Adventures In Automotive Consulting: A MkVII Golf For The Lady, Part 2

"Andrew T. Maness" (theroadlessdriven)
04/26/2015 at 13:10 • Filed to: Car Buying, Andrew Maness, New Cars, Adventures In Automotive Consulting, VW, VW Golf, Car Stories, The Road Less Driven

If you’ve not read the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of this story, I suggest you go and do so now as part two won’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense if you do not.

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Okay, wasn’t that crazy?! The part about the zombie service manager is the craziest right?!

Hah! Caught you, there was no zombie service manager! You didn’t read part one, go read it, won’t take but a few minutes and you’ll probably get a laugh or two. If you really can’t spare the time go a head and read on but know this you’ll likely just end up confused. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Part 2:

Having not received a call by 1pm the following day, my girlfriend rings up our sales guy, he tells her the car has arrived, white with black interior, then pauses and puts her on with the sales manager. She asks if it was the one from San Diego, he says no. She asks if it is white with a tan interior, he says no. She hold it together and explains that is not her car, her car has to have a tan interior. The guy changes his tone, gruffly explains that finding the exact car she wants is very difficult and after all the work they did to make us a good deal we should maybe have a little wiggle room on our end.

Yeah, I know, ridiculous. Why is it so hard for some people to understand that unless you’re getting exactly what you want, you’re not going to be satisfied? When shopping for a specific car the wiggle room does not come on the customers end, it comes on the dealers end. The simple suggestion that my girlfriend should be flexible on what she gets when she was very clear right from the get go as to what she wanted, that was pretty much the beginning of the end of the deal in my mind.

So back to that call, my girlfriend asks about the car in San Diego, the sales manager says there was lot damage on that vehicle and that’s why they can’t get it. I don’t believe him, my girlfriend doesn’t believe him. She tells him one more time, white on tan, gas or diesel, doesn’t matter as long as the color is right. He perks up at this point, says he can probably find a 1.8 TSI with easier so he’ll try to do that and call her back.

At this point I should mention that when we initially sat down with our sales guy to talk some numbers he asked whether she was married to the idea of getting a TDI vs. TSI. She said no, just whatever was the better deal, though she did like the TDI she test drove, he did not offer for her to drive a TSI. Granted I should have made that happen but I wanted her to get a TDI too so I didn’t bring it up.

During that first round of negotiation our sales guy came back and told us that the specials on a TDI were actually much better than on the TSI which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Whether he actually knew that or that’s just what the sales manager told him I’ll never know but it was at that point that I got the feeling our guy hadn’t been doing this very long.

So once she’s off the phone, she calls up the dealer in San Diego to get to the bottom of this whole lot damage story. Turns out there was no lot damage to that vehicle, was just headed elsewhere. What the sales manager thought was just a little white lie cost them our business.

As soon as she hung up from talking to the dealer in San Diego she said she wanted to go get her money back, she didn’t want to get a car from someone who would blatantly lie to a customer just to try and keep a sale moving. We never heard back from the sales manager, our new best bro left me a voicemail around 5pm which I returned, told him we’d be down the following morning to get my girlfriend’s money back.

The next call I made was one that put a chain of events in motion that I would not have thought possible the day before. Stay tuned for the epic conclusion of the epic car buying saga, Adventures In Automotive Consulting: A MkVII Golf For The Lady.

Here’s an excerpt from Part 3.

That I was able to pull off the deal I was able to pull off, I am still impressed with myself and my girlfriend is more than happy. For any of you that live with their partner, you know that is just the best possible situation to be in.

Cheers- Andrew

Andrew Maness writes about cars because he has one and also has a computer. He’s been known to drunkenly tweet as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and upload photos to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He also has a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and thinks talking about himself in the 3rd person is really weird but knows it’s necessary if he wants to be taken seriously as an automotive journalist.

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DISCUSSION (6)

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Andrew T. Maness
04/26/2015 at 14:38

“white on tan, gas or diesel, doesn’t matter as long as the color is right. “

Saying that may have been a mistake.

There’s a big price difference between the TSI and TDI. I’m hoping in part 3 I’m NOT going to read that you let the dealer give you a TSI for the same money as a TDI.

Andrew T. Maness > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
04/26/2015 at 19:06

Yeah, at the time I wish my g/f hadn’t said that but it ended up being the jumping off point for what ultimately led us to the right dealership and her in the right car.

Upshift > Andrew T. Maness
04/27/2015 at 13:33

Holy shit I wanna read part 3 so bad now!

I must say I’ve been lucky with my purchase experiences in dealerships. But my best purchase experience? Sterling Ford in Ottawa, Canada.

It was December 28 2010, I had just gotten a good long term job (start of my current career) and was looking to spoil myself by buying a Mustang. I already knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted a new V6 Premium with Pony appearance package, cloth interior, interior upgrade package, 6-speed manual transmission, red exterior and black interior.

I show up at the dealership. They ask me to spec out exactly what I want after they find ot I know what I want. After confirming that none existed in the entire COUNTRY, instead of trying to sell me something else, they offer to special order one from the factory. A 2012 instead of a 2011 but with the exact same configuration I wanted. (Mustangs were a year ahead in their model years). They quote me the MSRP after taxes and not a dime more as there were no good rebates yet and said they would apply whatever deal ford was offering at the time. They warned me that it could take a while before the car arrives but I decided I would wait.

I ended up waiting until april 11 before the truck arrived with my car but it was there, exactly how I specced it out. And when it came time to talk numbers, they added a few extra rebates that were beyond what I knew was available at the time and got the car for 4 grand under msrp.

As much as I am now not a big fan of ford quality, I’ll gladly shill for the sales department of that dealership.

iSureWilll > Andrew T. Maness
04/27/2015 at 18:36

A white on tan TSI at a crazy discount?! Where is part 3?! I need my fix man! I have to know what happens!!!

Maybe you should write TV shows?

Andrew T. Maness > iSureWilll
04/27/2015 at 20:42

I have written a few TV shows...it’s what I went to school for. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone.

Part 3 Wednesday.

I'm Abe Froman > Andrew T. Maness
05/07/2015 at 17:45

Isn’t funny how dealers act when the PERFECT customer comes in: know exactly what they want, just find it. Instead they freak out about selling a car THAT week instead of being patient and honest.

My GF bought a GTI Mk7 back in August, it was totaled a week later after being hit. She wanted the EXACT same car. A little patience and the right car came around after days of being offered “alternate” options.

I know how salesmen can be, with an attitude of: sell the sizzle not the steak. Most people need the sizzle because they can’t make a decision. Problem is: they shoot themselves in the foot. All about knowing the type of buyer.