Quote:
Originally Posted by ChicagoM4
I agree with most of what you're saying, but I wasn't trying to generalize the Chevy 'buying experience' with my rant but rather trying to just give some feedback on my experience.
The problem some dealerships have is that people generally don't buy cars on a regular / consistent basis so each and every customer is usually someone different for a 3-4 year time period (or more). This means they need to make a good impression on their potential customers or they will take their business somewhere else. I doubt many people will buy from a salesman that doesn't take them seriously.
While looking for a car last year, I was 26 years old and out of all the dealerships I stepped into (Porsche, BMW, Audi, Chevy, Nissan), only Chevy did not let me test drive the car I wanted. Oddly enough, Chevy was the only one that saw me pull up in my Z4. Maybe it is the way the salesmen are trained at Chevy or something but it's pretty ridiculous with my experience (I even called ahead and told them I was coming to test drive). Even now, whenever I wonder around the new car section at multiple BMW dealerships when my car is in service, there's always someone there that offers me a test drive or information about their selection.
As a side note about credit scores, a lot of students studying abroad from Asia/Europe/Middle East have low credit scores (or none at all) because they are not residents. Many young professionals looking to buy their first car are also in that same predicament. I've seen countless numbers of these two types of individuals buy BMW/Audi/MB/Porsche/etc., if Chevy really is using credit scores to screen out these customers, then they are losing a lot of good customers.
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I certainly don't disagree with anything you've said either. I'm in sales, well B2B, but it's a profession and frankly I get highly offended by sales people who don't treat all their customers well. ON the flip side when I get home to visit family occasionally the stories my step brother have told me - 3-5 hours wiht people who end up with a 500 credit score and 5k upside down on a car - well I get that piece too.
At the end of the day it comes down to what I would tell my team at the office - you have to judge each situation and make the right call. Rarely is there a single answer for all clients or prospects. Really I think salesmen at dealerships need to be coached a bit more to ignore the clothing, the car a customer drives up in, and read the customer to see how serious they are. Frankly I've made a decision recently that my next car ( after my wedding next sept) will likely be an American v8. I've always had japenese or europeean cars and I'd love to have a v8 once before the EPA makes them disappear. As my lease on my gs350 is up November 2016, I'll likely grab a used car for 10-12k for the winter. Which means I'll be purchasing a Mustang GT Vert, GT350, Camaro or Covette coming from a not so nice car. Somehow I think it's going to be an interesting sales experience.