Do dealers want to sell cars?

NIMAN

I saw a car on DoneDeal that I was interested in, so emailed the seller (a dealer) yesterday morning asking a few simple questions.

It took nearly 24hrs to get a reply, and it only answered 1 of my 3 questions.

I emailed him back again this morning, repeating the 2 questions, and 8hrs later, still no reply. One of the questions was "whats the mileage on the car" - as he advertised it as " - ",which always worries me!

Needless to say, if this guy couldn't be arsed to take the 20sec to reply to my email, I won't be buying a car off him. Ever.

Tefral

NIMAN wrote: »

I saw a car on DoneDeal that I was interested in, so emailed the seller (a dealer) yesterday morning asking a few simple questions.

It took nearly 24hrs to get a reply, and it only answered 1 of my 3 questions.

I emailed him back again this morning, repeating the 2 questions, and 8hrs later, still no reply. One of the questions was "whats the mileage on the car" - as he advertised it as " - ",which always worries me!

Needless to say, if this guy couldn't be arsed to take the 20sec to reply to my email, I won't be buying a car off him. Ever.

Whats wrong with picking up the phone? in the two mins it took you to write the email, your questions would have been answered.

I always believe anyone that doesnt ring you about an ad on donedeal is a timewaster personally

visual

If the mileage isn't listed its most likely very high and would put buyers off.

Personally if they don't list milage I move on to next add and dont waste my time.

thecomedian

There are some places that wouldn't be big into email and the like.
The best way is picking up the phone and ringing them.

ninty9er

E-Mail is electronic mail, not instant mail. Some people check it once a day only as they would with postal mail. That way it acts as less of a barrier to productivity.

It bothers me when people expect instant response to email.

mad m

Very true about the email, but I'm with the OP on this, he asked 3 questions, which the dealer when replying could of easily put in the return email.

biko

I'm a firm believer in mail first contact. That way you don't get someone who's too stressed to talk on the phone or can't be arsed to go check if the car has 10K or 110K miles.
Mail let's them do things at their own pace.

It's 2013, if they don't know how to mail properly, hire someone who can...

Cee-Jay-Cee

visual wrote: »

If the mileage isn't listed its most likely very high and would put buyers off.

Personally if they don't list milage I move on to next add and dont waste my time.

Same as that. No matter how good the rest of the car may seem, if mileage isn't shown then I wouldn't give it a second look.

racso1975

Yup major turn off on ads for me is blank mileage or poa......would not even contact the later. Have never emailed a seller yet but it is a valid point the op has. Anyhow if somebody does not want to answer emails then dont list it.

Big Nasty

Everyone's different and there's a lot of people who like to 'hide' behind email and basically waste your time, be it a private or dealer sale. If I have something for sale I'm happy if the interested party emails me but most of their questions are easier answered on the phone, plus you can weed out the w@nkers by talking to them.

Any email I get I'll return asking them to call me so I can give them full details. If they don't call / return mail they're a waster in the first place IMO.

Nickindublin

I always email now about a car I'm interested in. When I was buying my new car I called into 2 dealers but I emailed 4 asking about prices of 12 reg cars. I got a response from 2. I use email now as I don't want sales guys ringing all the time.

Nickindublin

I always email now about a car I'm interested in. When I was buying my new car I called into 2 dealers but I emailed 4 asking about prices of 12 reg cars. I got a response from 2. I use email now as I don't want sales guys ringing all the time.

bazz26

If he answered the email straight away then surely he aint very busy selling cars?

Surely a phone call would have been alot quicker than having to type out questions in an email?

Merch

why dont they just put all the info in the ad, its a waste of time for all involved not to.
If they know the mileage will put some people off then the price should reflect that and that in turn will be a draw to people that are in that price range.
If the seller provided the email they should be willing to respond with information, if they put all the details in to begin with they wouldn't be wasting their own time or others responding.

Its a tactic to draw someone in as far as Im concerned, I dont think you should have to ring up as the info should be there to see. If its a car you're interested in then, Id ring, It probably wont be though
Signs of someone being difficult/evasive/even smart assed on any level when they are selling it tells me they will be much worse if there are any problems.

MetzgerMeister

ninty9er wrote: »

E-Mail is electronic mail, not instant mail. Some people check it once a day only as they would with postal mail. That way it acts as less of a barrier to productivity.

It bothers me when people expect instant response to email.

True but if you're selling something and email is an option of contact, you should be checking it more than once a day

mark renton

NIMAN wrote: »

I saw a car on DoneDeal that I was interested in, so emailed the seller (a dealer) yesterday morning asking a few simple questions.

It took nearly 24hrs to get a reply, and it only answered 1 of my 3 questions.

I emailed him back again this morning, repeating the 2 questions, and 8hrs later, still no reply. One of the questions was "whats the mileage on the car" - as he advertised it as " - ",which always worries me!

Needless to say, if this guy couldn't be arsed to take the 20sec to reply to my email, I won't be buying a car off him. Ever.

You wont get much agreement on here as most posters are used car dealers on here.

Personally I think u are correct, there are a lot of used car dealers out there with same car sitting in the lot the past 2 or 3 years, and when approached about a deal they seem disinterested. Very strange...

ShadowHearth

If you are interest in car ( I mean really ) you will pick up that phone and call asap.

Emailing is time wasting. On the other hand, I don't know why on earth sellers even give email...

Merch

ShadowHearth wrote: »

If you are interest in car ( I mean really ) you will pick up that phone and call asap.

Emailing is time wasting. On the other hand, I don't know why on earth sellers even give email...

If emailing is a waste of time, why dont they just provide all the information a buyer would want??
A phone call is a waste of time if the buyer wont be interested due to high mileage or some other missing information, they could be dealing with another potential customer at that time (phone/email).

The thing is, I'm pretty sure people expect email, they dont have the time to call 5 potentials they are interested in due to sellers leaving out important details OR if in work cant be seen to be on the phone talking about a car they like, whereas in many cases its simpler for them to type out a quick email.

Plain and simple solution is provide all the details from the start!
If someone wont look at a car that has x,000 on the clock, telling them over the phone wont likely change their mind.

Sofiztikated

To be fair to the OP, it's 2013. Email is more than commonplace. Any business worth it's salt should be using ALL avenues open to them to advance a sale.

I'd email quicker than I'd ring. Paper trail, and all that.

MetzgerMeister

mark renton wrote: »

You wont get much agreement on here as most posters are used car dealers on here.

WTF

You haven't a clue what anyone in here does for a living so I wouldn't go making assumptions like that if I were you.

Drummerboy08

I've no problem with email but a ringing phone gets answered quicker than a beeping inbox. ;-)

mark renton

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

WTF

You haven't a clue what anyone in here does for a living so I wouldn't go making assumptions like that if I were you.

Seem to have touched a nerve.

Actually in some cases I would know, and u aint me so dont worry about whoever makes assumptions on here.

Merch

mark renton wrote: »

You wont get much agreement on here as most posters are used car dealers on here.

Personally I think u are correct, there are a lot of used car dealers out there with same car sitting in the lot the past 2 or 3 years, and when approached about a deal they seem disinterested. Very strange...

Well the Op does seem to be getting agreement?

The idea that dealers/sellers cant understand why a potential buyer wont ring them as they have omitted relevant details, doesnt help a person selling a car, if they cant understand their potential customers, well thats not a good start for them.

mark renton

Merch wrote: »

Well the Op does seem to be getting agreement?

The idea that dealers/sellers cant understand why a potential buyer wont ring them as they have omitted relevant details, doesnt help a person selling a car, if they cant understand their potential customers, well thats not a good start for them.

Seems you havent actually read the first page. Nearly all are suggesting for him to make more effort in communication and ring, like the used car dealer would be doing him a favor.

Merch

mark renton wrote: »

Seems you havent actually read the first page. Nearly all are suggesting for him to make more effort in communication and ring, like the used car dealer would be doing him a favor.

I read it (they aren't)
Post 2 ring
Post 3 wouldnt respond to add missing details
Post 4 ring
Post 5 suggest people shouldnt expect immediate reply to email
Post 6 email
Post 7 email
Post 8, same as post 3, for OP
Post 9, unhappy about missing details Pro OP
post 10 thinks most buyers are w@nkers/wont give out info in email,but must have provided it to receive a contact.
Post 11 email
Post 12 double post
Post 13 suggest ring, but seems nuetral
Post 14 email is ok, unhappy about missing details.
Post 15 email

So what did I miss on that first page??
Out of 14 only 3-4 max say ring out of 14?
I think you need to read again. Even if you add in the possible suggestions to ring its not half of the posters!

either way if they're you're customers I say you dont understand the perspective of a buyer, a private buyer looking for a car.
I agree when its narrowed down you need to ring, but by forcing a potential customer to waste their time to ring you for information that should be provided when they are in the process of narrowing things down, then you or a dealer will be wasting buyers time and their own and potentially missing out on sales??

and then the OP says when they got a reply, it failed to include the info they requested, Basic stuff that should be included in an ad, then really they should just not include an email if they dont want to use that option.
But again, thats putting limitations on their potential customers.

if you dont get it, maybe you are wondering why people are emailing you, then failing to end up buying a car from you, you then think people that email are timewasters??
Even if one person responded for the OP, then that is still viable information to help keep a potential customer on track.

ToxicPaddy

I find it strange that a dealer is willing to post an advert for a car online with an
email address as a form of contact but not willing to use email to answer all the
questions.

Email is a commonplace method of communication as common as telephone and
sometimes quicker especially if trying to contact an individual in a large
organisation where you have to go through reception etc so you could get
bounced around.

Anyway back on topic, the dealer either has something to hide about that
particular vehicle or as someone else said, trying to get you on the phone to try
and sell that way.

Either way OP, it's not a good first impression. So might be best to just forget
about that one and move on.

dr.fuzzenstein

I'd expect business emails to be answered within a few hours. Doesn't have to be immediately, but any business worth it's salt would have staff working the phone and email. And even if they don't, I'm sure it can't be too much to ask from the saleperson to fire off a few quick emails over a cup of coffee every now and then.
If it's a private seller, I'd expect them to answer within 24 hours, even though I'm guilty of exceeding this, Yahoo very helpfully diverted some emails about a car I was selling recently into my spambox.
Though in the end the car was sold to a buyer who phoned me, because I put in price, year, mileage, info about tax and NCT, engine size, displayed the reg number and had enough pictures of the car so people wouldn't have to ask me about any of the above. I didn't list extras, because the car had none.:)
Any ad that omits half the info, has the reg blocked, bad pictures, where the seller obviously doesn't want to answer questions and already has a sh*tty attitude in the ad gets ignored. Especially a dealer should know these things.

galwaytt

cronin_j wrote: »

Whats wrong with picking up the phone? in the two mins it took you to write the email, your questions would have been answered.

I always believe anyone that doesnt ring you about an ad on donedeal is a timewaster personally

Not. A big not, actually. And for a variety of reasons:

If you are advertising something, and won't be dealing with emails, then don't waste both of our times by having an email address in your ad that you couldn't be arsed to actually use. I'll go further: why not just say in your ad that you won't be responding to emails ? (in which case glws as they say...)

And, no more than in a phone call, why would you only answer some, and not all, of the questions you were asked ? If you've just seen and typed a response to an email with a few words - would you not just type the few more you were asked as well ? And if not, why not ? If you're not in a position to, then just say so. But don't say nothing, or ignore it.

Imho, those who advertise and omit information in the ad which no-one in their right mind would buy a car without knowing anyway, are being economical with the truth or is hiding something. This is most commonly the mileage, info on the history, or similar, but it could be anything (accident or mechanical damage etc).

On a related topic, I've had experience of some....curious ads inside the last week myself.

So, there's an ad for a nice car. Looks good, nice spec. But it has no price on the ad. :mad: (it's a 11 yr old car btw )

But in the ad it says 'texts or private numbers will be ignored'. So, I ring the number anyway, bitiing my tongue....., and I get the message from the mobile network that the number I'm ringing is out of service.

So, now what ? I decide to (horror of horrors ! ) ... to send a text !! I very nicely said I was interested in the car and couldn't get through to his number, and could he give me a call....?
The following day I get a reply to the effect that 'his phone is working'. That's it. So, I phone again. Same message. So I text again. This time, in fairness, he rings me, but I miss the call, so I ring him back and...........same message again. So now what ?

Imho, if you're selling something, you need to make the effort. If you don't, I can only assume you're only half-interested in selling the (whatever it is). If you're in the business of selling, then you're in the business of soliciting business, not putting obstacles in the way of it.

So now you can add 'I don't have voicemail set up on my mobile so won't get/take messages either' to the list of 'standard texts' you need put into the ad as well

Something must have 'clicked' with him though - I see the ad has been amended and the price is now on the ad.

Senna

I'd email a seller if it was out of hours, but otherwise I'd phone. You'll draw a much better opinion of the seller and car from a 2 minute phone call that you would from an email.

But most of the time if the car is relatively close I'd visit the garage to see the car without making any contact. I don't like to let anyone think I'm too interested in any car:D

ba_barabus

If I have a couple of small questions which will determine my interest in the car I email first. This is generally because the ads from the seller are poor and lacking detail.

If the car fits the bill after that I'll call.

SeanSouth

I only email too (usually)

If a dealer cant reply to your email when you want to buy a car, whats he going to be like when you have a problem with it.

I recently bought a new 131 car. Rang my local dealer at 0930 on a Monday morning, early in December. No one could take my call because they were all in a "sales meeting" and couldn't be disturbed. Told the Receptionist that I wanted to buy a new car. She giggled a bit and said he'll call you back when he gets out of the meeting........I put the phone down and rang the next nearest dealer 40 miles away. This guy was superb. Did the deal there and then......First garage rang back at 16.45 muttering something about a missed call. Sounded like he was on drugs and had just gotten back from Glastonbury.

I'm in business myself. Any emails received during the working day are always answered within one hour. A lot of people are very comfortable working by email these days.The email will normally turn into a phone call as the deal warms up and the deal is usually closed over the phone too, but it nearly always starts with an email in and an email out. Ignore emails at your peril.

You snooze, you lose

Atlantic Dawn

Any business not checking email a couple of times a day is dead, it's like pubs believing the jukebox will save them. Checking email is simplistic, could reply to emails in a fraction of the time your on a call to people, should be used as first point of contact. Any dealer keeping his salesmen sitting around the phone all day and checking the email once a day is destined to doom.

jenniferalan

I've had the same experience not only with email but on dealers' websites where you can submit a query. Why bother providing if you're not willing to respond!

Taylor365

Emails cost nothing.

Phone calls do.

bazz26

Taylor365 wrote: »

Emails cost nothing.

Phone calls do.

The price of a phone call is very small when potentially handing over thousands for a car. Also the voice at the other end of the phone can tell you alot more about the type of person selling the car than someone sitting behind a keyboard typing an email.

Anyway while email is an intergrate part of buisness and life in general these days there are still some aspects like buying/selling cars that require some sort of vocal and face to face interaction. Email is not a one size fits all, form of business communication.

BeardyGit

WTF lads. Pros and cons of email vs phone calls? If you're interested in the car then pick up the phone and call the seller. Ask the questions you need to fill in the gaps and decide if it's worth going to see it or not. If it's not, chalk it down and move on FFS. Jeebus.

jamescd

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

True but if you're selling something and email is an option of contact, you should be checking it more than once a day

This. Most people have smart phones/tablets nowadays and its easy enough to set it up to notify you when there's new mail, etc..

JohnBoy26

Id always ring myself as it gives me some idea as to what type of a person I am dealing with. A phone call also gives the seller less of a chance to think up the answers to my questions which gives me a better chance of getting the truth out of them.

Esel

SeanSouth wrote: »

I only email too (usually)

If a dealer cant reply to your email when you want to buy a car, whats he going to be like when you have a problem with it.

I recently bought a new 131 car. Rang my local dealer at 0930 on a Monday morning, early in December. No one could take my call because they were all in a "sales meeting" and couldn't be disturbed. Told the Receptionist that I wanted to buy a new car. She giggled a bit and said he'll call you back when he gets out of the meeting........I put the phone down and rang the next nearest dealer 40 miles away. This guy was superb. Did the deal there and then......First garage rang back at 16.45 muttering something about a missed call. Sounded like he was on drugs and had just gotten back from Glastonbury.

I'm in business myself. Any emails received during the working day are always answered within one hour. A lot of people are very comfortable working by email these days.The email will normally turn into a phone call as the deal warms up and the deal is usually closed over the phone too, but it nearly always starts with an email in and an email out. Ignore emails at your peril.

You snooze, you lose

Was that really necessary? It is January, and you said you recently bought a new car, and you rang a dealer in early December. We got the picture.

You are now jinxed!

NIMAN

I emailed him originally because I didn't want a car dealer having my phone number, plain and simple. I know what they are like from experience, and didn't want to be receiving any further calls that I didn't want.

If the dealer lists an email address in their advert then they should be willing to answer emails. We are in a deep recession and I cannot believe that any business will not respond to emails that are sent. And as for some people not checking their emails regularly, well thats ok for an individual, but if I was in business and I provided my email address for business purposes, then surely it should be checked every few hours to see if they are any potential buyers looking for information? Checking your emails every 24hrs is hardly good business practice is it?

And the fact that he totally ignored the 2 questions I asked made me immediately think that he didn;t want to answer them, and that has got to set off alarm bells with any potential buyer.

I have lost interest in the car, there's too many out there for sale without having to waste time on lazy dealers who won't answer a simple question.

biko

SeanSouth wrote: »

If a dealer cant reply to your email when you want to buy a car, whats he going to be like when you have a problem with it.

QFT

ninty9er

In business, more specifically than in private life, email is a barrier to productivity.

I used to have work email open all day and set up on my phone, but changed back to a phone not capable of handling it when all I ended up doing was reading emails between meetings and forgetting to respond to them.

When I stopped leaving Outlook open and set aside half an hour twice a day for email, all mails got a response.

Businesses get hundreds of emails a day, just because you only sent them one email, doesn't mean it's been seen or read. Any productivity consultant will tell you email is a time eater. Most businesses, specifically in the motor trade, now operate on a much smaller staff with a much wider range of responsibilities. If you want the car, you'll wait 24 hours for a response.

slavetothegrind

ninty9er wrote: »

In business, more specifically than in private life, email is a barrier to productivity.

if this is the case for the car dealer in question why list it as a mode of communication?

Are there any car dealers THAT busy with hundreds of emails a day?

I do get that certain types of business generate substantial email incoming and internal but not so much a sales office in a car dealership in todays climate.

Regardless, no mileage listed i'd be moving on

zAbbo

The very fact that most sales leads come from buyers viewing cars advertised on-line makes the email point moot.

My experience of purchasing/trading cars over the last year has been one of infuriating dealers. I've come to the conclusion that service that is standard among online purchasing (customer service, response rate, professionalism) doesn't extend to most Irish car dealers.

My recession really should have weeded out all these inefficient businesses.

Top bug bears are

- Whats advertised online isn't whats on forecourt
- Incorrect or blank model/spec details (whats the trim, if its not standard - list it)
- Same as above, but using the UK spec names when it's an Irish car
- Slow/no response to email
- Respond to email with 'Call me'
- Call and can't get hold of them / leave message / no call returned
- 'All Trade ins welcome' = Only if it's an A4/Golf/Passat

AltAccount

slavetothegrind wrote: »

if this is the case for the car dealer in question why list it as a mode of communication?

Are there any car dealers THAT busy with hundreds of emails a day?

I do get that certain types of business generate substantial email incoming and internal but not so much a sales office in a car dealership in todays climate.

Regardless, no mileage listed i'd be moving on

If you've worked retail you'll be aware that if you get two or three customers in a row, it could easily be several hours (depending on what you're selling) between opportunities to catch up with email or voicemail.

All emails and voicemails should be responded to, but as a communication medium, it's a far cry from immediate or urgent contact.

djimi

Ordinarily it would never even occur to me to email a car dealer; if I want info on the car Ill pick up the phone and call, or better still Ill drop out and have a look at the car (if its close enough).

However, in this case if the email address is the only point of contact given then I would fully expect a relatively prompt and full response to an email sent.

NIMAN

djimi wrote: »

Ordinarily it would never even occur to me to email a car dealer; if I want info on the car Ill pick up the phone and call, or better still Ill drop out and have a look at the car (if its close enough).

However, in this case if the email address is the only point of contact given then I would fully expect a relatively prompt and full response to an email sent.

It was a DoneDeal advert, there was both email and phone number, but I didn't want to chat to him on my phone cos (a) I'd never get him off it and (b) he might have my number and would torture me afterwards.

You know what car dealers are like.;)

bazz26

NIMAN wrote: »

I emailed him originally because I didn't want a car dealer having my phone number, plain and simple. I know what they are like from experience, and didn't want to be receiving any further calls that I didn't want.

If the dealer lists an email address in their advert then they should be willing to answer emails. We are in a deep recession and I cannot believe that any business will not respond to emails that are sent. And as for some people not checking their emails regularly, well thats ok for an individual, but if I was in business and I provided my email address for business purposes, then surely it should be checked every few hours to see if they are any potential buyers looking for information? Checking your emails every 24hrs is hardly good business practice is it?

And the fact that he totally ignored the 2 questions I asked made me immediately think that he didn;t want to answer them, and that has got to set off alarm bells with any potential buyer.

I have lost interest in the car, there's too many out there for sale without having to waste time on lazy dealers who won't answer a simple question.

But car dealers don't use email as their primary form of business comunication. Again you are assuming that one size fits all where in some aspects of business like car sales, it simply doesn't. If a car sales person was sitting at their desk all day just answering emails then they probably would be selling nothing.

Your questions could easily have been answered by a 5 min telephone conversation instead of waiting around for an email response. If he avoided answering them or you didn't like the answers given then you would have known there and then that the car was not for you and moved on ages ago.

When I was selling my last car I got a good few texts from one person asking the same questions over and over again. I got tired of replying and instead rang hiim asking if he wanted to come view the car. From the reaction I got he had no interest in viewing the car not to mind buying it but at least I knew and that was the end of it. So I could have saved myself some time by just ringing him back first time rather than trading useless text messages back and fourth. There are time wasters on both sides of the fence when it comes to buying and selling irrespective of the economic conditions.

Gumbo

NIMAN wrote: »

It was a DoneDeal advert, there was both email and phone number, but I didn't want to chat to him on my phone cos (a) I'd never get him off it and (b) he might have my number and would torture me afterwards.

You know what car dealers at like.;)

Why not just turn your caller ID off?

dr.fuzzenstein

OK guys, it's simple.
I work on the phone all day, so if I was buying a car, I'd have to email the seller if I need to know anything else.
Since I might be interested in any number of cars, I would write to all of them with any follow up questions I might have.
Since I work on the phone, I can't be yapping on mine all day and since I'm prepay, my phonecalls are not cheap.
I email sellers for all sorts of things, not just cars, but anything else I need to order for myself.
And guess what! It works a treat, people respond to my emails, if I like what I hear, I put in an order. Isn't all that newfangled tech stuff marvelous?
In case the automotive trade has been living under a rock for the last 20 years: Email has been around since the 90's!
In fact, that's not true, Xerox pioneered the first electronic mail in the 70's!
Boohoo! I can't answer my emails! I'm so busy I can't take 30 seconds to write a few lines! Jaysus, I wouldn't know about dat newfangled "computher" thingy at all now, begosh and begorrah!
Farmers and grannies are able to use it, I'm sure you could, eventually, train even car car salesman to read and write and with a little patiente I'm sure they could catch on to all that malarkey.
A monkey could do it, anyone who suggests that a car saleman is a very busy and important person who is in important meetings all day and therefore can't be expected to sully himself by answering emails from the great unwashed is probably not a salesperson and probably only here to state a contrary argument for the pure purpose of having an online row, if only there was a name for such a person...

AltAccount

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

OK guys, it's simple.
I work on the phone all day, so if I was buying a car, I'd have to email the seller if I need to know anything else.
Since I might be interested in any number of cars, I would write to all of them with any follow up questions I might have.
Since I work on the phone, I can't be yapping on mine all day and since I'm prepay, my phonecalls are not cheap.

So, you can't call a car salesperson because you're busy on the phone all day, but you don't accept that car salespeople may not be able to respond to emails promptly because their job is a customer facing one that may involve them being away from their desks for hours at a time (depending on the day, of course)?

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I email sellers for all sorts of things, not just cars, but anything else I need to order for myself.
And guess what! It works a treat, people respond to my emails, if I like what I hear, I put in an order. Isn't all that newfangled tech stuff marvelous?

How complex are these email/online orders? Do any of them involve valuing a trade-in for resale, or negotiating discounts on a 5-figure purchase?

Unless you're buying a brand new car as a straight purchase, with all your research done and a complete spec chosen, you'll find it very hard to buy a car via email.

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

In case the automotive trade has been living under a rock for the last 20 years: Email has been around since the 90's!

Absolutely, and it's unforgivable that any salesperson ignore a contact from a legitimate customer, whether by phone, text or email imho.
I fear, however, that the argument's a bit more nuanced than "do/should car salespeople use email".

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

A monkey could do it, anyone who suggests that a car saleman is a very busy and important person who is in important meetings all day and therefore can't be expected to sully himself by answering emails from the great unwashed is probably not a salesperson and probably only here to state a contrary argument for the pure purpose of having an online row, if only there was a name for such a person...

Who said that about salespeople?

How is it acceptable to imply that people who'd defend salespeople are trolls?