[Closed] Buying a car, like pulling teeth !!

are you attempting to use main dealer networks?

Share your pain. Dealer's are, IMHE, shit.

Chose to go down the car supermarket route (used motorpoint in the end). I read so hard into the nitty gritty of the Ts and Cs to see where the catch was... there isn't.

Worth checking them out, superb service, and ultimately I got a great vehicle at a very good price (that even had extras they hadn't listed, which are brilliant - e.g. tow bar).

We encountered similar when we tried to buy a b-class a few years back. I bowled into the dealership and asked if we could test drive a 2nd hand b-class (they had a few in stock). He looked at me like i'd asked to sleep with his mother. 45 minutes later he was still giving us the sales spiel (despite me telling him i was a cash buyer and just wanted a quick test drive to see if we liked the car) and trying to get us to put a deposit down so we left and bought one elsewhere.

I was amazed what an ordeal it was. If he'd given us a test drive after 10 mins he'd have probably sold us the car for cash in under 45mins.

Incidentally dont buy a B-Class...it's been nothing but problems!

Went into Land rover yesterday and was offered a drive straight away.

Took it this morning, and have just spent 3 hr driving the new defender 110.

Only thing I noticed was a lack of interest from the sales folk. Very much, meh, if you like it you like it if not we're not that bothered type of thing.
No sales input from them whatsoever.

Businesses need to try being their own customers once in a while - quite a few will be in for a shock.

reminds me actually the BMW dealership were much better. After i drove a car for a bit i pulled over and the wife had a go. She's a bit of a nervy driver and hadn't driven such a big car before so was a bit nervous. After getting in the driver seat she looked down (saw the foot rest on the left) and said 'why are there four pedals'. Next she belted up, took a deep breath and said 'wish me luck'. Cue a very paniked look from the sales guy 🙂

Still makes me chuckle a few years later

@djambo
exactly the same experience with VW manchester.
they had a mk7 GTE golf in that I was interested in, oh yes come down for a test drive they said....ended up walking out after it became clear they had no intention of letting me drive it.

Shocking isn't it!

I bought a focus estate from somewhere up near Leeds a few years ago that was a private car selling dealership type place, they had a few very similar and were £2k less than the cars down here for same mileage/spec! (Herts).

Anyway they said 'which one do you want to try' and handed me the keys, said "see you later".

Ford main dealership in Stevenage were very good for my mum, I went with her to look at the 2nd hand C/B-Max's they had on their forcourt. They unlocked some for us rapidly and gave her loads of time and space (as in, walked off - no pressure). She liked the B so we went in and she was test driving it within a few minutes. She went back the next day with cash and she got them to throw in some extra warranty, a spare wheel (out of a fiesta they had on the forecourt) and some other stuff I can't remember. But very impressive again (impressive meaning: they just get out of your way and give you what you want)

Your experience sounds like a nightmare. I'd walk out too, honestly. Shocking that it seems to be 'asking a bit much' these days to physically look at and try out an investment that's potentially half your salary for a year, or whatever!

Another old fashioned one here but had a totally different experience. In my case I had pre-booked appointments, letting the dealer know what I wanted to drive and finding a time that worked (for me and them to get right car ready). In all 3 cases the car was ready to test drive on arrival and after a license check I was straight out. Only one turned into sales chat, other two politely declined as didn't get on with the cars.

Out of interest did you walk in or pre-arrange an appointment?

Try Porsche I found them amazing. I rang up to ask a few question about Cayman's and Boxsters. Next minute he says pop over and I will give you the keys to one. Arrive at dealership, car there and ready by the door, signed one document, given the keys and told take it for as long as you like.

Around the same time I took my BMW to be serviced and enquired about about M2's, said I had test driven a Cayman the week before and wanted to look at the M2. Without hesitation he said I wouldn't be allowed to test drive an M2 unless I put a 10% deposit down !

So my advice would be, buy a Porsche 🙂

I went to test drive a Golf GTD, and was told that if they let every young guy who wanted to test drive one do so they would be worthless....

I bought a Occy VRS instead. That was still a nightmare, but the test driving was easy, it was actually getting them to give me the car after I paid for it....

On a separate occasion I walked out of a showroom after explaining my requirements for a car (age/milage budget etc) and he went to see what they had.... after ages of sitting there, I just got up and left.

Honestly it's not that hard to buy a car is it? just seems to attract a certain type of person, and by type, I mean self-important, over inflated ego, but useless.

Similar experiences here.

I couldn't give a flying whatever about your instant Nescafé machine, fancy leather sofa, soft music, white tiles floor and smarmy salesperson dressed to the nines.

I would like you to keep the appointment and promises made, have the car I called about to see this morning cleaned(!) and ready to drive.

No I don't want you to disappear off to the managers office to 'see what the best deal is' for 15 minutes (what do they do in there?) and then tell me that £10k is a 'cheap car' and 'can't expect much' from the car (it was in pieces after an accident!)...

Funnily enough the (now defunct) SEAT dealer in Stirling did actually clean the car, had the keys ready for the agreed time, and had done homework on the best price they could do as I had requested. They took the time we test drove to value our old car for trade in and had a 'cash today' price written down for us on our return. I transferred the money and we collected the car the end of the next day after a full service and MOT.

One phone call, less than an hour in the garage to buy the thing, everything done on time and a nice voucher for 1 free service from them.

Agreed. Went through something similar helping my father to buy a second hand car recently. Wanted a Golf, dealer made us wait 45 mins beyond our appointed time, then proceeded to go though what seemed like an hours worth of compliance guff and irrelevant finance options talk. I've rarely been witness to such utter convoluted inappropriate nonsense before- we hadn't even seen inside the car at this point. When we finally go to test the car, was appalled to see they hadn't even bothered to clean it inside...during a deadly pandemic... plus it had a loud unidentifiable rattle, was putting out grey smoke from exhaust, body work covered in scratches they weren't even aware of (and drove like rubbish anyway)...basically they hadn't bothered to check it properly. Took the car back and told him he'd wasted our time and his own.

Walked into a quality Volvo dealership across the road, experience couldn't be more extreme. Car spotless and immaculately presented, salesperson relaxed, professional, respectful and not pushing sales guff - whole experience one of quality. Easy sale done in half an hour...and brilliant car too. These details matter more than so many dealerships will ever recognise.

I've had mixed experiences over the years. A Ford garage where the salesmen actively avoided my wife and me - we walked out. An Audi garage which did the same. A VW garage which were very helpful and let me have a good long run in a GTD. The same Audi garage when it changed hands. The salesman had just been transferred from a Peugeot garage in the same group and was excellent. I bought the car.

I'd called and asked them if I could come in and test drive a specific car they had in.
Absolutely they said so I went at the arranged a time.
bait and switch when i got there as they started with stupid questions like what colour car did i want....how much did i want to spend....how was I paying for it.

i nearly curled one out next to his desk before I left 😮

There seems to be a massive shortage of used cars at the moment, especially premium brands. Most people I know are on PCP's and most have had calls from sales people tempting them out of their cars well in advance of the end of their PCP periods with silly deals on new cars just to free up their car to feed the used car demand. I'm only about 13 months or so into my PCP so not had a call yet but alot are less than 3 years into a 4 year deal.

I guess if you're looking at 5 year old car then those currently with 5 year old cars looking to jump into a 3 year old car might be struggling so that stifles the 'liquidity' of the whole system apart from those looking at brand new cars.

Oh and leasing is another way.

Go online look at what you want, order using bank card, car delivered to your drive.

Dont have to deal with any dealership at any point.

I bought my Gtd estate from small garage(Autotrader) phoned up agreed trade in price on mine set up finance(drove down to view) test drove liked car brought it home 🙂

As mentioned main dealers are poop !

Audi is nearest, so Q5 please…. ok that will be a 1000 deposit on the car you are likely to buy and we’ll have it here in 24/48 hours…. they have had my 1000 pounds for 24 hours now and I’ve not heard a dicky bird.

If you're going to give them a grand without even seeing the car then you can't really blame anyone but yourself. Go down and ask for the money back, see how well that pans out.

Don't reward shit business practices by giving them your time and money.

Had similar with Arnold Clarke last Autumn. Saw a 2yr old car we liked the look of - called them on a Thursday morning and explained we couldn't get to the showroom until Saturday morning.

All good on the phone - no problem to wait, all that shizzle. Then Friday lunch we get a call from the 'Sales Manager' saying if we wanted to hold the car till Saturday we'd basically have to go through the whole purchase procedure over the phone and pay a 1k deposit. I promptly told him to go and swivel!

I think peoples car buying skills have got so bad now that dealers feel they have the upper-hand.

Out of interest did you walk in or pre-arrange an appointment?

I phone ahead.

The finest one we had was when we changed the people carrier - I had phoned Arnaud Shark Toyota in Stirling, agreed to come in at 4:30 to see a Verso they had in stock, in our budget. When we arrived at 4:25 we had to wait 15 minutes while the 3 (male) sales staff faffed around a blond, 21 year old yoga-pant wearing lady who was driving out the showroom in her new car...

At which point we went to leave, the (female) sales manager saw us and nipped over, only to inform us that if we were serious about buying we should have made an appointment at least a couple of hours before the end of the working day and not brought children with us...and that the car was in the dark so not much point looking at it.

Funnily enough I bought the Galaxy a few days later from an independent dealer.

Tbf ... I was a walk in for Audi and BMW ... that's why the audi guy has til end of play today to get in touch.

Only thing I noticed was a lack of interest from the sales folk. Very much, meh, if you like it you like it if not we’re not that bothered type of thing.

That probably sells more cars that way than the in your face, buy something you dont want/need right now type sales tactic.

I’ve only bought 2 vehicles from dealers, one a 6 month old Polo GTI and the other a pre-reg Relay van.

Both times I phoned before hand, turned up and within 10 minutes I was driving out the forecourt on a test drive.

Both different Arnold Clarks, which does go against their reputation somewhat. Guess I got lucky!

Car sales really does seem to attract a special type of person!

I've had every experience from the ones who seem like you're more trouble than it's worth to try and sell you a car (ironically, this was the last car i actually bought, persevered because it was THE right car in terms of spec/location/price) funnily enough that dealer isn't in business anymore (it's been 6 years!)

When I bought my old A4 (a 12 month old car at the time) the guy I dealt with at the dealership was great, but he did seem like the odd one out there, but did make the experience of parting with a lot of money fairly pleasurable (if only the whole ownership experience had been so smooth...)

When I started looking at changing cars again in 2019 I had some really mixed experiences, I was also weighing up my options between company car or cash for cars options so I was going round a lot of garages to see what cars were around to meet the criteria (<119g/km CO2 and big enough for the family/enough rear leg room that I'm not being constantly kicked in the kidneys by the then 2 year old behind me!, available with a tow bar, auto, estate/SUV/crossover, you know not too much to ask!)

The local Mercedes dealership were bloody awful, fixated on how much my car allowance was despite me saying my budget was pretty flexible for the right car (man maths obviously came into the equation) I walked out in the end when the finance manager came over before I'd even seen a single car.

Local BMW dealership were a similar story, but the one up in Grimsby were great, I called in on my way back from a site visit there and they pulled 3, 5, X1 and X3 out for me to try straight away (coffee was rather mediocre though, so one demerit point for that).

Local Nissan dealer were a joke, took a Qashqui out for a less than 5 minute test drive and was immediately challenged on wether I would be buying it or not, when I said i would want a longer test drive the response from he 17 year old salesman was 'you'll not get any longer than that!', needless to say i didn't buy a car form them!

Local VW and Jaguar dealers have both been really good, I've wanted to buy a Jag a couple of times now, MrsMomos response has always been, no, you've still not achieved Jaguar age yet!

Skoda were really good but couldn't find me the car I was after at the time (Octavia VRS estate without black wheels, ideally not a DSG as MrsMomo didn't like it on my Golf GTD, not the latest shopping trip)

Local Kia and Hyundai dealers were great, had the cars sat waiting for me with plenty of fuel, both times just handed the keys and told, try not to be much more than 3 hours please! Probably would have gone for the Kia Nero if it had been available with a towbar!

Toyota were great though, I went in there saying that the CHR and corolla were both on my list so it would be a fleet purchase and they probably wouldn't end up being the supplying dealer, not a problem, they sorted both cars out for me to try and did so again when I took MrsMomo back to check them out (we also tried a RAV4 on that visit) and they've been great on the after sales part too, my corolla came from a different branch (they don't have a commercial sales office in Lincoln) but the local branch have taken care of me since (including making me an extra number plate for my bike rack for free)

As I've mentioned on here before, I changed brand because the sales guy I used changed jobs.
For absolute pain, try one of the Arnold Clark shops in Perth - Ryanair levels of standardly shit culture across the business.

Toyota were great though

Yep, bought a couple of new Toyotas and great both times.

I had a great experience at Porsche when I was looking at 2nd hand Panamera. Friendly welcome and asked if I was browsing or wanted help. I said I was looking at possibly getting a 2nd hand Panamera and he said they had a couple and asked what price range. I told him I was going to swap in a Mercedes or a Range Rover plus £XXXX. He did a quick inspection of the Range Rover and he said he had one suitable car.

One was a hybrid that was ready to test but was slow and lumpen to drive. The salesman told me not to buy it as my first Porsche should not be a slight disappointment. He asked a bit more about the Merc I was trading in and said that was worth enough more than the Range Rover to put a slightly older Turbo S in the picture. Unfortunately it wasn't available that day but if I booked an appointment and brought the Merc with me then we could try that.

It was raining on the day and I got a call from the salesman to see if I wished to switch but said I was okay with rain. Was met with a warm smile and hot coffee watching the thunderstorm from inside the dealer. The salesman walked me around the showroom discussing the different cars even though he knew I wasn't buying them, he was just passing the time until the rain slowed to bearable. We then went out for a drive and the Turbo S was quite amazing, even for its size and weight.

Unfortunately when we got back it turned out the Merc value didn't take into account the left hand drive so the money didn't work. The salesman apologised for wasting my time and said he would let me know if something suitable came in.

About as nice experience as you can get from a car dealer I thought

wobbliscott
Full Member

There seems to be a massive shortage of used cars at the moment, especially premium brands. Most people I know are on PCP’s and most have had calls from sales people tempting them out of their cars well in advance of the end of their PCP periods with silly deals on new cars just to free up their car to feed the used car demand. I’m only about 13 months or so into my PCP so not had a call yet but alot are less than 3 years into a 4 year deal.

I guess if you’re looking at 5 year old car then those currently with 5 year old cars looking to jump into a 3 year old car might be struggling so that stifles the ‘liquidity’ of the whole system apart from those looking at brand new cars.

A few months ago somebody posted a pic on pistonheads of thousands of cars parked up somewhere. They seem to be drip feeding them out.

edit

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-56104281

The prices are stupid at the moment. Cars I was looking at for £9-10K are currently selling at £15-16k.

I have been serially annoyed by car buying experiences. This: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=2655 from 2012 followed by the kind of review I'd like to have read: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=2664.

Warning: both contain swearing. Often much of it in the same sentence.

Honestly tho Skoda were so much better than BMW. Long story of rubbishness, endless guff, speaking with managers etc while attempting to sell me a 2nd one. I ended up selling the one I had to another dealer, trousering nearly 2k back after the finance was settled, and then refusing to waste another minute visiting dealerships.

Other than to pick up my current Skoda which I bought via carwow. I only spoke to the dealer once I arrived to pick it up. And that was a very short 'no I'm not interested in any incremental selling, hand me over they keys' conversation.

I have recently been through this myself, however test drives werent difficult to get just trying to leave afterwards was the hard bit.

Was specifically looking at a used 3/4 yrs old a6 avant with my personal spec list there werent may around.

One came up about half hour away at a main dealer, phoned asked a few questions they were a bit hazy over the phone, asked for a test drive, organised a time and turned up.

Guy was a nice chap clearly quite young and fairly new to the game and eager. Showed me around the car, went back to office signed the form and listened to his gumpf then signed the insurance doc and he gave me the keys - told to drive for half hour or so and duly did.
Car was nice but paintwork was a little iffy and questionable service history which later when pressed on turns out it had never had a service.

You would have thought i was saying no to the best and most precious car in the world they way they went on - had the whole manager spiel aswell telling me it didnt need a serivce in 30k miles and 4 years - oh okay mate pretty sure it needed a service at 19k miles at the very latest and it also needed the brake fluid changing twice.

Icing on the cake was when i asked when the gearbox oil needed changing, salesman duly replied ooh not til about 50/60k miles, i asked him if he wanted to check that or if he was certain - yeah mate it doesnt need doing early on these - really?? You Sure? Think you'll find it needs doing at 37k.

At that point i walked out of the showroom.

Had the opposite last October. Ford, Toyota, Jeep, Honda, Citroen, Peugeot were all very welcoming and helpful.

All except Peugeot and Jeep let us test drive on our own without a sales person with us.

No one wanted a deposit to test drive.

All except Citroen were pre booked test drives. Citroen are a 5 min walk away so just popped in. They were brillion our own. ant and sourced a car for me with only a £100 deposit.

I was told by a friend that the computer chip shortage is having a drastic effect on new car supply. Perhaps this is related to your troubles? If they’ve only got a few cars then they want to sell to those punters who have already made their choice without a test drive?

Icing on the cake was when i asked when the gearbox oil needed changing, salesman duly replied ooh not til about 50/60k miles, i asked him if he wanted to check that or if he was certain – yeah mate it doesnt need doing early on these – really?? You Sure? Think you’ll find it needs doing at 37k.

Why ask if you already knew the answer? Just to test the poor guy? It's the most annoying thing to do to a salesperson who you said was likely new to the role.

I have had the opposite experience but I have always bought second hand cars and asked to test drive those specifically.
(Ford dealer) for my Fiesta I rang up my local branch and said that there is a car in one of their other branches that I'd like to test drive. They went and picked it up and had me testing it a few days later. Paid for it that day.

(VW Dealer) Most recent Golf GTI I rang them up said I was coming to look at a specific second hand car on their lot is it still there? I spend 10 mins looking it over and someone has walked out with keys in hand, one spirited drive later (with a lot of encouragement from the salesman) I am signing for it and putting a deposit down.

Maybe I have been lucky...

Bought last 3 commercial vehicles new from the same fella at Ford.
Even got the last van i bought in from across the other side of the country. It was cheaper than the stuff he was trying to sell me too. And let me have it for the price they had it advertised for when I initially made the enquiry ( other dealer had stuck the price up £2k online , but I had screenshots of the old price)

Recently went into Landrover to look at Disco Sport Phev. They didn't have one in , so sat in the standard one to see if I liked the feel of it. I did, so arranged to come back 2 days later so they could get one in to test drive. Just over an hour test drive, I liked it and got one priced up. They have to clean it everytime its opened and put new stickers across the doors.
Said it would be ready late July. Left it at that to have a think.
Meanwhile I stuck the details in CarWow and it came back with same car , but cheaper at another LR dealer about 40 miles away. Went down to see what they could do, got a load of extras over what the other guy was offering, same deal on the PX, and about a grand cheaper too.
Got my slot reserved, and it is for Sept. He reckons theres no way the July date was going to happen, especially seeing as the factory is shut !!

Went to buy a very nearly new fiat, complete with covid tax on price tag in the window. Stood next to it for a bit. Got cold. Went inside to talk to a human about it. Well and truly avoided (not just ignored!). Went home. Looking at you Arnold Clark Leeds.

mjsmke
Free Member

Why ask if you already knew the answer? Just to test the poor guy?

Well, yeah. Point is that it's fine to say "I don't know" but this guy revealed himself to be a bullshitter. Now I'll happily deal with bullshitters but I want to know what they are, and that everything else they say might be bullshit.

I was told by a friend that the computer chip shortage is having a drastic effect on new car supply. Perhaps this is related to your troubles?

I think it's this. My 18-month-old Volvo is now worth more than the outstanding finance just six months after I bought it, according to WBAC.

It's to weed out the shrewd, so you're are left with the ripe plum duffers who will pay full price and then some!

Everywhere is Studio 54 now vetting for the money's no object people.

You would have thought i was saying no to the best and most precious car in the world they way they went on – had the whole manager spiel aswell telling me it didnt need a serivce in 30k miles and 4 years – oh okay mate pretty sure it needed a service at 19k miles at the very latest and it also needed the brake fluid changing twice.

Icing on the cake was when i asked when the gearbox oil needed changing, salesman duly replied ooh not til about 50/60k miles, i asked him if he wanted to check that or if he was certain – yeah mate it doesnt need doing early on these – really?? You Sure? Think you’ll find it needs doing at 37k.

At that point i walked out of the showroom.

That’s exactly what I would have done. If they are prepared to lie to sell you the car then you can bet they’ll lie even more later on if you have something go wrong which might be a warranty issues.
It’s worth testing them to make sure they are honest.
Toyota - I’ve had 2 opposite experiences with them. Hudds branch damaged my few month old car and tried to hide it, then it took 5 more visits to them to fix it then gave it me back the last time in an unsafe condition (faulty seatbelt). By this time I was very annoyed but kept my temper but the after sales manager took me to one side and told me never to come back again.
Wakefield branch - complete opposite, very helpful with a test drive, answered all my questions and was honest when they didn’t immediately know the answer. No pressure to buy, one follow up call (I can’t expect them to never try) and that was it. Wonderful service and I gave feedback to them about the guy who served me as he was a credit to them.

Porsche were absolutely the worst I have ever come across.

I rocked up on a tuned vepsa and parked it outside the window.

Walked about inside (jeans and denim jacket) and was ignored.
Asked to drive the new boxster and was told "oh no, no one is available, make an appointment etc blah blah"

Told then that wouldn't work for me as I was flying back offshore next day, within two minutes a 6ft blonde was serving me coffee and cake.

Was taken out for drive where I simply hammered the car to the point the guy was hanging onto the door.

Got out , threw the keys at them and braaapped off on the scoot to buy an Audi.

Horrible folk.

Thanks. I thought so.