Now Ye're Talking - to a Car Salesman

M5 wrote: »

How would you recommend verifying milage? I'm looking at a 2014 e class with low milage advertised. Would like to verify before I buy. There is a history and main dealer stamps. Just wondering if there is any other ways either generally or specific to Mercedes

Is it a Uk car or Irish car? The Uk are very good for putting data in to their mileage data base but the Irish are not. If it is a full service history on headed paper you could always check with the dealer who serviced to make sure their records match

Bob_Marley wrote: »

Hi Carsalesman great thread !

A few questions i've never seen answered fully :

1)
0% finance PCP offers - are these really genuine, i.e. would someone buy a car straight for cash not get a better price ?
I've seen some dealers claim they won't. Hard to believe, how do the sellers really make any money ?

2)
How do dealer scrappage schemes really work, i.e. you trade in a qualifing car worth 500 and get 4500 off list price ?
Would somone buying straight not get 5000 off lit price in that case ? again I've seen some dealers try to claim they won't.

3)
What's the best option for someone who likes to buy new ofen. Every 2 years, 3 years or 5 ?
In theroy every 5 would be cheaper in long run, but has every 2 any advantages apart from the obvious ?

4)
What happens if somone genuinely doesn't notice delivery damage underneath a new car, when they accept the new car from the dealer, and only notice it,
or are told about it, by someone else after a few weeks ?
Are new car buyers really expected to fully inspect the underside of a new car before they leave the forecourt with it ?

5)
You say you give extra money on a trade in for some extras? How much roughly do you give for
factory leather seats ?
factory alloys ?
How much roughly do you give for other desirable extras, can you give us an idea please ?

6)
What was the hardest things when starting out as a new car sales person ?
What are the things you wish you knew when starting out ?
What tips would you give to new sales people ? anything they should know well beforehand ?

7)
Step by step, what are the best way and other tips to negotiate the best price with a car sales rep ?
What things should you avoid saying / giving away to the sales rep if you want a better price ?

Do the pushy customers really get the best price or just think they do ?

1, With 0% PCP offers even though they are not making money from the finance, the garage and brand still have you as a customer. Once you have PCP you have to do something within 3 years even if it is keep the car. You will get a number of customers who are then used to paying a monthly payment want to buy again using finance. For this reason a dealership will prefer to see you taking this option than no finance at a ll.

2, With current scrappage schemes the manufacturer's will support the dealers. So if in the case you have the car worth €500 and anything lost on the sale of the new car will be given in a rebate from the manufacturer. They don't support it if a dealer is simply giving €5000 of the list price of a car so the dealer would have to take the loss

3, I would say this would depend on the brand and model but on average 3 years and some 2. A 5 year wont be anywhere near as desirable for a main dealer to sell on so they would prefer to see a younger car being traded in

4, Part of the contract you sign when collecting a new car has a section where you are accepting the condition of the car so this puts the responsibility on the buyer to check out the car.

Its the same for the dealer they have to check the car when delivered from the transport company and if they only notice damage after and don't report it then the dealer has to pay for the repair.

5, There are no set amounts to be honest, every brand and every model will have different amounts. But if you look at any model, the higher level specs always command more than lower ones. For example Luna in Toyota and Highline in Volkswagen

6, Hardest thing about starting out is getting up to speed with what you are selling because there are so many options across every brand and model it is a lot to get your head around. Also learning that every customer is different and no 2 people will want to same things or price.

One of the toughest things about the job to get used to is the hours, especially in the busy times of year you will work 6 days a week and they can be very long days. This is tough because when you are young looking at your friends having their weekends off and extra free time it can get to you. This gets even tougher when you have a family of your own.

For people starting out I would recommend doing as much research in to it, talk to people doing it and consider what you want to do in the long term. Yes money can be very good that you earn but it is not guaranteed and changes from month to month.

You will also get people saying to you oh your a sales person oh you must be dodgy and you are out to rip people off. You can see people thinking like this by some of the comments on here.

I don't want to make it sounds negative for anyone thinking of doing it because it is a job I enjoy and a job I would not change. There are plenty of advantages to it too

7, Each sales person will be different but the people who I will try help the most are the people who are genuine and honest with me. If I am getting along with someone I am more inclined to want to help them where I can. The best result is when the sales person, the dealership and the buyer are all happy with the outcome.
Pushy people with me anyway will tend to get less. There are buyers who treat sales people as the enemy. At the end of the day we are just doing our job and we are not out to rob people, we are like everyone else just wanting to get out job done.

One tip I would have is if you have identified the car you are looking at is exactly the one you want try not to get too excited about it. By all means be up front and honest about it but if a sales person knows all you want is the car they are less likely to give you more money when negotiating

cycle4fun wrote: »

Do you think / in your experience, are the Japanese brands like Honda and Toyota more reliable? What make of car do you think is the most reliable?

I think all brands and general have become more reliable and these days it is down to how a car is looked after and maintained. If this is done correctly then there is no brand that would put me off buying it

joe40 wrote: »

I'm always surprised there aren't more female staff in car sales. Plenty of buyers are female, and I would like to think most men would not have a problem with a female salesperson. In your opinion what are the barriers to female sales staff.
I always thought it would make good business sense.

I would agree I think female staff do very well, there are some but not many. I suppose the biggest barrier would be that is a very male dominated environment so can be very easy to intimidated by that

Up Donegal wrote: »

Hi.
What's the difference between the Trade-In price and the Straight Sale price of a vehicle? I always thought that if one was interested in buying a car which was advertised for sale at, say, €10,000, and they were trading in a car for which the salesman would allow say, €2,000, that the buyer would have to pay only the difference between the two prices, ie €8,000 in this example, if they wanted to buy the car.
Thanks.

Trade in prices include some discount to give when pricing a trade in to make the price of the trade in better.

For example if the car is worth €10,000 you are looking at and the actual value of the car you are trading in is €1,000 but your cost to change is €8,000 what they are actually doing is selling you the car for €9,000 which would be the straight sale.

The reason it is done this way is to give buyers better prices for their cars, most buyers will be happier to be getting €2,000 for their trade in than €1,000. Even though the cost would be the same either way most buyers will turn around and say well my car should be worth more

Frank11 wrote: »

You spoke about lower mileage cars being desirable, how do dealers view cars with a number high previous owners?

This can affect the value of a car too, basically anything that will alter what a buyer would buy the car for when being sold will change how a dealer will value the car.

For instance a car with 2 owners is going to sell quicker than a car with 5 owners if everything else about the was the same

osarusan wrote: »

In your experience, is there a particular brand/type of car that people are more likely to pay over the odds for, compared to others?

And...in your experience, what are some of the different stereotypical views people have about different brands/types of car?

People will have their own opinions on both of these questions. Any car which is rare and unique will tend to command an large premium.

There are still some stereotypes about brands but I think brands are doing their best to change them, for example if you look at the like of Skoda, Toyota and Mercedes they would all have been seen as an older persons brand but over the last number of years they have been working hard to change that and now appeal to a wider audience

bonkers67 wrote: »

If a dealer has a car for sale a long time is it easier to get a discount from them?

Depends on the car and how recently they have reduced the price but most of the time yes because they will want to move it on

Bob_Marley wrote: »

Not sure I understand this answer.

A manufacturer is selling a car for 30k and also gives someone who trades in a €500 car a 4500 "scrappage scheme" discount, so they only pay 26.5k, but in turn said manufacture will refuse to give 4500 off to someone who buys straight and they have to pay 30k ? This makes no sense to me ? Surely people in this situation should be paying roughly the same for a car (give or take a slight variation in what different dealers want as commission ). Why would a manufacturer effectively be turning away straight sales in favour of people trading in a banger ?

Also next question, I know it will vary, but roughly what % mark up do distributors take on cars ? and in turn, what % mark up to dealers take on cars.

Also roughly what % do dealers give their sales staff as commission ?

I cant explain the reasons why manufacturer's do what they do but my guess would be they see people driving older cars as less likely to change for a new car so they do this to try and encourage them to change their car

I would imagine each distributor and each dealer gets different % mark up, all I do know is over the last number of year this figure has reduced.

Again this is different per dealer and per brand, it is generally a % of the profit of made by the dealership

Sexual Chocolate wrote: »

Great thread Car Sales Man.

How did you get into it in the first place ? Did you go around garages handing in CV's etc ?

Any advice for a young lad like myself toying with the idea of wanting to work in car sales ?

What's your opinion on the VAG emissions scandal ? Is it true that VAG sales weren't effected much or in other words they got away lightly ?

What do you think about petrol making a come back these days ? It must be interesting explaining to a potential customer that you can get a Mondeo or Octavia in a 1.0L and so on. Or that this new 1.0 Golf would put your old 1.6 one to shame etc :pac:

You also mentioned earlier on about that in some cases you would try to steer a customer away from diesels due to their low mileage driving ( A very honest thing I must say, at lot of people were sold diesels when they shouldn't of been over the years).
Would this have being something frowned upon 5 years ago as dealers were only bringing in mostly diesels and therefore would already have the stock ready to sell ?

Keep an eye on job adverts, call in to local garages and be prepared to work your way up from the bottom. Consider other jobs in a dealership which might get you a foot in the door and then you might get a chance to progress in to sales.

Yes I think VW in this country they got off quiet lightly and are still being sold in huge numbers.

It does take a bit of explaining about the new engine technology to let people know that engine are now getting smaller in size with more power and better fuel consumption.

5 years ago everyone was encouraged to buy diesel and partly links back to your point before. The older petrol engines were not as efficient therefore some ended up more expensive due to higher VRT. Road tax is a big thing on some Irish buyers minds which again a few years ago was much higher in a petrol.

Max Prophet wrote: »

What's your view on gap insurance. Seems like a swizz

GAP is something which most people consider they don't need until either they need it themselves or someone they know needs it. If you are investing a significant amount of your money in a new car I would prefer to go for it personally because over the life span of a car it is a relatively small amount but invaluable if you do have to use it

have2flushtwice wrote: »

I was in a car sales yard this year. The guy had fresh yellow regs out the front with a few 2013 upwards irish reg cars too. Out the back he had upwards of thirty older cars in good shape, trade ins I thought . Why is he holding all these older ones for? How is the money made on these. Ive a clean 2001 golf tdi and I can't get a grand for it. So these couldn't be worth too much more. What am I missing

Probably the reason they were out the back is because he has not offloaded them yet, yes they will be worth very small money so at the busy time of year like now makes sense to concentrate on the cars you can make money from. Then when things quieten a little focus on getting rid of the older cars

Big Nasty wrote: »

I always thought Saturday was considered tyre kickers day?

Saturdays can be both for the same reason it can be the busiest for people buying it can be the busiest tyre kicker day but as again this is when people have the most free time

DrPhilG wrote: »

I've heard before (not mentioning any manufacturer in particular) that during a limited scrappage deal last year, dealers were happily selling punters the cheapest oul bangers they had and then immediately taking them back in for the scrappage discount.

Do you think that was bending the rules or flat out breaking them?

Every manufacturer is different and some may not have a minimum ownership so cant speak on what they are doing it, could be just bending the rules

Arbie wrote: »

Why do dealers generally only open 10-6 weekdays, Saturday mornings, then closed Sunday? I would have thought that most people buying new cars would be working/busy during those hours.

Each dealership varies, majority open 9am to 6pm during the week. I used to work in a dealership that opened until 7pm 3 days a week to cater for people working but you would very rarely see anybody in during this time so they stopped it.

I also know a dealership who trialled opening Sundays and again after 3 months stopped because they were getting very little out of it.

I don't know the answer as to why they do it this way but I guess it would be weighing up the costs associated versus the return

thierry14 wrote: »

Is it true in your opinion that automakers make more profits through service centres?

Has it ever been mentioned to you that selling a car is just marketing aimed at bringing customers under their wing hoping to sell many years of service?

Is that the real earner?

Toyota seem to be very good at it here

I would not think so as far as I am aware most standard services get very little profit for the dealership. It is far more beneficial for an automaker to be selling more cars

vicwatson wrote: »

Why does it cost €1300 to “deliver” a car from Cork to Dublin, why aren’t all cars coming with metallic paint as standard these days?

I can’t answer exactly but some of what is included is transport costs, pre delivery inspection (workshop checkover), cleaning and fuel.

Again not sure on why metallic is priced this way, there are a small number of cars which have it as standard but majority charge extras in varying amounts

A few questions now this thread has been running for a bit of time;

Has it changed people’s outlook of sales people and the industry?

I know there are a number of stereotypes out there but do people think sales people in general have changed in recent times?

Is buying a car a daunting or pleasurable experience?

What would people most like to see from a sales person when dealing with them?