When did New Car Dealers Become Completely Incompetent?

The dealer I leased the FiST through has been unable to sell me the car on two different occasions due to gross incompetence. I tried to get the deal done through another Ford dealer because, according to Ford Credit, I can do it anywhere. Not true, went to three different dealers and none of them could do it.

Decided to just turn it in and purchase a used 2016 GTI. The VW dealers near me were actually pretty good, but didn't have what I wanted. So I found it online (hard to get an S-Trim with the performance pack) and contacted them. I have a check, money in the bank, don't need to see or drive the car, I live 8 hours away, just tell me that it is available and what you need from me to buy it remotely. Today. Right now. You want to finance it? Sure, here's my info, see if you can beat my rate.

6 hours later, they text me an invite me to visit their showroom to see their selection. Good lord, how do salespeople make money when they are a step above mold in intelligence?

So I am headed back to the Ford dealership tomorrow to buy it. Once it is in my name and the season is over, I will be hunting a 2016 VW GTI, S-Trim, Grey with DSG and the performance pack. Any leads would be most appreciated.

That implies they were at least competent in the first place and also places where the lowest slimy snakes lived outside of a lawyers office.....

Sometimes you just have to get the right salesman. Last month I bought a car from a dealer in Sacramento, Ca from 3000 miles away in Florida.

Emailed on a Thursday got the price and wired the money the same day. Friday all the paperwork was at my door along with a prepaid return envelope. I overnighted and the car was at my door the next Thursday.

When did New Car Dealers Become Completely Incompetent? About 1905. Very few rocket surgeons in that business.

I'm convinced a lot of car salesmen are not qualified to sell shoes... or that was likely their last job.

I've always had a longstanding belief that if your industry needed to buy laws to make sure you were necessary, you are neither competent or necessary.

I'm lucky. My Ford dealer has a very competent sales staff.

Back when the two year lease On my ZX2SR ran out, I got the residual figure. Went to my dealer, the sales manager checked the market value. I was 2k to the good. paper work was done and I bought it. QED

Zero issues ever buying a new car. Every dealer I've ever dealt with has been great. Tell them want i want, they order it, i bring a check and leave with the car. Zero issues with European delivery as well. Maybe there is such a high density of dealers in SE Mi that they need to be good to survive.

Someone I know with a personality disorder has been a salesperson a few times at several dealerships. Why? Because turnover is high and a fogged mirror and a blood test are about the only barriers to entry. The hours are hard and making money is tough. They are often the lowest paid people in the dealership. There are exceptions, but approaching a dealership cold your chances aren't good of meeting a good one.

iceracer wrote: I'm lucky. My Ford dealer has a very competent sales staff. Back when the two year lease On my ZX2SR ran out, I got the residual figure. Went to my dealer, the sales manager checked the market value. I was 2k to the good. paper work was done and I bought it. QED

My mom did this too, IIRC, she rolled the lease purchase into a trade-in on another car and made $4k on the deal.

They REALLY got the residual screwed up on the car she leased.

fasted58 wrote: I'm convinced a lot of car salesmen are not qualified to sell shoes... or that was likely their last job.

In one of the Chicago 'burbs there used to be Chernin's shoes and they would prey on you like a hawk. They had a guy on a microphone in the front who would watch everyone and all you had to do was throw down a head nod and he screamed for a salesmen to get over to you. Getting out without buying shoe trees, polish, extra gym shoes, or dress socks was always a challenge. It was always a trip to go there for shoes.

The salespeople I've dealt with have been overwhelmingly OK, it's the finance people that should be left in the service bay with a running car overnight.

I had a bear of a time getting my truck. It's like dealers didn't want to take 45 grand from me because they were greedy and thought i'd go for the loaded 65k one instead

In reply to mazdeuce:

Very much my experience as well. VW Credit beat our Credit Union by 2% plus knocked another grand off the price for using them, so we went with them. The headache that ensued the following few months due entirely to gross incompetence on the finance manager's part made me wish we'd just gone with our credit union's higher rate.

IMO, dealers went in the toilet when consumers became better consumers. Back in the day, you bought a Ford from the same place your dad bought his Ford, and quite possibly from the same guy. Dealers were big on building relationships and taking care of customers over the long term.

Starting around the late 70's, car buyers started becoming more informed. Magazines like Consumer Reports gave buyers inside information on buying cars, that average Joes were not previously privileged to have. For example, they printed invoice prices.

Of course, the rise of the Internet multiplied the available "inside information" a thousandfold.

Dealers were getting profits squeezed. They resorted to scuzzy sales and financing tactics to make a buck. Salesmen just wanted the next sale, not to build a relationship. Buyers bought largely on price.

Over the last 40 years or so, new cars became practically a price-based commodity. The entire macro-economy of New Car Sales became a total train wreck, and I'm not sure what can be done to salvage it.

I would argue, given the above, that consumers didn't get "better", they got "cheaper", and this evolutionary pressure on auto salesmen favored the ones who went for the quick sale over the long-term customer relationship-builder. Another complementary evolutionary pressure is how people no longer buy a new car every year or two as a matter of course.

When I sold cars it was quite an eye-opener to discover that "buyers are liars", more times than not.

Also, the nice people got gro$$ed - clubbed like baby seals, while the grinders got what they wanted, in the end, if they ground on enough people for long enough and there was a sliver of daylight left in a deal for someone.

And it didn't matter if you berkeleyed the GM's daughter (or son) IF you moved enough units/held lots of gross.

It seemed like every single person in every dealership was a berkeleyup of some sort or another, and within being in the biz for more than a year you developed no more than 3 degrees of separation from anyone who had sold cars at any area dealer in the past decade.

Good times.

I did an easy deal when I bought my Fiesta. Got an idea of the trade in value of my KJ and the sticker price of the Fiesta. I had in mind how much I would be willing to pay. The sales manager gave me a figure. Close enough. About $100.
At my Ford dealer the salesman does the preliminary work but the sales manager does the final figuring.

It's not just car dealers.

There is some baffling incompetence in the sales end of the industrial machinery business too.

Why do I, as the technician, have to call the used equipment manager to tell him our long-term customer has cash in hand, wants to buy 3 units that are listed on our website, and the sales department hasn't responded to phone calls or emails for a month?