Quote:
Originally Posted by ChicagoM4
A somewhat related story...
With about 2 months remaining on my E89 lease, I was car shopping on a Friday afternoon and decided to go to Grossinger Chevy to test drive a Stingray Z51. Before I drove over, though, I called and made sure they had one in stock that I could test drive, they said yes...
I got there and told them my situation and they saw me pull up in my Z4, so it's not like random kid walking in to drive a corvette. An old fuddy duddy salesman assisted me, unlocked the corvette and let me sit in it while he pulled the specs on that one and some other in storage. I chatted with him for about 30-40 minutes and finally asked to test drive.
He hesitated and walked over to his manager to tell him the 'situation'. He came back and said "we have to run your credit and fill out some paperwork before you can test drive". I gently reminded him I just wanted to go for a short test drive and didn't want my credit score ran since it can hurt your score. I also reminded him and his manager that no other car dealership ever asked for a credit check.
They ran me in circles telling me they don't even lease corvettes (which I showed them that swap-a-lease had plenty of leased corvettes), that they don't let people test drive the stingray since 'people don't need to test drive a vehicle like THIS!', and that it is protocol to run a credit check even though I called a hour before to confirm I could test drive with no hassle.
Now, I was 26 years old walking in there and they treated me like a kindergartener on his first day to school. How do they ever expect to change there tainted image and sell cars (sports cars especially) to young professionals with this type of service? I ended telling the manager his operation and sales team is a sham and unprofessionally deceiving. 1 week later after scoping out the rest of the cars I was interested in, I put my order in for my M4 
The funny part is, the one 'reasonable' guy at the chevy dealer (a junior manger I think) walked me out to my car which he had to valet and told me my car was actually more fun to drive to the valet spot than the stingray. Kudos to honesty but where the hell did he valet my car if he had that much fun? haha |
So my step-brother works at Reedmans Chevy - essentially one of the biggest car dealers in the country. I don't even think the problem is the age of the customer but just how many people come up with seriously messed up credit scores like 400-600 from all age groups. So I somewhat understand reaction.
At the same time you need to have a good experience when buying so Chevy needs to address this, particularly on the test drives. Honestly I'd probably show my credit score from my credit card - which isn't fully accurate but pretty damn good starting point. If they gave me a hard time still I'd leave.
That said people acting like the same thing doesn't happen at Lexus, BMW, Audi, and MB dealers are just plain nuts. I've had it happen all the time either a) because they thought at 29 I was too young (my S4 treatment at two dealers although the 3rd dealer was great and got a sale because of it) or b) because they are crappy sales people (ran into this left and right at lexus).
This is a problem with every brand out there for a variety of reasons. Its funny though if they see you drive up in a current Lexus, BMW, Audi - they sure as hell will help you. Versus if I come up in shorts and a tshirt - and they don't see my car, treat you very differnetly.