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Dealers do not get all that excited about all cash purchases. They make a lot of money on the financing.
I am sometimes amazed at the lacadasical attitude of many dealers. I was amazed looking at the Durango and the Traverse that neither saleman knew how to make the back seat operate to get access to the third row. One of them we never figured it out, the other my wife eventually found a sticker with cryptic directions that no one could follow, but she eventually figured it out.
I was also surprised that dealers in Michigan close at 5 or 6 p.m. and if they are open on weekends, it is only Saturday and they close at 1 p.m. We arrived at 12:45 and they told us that we could take a quick look but we could no test drive or look inside becuase they were closing. If you want to look at a car, your pretty much have to take time off work to do it. When you go to some lots, they do not come out and you have to go get them if you want to talk to a salesman. Maybe our old cars do not impress them, but it should, we are obviously in need of purchasing several new or newer cars.
In California the dealers were open weekends and nights. If you were definietly interested, they would not let you leave. One place, we arrived at 9:00 p.m. They stayed after 11 trying to get us to buy the car even though we said that we liked one at a differnet dealerhisp better and kept trying to leave. Te saleperson wer annoyingly aggressive and knew all about the cars, or at least pretended to (I had a used car saleman try to tell me that a 4 cyliner car was a v-6. I said "It only has 4 spark plug wires" to which he rpelied "the other two are on the inside, you cannot see them" However in general, the new car salespersons always seemed to know all bout their cars and the cometition's. THey could quote price, option, peformance differences off the top of their heads and tell you why their car was better. Maybe they were just really good at making stuff up. It is a very different atmosphere.
Dealers do not get all that excited about all cash purchases. They make a lot of money on the financing.
I am sometimes amazed at the lacadasical attitude of many dealers. I was amazed looking at the Durango and the Traverse that neither saleman knew how to make the back seat operate to get access to the third row. One of them we never figured it out, the other my wife eventually found a sticker with cryptic directions that no one could follow, but she eventually figured it out.
I was also surprised that dealers in Michigan close at 5 or 6 p.m. and if they are open on weekends, it is only Saturday and they close at 1 p.m. We arrived at 12:45 and they told us that we could take a quick look but we could no test drive or look inside becuase they were closing. If you want to look at a car, your pretty much have to take time off work to do it. When you go to some lots, they do not come out and you have to go get them if you want to talk to a salesman. Maybe our old cars do not impress them, but it should, we are obviously in need of purchasing several new or newer cars.
In California the dealers were open weekends and nights. If you were definietly interested, they would not let you leave. One place, we arrived at 9:00 p.m. They stayed after 11 trying to get us to buy the car even though we said that we liked one at a differnet dealerhisp better and kept trying to leave. Te saleperson wer annoyingly aggressive and knew all about the cars, or at least pretended to (I had a used car saleman try to tell me that a 4 cyliner car was a v-6. I said "It only has 4 spark plug wires" to which he rpelied "the other two are on the inside, you cannot see them" However in general, the new car salespersons always seemed to know all bout their cars and the cometition's. THey could quote price, option, peformance differences off the top of their heads and tell you why their car was better. Maybe they were just really good at making stuff up. It is a very different atmosphere.
I never rely on salespeople to know ANYTHING about the vehicle I want to buy. I'm not impressed by their knowledge nor do I care if they can rattle off statistics, numbers, and other data.
When I buy a vehicle, I do my own research. I know the options I want, the engine I want, the reliability statistics, and everything else. I know what I want in a vehicle, the salesperson is simply there to be the one that has to give me the price I'm willing to pay. The nice thing about buying NEW vehicles is that I can easily go to the dealership down the road and usually find the same thing in stock and buy it there. Used vehicles can be a bit more complicated because you don't always know if another dealership will have the exact vehicle with the color/options you want and you MIGHT have to bite the bullet.
I'm throwing my hat in the ring for the new 2010 -2011 4-Runner. After looking at and driving all of the major brands out there I've settled on the 4-Runner for myself. To me it offers the highest amount of usable features at a very reasonable price. It's also still a traditional body on-frame truck so it will serve me well while off raod.
I wouldn't get too hung up on warranty. You won't need it. None of the Toyota cars or trucks have needed any major service before 150,000 miles. If it bothers you that much you can buy Toyota extended warranties online for a fraction of what the dealer is asking.
I wouldn't get too hung up on warranty. You won't need it. None of the Toyota cars or trucks have needed any major service before 150,000 miles. If it bothers you that much you can buy Toyota extended warranties online for a fraction of what the dealer is asking.
Riiiigggghhhhtttt...cause Toyota cars and trucks never break. They just have whole service centers at all the dealerships full of Toyota certified techs to do new car preps and oil, brake and tire changes.
Riiiigggghhhhtttt...cause Toyota cars and trucks never break. They just have whole service centers at all the dealerships full of Toyota certified techs to do new car preps and oil, brake and tire changes.
Not saying they don't break but it's not as common a problem as other brands.
In the 4 yrs I worked at a toyota dealer most of the work we did was routine maintenance. Sure the occasional trans job or rear end would come in but they where rare. What we did see a lot of where Engine repairs on the GTS Celica's with the 6 speed. People where over revving the crap out of those and throwing rods.
When we pulled the data we could see 10000+ RPM on some of them from incorrect gear changes etc.
The service department got so slow they started working on other makes and models. That kept up busy for a good long while.
Geez...I didn't realize Toyota even needed a Service Department being that they are so phenominal...
Good luck with the Buick--great rig!
Also--to the poster who walked in with their Farmer Dad and was refused a test drive at the Lexus dealer...wow...I would have walked right back to the Cadillac dealer...paid cash then drove back to the Lexus dealer--found the salesman and flipped him off.
Your little story about how you were dressed and what you were driving reminded me of a funny story one of the Cadillac salesman was telling me.
He and another guy were working the floor and an older guy pulls up in a beat up Silverado wearing jeans and a flannel. It was the other guys turn in the rotation, but he told the guy I know you can have this one. A couple minutes later a guy in a Vette pulls up wearing a suit. The other salesman looks at the guy I know and smiles, like man I lucked out.
Long story short, the old guy in the Silverado wrote a check for a fully loaded DTS for his wife, thanked everyone and said that he would be back tomorrow with his wife to pick up the car. The guy in the suit was still hung up in financing since he had some "blemishes" and was trying to roll his negative equity Vette into the deal and it didn't look like it was going to happen.
LOL, yeah, I have heard of stories much like that myself, lol. Cant go by how someone looks. I mean we didnt have on rags, but I had on cargo shorts, t-shirt, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ
Your story reminds me of my dad when I go with him to buy a car! Granted he has a fairly new truck but I've walked with him into Lexus, Cadillac, and Mercedes dealerships and he's wearing his dirty Wrangler jeans and an ugly sweatshirt and I know the salesmen have to think that this overweight, retired farmer can't even afford to buy decent clothes much less one of their shiny new cars! One time at the Lexus dealer, I think the salesmen was reluctant to even have us test drive the LS model...which my dad later wrote a check for on that day.
You can't judge a book by its cover especially when it comes to the older generation, they ARE the ones with the money.
I would have loved to have seen that salesmans face when you dad told him he was buying that Lexus straight out! When I had my 1991 Lexus LS400 in 2008, I took it to our local Lexus dealer for some service... one time one of the salesman kinda looked and sneered as I was walking around looking at the new cars in the showroom. LOL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Dealers do not get all that excited about all cash purchases. They make a lot of money on the financing.
I am sometimes amazed at the lacadasical attitude of many dealers. I was amazed looking at the Durango and the Traverse that neither saleman knew how to make the back seat operate to get access to the third row. One of them we never figured it out, the other my wife eventually found a sticker with cryptic directions that no one could follow, but she eventually figured it out.
Thats true. We didnt tell we would be buying with cash, but he still didnt show much interest, lol. He did offer though to get the keys to open one up to let us look at it. Also he wasnt as bad though as the Ford salesman on Tuesday... I stopped at one of our local Ford dealers (we have about 8) on Tuesday and one asked if I had been waited on and I said no... he didnt go into much detail on the Explorer and when asked if he had a brochure, he said no, we are out, but more on order. lol. Yeah, 1/2 of them know nothing about the cars they sell. lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ
I never rely on salespeople to know ANYTHING about the vehicle I want to buy. I'm not impressed by their knowledge nor do I care if they can rattle off statistics, numbers, and other data.
When I buy a vehicle, I do my own research. I know the options I want, the engine I want, the reliability statistics, and everything else. I know what I want in a vehicle, the salesperson is simply there to be the one that has to give me the price I'm willing to pay. The nice thing about buying NEW vehicles is that I can easily go to the dealership down the road and usually find the same thing in stock and buy it there. Used vehicles can be a bit more complicated because you don't always know if another dealership will have the exact vehicle with the color/options you want and you MIGHT have to bite the bullet.
Sad salesmen dont know about what they are selling... if you go to youtube there are countless videos downloaded there from the late 1980s-mid 1990s of factory videos that "trained" salesman on the new cars they were selling... dont even know if car companies are still doing these or not, dont think so and its sad because it looks and sounds like they need to! See video link below....
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT
Generally when a dealership is hiring a new salesman, the last thing they care about is that persons knowledge about cars.
Yeah and that is sad.... they (dealers) used to issue these 15-25 years ago.... though the demonstrators are like robots, they get the point across, LOL.
90 Taurus http://youtu.be/anEh0OQWZN4
90 Crown Victoria http://youtu.be/rGmrS2ibdek
93 Crown Victoria http://youtu.be/Lmegr2kr76w
90 Beretta
http://youtu.be/bwPFj1vyBtQ (broken link)
90 Lumina
http://youtu.be/3Mau7WkSqEc (broken link)
90 Lumina APV
http://youtu.be/xOPaCvGZ9ro (broken link)
90 Corsica
http://youtu.be/1VRyViEJ3lg (broken link)
90 Caprice
http://youtu.be/C8eKsCHX3pw (broken link)
90 Camaro
http://youtu.be/G4QWhL0fv5I (broken link)
90 Celebrity
http://youtu.be/zR-uuvKzo_g (broken link)
92 Oldsmobile wagons...
http://youtu.be/09f6EOXEiPw (broken link)
92 Taurus (a little more creative, lol) http://youtu.be/5QnOSgfX1BE
Quote:
Originally Posted by johna01374
I'm throwing my hat in the ring for the new 2010 -2011 4-Runner. After looking at and driving all of the major brands out there I've settled on the 4-Runner for myself. To me it offers the highest amount of usable features at a very reasonable price. It's also still a traditional body on-frame truck so it will serve me well while off raod.
I wouldn't get too hung up on warranty. You won't need it. None of the Toyota cars or trucks have needed any major service before 150,000 miles. If it bothers you that much you can buy Toyota extended warranties online for a fraction of what the dealer is asking.
Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greatday
While its not a "mid sized" SUV, we have an Escape and absolutely love it! Great seating for 4 - comfortable for 5. Decent cargo capacity.
And while its avaliable throughout the Ford line, we are impressed with the SYNC system.
I like it, but its too small for her... needs a 3rd row seat too.
Last edited by Tennesseestorm; 03-24-2011 at 06:51 PM..
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When I had my 1991 Lexus LS400 in 2008, I took it to our local Lexus dealer for some service... one time one of the salesman kinda looked and sneered as I was walking around looking at the new cars in the showroom. LOL. 
