Emailing questions to car dealers is particularly useless

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
11/13/2014 at 12:13 • Filed to: None

I, along with about 250k other people, live in Madison, WI. It's not tiny, but if you're looking for a specific vehicle with specific features, you often have to go to Milwaukee or Chicago. I just emailed the same list of questions to a bunch of dealers, and well, they haven't been useful at all.

I'm looking for '01-'03 Infiniti QX4s and '02-'04 Nissan Pathfinder LEs. I want the VQ35 motor, full-time 4wd, a sunroof, heated seats, no navigation, and <120k miles. Yesterday I !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! here in town, but it !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . So I found 6 options in Milwaukee and Chicago, and rather than call all of them, I sent the dealers this list of questions:

Hi, I'm interested in this [QX4 or Pathfinder], but I'm in Madison, WI so I'd appreciate if you could answer some questions about it for me.

1. Is there any rust on it? Common spots are in the wheel wells, door skins, and along the window frames.

2. Is all of the weather stripping fully attached? Particularly the door frame weather stripping.

3. Do the seat heaters still work?

4. What brand and model of tires are on it?

Thanks!

In cases of listings without pictures, I also asked them to send pictures.

The responses, well, yeah, not so much.

Dealer 1 sent an automated reply asking if I had financing and a trade-in. I answered their questions and re-sent mine. I got cut-n-paste of a template, "great news, the 2003 Pathfinder is still available," with a comment that they'd forward my questions to sales. The sales guy clicked the "send to a friend" link on their for sale page which sent me a link to the exact same page where I had submitted my questions. He then took a bunch of photos on his phone and sent them to me in 8 separate emails . Turns out it's a base Pathfinder, not an LE as listed on Auto Trader, with a front bumper that looks like this:

No wonder they don't have pictures posted online.

Dealer 2 sent me 2 automated responses and then called me to tell me they didn't actually have the vehicle any more. I just got a call from a different person there who was reading from a script, and even though I told her multiple times that I was in Wisconsin and looking for 2 specific vehicles with specific options, she kept asking me when I could make an appointment to come check out their inventory. Finally I had to tell her that I'm 150 miles away, I'm only looking for 2 specific cars, and I'm not going to drive 3 hours just to see what there is to see if they don't have the specific thing I want.

Dealer 3 sent me a confirmation, then a cut-n-paste of a template with a comment, "let me check availability and get back to you." I then got another cut-n-paste of a template with comments:

Good evening, I wanted to touch base about the pathfinder, you asked a lot of questions, what I want to do is have one of my sales reps go to the car and call you from their cell phone and describe the car exactly, what is the best time and number for us to get a hold of you? There is never an obligation to purchase and test drives are FREE! Come see us today!

We are here from 9 to 9 Monday through Friday and 9 to 7 on Saturday. Reservations are available as early as today. Let me know when works best for us to get together. Call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx to ensure your savings!

I guess printing out the email with my questions, going out to the car to check, writing down answers, and emailing me back, is just too challenging.

Dealer 4 sent an automated confirmation that my email was submitted, and then another email that I can only assume was automated:

Hi,

We have the vehicle available for sale. Please come on in and check it out and take it for a test drive. If you have any questions feel free to call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Visit our Websites for more Information and AVAILABLE FINANCING!

They must have missed the part where I mentioned I'm in Madison, which is 150 miles away from them in Chicago. "COME ON DOWN!"

Dealer 5 sent me a confirmation email when I submitted the form, and hasn't responded in any other way.

Dealer 6 didn't even send a confirmation email that my form was submitted.

With Dealers 1 & 2 eliminated, I now have 4 remaining prospective vehicles where if I want to get any info about them, I'm probably going to have to call them.

So much for saving time by sending my questions via email.

DISCUSSION (13)

Aaron M - MasoFiST > Textured Soy Protein
11/13/2014 at 12:23

When I was helping my dad look at a truck, I e-mailed a Toyota dealership. My question was one that was at least answerable (is this Tacoma still in stock?) But I somehow got myself on a New England Toyota Dealers mailing list that vomited Tacoma ads at me until I unsubscribed at least twice. Ugh.

Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? > Textured Soy Protein
11/13/2014 at 12:38

and test drives are FREE!

Do dealers actually charge for test drives? I've never heard any dealers boasting that a test drive is free.

kanadanmajava1 > Textured Soy Protein
11/13/2014 at 12:39

Why are some sellers so idiots that they cannot decide if they want to sell or not?

I was trying to ask questions about one Charger that was for sale in eBay by a classic car dealer. The seller didn't reply anything and on next day nearly all details and pictures from the listing had vanished. And day after that the listing was suddenly closed. I guess the dealer decided to sell the car outside eBay.

Annoying.

TFen > Textured Soy Protein
11/13/2014 at 12:42

While I'm totally with you and agree the service sucks, The problem is your questions take up a lot of time for an old, $5000 car that miiiight have a total of $1000 profit in it by the time the deal is done(most likely $100-$200 commission for the sales rep). They also know that you're actively looking at other dealers, so even if they have a good example of the car you want, it's probably only a 25% chance they'll get the deal. "The Juice is just not worth the squeeze"

Average salespeople are lazy - there's no secret there. So in their eyes you're just a broke-ass waste of time (not saying you really are, just the perception you'll give to that lazy salesperson) that's asking for them to put in wayyyy more effort for his $5000 purchase, than most do on their $30,000 car. (What brand AND model of tires are on it??? Seriously??)

I bet a fiver that if you change your email to something along the lines of "I'm very interested in buying the 2003 Pathfinder you have on your lot, just need to know if it has any rust in these locations: before I head over." you'll get the results you desire. It's short, simple, doesn't imply you're looking at others and you've stated that you'd like to buy. You've dangled the proverbial carrot and given the salesperson affirmation that if his car is good, you'll buy it.

Also, this isn't College - long winded emails don't get you any extra points - keep it simple so that you don't come off as a pain-in-the-ass.

Again, not saying I agree with the shitty service, but that's the way it is. Also, maybe the cars are just rust buckets and they don't want to admit it lol.

(BTW I would've taken the guy up on the phone call offer, you'd get more info quicker. Seemed like a very reasonable response - cheesy no obligation line excluded)

"Good evening, I wanted to touch base about the pathfinder, you asked a lot of questions, what I want to do is have one of my sales reps go to the car and call you from their cell phone and describe the car exactly, what is the best time and number for us to get a hold of you? There is never an obligation to purchase and test drives are FREE! Come see us today!"

Textured Soy Protein > TFen
11/13/2014 at 12:48

I agree with you about keeping emails short. In my line of work, I have a rule for myself and the people who work for me, that they should keep emails to 6 sentences or less unless there's a particularly good reason.

I violated my rule—my email was 7 sentences (8 if asking for pictures). But still, that's not exactly a really long email.

I guess if I wanted to come off as not a broke-ass waste of time, I could have made the email even longer and said I'm looking for a winter vehicle to complement my $49k BMW that I'm putting up in storage for the winter. Which is the truth.

TFen > Textured Soy Protein
11/13/2014 at 12:57

It wouldn't have mattered.

The reality is it's still only a $100-200 commission and you're asking a lot more effort than virtually any other customer.

Also:

You know that's not true. Affluent people keep emails as short as possible. Time is money. And nobody would "flaunt" a $49k BMW - just isn't all that impressive in 2014.

Textured Soy Protein > TFen
11/13/2014 at 13:00

I normally don't flaunt it either, because it's not impressive, and I'm not one to try and look fancy because I happen to like my nice car. But hey, it means I'm not broke.

The purpose of the email, even if it's not as brief as humanly possible, was to save myself the trouble of having multiple phone conversations with dealers. Because I'm an affluent person who wants to save time.

I'm sure they would answer the questions if I called. It's just that dealers suck at email.

Textured Soy Protein > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec?
11/13/2014 at 15:58

They probably just were looking for any excuse to say FREE.

Meatcoma > Textured Soy Protein
11/13/2014 at 16:06

Kinja'd!!!

My son's pathfinder does this all the time. I need to put some spray adhesive on it so it will stick.

Textured Soy Protein > Meatcoma
11/13/2014 at 17:30

See, that's exactly why I was asking about the weather stripping. I've got the same issue on all 4 door frames on my Grand Cherokee that this would be replacing.

Meatcoma > Textured Soy Protein
11/14/2014 at 08:14

When I see it I just push it back up and it stays for awhile. It's probably because it doesn't have as much pinch as it did when new, but some spray adhesive would probably keep it in place.

Textured Soy Protein > Meatcoma
11/14/2014 at 15:50

I actually got a tube of Permatex Super Weather Strip Adhesive and tried re-gluing the door seals on my Jeep.

The problem is, the seals have lost their stretchiness. I can't push them back up in the corners, because they refuse to stretch all the way to the corners. If I push the seal into the right corner, it pulls away from the left corner, and vice versa. I tried the adhesive on one door but the seal still pulled away.

If this Pathfinder's seals are like you're describing and can easily be pushed back in place, well, I've already got the adhesive!

Meatcoma > Textured Soy Protein
11/14/2014 at 16:08

I'll take some pics or a short vid maybe this weekend. I think it just slides down under the door sill, so you can actually pull it back up. As far as I can tell the stripping doesn't pinch the metal like it used to so gravity just pulls it down. I have been able to push it back up and it stays for a few days.