate one for you (even if it’s on the boat coming from overseas!), and will get you a great deal on it.
I personally get physically ill every time I have to buy a car — it’s the stress of dealing with pushy sales guys, the financing, etc. I generally send my husband in (who loves the whole process–ugh!), and come in only for the signing.