Raise your hand if you hate car shopping.

[Anybodyhome]

Car buying sucks balls on so many levels:

Echo what Jimmy said.

• Why send a salesman out to talk to me when he can't sell me the car regardless?
• Why call them a salesman when they don't have the authority to sell anything?
• Why have salesmen when all they do is run your number versus their number back and forth to the "sales manager?"
• Why do I have to spend 2 hours sitting around waiting for who knows what when I brought you a cashier's check?

I bought a Jeep at North Point in Winston-Salem back in 1994 that took all of 30 minutes, tops. I went in, found what I wanted in about 15 minutes or so, told them to have it ready for me at 4PM the next day. Walked in with the check and drove away within 20 minutes.

[Mother Grabber]

9 hours ago, 4Corners said:

Car buying tip to live by in Charlotte - when buying a car GTFO of Charlotte to buy. 

when I lived in DC, I came down to Charlotte to buy a car, because they treated me a lot better than the dealers in MD and VA.

[thefuzz]

Stop trying to sell smart people dumb products.

Stop trying to rip off people with the "how much do you want the payment to be" crap.  Talk price, not payment.

Empower your sales people...and if you can't find ones to trust, pay more.

Consider delivering cars to work or peoples homes.  When I want a new car, I call 1 dealership, let them know what I'm looking for, let them know my top dollar out the door, and drive it to my house to sign the paperwork...I don't need to wait in a damn manager or "finance guy" to "guide me" though the process.  Again, capable salespeople would go a long way here.

Stop the chain smoking on the lot, it's gross, and thats about the last thing I want to smell when talking to someone.

Also, some general fashion would go a long way.  Don't need baggy button down shirts, black pants, black belt, and shiny black shoes...you look like a creep salesperson.

I'm sure I can come up with others.

[Shocker]

Personally the "waiting game" shet they do is completely annoying and unnecessary.  I am completely prepared to walk out and have done so many, many times.

Oh, and there are apps that I use that I plug in some numbers and it spits out the exact payment. I pay that or walk.

[toldozer]

On 5/18/2018 at 6:01 AM, 4Corners said:

Where did u go 

Eurocars  in fort mill

[cookinwithgas]

I got my wife’s van from CarMax and they have a great system.

[4Corners]

On 5/19/2018 at 12:15 PM, Shocker said:

Personally the "waiting game" shet they do is completely annoying and unnecessary.  I am completely prepared to walk out and have done so many, many times.

Oh, and there are apps that I use that I plug in some numbers and it spits out the exact payment. I pay that or walk.

What apps do U recommend 

[Shocker]

4 hours ago, 4Corners said:

What apps do U recommend 

I actually like to use Excel as the payment function is super simple...

https://www.exceltactics.com/car-loan-calculator-part-1-collecting-variables-and-calculating-payments-using-the-pmt-function/

Lots of options (websites etc) and apps in the app store but I prefer the extremely simple option.

[Zaximus]

My brother was a car salesman for many years before he moved on from that job.    I've mentioned to him he should start a side business where people pay him to go with them to buy a car and negotiate for them and sit with them in the process (since he knows all the tricks and how far they can bend).   

[blackcat]

my wife has purchased 2 carsxat Carmax.  They make it easy.

[Moose Hoover]

always offer 2% more than msrp...that way you don't miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

[d-dave]

I really hate the waiting game.  You'd think they could move you through a little faster.  I know it's all psychology, using time as a way to get me to pay more.  

Or the "show me how serious you are" stunts.   One dealership wanted to run my debit card to see how "serious" I was.  I told them they couldn't, and we left.  What utter horse crap.  If I'm in there, and I let you ping my credit, I am serious.

Also, don't lie about your products.  (The YOU is just about car salesmen, not the OP)  I do a lot of research before I go in to buy a car, and I HATE it when I know the product I want better than the salesmen.  I had one salesman try to tell me the car got way over EPA because it was too conservative.

I totally get why people turn to services like Carvana to get their vehicles.  It's just so much easier when you can cut to the important part of the sale.

Best experiences over the past 15 years were at Modern Nissan of Winston-Salem and Toyota of Concord because they were fast, no BS, and were honest when they didn't know something.  My favorite part was when the car guy remarked that I knew more about the car than he did, so he did his best to speed up the process.  That was a great thing.

[kelvinblunt]

I hate car shopping so much cuz I always donno what to get. Not to mention about the negotiation process.

[Davidson Deac II]

On 5/18/2018 at 9:26 AM, Jimmy said:

I don't mind going into the showroom and talking to sales people or the actual buying process.  What I absolutely can't stand is this...within 2 minutes of getting out of my car to walk around and look at vehicles I'm bombarded by a sales guy before I've even had the chance to look at anything. "What kind of vehicle are you looking to but today?" "We have a great deal this week, what can I put you in?" "My name is ______, here's my card, that's a great car isn't it?"

Dude...can I just look without an escort? Can you go away, I just got out of my car? If I'm interested in looking at something I'll come get you.  If I have questions I will ask.  Not really interested in the horsepower of the vehicle...I don't even know what color I want.

I understand they are on commission/draw pay structure and it's very competitive....I used to sell cars at one point in my life.  But damn, let me breathe.

That's why me and my wife will always go at night when the dealership is closed and walk the lot looking at cars.

Oh....and I wish they had the MSRP on the sticker on the window...a lot have gone away from putting the price on the window.  

I have done the night thing.  It is better.  I also use to come in dressed rather shabbily, but just about everyone dresses shabbily nowadays,  so it doesn't work as well anymore.

 

For my last one, I shopped online, decided what I wanted, arranged the financing thru my credit union, and set up an appointment with the sales person.  I stated up front that this was the way I was doing it, and if they tried to offer me their own financing, thru their finance guy, I would go to one of the other dealerships in the area.  Got an appointment to test drive it, and brought em a check the next day.  Salesman said it was one of the easiest sales he had ever had, but I do think it cut into his commission a little bit.