CWW

LOL, so basically, if you have 3 brain cells and are intending to negotiate a decent deal instead of slobbering all over the car and paying sticker the minute you walk in the door, then it's your fault nobody pays attention to you?

indyjoe

I'm sure it's very easy to recognize if someone is serious. They know what they want, they've done some research, they ask specific questions, etc, etc.

I'm sure that 90% of AMG's sold are to people that already know what they want, and don't just happen to be browsing the showroom.

juicee63

To answer the OP's original question:

Some dealers do not even allow a test drive. I was not allowed to drive the 996TT, nor The RS6, on a used E55, you buy it and you have a cool down period. You should be able to return the car duringthe cool off period if you find it not to your liking

Blk04cobra1

I agree with this statement. My whole point above was that it does not take 150 miles to know if you "like" the car or not, especially an AMG. Obviously this salesperson did not take you seriously and for that he's probably going to lose a sale.

As for the comments by CWW. I am sorry that the local dealer by you has treated you unfairly (at least this is what it sounds like). Believe it or not, there are car salespeople out there who do believe in customer service and will go above and beyond the call of duty for their clients. I think sometimes that gets lost during the whole buying process. Then again, you do have salespeople who don't care about their clients and only want to know if they're going to buy today or not. That being said, the old phrase "you get what you pay for" stands out to me. Even though I treat all of my clients equally, it gets tough when they beat you down to your minimum commission and then expect to get treated like royalty.

zoink

I thought CA doesn't have any cool-off period

AreL11

Well, I probably would have bought the car that day had my wife been with me. She works a 9-5 and I work all kind of crazy hours and our paths don't cross much until the weekends and that doesn't exactly leave a lot of time for 4+ hour car buying trips. I am off during the day this week we have about 3 hours before I have to go in at night. I explained that to him and he didn't care. And Juice, I'm not sure there is a cool down period in my state, but I will look into it. And I understand it doesn't take 150 miles to find out if I like the car. It just so happens that that is the approximately mileage to get it home, round trip to work and back to the dealer.

GERMANAUTOBODY

I found this since I'm at the dealership...

"THERE IS NO COOLING-OFF PERIOD UNLESS YOU OBTAIN A CONTRACT CANCELLATION OPTION

California law does not provide for a "cooling-off" or other cancellation period for vehicle lease or purchase contracts. Therefore, you cannot later cancel such contract simply because you change your mind, decide the vehicle costs too much, or wish you had acquired a different vehicle.

After you sign a motor vehicle purchase or lease contract, it may only be canceled with the agreement of the seller or lessor or for legal cause, such as fraud.

California law, however, requires a seller to offer a 2-day contract cancellation option only on used vehicles with a purchase price of less than $40,000, subject to certain statutory conditions. This contract cancellation option requirement doe not apply to the sale of a motorcycle or an off-highway motor vehicle subject to identification under California law. See the vehicle contract cancellation option agreement for details."

CWW

Oh yeah, you got the unfair treatment part right. LOL. There's a thread floating around here somewhere, from where I had to sue the dealer in my hometown for cracking one of the $2k xenon headlight assemblies and refusing to pay for it.

The other two dealers I do business with, up in Jacksonville, aren't any better. They dented my trunklid, and spilled brake cleaner all over the passenger seat in my other car, ruining the leather, and then tried to deny it. It's really ridiculous. And I have to put my homemade laminated "DO NOT WASH" sign in the windshield every time I go in, or the car comes back scratched, swirl-marked, and dirtier than it was before they 'washed' it.

My sales 'experiences' have been no better either. I once drove all the way from Jacksonville to Tampa to look at a CPO 2003 E55 at MB of Tampa. Even though I was disappointed in the condition, I was still going to buy it, since I'd already sold my BMW and needed a car. This was back in early 2008, when it was worth probably mid $30k's. They were asking a ridiculous $41.9k for it, so I offered $39k out the door, including the 3-yr CPO warranty extension. This wasn't even a great deal, since that put the base sales price at around $34k, which was average at best. They wasted 5 hours of my time, trying every trick in the book, including keeping me in a separate room for 45min at a time while they "Consulted with the sales manager" (ya rite), and I finally gave up and walked out. Halfway home, they called and said "Ok, turn around and come back, we'll take your offer". I told them to eff' off. I have like 5 or 8 of these experiences with different dealers.

I'm telling you, the best service I get is at the smaller independent hi-line dealers. They really go out of their way to make you happy, compared to the franchised MB dealers.

Busta Riles

Thank you IndyJoe and Blk04. I definitely agree with the "you get what you pay for" note. As a salesman, you come across all kinds of negotiators.

CWW, what is your problem? Do you think selling cars to a$$holes like you is an easy job? Maybe you should try it for a few years. It takes a great deal of patience & resilience. You also need to be able to keep your thoughts to yourself and try not to blow up on people who are ignorant.

The 3 brain cell comment is ridiculous. 99% of all customers are looking for a discount AND a great trade value. 1% walk in, know what they want, and pay sticker. This 1% are ALWAYS the happiest customers. You will never know why.

AreL11,
Maybe you didn't run into a guy who took you seriously enough. Maybe the guy he talked to 5 minutes before you walked in was CWW, and he wasn't on his game after being ground down to a nub.

I'm sorry for that, but an E55 is not something you walk away from because you weren't allowed to borrow it for a day. If you aren't satisfied with your salesman's word, ask to speak to his manager. Maybe that would work.

Regardless, swallow some pride & go buy one. You won't care about your salesman after you drive it for a few days.

Busta Riles

There is only one common denominator in all the experiences you are listing. It should only take 3 brain cells to figure it out, so you'll be okay.

CWW

I'm not an azzhole to them at all. I'm pretty much a dream customer, in that I always do my research before I ever waste a minute of their time, I make up my mind as to what is a fair price, and I know exactly what I'm looking for. Then I go in and inspect the car closely, and write down the faults that will have to be corrected.

Then I sit down, show them the auction sales, show them the autotrader listings, show them bluebook and blackbook, and say "here's what's fair, now let's do business". The ones who are reasonable about it, I do business with, and it's a win-win. But 8 or 9 times out of 10, they try and turn it into some stupid control scenario based on whatever crackpot training course they went to, where they're trying to assert control over the situation, move you around to different rooms, calling their 'manager' when you can see their buddy through the glass two rooms over picking up the phone at the exact same time and pretending to be the manager, playing stupid psychological games, messing with the numbers on the back end, etc. etc. etc. It's ridiculous. It honestly get to the point where I wonder if I have "stupid" stamped on my forehead.

And I'm non-confrontational and friendly. I think sometimes too much so, because when something goes awry, they always tend to think they can tell me what to do. But the mental games and B.S. they play are insane. I guess it could be a Florida thing, as it's pretty crazy down here. But the MB dealers are honestly some of the worst out of any dealers I've ever encountered.

CWW

Your attitude in this thread, as an MB dealer employee, proves my point. Don't you see the irony? This is too much...

Now run along, I'm sure it's time to hassle and annoy your one customer of the day...

GERMANAUTOBODY

it sucks to know when you've been suckered. That is why most consumers are wary of big investments like automobiles, house, etc.... because of sleazy salesmen.

However I have to admit I have come across genuine top salesmen/woman that are not sleazy (those are rare to come by) and they just want to sell the car to get more units in for the dealership.

Sales and Service are TWO DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS. Don't treat it like they're trying to rip you off all the time. If you feel that way find someone else you trust or go elsewhere.

Busta Riles

MY attitude on this thread????

Read MY first post. Then read your reaction to my post.

You're right...you are very non-confrontational.

AreL11 was asking us all for our thoughts. Explain to me how my first post had attitude.

GERMANAUTOBODY

As a consumer (and an activist within the automotive industry) I do care about the salesman who sold me the car. If he didn't do a good job on helping him I will do what I can to make him or the place look bad mainly because they wasted my time. BUYING A CAR IS A BIG INVESTMENT FOR YOUR AVERAGE AMERICANS. Do an 'excellent' job and I will send you a survey and a letter of excellence to your boss and other business review industry. DO me wrong and I'll bad mouth you. Didn't you learn from your online modules that customers will more likely bad mouth you then good mouth you. YES I do understand. And as a salesmen have some compassion and rant about those bad days you have when you get pulled into the team meeting room to put your head on the chopping board for not making your "GOALS".

But right now is not the time to to say who's right-instead why don't you invest some time to DO customer service and treat the customer like how you would want to be treated. If you plan on being a salesmen why don't you invest the time to create the proper procedures to make sure you hit the sale and gain the customer good word of mouth referral?

We have a bigger crisis ahead of us... no money = no car. Stupid economy!

Busta Riles

You're getting a little ahead of me here, GERMAN. In my first post on this thread, i showed a POSSIBILITY of what may have happened in HIS case, with HIS salesman.

This has nothing to do with the way I treat MY customers/clients. Being in this industry, we unfortunately have to deal with, AND WORK WITH, dishonest people. By listening to his story, it's pretty easy to see what happened (his salesman not believing in him). As an E55 owner, it is also easy for me to tell him to swallow some pride and go buy one, because there are few things on earth that can bring a smile to ones face like an AMG can.

My ability to sell cars and make customers happy AND receive excellent survey results have nothing to do with what happened between him and his salesman. For the record, i am an excellent sales person. I love my job. I love my product. And, most of all, i love the smiles i put on peoples faces. It is too bad that we, as car salesmen, are all painted with the same brush.

dom7474

man when I got my E it was a week late, the dealership gave me a e500 wagon for 8 days, he should deff have accommodated you.

Carl Lassiter

How condescending. Hilariously so in fact. You don't do much too change people's opinions of used car salesmen, Busta.

Busta Riles

Was there no sarcasm here? I didn't think you were serious.

indyjoe

This is still a big problem with dealerships. I wish sales people would just be up front and honest. The problem is that the sales people usually DO have to get the deal approved by the sales manager, and it's usually the sales manager that's trying to squeeze the last penny out of the deal.

I helped my girlfriend buy a car on a lease once, and she had a budget that we didn't want to go over. We negotiated down to within like 25 bucks of the monthly payment, and the guy wouldn't come down. I kept saying okay, we'll keep looking. Unfortunately, I drive up in a Mercedes, and they start in with "you can afford it, look what you drive, you can help her out", then the kicker: "You know she wants the car, and you look cheap arguing over 25 bucks."

After over an hour of going back and forth, and this statement, we get up, leave, and tell them they lost a sell. We called another dealership on the other side of town that had the exact same model, and told the sales guy over the phone what we wanted to pay, and he agreed over the phone. We went and bought the car that night.

The other sales rep called me the next day, and I told him that we bought from his competitor, and we were ready to buy from him. He apologized and said he wanted to do the deal, but it was his manager's decision.

Busta Riles

Honestly, it almost seems unbelievable that someone would actually have the ***** to say these things to someone.

CWW

Nice try....but NO.

I shared my experience about the "Blame the Customer" attitude and ridiculous bull$h!t that most MB dealers engage in, and then you (ironically, an MB salesman) come along and what do you do...BLAME THE CUSTOMER!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

You absolutely made my point for me, man. And you don't see the irony in this? Your attitude sucks, you are confrontational and judgmental, and you're EXACTLY like what I've experience at most MB dealers. So, again, thanks for highlighting exactly the attitude I was talking about...

Busta Riles

Here is your response to AreL11's question.

Here is mine.

Another opinion through a car salesman's eyes:

I wouldn't buy a car without a full day of driving it.

I sell MB's for a living.

Most people who buy AMG's from me never drive it before they buy it, because we don't stock new ones.

AMG customers are the easiest to deal with, because they know exactly what they are getting.

To get to the point.....
Your salesman obviously did not have enough confidence in the fact that you wanted to buy this car. We are generally very careful about who drives an AMG (new or used) and how they drive it. It is our job to pick up on buying signals. At my dealership, if i believe that you will buy this car if you take it for a day, you will take it for a day. However, it will be in the back of my mind for that entire day that you are doing burnouts and racing people. That's just the nature of these cars. We have to be very careful with them, as they are not regular transportation, such as an E350 (like mentioned above).

I bought mine at a dealer down the street from where i work. I personally know the sales manager and service manager. I asked to take the car home for the weekend before making my decision and wasn't under the assumption that it would happen. They said yes, but i didn't expect that of them. I drove it semi-nicely. I bought it. I love it. I will always love it, even when it is gone.

Sorry for the long-windedness.



I am not the one making generalizations.

xlr8tin

First of all you will love the car....

Well, I have had a dealer lend a car to me for the weekend to driveit around and get a feel for it. So, no, it isn't unreasonable....

indyjoe

Actually it was the manager that said it, not the sales guy. This was after we had been going back and forth for almost an hour. I don't know if it was some good cop/bad cop thing, or just him being an *******. Things got a little heated at that point, and we walked out shortly after.