Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveinArizona
I have seen the car salesmen standing outside at Ford, Chevy, etc. dealerships but never at a BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/etc. dealership.
It is true that once someone comes in and starts wandering around looking at the display models a sales person might approach her. But one could sit at one's desk, study car materials, and still manage to get up and walk a few feet to a person looking at a display model.
Incidentally, my dealership did not pressure me to purchase an instock model. I would have expected them to do so since BMW was buying back my previous car but my sales person suggested ordering exactly what I wanted and BMW corporate agreed to wait for me to place the order, get it built and get it delivered to Arizona.
I felt I was treated well and as a result purchased a car with an MSRP of $73K. If I was pressured, I would have walked out, taken my BMW buyback check, and gone to a different car company dealership.
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Of course I was exaggerating a bit, but I get where you're coming from. My experience with Audi has been much closer to what you described, and I've built a pretty great relationship with a salesman there because of it (5 cars since 2012). I only went with my acquaintance at BMW because I knew him, and knew he would hook me up, which he absolutely did. But I stand by my experiences of knowing what I want does not exactly make me the best customer to deal with. All I do is bring a printout of the build & price config, and have had the following experiences:
Lexus: Ordered it, did not require deposit, never called me back when it came in.
RAM: "Let me talk to my manager" garbage, made me wait 45 minutes when I could clearly see he was BSing with another salesman, only to come back with the wrong color, didn't even follow what I printed out. Told him to call me when he finds something, and walked out. Never heard back.
Subaru: Said he'd call me when a car on its way would come in, never bothered, even after followup calls, and never tried to land a sale.
I've tried numerous times to self-critique my car buying attitude and habits, and I've never wasted anyone's time or effort. I've been directly to the point, knowing exactly what I want, and the results all have been what you just read, with the exception of a recurring stellar Audi customer experience. I may not be the most likeable person, but it really isn't the salesman's job to like me, just to sell me a car haha.