coolcamden

My wife forced me to take her to a fabric store in Fremont, so I dropped her off and thought I'd go to FJ to check out their AMG allocation. I was driving my 325.

Parked the car, went up to the showroom. I was looking around when this SA came up on me:

SA: is your car in service?
Me: No.
SA: what are you doing here?
Me: looking around to see what AMG models you have?
SA: do you drive a Mercedes now?
Me: Yes.
SA: Is your car in service?

I thought to myself... what is it with this guy and car in for service?

Me: No.
SA: what kind of Mercedes do you have?
Me: A CLS55.

SA: what year is your CLS55? Is it brand new?

WTF????

Me: You KNOW there's only one MY CLS55, right? you should know, right? you work for a MBZ dealer.

I left.

BTW, they have some NICE AMG's. A CLK63 Black. A CL63, An E63, An SL65 and a sweet S65.

Sweet S65 at $200K. Man, I like that car. I'll probably pick it up in 2 years when it's $100K.

CY

Maybe they work with an up system where if a customers car is in service they get another chance with the next walk in? Sounds like the guy was an idiot though since 2006 was the only CLS55

bobgodd

Maybe he was checking that you weren't just a poser driving a BMW by checking your AMG knowledge.

coolcamden

May be, but to me, he came off as an idiot.

dbarrym

I will have to say, with 20+ years in sales management (though in high tech), there is a surprising lack of real sales 'pros' in auto sales, even in the high line market...

Back in '86, my daily driver (911SC) blew the trans on a Sunday morning and my other street licensed vehicle was not (ahem) a classy ride - a 1965 International Travelall (used primarily as a tow vehicle). I was looking for a more suitable business vehicle anyway and went to look at the then-new Ford Taurus (I worked in federal/aerospace and thought an American vehicle would make a good impression) . Stopped at Burch Ford in Costa Mesa on the way home from pulling the engine/trans on the SC at a buddy's shop, so I was not looking particularly presentable (though by no means grubby, poor or otherwise an unsuitable prospect). The two leisure-suited sales guys working the floor were pretty rude and asked me to come back the next day, as they were watching a game or something.

Went down the street to Sterling BMW and leased a fully loaded BMW 535i that evening...drove it over to Burch next morning, asked for the owner/sales manager, showed him the BMW, and told him the story. He actually made one of the sales guy(s) in question come in and apologize... and offered a $100 over invoice deal on my next car.

Never did buy a vehicle from them, but as a new sales guy it reinforced the "never judge a prospect by appearance" lesson.

Hammer Down

Luxury just down the road has one for 140k with 14k miles, and for 20k less you can get a S63 with 19k miles.

http://www.luxurymotors.com/inv/sear...ype=&keywords=

jangy

S65>>>>>S63. Not even same class

bobgodd

He probably was

CWW

Ya, you hit the nail square on the head...

99.9% of the time, I know more about the car I'm looking at than the salesperson does. I have had horsepower figures misquoted to me, curb weights, option packages, and prices misquoted, the whole 9 yards really. There are some conscientous ones, but they are few and far between. Most of them don't seem to take a whole lot of time to familiarize themselves with the products they're selling.

And I get that it's all a negotiation, but I have also run into some sales guys, and even a sales manager, who are just plain idiots when it comes to talking numbers. About a year ago I was looking to get a new car, and wanted an AMG. I ran all over the state driving probably 10 or 12 E55's which were, by and large, all totally misrepresented cars. After a failed negotiation on the ONE I found that was actually in good condition, a private-sale '04 E55, I wound up finding an older '02 S55 I liked at Brumos.

So I started talking with the sales guy, and went for a test drive. I have a friend who builds his own motors, races, just an all-around car nut, and asked him to go back with me and look/listen to everything. He agreed, so we went back to the dealership for a second test drive the next day. The original sales guy completely ignored us, so I walked up to him and said "I'd like to go for another test drive", to which he said "give me a minute, I'm busy". I didn't have much to do, so I actually stood around for 20 minutes. Finally, I went in and walked up to another sales guy I saw and introduced myself and asked to go for a drive. He went to get the keys, and we went. Car ran nice. I decided to make an offer, and after doing a LOT of research on values, it looked like the car would be a good deal at around $36k, including the 3-year 100k CPO extension. I also told them to shove their dealer fee. At the time they were asking $38,995, but even back then that price was absurd.

I knew the warranty normally goes for $3885, and we were about about $3k apart on price on top of that, but I also knew they took the car in on trade so I figured they had room to play. Plus, at the end of the day, it really wasn't worth more than I was offering, since comparable cars were selling for $30k-$33k, and all I did was tack the warranty price on top of that to get to the $36k I was going to offer.

So I faxed my offer to them along with printouts of manheim prices, completed ebay auctions, edmunds, blue book, black book, and a printout of every Gen-1 S55 for sale on autotrader, all of which showed I was making a fair offer. I got a call back from the sales guy, who started yelling at me on the phone and said (exact quote) "your offer is an INSULT", before he came out with another gem in the form of "It's not MY fault YOU can't afford the car!".

So I decided to call the manager, who asked me to come in and talk with him. I did, and he was just more of the same. Told me my offer was a "lowball", and acted generally condescending and rude. I told him I wanted to leave my name and number, and when it didn't sell in a few months (which it wasn't going to, at that price), for him to call me back. I was walking out of his office when I heard a tearing sound, and looked back to see him tearing up my card and tossing it in the trash, before he shot me a nasty look as I walked out.

So I wrote it off and bought something else. Fast forward 14 months, and the car is STILL sitting on their lot! As you can see in the listing:

http://www.brumos-mercedes-benz.com/...g-2479926.html

, the price is now down to $26k, and that's probably still high at this point considering the time frame for putting it under a CPO warranty has now expired. What morons! I can't imagine what it's cost them to have that thing sitting there, eating up interest on their floorplan financing, getting detailed every month, washed every day, and taking up space on their already-small lot. They could have sold it over a year ago for $10k more.

Anyway, by and large, I think the quality of highline sales staff has fallen dramatically in the past 10 years or so. I remember going with my dad when he would look at/buy cars when I was a kid, and it was always a great experience. You'd sit in a cushy office, and they'd bring you drinks and stuff. The sales guy would send you Xmas cards, and you were always addressed as "Mr.", and everything just generally seemed pretty low-key. Now it's all high-pressure, high-stress, and these guys are egotistical in an "I'm better than you" sort of way that wasn't the case before. The Mercedes dealers, at least around here, have worse attitudes and service than the sleazeballs at the "Buy-here Pay-here" lots. Not sure what changed, but I sure don't like it.

Lexus is still A#1, though. They seem to be the only company concerned with customer service anymore.

CWW

Oh ya, one more thing about the idiots at Brumos. I finally found a great sales guy who I love, Paul over at MB of Orange Park. Great guy, low key, zero pressure, and actually knows what the hell he's talking about. A real rarity. Now, MBOP is owned by Brumos, and a couple months ago there was a car on the Brumos lot that I wanted, but I refused to deal with anybody in Brumos' sales dept after my last 'experience'.

I called Paul, who talked to the manager over there, and they wouldn't let him sell the car even though they are all the same company. So that's another one that's still sitting there. Also, FWIW, the two dealerships are maybe 8 or 9 miles apart from each other, it's not like it would have been a hassle for anyone involved.

Just to be fair, Brumos' service dept. has always treated me right. Stay away from sales, though.

IndiumGreyE63

Yes...a few years ago, I was buying a Lexus IS350, and my salesman was saying that the Lexus was the only car that should be on the road. He said 'you'd be dumb to buy anything else'. I asked him what he drove, and he paused, and stammered a bit, and said 'uh, oh...I'm in transition right now - so I'm driving a Buick'. I smirked...and he stopped 'selling' the brand at that point, and we got down to business...

coolcamden

Hammer, you did come down and saw this car, right? How did it look?

coolcamden

Hammer Down

I have not seen the S63 but I have seen the S65 It's nice, detail it up a bit and you will "look like" you spent 190k. If you want I would LOVE to go by and test drive it for you

Jon2007E63P30

That is why AMG is putting in the AMG Performance Centers. Put one smart guy in place to sell AMG and you can keep the pricing firm and not have any CLK63 BS gathering dust.

MarkoCL65

Get the same guy on the phone now and offer him $16K.

coolcamden

Nah, when I have some time, I'll swing by and we go test drive it together.

Without the salesman.

Hammer Down

The two times that I have test driven cars for members E55 Wagon & E55 Sedan was without the salesman. I only deal with one guy there and that's it.
I only work 5 min from there so I'm game anytime.

Wish4_e55Wagon

Hammer,

When you are down there, you should take that Vette out for a spin - if it is still there

Jakpro1

One of my favorite sales guys at my dealer really has it down.

Stays in touch off and on. Always friendly when I see him and never makes me feel like I am bothering him.

Firm frank and friendly. Guess that's why some NFL players still buy from him and have him ship the cars out from Utah to them around the US.

hkycoldrct

MB is pretty good about not judging a book by its cover. I concur with the lack of professionalism you speak of. I looked at a GT-R down the street from the house after work the other day. The sales guy comes up to me what questions I have and asks what else I have looked at. I tell him the C63 and starts laughing at how much better the GT-R is. He really couldn't stop laughing and finally the Manager comes over wondering what's going on, the sales guys laughing to his manager says "this guy's actually considering a C63 over the GT-R do you believe that?" I start laughing at the sales guy and read his name off his name tag "Jimmy, You know what's really funny?" "When I come back and buy this car, I sure the hell aren't buying it from you" -- His smile was wiped off his face quicker than ever.......

Some of these guys really just don't get it -- Jimmy's one of them......
Oh yeah, he had two Pechanga Dollar Chips (local Indian casino) in his hand that he kept flipping over one another as he was talking to me. These were his self proclaimed "lucky chips".....what a real smutz!

gonzjed

I think you let him ask too many questions...

Next time, tell him to stand 10 paces behind you and speak only when spoken to if he wants your business or get someone else that doesn’t ask too many stupid questions.

BENZITCH

Princeton Motor Sports has a beautiful showroom.
TO BAD they don't make you feel wanted.

The parts guys couldn't bend over more though to help you out and to please you.

Thank God they keep the sales people out of the parts area.

I truely think that the MB sales staff thinks we are all dumb and don't research what we are looking at.

They should know there product line and also HOW TO BE RESPECTFUL OF BUYERS. Which at my local dealership I have only seen from the parts guys.

Doug and Joe, you 2 should get a bonus in my humble opinion.

Skeeter

CoolCamden, that sucks. Bad sales people are the bane of the car industry. We should WANT to go to a dealership to check out cars. After all, what should be more fun than looking at what has become our ultimate grown up toy?

I've had nothing but STELLAR experience with FJ of Fremont. A+ in service AND sales (though I never bought from them). They tried hard to help me out of a royal screwing by MBUSA and went the extra mile every time I've taken my car in for service. Mo (in service) is just about the coolest, most well informed, professional service advisor I've dealt with.

And I have no $ interest in saying so, nor did I buy a car from them. Its just that when I get treated right, I want to spread the word...

Sorry for your experience but I'd suggest giving them a chance. I can call and ask for the name of the sales guy I talked to before (super nice, slight accent).

Best,

Skeeter

Hammer Down

It's gone! and so is the 997 Turbo! I would love to drive that S65

** Correction if you were talking about the Red Z06 it is still there. I thought you were talking about the Blue one that was there a few weeks ago.**