My experience with car dealerships

I bought several cars from the same salesman over a long number of years even though he switched companies & brands because he was always willing to go that extra mile. Sadly he's retired from the business now 😞

Trust is very important to a person buying a car. You treat a customer properly & they will return time & time again.

im not buying if they dont know what there selling.

Valued at 20k means expected to sell at a retail price in or around 20k - correct?

I used to work in a Ford dealer, as an example I'd have a customer with a Transit in that needed a lot of work and the guy would be telling me that perhaps its time for a new van. I'd bring him around to sales and introduce him to the LCV salesman. Who maybe 8 times out of ten would be totally disinterested.

Could never understand it. I'm a salesman, on commission, I get a strong lead dropped right into my lap, surely I would be delighted about that? Nope, apparently not.

Seen that repeated many times over the years, lads in sales not returning enquiries. I remember a lad who had bought Mercedes Trucks for years, then seen he had bought Renaults. Met him once and asked why, he told me that he had left messages for 6 months asking sales to call him back so he could just buy, and nobody ever did.

There are sales lads who would go through you to get a deal, plenty of them. But by christ there are a serious amount of absolute numpties working in vehicle sales. A lot of them don't even want to be there, so they just pick up the basic wage until they finally get the boot and then move on to some other brand. Rinse and repeat.

"Book value" is an old UK/US saying from before the internet. They had a book which was full of used car values. But now its all done online. The UK use a CAP valuation tool and Autotrader valuation tool. But in Ireland we don't really have an accurate valuation tool. Donedeal and VMS provide one but values aren't set in stone like they are in the UK or US

Buying second hand at a dealership, sales guy was pleasant and knowledgeable. Agreed cash, sitting down for paperwork he asked did I want finance, no. Asked again, no. Then asked did I want to finance just a small portion. He got a 100 yard stare and another no.

Felt sorry for him, it might be his no.1 KPI. I got my back up, so that repeated question cost them a €500 discount.

Another main dealer, ended up ghosting the chap. I called about 1 specific used car they have in stock. Two thirds of our conversions (plural) were him trying to push me into a new car that I didn't want, no matter how many times I told him.

In 20 minutes he could have got a second hand car off the forecourt for advertised price.

Indifferent car sales persons have been the bane of my car-purchasing life for decades, so its not just a recent phenomenon. I've being buying cars for over 40 years and there are still some garages I will not visit, even if they have a car I'm interested in. And that's because I was either slighted, ignored, ridiculed with ludicrous trade-in prices or generally peed off with their superior attitude. In some places its almost as if they're doing you a favour by even considering taking your car in! Don't get me wrong, there are some good salesmen out there and you know pretty quickly whether the guy you end up talking to is worth dealing with. I usually know what I'm looking for and I want to feel that the sales guy is amenable to assisting me with a trade-in/purchase. It can't be that hard, can it?

In the UK it's called Glass' guide, it's only available to the trade.

So there isn't something you can share for Ireland?

🤔

Exactly, there is absolutely zero science behind it in the Irish market, and certainly no tables, books, or guides.