Car dealership experience

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin) 03/11/2019 at 18:05 • Filed to: None

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Was thinking about this and thought I should share. Before I bought the Mini a friend and I decided it was a good chance to go car shopping. My friend suggested I look a a Golf GTI, it could be had in 4 door, was pretty small, has a nice engine, etc etc. I had an interesting experience, two in one day that were really juxtaposing.

So naturally we stopped at one of the bigger VW dealerships in the area. One of the sales guys on the lot comes out and greets us and asks what brings us in. I tell him I’m looking to buy another car to replace my lease that is ending in a month. He tells me he has no GTI’s available they are in the shop getting repaired and another one is being processed etc etc and to come back in 3 weeks. Odd, but we get back into the car to see where they may have some. We find they have 4 GTI’s listed for sale available for test drives. We figure it is just a dick move to try and get the sale down the road when I would be more desperate, either that or GTI’s are all terribly unreliable.

Pretty annoyed we search online and found one at an Audi dealership 10 miles away . Drive over and go inside. Guy greets us at the door. We tell him we were interested in a GTI and he grabs the keys and takes us down to the lot. Car is ok, but not a big fan of how completely gutless it is out of boost and the milage is high for the year and price. The guy suggests some other cars on the lot we take a look. We go for a test drive we shoot the breeze. We thank him for his time and leave.

That second dealership is an Autonation dealer. The price is a bit higher, but I can totally understand why.

WilliamsSW > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 18:14

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In my experience, Autonation dealers are great for test drives and info - there’s a bunch of them around here, including MB and BMW.

But at least the ones near me aren’t very price competitive AT ALL. It’s a common theme with the local dealers within 5 miles of me, not just AutoNation. So it may be that the local dealers see that I’m 5 minutes away and won’t shop around (I think a lot of people around here don’t shop around tbh)

But   it irritates the hell out of me, and we always end up getting our cars elsewhere - 4 cars in 6 years here, not one of them from the dealer within 10 minutes of home.

StudyStudyStudy > WilliamsSW 03/11/2019 at 18:29

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It has been my first time looking for a used car at a dealership, so price wise I have no idea if it was in the insane range. The experience is quite pleasant for sure, now how much of an upcharge they charge for that is of course the question. My family has bought I think 6 cars from the same dealership so we were pretty static.

WilliamsSW > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 18:35

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The only way to know for sure on the pricing is to shop around, really.

And I don’t know that AutoNation is necessarily higher priced - around me, I suspect that it’s more due to the fact that there are a lot of people with $$ who prefer convenience over saving money, so it’s less competitive (the non-AutoNation dealers by me are the same, really).

Under_Score > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 18:38

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The GTI’s are probably leaking oil.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 18:41

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May I ask what your username is referencing, if anything?

Also, your Autonation experience pretty much reflects mine, although they tend to price out of my consideration. Sometimes they haggle. 

StudyStudyStudy > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely 03/11/2019 at 18:47

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It is in reference to my lack of knowledge, the one time a question in my field of study came up in conversation, I thought I would expand on it. Turns out someone who had worked in that industry was in the room and had to correct a lot of my statement, making me realize that I was naive in my assumption of knowledge. So the plan is to keep studying . I’ve been told it is a reference to a J apanese A nime which I don’t know if it is subliminal or a coincidence.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 18:50

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I could think of a couple of ways that it could be Anime referenced, but there is also sort of a cultural undercurrent of continuous, er, study in a lot of way over there in Japan .

Ya know, speaking philosophically in general, it’s good to have those kind of realizations sometimes. I’ve definitely had my moments of mistaken assuredness and I think it has made me better as a person overall.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Under_Score 03/11/2019 at 19:03

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Mine has never been down on power. In fact, due to some experimentation, I believe mine might be one of the factory freaks.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 19:22

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Fuck autonation

-signed wholesaler who cant buy from them

412GTI > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 19:43

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That first one seems very strange, you never really hear about salesmen that would want to push off a potential sale to a later date. 

cream wobbly > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely 03/11/2019 at 20:31

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I think it’s a superstition stemming from Buddhism that repetition brings something closer, helps visualize, etc. so it’s probably fairly ubiquit ous in anime simply because of the culture of the people who write it.

cream wobbly > WilliamsSW 03/11/2019 at 20:33

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If you buy cars that frequently, maybe give their sales manager (manager, not droid) a call and ask what they might be able to do to win you as a customer.

WilliamsSW > cream wobbly 03/11/2019 at 21:01

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Good idea, but there was 3 different brands in there, and I’ve gotten off that train by buying a car I plan to keep a long time. I did lease 1 for me, but that is over. Now if I can convince my wife to buy instead of lease...

Tapas > StudyStudyStudy 03/11/2019 at 22:08

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Yeah, you can never know everything there is to know about the beanie baby trade. Some grandma will always trounce you with an obscure piece of knowledge.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > cream wobbly 03/12/2019 at 00:12

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Seems plausible to me. 

Under_Score > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 03/12/2019 at 06:38

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I was just joking; I knew these GTI’s probably weren’t leaking oil.

StudyStudyStudy > cream wobbly 03/12/2019 at 17:37

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Not remotely buddhist, but that is an interesting perspective. Learning something new every day :D

StudyStudyStudy > 412GTI 03/12/2019 at 17:44

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You would think a bite on the first sunny weekend in a few months would be a nice surprise.

Not sure what to take from that especially with the very specific, “come back in 3 weeks” statement.

The other take was perhaps because we may look on the younger side? Granted we were both touching 30.

StudyStudyStudy > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely 03/12/2019 at 17:51

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Asia in general I’m sure, granted I spent very little time there and was saved from that ridiculous cycle.

I agree, as embarrassing as that was, it was eye opening. I’ve learned a lot since then, and can happily say I still am . I’m even planning on going back to school this year so many many more years of studying to do.

cream wobbly > StudyStudyStudy 03/12/2019 at 20:37

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Passing it on is one way to keep it stuck in my own head! I learnt it from somebody who had wondered about why people kept writing “888 ” on slips of paper and then sticking them to ... ( I don’t remember, some noticeboard, or something?) The pronunciation of “8 ” (ba) sounds like the word for “fortune” (fa), so it’s like a shorthand prayer. The best kind.