stupid salesperson

So I went to Melody Toyota in San Bruno today to check out the new Toyota FJ. This idiot sales guy watches as I pull up in my G55 so it's not like he doesn't know if I can afford an FJ or not. He stares and barely even says hello. I ask him about the FJ. He is obviously a man of few words. I ask him about the $5k markup described as some kind of paint protectant. He mumbles a few unintelligible words. I ask if we can test drive the truck. He says no because it's raining out. My jaw drops. I ask him if he's afraid the truck will melt in the rain. He stares at me blankly. I tell him the weatherman says it'll rain all week. He stares. I ask him how he expects to sell a car if he won't allow test drives. It's a fu...g Toyota good grief. I ask him for a brochure. 5 minutes later he brings one, with his card stapled onto the front! Oh my gawd. What balls! BTW, the FJ looks pretty cool in person. Don't know how it drives though.......

 

Haha thats actually kinda of funny. He was probably confused why you would be looking at a 20k toyota when your currently driving a G55.

 

Unreal. Does he get paid some other way?

Turnover is high in them there dealerships.

 

nomin, maybe he thought your mercedes was a old land cruiser?, with wanna be amg wheels lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

NORMIN, sorry about butchering your name

 

NormAn....

N-baby - puty you didn't get to drive it. I was curious to see how the FJs go. If I find a better stealership down around here, maybe we can double up on a visit.

--Dan

 

I'd imagine most Honda's sell themselves, so I wouldn't expect a great sales pitch from the staff. However, I hate it when sales guys can't communicate, that's the whole point of the job.

 

What a looser. Norm, you should buy one and light it on fire in the parking lot just to make a point

 

Better yet Just drive it in the RAIN

 

Last time I set foot in a Toyota dealership we were shopping for a new car, and after walking around for a few minutes, a salesman approached WITH A LOLLIPOP IN HIS MOUTH. We said we wanted to test drive, and he got everything ready while he ate his candy. On the test drive he told us all about how he was only selling cars to get by, that he graduated from Emerson's screenwriting program and turned down a $125k offer from Paramount for a script.

Went to VW dealer and ~20yr old salesman gave us the keys (while using rough language, probably to show how he could relate to other young people); when we returned about 10 minutes later, he was no where to be found. I stood and waited in the lobby for about 5 minutes. Had the receptionist page him. Still a no show. Manager happens to be walking by and asks if he can help. I put the keys in his hands and say the salesman has disappeared. He gets visibly agitated (by the guy) and knocks $2k off of the price of the car... but it was too little too late.

We bought a Subaru!

 

I used to sell cars; Toyota, Hyundai and Kia, then went over to VW/Audi service.

The local Toyota dealer is a bunch of *********s, a lot of local Toyota owners I know won't deal with them and drive 45mins away to the next dealer. I didn't stay long. Not sure what is with Toyota's attitudes. Even the Toronto Star newspaper automotive section doesn't write on them anymore because they didn't like what was written about a Camry or something YEARS ago. Oh well, Jim Kenzie doesn't mind Ferrari flying him over to drive Enzos HAHA

My fondest memory at Hyundai. This old, yes STEVE you old MothaF***Ka, "tired" ex-GM salesman, sold cars for likely 40 years or something, was worn out and thought he was king shi*. I loved it when it was his turn to greet a new customer on the lot.......and I'd watch........he would assess the age and appearance......."hello how can I help you?" (no name offered at this point). "Yes, I am interested in the Tiburon". RESPONSE: "Go check your insurance and come back and see me" and he would turn around and walk back inside; I would brush shoulders with him on the way out, greet the young prospective buyer, talk to them, take them on a test drive, sell the car, and I delivered 3 Tiburons with this very method!

He was piss*d every time, the sales manager told him to fu** off and the deal belonged to Chris. HAHA HAHA I loved every minute of it. I also laughed when people would walk up to the front from service to say hi to Steve and he looked confused and we reminded him that he sold them a car last week!


~~~~~~~
Glad to not to be selling cars in the current economy........

Chris

 

The last three trucks I have bought (the last two were two '05 4Runners), I asked for the sales manager to work the deal with (and the owner of the dealer for the Explorer). I simply explained that if they want a sale, that's how I would work it. No more will I listen to "Let me go ask my boss", only ending up with geting TO'd to another brain-dead sales person that can hardly speak English.

 

I went to Melody and Putnam (Burlingame) and both refused me a test drive unless I agreed upfront to a $5K premium over MSRP.

Go to Toyota 101 off Whipple. I drove up in an Xterra and was greeted immediately by a friendly sales person who offered me a drive in the FJ. The truck has good power, handles reasonably well for a SUV and is thoughtfully designed. In my opinion it's the best "budget" SUV out there with the 2nd gen Xterra a close second. Only wish it had 4 door real doors and my wife would let me buy one!

 

earlier in the yr i needed a truck, so i popped over to the local ford dealer to look at the 250's. now i'm not taking the ferrari so i took the wifes A8, big mistake! all 5 of the lackeys standing on the curb just stared at me. one older gent walked away in a huff mumbling something about rich A@@#$le, thanks buddy. the others looked oddly confused. one started asking questions about the car and wanted to go for a drive WTF!, no buddy i want to look at your trucks, i didn't come here to take you on a drive. finally the last guy came over and was willing to help, only problem was i knew more about the trucks then him so he goes and gets his manager. she shows up and as she's coming over he mentions to her i drove up in the big audi, great more publicity. for the next few minutes she trying to figure out why i'm here when i drive the audi. i tried to explain the truck is not replacing the audi but for the cabin up in the mountains and she just didn't get it.
I left.

i figured the ferrari would be more offensive, man was i wrong. the A8 can be eithier totaly ignored or way out of place. i prefer the ignored option, another reason why i chose it over the 760.

bottom line the lost a sale, you'd think that they'd all be tripping over each other to make a guarenteed sale.

 

I recommend the Costco Auto Program. We used it for the Subaru. Costco.com sends your referral to their prearranged dealer for their 'wholesale' price. With the local Subaru dealer, that turned out to be straight invoice. We walked into the dealership, they took us straight to the manager's desk, he pulled out his internal invoice on the car we wanted, and that was the price - about $3k under the sticker price. It's also a no haggle deal - but to walk in and get invoice it was worth the pain-free experience.

My friend who recommended it to me got $6k off sticker on his Ford Ranger work truck. On a whim a few weeks ago I contacted Costco on H3's, the local offer was invoice+$1k.

 

Toyota are great cars but their dealer really blows. The sales staff is a joke. They don't have brochures, can't speak the language, take notes on what you are looking for and never call back. The only one good experience is Toyota 101. I don't understand how Toyota dealers get repeat business with grease ball sales tactics. I find better service at Honda, Mazda etc. Maybe they are still thinking Toyota is an economy brand when they are selling 50k SUVs and 28k Hybrids. IMO, I'd buy a Lexus over Toyota just for better service alone. Not that Lexus sales is all that great either. No wonder you have people buying thru Costco and stuff. I'd avoid any dealing with sales person.

The best sales experience on a Japanese car I've had is with Acura. While their car line up isn't complete, they do have their act together and seem to be knowledgeable.

 

Norman - I have a bike rack that will fit on your 360, or you should do the smart thing and buy another 550. Just use that.

--Dan

 

Now you guys know why at dealer Christmas parties the service/parts guys are all at one side of the room and all the lying sack of, I mean the sales and management are at the other.

 

Car sales people make me laugh...

I sold cars for 6 months while I was finding my first "real" job after college. In my first full month, I was the top grossing salesman at the dealership (1 car shy on volume). I was the top salesman the whole time I was there.

I used a crazy sales tactic I like to call "The Honesty Approach." I told people everything that I knew. If I didn't know, I would tell them I didn't know. When they would ask if I thought they were getting a good deal I would tell them what I thought. You know crazy stuff like that. And you know a lot of people seemed to like that approach. Why the old timers in the car sales industry don't believe this works beats me. I was the top grossing salesperson 5 months and top volume salesperson 4 months in a row.

You want to drive the damn car in the rain... drive it in the rain. If wanted to drive the car off the showroom floor i would open the doors and pull it out for you. A salesperson is supposed to sell cars, not keep them dry (that is the lot techs job).

 

Depends on where you are and what you are selling.

A dealer I was in we routinely had customers come into service yelling and swearing " **** F'd me on this car, this is the third car he's F'd me on, Next time I'll get him".

No joke. Go figure. Top salesman, would say anything to sell a car.

 

At the local unveiling of the new Z06 at Courtesy Chevy several months back, I overheard their "star" saleswoman tell a customer, "Why buy the Z06 when you can bump up the power in a normal C6 to over 600 with just a chip?"

The guy's response..."Oh *REALLY*"?! Hmmm...."

I really wanted to go over and tell him how full of sh*t she was, but I thought I'd let him flounder on his own. Not my place. If you're looking at any car, but especially a $50k+ car, you'd better at least know SOMEthing before you set foot on the lot. If that guy bought the car and thought he'd get 600hp out of a g.d. *chip*, he deserves the screwing he rec'd.

 

This was my favorite approach......often led me to tell the sales manager to outright fu*k off when he told to me to lie to them or park the car in the shade to hide damage/problems with the car.......I was upfront with them and told them the dealership would look after it. I got in **** but my morals remained intact - they never took repair costs off my pay though they knew better.

Chris

 

Ohhhh geeeezz... no the LS7 is just an ordinary Corvette engine boosted by a chip.

Yeah, he would deserve the be bent over if he actually bought that line.

 

Maybe he confused your G55 with the vintage Land Cruiser FJ40 which has boxy style just like your G55, here's mine:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

That thing is AWESOME! More pictures...

--Dan