Car Salesmen - Please Rate Them Here

[brundle-bike]

As a few of you may know, I have recently started running sales-skills/behavioural training for all Toyota sales execs in the UK.

Every course I run will usually be populated by at least one delegate who is convinced he/she doesn't need to be there - so I like to start by explaining what the attitude of the general public is towards car sales people.

It would be nice to back it up with some real world data though, so please have a crack at the pole (I would be grateful if you could be competely honest).

The more people who complete the poll, the more validity the results will have (and they will be fed directly back to sales execs................)

Please feel free to add any comments/stories

Cheers

Simon

[alanbradley]

My family deals with a very good guy at our dealership of choice.

My family are pretty good customers, but all the same its nice to be greeted by name and offered a coffee even if I'm just popping in to book a service. All the same, there's no pressure - he knows that when I want something then I'll ask. He doesn't muck you about and always phones back when promised. In return I recommend him to friends and family so it hopefully we both benefit in the long run.

A

[brundle-bike]

Cheers for that, hope you don't mind if I quote you all on the courses I'm running.

[Gnome]

The salespeople I have dealt with @ Inchcape in Kidlington aren't too bad.

They have a tendancy not to come over and get chatting though when you're looking round the car park, even though they've walked past several times already. Not even a "Can I help you?"

My main gripe though is with the pricing there, but don't suppose you can sort that out... :D

[brundle-bike]

That's one of my gripes - dealerships should have a "proximity rule" whereby you are acknowledged by anyone who wanders within a few metres of you.

Incidentally Gnome, are you on Oldskoolsuzuki? (I'm going to run the poll there as well)

[cfc1]

The guy i dealt with when buying my Roadster was OK, he knew a little about the car and sorted me out with what I wanted.. but... it was before I got to that stage that made me feel "what am I doing here?"... I was standing in the dealer forecourt generally browsing at what was there, after having a look around we stood about waiting for a salesman to approach us (the dealership was having some refurbishment work done so going inside was a little pointless as there was no-one inside) at this point 2 reps walked passed us.. busy? I don't know what they were doing.. then a car pulls in off the street, a man gets out, suit and tie on etc, and a salesman marches straight past me, right up to him to see if he could help him with something, I overheard the first part of the conversation and knew the man just wanted to book his car in for a service.. so again I am standing in the forecourt, in my Jeans, T-Shirt and probably in need of a shave too... after another 5 minutes or so a different salesman approached me and asked ifhe could help me with anything.. "an MR2 Roadster please" I said "a new one".. after the usuall procedure i signed on the line and now own my MR2.

I find that a lot of salesmen seem to ignore the... how can i put it?.. less well presented?... costomers who pop in now and again, and approach the more respectively dressed individual first, this needs to be addressed as "normally" dressed people buy new cars too.. don't make us feel unwanted just because we are wearing jeans and a t-shirt... could cost the dealer a 17K sale and the rep a fair bit of commision too.... appearances are deceiving sometimes.

[brundle-bike]

It's a common problem - and annoying, since most "scruffy" people who show up are self employed and tend to have money to spend...........

[Johndcfc]

The bloke who I bought my corolla (nottingham inchcape) from was good.....

Gave an honest opinion on all the GAP insurance, warranty etc.

Called me back whenever promised.

Although I nearly got stung by assuming Flat Rate = APR thankfully I checked moneysupermarket.com before signing up to anything.

Took a good hour of haggling to get the deal I wanted (e.g trying to give me 6 months instead of 12 months road tax) but thats to be expected I guess.

So overall....

But the one at derby wasn't so good - I offered what I thought the car was worth (8.5k - was up for 11k) and he laughed and said I wouldn't have a chance of getting one for that price anywhere, in the end I got a better spec (leather), similar mileage, same plate one for well under 8k so thumbs down for them.

The general feeling I have about car salesmen is if you dont do all your research they will rip you a new *****!

[Gnome]

That's one of my gripes - dealerships should have a "proximity rule" whereby you are acknowledged by anyone who wanders within a few metres of you.

Incidentally Gnome, are you on Oldskoolsuzuki? (I'm going to run the poll there as well)

Yes mate - thought I recognised the name.

[GIDDLEPIN]

The first car I bought from Toyota was a real nightmare, everything went wrong with it and the salesman Peter used to cringe every time he saw me, but not once did he avoid coming over to have a chat.

After eight months I finally had enough and when it was in for yet another fault I went over and asked Peter to give me a price against this silver MR2 Roadster they had in, needles to say a deal was done and I have now had ‘La Slapa’, my Roadster for over three years now and each time it goes in for a service Peter always pops over to say hello.

In my opinion the best product in the world can be lost by a bad salesman, but a good salesman can recover the loss of confidence in a product that has not lived up to the name on the tin, not just by being sincere as well as honest, but by proving they are sincere and honest.

Les

[brundle-bike]

This is all good stuff, keep it coming............

[Kev Mc]

I didn't think much of the fella at the dealership I went to tbh, he seemed decent enough at 1st, I'd been on the Toyota site & spotted the car that I wanted to look at through the window & when I was offered assistance I said "I want to look at that, please" & pointed, he went in the back, got the keys, unlocked it & said "Have a look, I'll come over in a few minutes".

So I had a look, liked what I saw (but barely knew a thing about the car) & was hoping someone would come over & really make me want to buy but he came over, asked what I thought, then said he was with another customer & asked if I'd like some1 else to come & arrange the buying of it.

Like I said, he seemed pretty good at 1st & if he didn't get stuck with another customer he'd have probably been better but at the end of the day he wasn't & I ended up leaving the dealership still clueless about the car.

[Andie_M]

My family deals with a very good guy at our dealership of choice.

My family are pretty good customers, but all the same its nice to be greeted by name and offered a coffee even if I'm just popping in to book a service. All the same, there's no pressure - he knows that when I want something then I'll ask. He doesn't muck you about and always phones back when promised. In return I recommend him to friends and family so it hopefully we both benefit in the long run.

fancy giving me the details of that one please lol :)

I find that a lot of salesmen seem to ignore the... how can i put it?.. less well presented?... costomers who pop in now and again, and approach the more respectively dressed individual first, this needs to be addressed as "normally" dressed people buy new cars too.. don't make us feel unwanted just because we are wearing jeans and a t-shirt... could cost the dealer a 17K sale and the rep a fair bit of commision too.... appearances are deceiving sometimes.

agreed appearances are very deceiving and a salesman should never judge on that in my opinion...

in my experience Toyota salesmen were very helpful and plesant to deal with... first showroom, we got the usual, can i help you but they left us to look on our own and didn't pester us! which was great. when we wanted help, we gave the guy a shout and couldn't fault him. 2nd showroom, same again, they left us to look in piece and quiet, but when we needed help we got it.

got my car from the 2nd place, so we shall see how it goes for service. they did tell us when i bought my car that they would pick it up and drop it back off at no extra cost! which i thought was rather cool considering i stay about 30ish miles from that dealer.

[brundle-bike]

If you could take the time to cast your vote, I'd be grateful - it'd be nice to get a reasonable amount of data.

Cheers

[Blue84]

When I got the Yaris Blue, actually lets step back a bit - I had a day off from work so called into the Dealership who are 12 miles/20-25 minute drive away due to the route. I was on my own - 20 year old girl probably seemed like an easy target to washover and not take seriously. I happened to call in on one of those VIP days which are invitation only or something. I wasn't one of the VIP's and the guy, Joe made me feel like I was in the wrong for being there but luckily he'd had a no-show so he could "fit me in". Thanks for that! Still felt like I was imposing though all the time. Test drove a 1.3 Yaris Blue as I wanted a 1.3 colour collection with the air-con and the Blue is very similar, all went ok and I was impressed but didnt sign anything until I took Dad back with me next day - however all he was going on about was not related to what I wanted to know. Then, the next day they discussed all the finance stuff and there was a problem because of my age I couldnt have a colour collection as it was too much money. It was a bit touch and go if I could even have a Yaris Blue despite the fact I'd had a brand new yaris t3 for a year, never defaulted on the payments and have my dad as guarantor! This never seemed to be taken into the equation :ffs:. He never called me back when promised, I had to chase it up all the time and when there finally was an answer - which they'd got after literally forcing the finance company to take on my "liability" they said it was ok and said they'd install air-con for free on the Blue. He then lied to me, saying it was having air-con fitted in the workshop when infact the person who installed it was off sick and it hadnt been done at all - that resulted in me collecting it anyway and then having to take it back a few weeks later when they had a courtesy car free which again cost me 2 journeys there and back to the dealers in a day. He contradicted himself about the air-con a lot.

So, this is why I chose "absolute rubbish" in the vote - I wasnt treated very well at all.

[brundle-bike]

Sadly, that sounds all too familiar (not just in the Toyota network).

The old Salesman's motto: "If in doubt, blag it"

[PaulT]

I have had pretty good experiences with the sales team from my local Toyota dealer. But I think these days with the information available on the net, there isn't so much room for the salesman to take advantage of the savvy customer.

If you don't do your homework, you may not get a great deal though.

I went in to trade my old car recently for a newer model, having read up on what I could expect the exchange to cost. Got the test drive, liked the car, then got down to the negotiations. This is where it really helps to have been a regular customer---we both know each other and really neither of us has a chance of getting a bad deal past the other.

The result was that I wasn't completely happy with the situation, not a showstopper but I wanted more time to think it over. No problem. I explain that I will call in a few days.

In the meantime, I spotted a demo car like the one I wanted at a dealer in London for £500 cheaper than the price quoted to me and with a few hundred miles on the clock. I rang my local dealer up, explained the situation and asked if he could get any used or ex-demo cars for me. He said unfortunately not, as being a new model cars were in short supply. He suggested my best bet would be to go to the London dealer and make an offer if I liked the car.

This sort of thing tends to give you confidence in the honesty of your dealer. After a bit of thought I decided the difference in price wasn't worth the risk of getting a demo car which had been thrashed by some young boy or girl racer, so I wandered back to my dealer unannounced as it were to have a chat with the salesman again.

Straightaway he has all the details of our previous discussion to hand, and a deal is done immediately. No hassle, no pressure. Good salesmen and women should be able to work out when the customer needs a bit of time to evaluate the options, rather than just going for the hard sell. Even if it means they don't fit the sale into this month's quota, in the long term the customer will return if they feel that their interests are being put to the fore.

Paul.

[Karma Supra]

I personally think "simon" from coxon toyota henley should be sacked, for being rude, and at times either telling lies or simply not knowing what he is talking about to customers...

I know of at least three people that refuse to go back to that dealership, because of him.... the only reason I enter the door is to use the excellent parts department.

I am not sure what his job title is, but I think is service manager.... no point having a great sales team if word is spreading about shocking afterales!!!

[jay dh]

from my opinion, toyota dealers have the attention to detail down to a tea. very polite, knowledgable and helpful, about even the smallest of things, eg a winter check which they dont make money on (not my case anyway) but i was happy with the service

[PaulT]

I personally think "simon" from coxon toyota henley should be sacked, for being rude, and at times either telling lies or simply not knowing what he is talking about to customers...

:D Does he still work there? Don't think I've seen him for a while.

Paul.

[Demonic Angel]

I actually got on with Suzanne at Farmer & Carlisle really well - we always have a girly chat on the phone and if I went back, I'd only buy from her - really nice lady!

She was always honest with me about when I'd get the car, she even touched it up for me for nothing when the postman scratched the wing mirror and the whole sales process with her was excellent - finance guy not so good, but Suzanne was lovely. I felt totally cared for with her and she couldnt do enough for me... but then I was giving them a load of dosh, which is probably why!

Listers werent bad, but not as good as F&C IMO - I can't even remember the guy who sold me the car at Listers, which is really a sign on how good they were - I'll always remember Suzanne, she was just very personable, and I have recommended her to people since....

[TheNissanMan]

I was a bit biased as I am a Salesman albeit not for Toyota so disregard my vote of perfection :D

Toyota customers do tend to buy from Toyota Dealerships so the Toyota Brand do have a good reputation. Saying in the last month I have sold two Toyota's (an '03 Avensis and '06 Corolla) to a couple who only came to our Dealership after going to Toyota and not only being approached by a Sales Person but not even being able to find anyone (even receptionist) in the Dealership after hanging around for 15 minutes and making use of the free vend coffee machine...

Quiet weekends can be frustrating for sales people but for an elderly couple to have a drink and still not be seen is awful although after selling two toyotas in a month from a nissan dealership I am not complaining!

I actually got on with Suzanne at Farmer & Carlisle really well - we always have a girly chat on the phone and if I went back, I'd only buy from her - really nice lady!

She was always honest with me about when I'd get the car, she even touched it up for me for nothing when the postman scratched the wing mirror and the whole sales process with her was excellent - finance guy not so good, but Suzanne was lovely. I felt totally cared for with her and she couldnt do enough for me... but then I was giving them a load of dosh, which is probably why!

Listers werent bad, but not as good as F&C IMO - I can't even remember the guy who sold me the car at Listers, which is really a sign on how good they were - I'll always remember Suzanne, she was just very personable, and I have recommended her to people since....

Em, after our discussions I would have expected them to throw down rose petals at your feet!!!

[Demonic Angel]

They do that as well but I didnt want to show off... ;)

[brundle-bike]

A Nissan dealer selling Toyotas? Oh the humanity!

[Karma Supra]

I personally think "simon" from coxon toyota henley should be sacked, for being rude, and at times either telling lies or simply not knowing what he is talking about to customers...

:D Does he still work there? Don't think I've seen him for a while.

Paul.

I am not sure... I think I saw him a few weeks, back, in all honesty I try to avoid him as he is an utter bell end, and his mere presence annoys me! I have even heard other staff at the dealership complaining about him.......

I'll ask Dave when I am next in! (parts manager)

Jay, I have found their attention to detail shoocking.... it seesm toyota dealerships know absolutely nothing about any car that is not in the current (and lets face it tragicly boring) range.... I have even walked into a toyota dealership had had them ask me technical questions, as I know my soarers/supras