The Biggest of 1st World Problems (Car Content)

dindude · July 2016

Time to buy a new car, it comes around every 3 years or so and whilst I enjoy the research into what to choose, actually buying a new car is a completely painful experience, I properly hate it.

What I've learnt this time around.

Audi - I reluctantly stray into their showrooms once every three years as they are solid (but dull) cars with great interiors. Every time so far I've walked out as they really don't seem interested in selling cars, just posturing (like a lot of their owners these days). This time they couldn't unlock the one car I was interested in between 4 of them, after waiting for 20 minutes they seemed happy for me to leave. Before this I booked a test drive on line yet had no contact whatsoever.

VW - Last 3 out of 4 cars have been a VW, but they really need to get a sales technique that isn't 20 years out of date.

A simple test drive took 2.5 hours before I just got up and left, they basically trap you and act like the internet doesn't exist and if you don't sign there and then the world will end.

Some of the techniques:

Trying to get you to choose colours and options even before going for a test drive - can I not decide if I even like the car before we spend hours on this, and why are you showing me the VW website on your ipad like I don't have access to it already!

"how much are you looking to spend per month Sir" - me "it's irrelevant, I just need to know the very best deal you can do on this Car so that I can make a decision whether to buy it or not" - this throws them somewhat.

Kia was the only maker in this process who treated my like a potential valued customer. They let me take a Sportage out on my own for an hour, no hard sale at the end, just two follow up calls the next week, and each one didn't start with "Good news Mr Dindude" and 10 minutes of rambling later end with "we've managed to knock another £5 off".

Anyway, allow me this moan, and I know it sounds like a spoilt child rant, and it probably is. But my goodness Car companies need to update themselves.

One good thing that has come out of it though - personal leasing seems to be the way forward - apart from deciding on the car (and trying to test drive whilst avoiding above sales techniques), you just do it all on line, no real people to deal with, and jolly good value too.

Rant over (please tell me I'm not alone)

digitalscream · July 2016

Just a small point...I think you meant "First world problems"

Sporky · July 2016

I used to do test drives just to see how convincing a liar I could be.

Jaguar were nice. Infiniti were very nice until you asked the price of anything, then wouldn't tell me unless I was "ready to buy right now". Volvo were rubbish, VW were even more rubbish. Toyota and Ford were both totally uninterested. Porsche practically insisted I had a test drive even though I told them I wasn't buying anything for at least a year and were then enthusiastic without being particularly pushy. Mercedes were OK but didn't seem that interested in the business.

The two local Skoda places were always good though - unaccompanied test drives unless you wanted them to come along, easy to get a sensible discount and no pressure.

dindude · July 2016

digitalscream said:

Just a small point...I think you meant "First world problems"

Ha, see that's how angry I was!

SRich · July 2016

And I have never regretted getting out of the retail motor industry........

guitarfishbay · July 2016

Do your mileage calculations honestly if you're looking at any kind of deal where you won't own the car outright at the end of the agreement. A lot of deals look great on paper but give low included mileage, so if you're doing above that be sure to discuss it/read the small print first.

Good luck, it is a pain

joneve · July 2016

Yep, have to agree there. I'm fortunate enough that my dad now sells cars for Lexus, so our car buying experience for our NX was pretty painless this time round. He even picked the car up and dropped it back at our house when there was an issue with the Sat Nav the day after we took delivery.

However, from the outside looking in from observations of being at the dealership quite a bit over the last couple of months, I have to say that, in general, they're pretty good and don't hard sell. And their after care seems to live up to the hype.

When we were looking at other cars, VW and their "sales tactics" put us right off. Honda were OK and the bellends at Audi didn't even acknowledge that we were in the showroom.

dindude · July 2016

joneve said:

When we were looking at other cars, VW and their "sales tactics" put us right off. Honda were OK and the bellends at Audi didn't even acknowledge that we were in the showroom.

Interesting that your VW and Audi experiences are exactly like mine.

fretmeister · July 2016

I never spend more than £7k on a car so I don't have to deal with bad suited nobbers in showrooms.

Snap · July 2016

@dindude you are not alone. I hate it. And the question, how much you wanting to spend a month - what a stupid question, you are bang on. I went down the PCP route for the first time last year, having realised that I change my cars about every 3 or 4 years, and buying them was not adding up. I used an onlie broker, Orange Cars I think. Just filled in the spec of the car and they phoned me up to confirm, saying that the cheapest dealer would phone me up in 24 hours. They did, and after a bit of extra haggling, did the deal. I saved a good few quid too, ended up drivin 160 mile round trip to get it, but the deal was so much better than the local dealer, who was taking the piss. Wou;dn't hesitate to do that again. Generally, I think the more expensive the brand, the better the staff. I think the key to it all is just not to take any stupidity and if they start patronising you, or treating you like a naive idiot, just tell them so and walk off. Last time, I ended up telling the local BMW dealer that they were having a laugh with the deal they offered. They looked a bit put out, but so what? Its my money, my time.

rlw · July 2016

mrsrlw will need a new car soon and her criteria are:

Engine bigger than 3 litres, automatic, air-con, some street cred and no more than £25K.

Another used V8 Mercedes beckons I think :-)

boogieman · July 2016

Jaguar has been the best car buying experience I've had. No pressure whatsoever. Nice cup of coffee while they got the car ready. Did the test drive. When we got back the salesman gave us a bottle of prosecco and a cuddly toy Jaguar and said if we wanted to have a private chat before we committed that was fine, otherwise here's my card, call me when you've decided. *

We went back a few days later and bought the car. The only pressure was at that point, when the finance manager was called in to persuade us to buy it on finance rather than a cash sale (nope) and then another guy tried to flog us paint guard and wheel/tyre insurance. (nope again).

* (It might have helped a teensy bit that my wife's a blonde with big boobs and the salesman seemed very enamoured

).

TTony · July 2016

dindude said:

Kia was the only maker in this process who treated my like a potential valued customer. They let me take a Sportage out on my own

I've had that happen twice in my car-buying life, and both times I was suitably impressed by the trust and/or confidence of the dealer. (First time was Rover, many many years ago - I bought one - and second time was Volvo just a couple of years ago).

I used to just buy Audis. Whenever I wanted a new car, I'd call them up, have a pleasant chat with my man, and sort out whatever needed sorting out. Painless process. However, since "my man" left, I've not had a particularly positive experience with the rest of the dealership, and a positively negative experience with other Audi dealerships, which is a main reason why I now have a MB rather than Audis.

In future I'd probably use something like CarWow to do the haggling for me.

joneve · July 2016

dindude said:

joneve said:

When we were looking at other cars, VW and their "sales tactics" put us right off. Honda were OK and the bellends at Audi didn't even acknowledge that we were in the showroom.

Interesting that your VW and Audi experiences are exactly like mine.

Yep! I called up VW and said "I need to place an order for a new car this weekend and am interested in the new Tiguan. Based on these numbers and this particular spec can you let me know what the monthly payments would be, so I can compare against other cars we're looking at?"

"No problem sir - let me take a few details and I'll send over an email tomorrow with the information on the car and the quote details - please be aware that it would only be an illustrative quote and not an actual one"

"Yes, that's fine, I just need to know roughly what my monthly re-payments would be so I can compare against the other 2 cars I'm looking at"

Still waiting for that email or even a phone call back from them...Bought a brand new Lexus NX the following weekend. Pricks.

FX_Munkee · July 2016

rlw said:

mrsrlw will need a new car soon and her criteria are:

Engine bigger than 3 litres, automatic, air-con, some street cred and no more than £25K.

Another used V8 Mercedes beckons I think :-)

Seeing as you didn't mention, non-horrendous fuel consumption, or ability to operate at least 50% of the days of the year. Can I suggest a Maseratti Quatroporte?

ennspek · July 2016

Lexus are the I only dealers I've ever enjoyed doing business with. In fact the only ones where I've not wanted to murder someone. Highly recommended.

Sporky · July 2016

Local Lexus place was vaguely friendly when I went in, but couldn't be arsed calling me once they had a demonstrator. I suspect all the people who rate their customer service just haven't been anywhere else.

duotone · July 2016

TTony said:

dindude said:

Kia was the only maker in this process who treated my like a potential valued customer. They let me take a Sportage out on my own

I've had that happen twice in my car-buying life, and both times I was suitably impressed by the trust and/or confidence of the dealer. (First time was Rover, many many years ago - I bought one - and second time was Volvo just a couple of years ago).

I used to just buy Audis. Whenever I wanted a new car, I'd call them up, have a pleasant chat with my man, and sort out whatever needed sorting out. Painless process. However, since "my man" left, I've not had a particularly positive experience with the rest of the dealership, and a positively negative experience with other Audi dealerships, which is a main reason why I now have a MB rather than Audis.

In future I'd probably use something like CarWow to do the haggling for me.

Bought a used/approved Honda CR-V earlier this year & the sales guy was good to deal with, after the test drive he asked "are you still interested in buying it" & my dad sitting in the back said "of course he is, why do you think we bothered driving down here on a Saturday" he replied "you'd be surprised".

His boss was trying to get me to sign up to a payment plan (which he worked out would have another £1700), after a few "thanks but no thanks,I'm not interested" his boss finally got the message. And a bit later on his boss was trying to push the Paint Guard & some other bits and pieces, which got him some sharp looks from the decent sales guy and another rejection from me.

Would use them again as long as the decent sales guy was still working there, if I was looking for an upgrade.

hotpot · July 2016

I've just realised! In 45 years of driving I've never ever set foot in a car dealers.

ennspek · July 2016

Sporky said:

Local Lexus place was vaguely friendly when I went in, but couldn't be arsed calling me once they had a demonstrator. I suspect all the people who rate their customer service just haven't been anywhere else.

I've been in all the major brands. I suppose they vary though.

Sporky · July 2016

I should probably have put a smiley on that one. Damn these flippant fingers!

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The Biggest of 1st World Problems (Car Content)

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