Sales sell the 1st car. Aftersales sell the rest
I was at the supermarket not too long ago and a dealer walked over to me, gave me his card and told me to come in for a test drive as my car didn’t suit me / made me look poor.
I tend to think the opposite. As the saying goes…..The empty can rattles the loudest.
The genuinely wealthy people I know drive round in 10yr old+ sheds.
The genuinely wealthy people I know drive round in 10yr old+ sheds.
*Glances at his 9 year old Volvo*
*Looks at lottery ticket*
*Crosses fingers*
I know a few multi millionaires, all of them incredibly wealthy, not one or two million. Not one of them has an old banger of a car. Aston, Porsche and Ferrari are the weekend cars of choice.
These folk are new money, self made, so might be more inclined to buy their dream cars?
I used to live in Jersey, I honestly must have known over 20 millionaires and can’t remember one of them driving a shed.
We were driving past a main dealer Arnold Shark today. On the forecourt is a car model we are considering buying. We stopped for a look around it.
2018 / 35k mile car. When you get up close it's covered in chips, marks and scratches on paint. Drivers seat has a stain. Covered in white polish marks. Salesman was squirting some blue cleaner all over the door handles we touched. £15k
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Our current 2013 / 135k mile car is in better condition.</span>
Next to it was a year old car. With pretty obvious dent in the door. £19k
The other side was another car with two nearly bald tyres. £12k
Properly poor quality stock (although only at one garage and three vehicles lined up).
This may be an Arnold Clark thing, but it's left us confirming our 'better the devil too know' thought.
Wow, buying a car is hard work. I've not bought one for a long time so I suspect I was being naive, but here's what happened.
Walk past the local Kia dealer. There's a large sign saying "come and talk to us about our approved used cars".
So I pop in, the first sales person i see says hello and ask if he can help.
I explain what I want, where I am and the assistance I need.
"OK, would you mind waiting for 20 mins?" Says the sales person (the showroom is empty).
"Not really possible, but happy to come back at another time."
"OK, I'll call you tomorrow to arrange a time". I spot his diary on his desk.
"Can we get a time and date in now as I'm stood here"
"err, no, I'll call you tomorrow"
And 4 days later, no call.
What's worse is I've had exactly the same conversation with a guy from Hyundai and Honda.
I have money to spend, I have a deadline to spend it and I am open to ideas as to what I spend it on. I don't see why this is so hard.
Wanna buy a Merc?
Because you have money to spend.
They aren't interested unless you are renting on a pcp.
Wanna buy a Merc?
Nah, heard bad things about the (checks notes) gear box, ride quality and entertainment system. Not sure I trust the owner not to have removed the chassis bolts either...
Because you have money to spend.
They don't know that, I'm happy to pretend I'm taking HP/PCP if they'll talk to me.
Nah, heard bad things about the (checks notes) gear box, ride quality and entertainment system. Not sure I trust the owner not to have removed the chassis bolts either…
And the absolute deal breaker. No sodding sunglasses holder...
I was looking for a used 2-3 year old Tiguan.
For less I can buy a brand new Karoq, bit smaller but does the job and has all the same toys, and do the pay off the finance straight away thing.
Doing it through carwow, it’s been painless and the carwow reviews on YouTube are actually useful.
Your mileage may vary etc.
I have money to spend, I have a deadline to spend it and I am open to ideas as to what I spend it on. I don’t see why this is so hard.
a car supermarket is pretty much the ideal place for you as a buyer. lots of second hand stock, you can wander round to find what you like. They want to do a quick deal and get more stock in.
@lunge - I had that years ago (Christmas of 2006 in fact - the last time we bought a new car from a dealership).
Went into a Honda dealership and asked about test driving a new Civic and we were asked/told (whichever way you want to look at it) if we could come back after the new year as they weren't really doing test drives (ehh? you are open and clearly meant to be selling cars so why not)?
We ended up down the road at the Mazda dealership and bought a nice Mazda 3 2.0 Sport.
Anyone want to buy a low milage (61k) Mazda 2.0 Sport (07 plate) - one owner from new.
a car supermarket is pretty much the ideal place for you as a buyer.
But you don't get to test drive the things, or at least I didn't.
You do at Motorpoint.
On both occaisons we were offered a test drive.
When buying the Jazz, I agreed to take a car they had in, signed all the paperwork etc and was told it needed a good clean, so could be picked up in a couple of days.
Went home, looked at the website again and spotted a different colour car, same model and price, but lower milage.
Called them immediately and they were happy to source that one instead. Didn't charge me to bring it down from another site.
When it arrived they noticed it had a stain on the headlining (fizzy pop explosion!).
They valeted the car whilst I waited, insisted on another test drive and let me examine it for as long as I wanted before deciding whether to buy it. Took it home the same day.
The Vitara was even less hassle, apart from the fact that the previous owners didn't get the service book stamped. Motorpoint contacted the lease company they'd bought the car from and sent me a copy of the service record, which Suzuki confirmed was legit.
I really cannot fault them.
Greenacre Honda in Clitheroe and Chapelhouse Suzuki in Blackburn have serviced the cars since and have both been exceptional.
