Chrome383Z

Hello all,

I thought I'd give you guys a heads up on my stop at the Chevrolet dealership in my town the other day.

I walked in and they had a New Monte Carlo Black with the 5.3DOD stuffed under the hood which I wanted to check out as I had not seen one yet.

A Young salesmen came up and first question was "are you getting serviced", which I reply yes as I had the company vehicle (05 GP) in for the 12k. He immedietly turned around and started to walk back to his desk. (Salesman 1). *Which honked me off as I am in the market for a new car in the very near future*. (STRIKE 1)

On a side note the Monte was awesome. Salesman 2 came up and started talking to me and said that they took it out and you cannot even feel the DOD kick in at all. He tried to take the cover off the top of the engine to show me, but almost broke it so I told him to leave it alone. I did notice that to change a water pump in this thing will be a PITA...

After that he informed me that it had a 5-speed auto which I was like, huh? I asked him if he's sure it's not a 4 and he was like pretty sure until he went and looked at the sticker... (STRIKE 2)

So I took a second to look at the new C6 that they had in and by god it was nice. Hands down the best Corvette ever. This lead us into a Camaro talk as I brought it up.

Told them I'm holding out for a Camaro here in the showroom in the next couple of years and Salesman 2 said hey, I've got a picture of the 2007 Camaro. I immedietly got excited as I thought he had a picture of the concept (which I also thought was wierd). I asked if it was the clay model pics and he didn't know what I was talking about and said, no this is the 2007 Camaro that we will have soon. I'm like ok... *kept mouth shut*.

He brought me over to an article he had printed out of; you guessed it; the PHR Article of the Camaro (Forget who did that concept). As soon as I saw that I can't say I was disappointed because I was just considering the source and I'm a crazed Camaro nut who reads a msg board every day, LOL...

So I wasn't honked off at the guy I just mentioned from what I've heard that's not it albiet some similarities. At this time Salesman 1 came up in the conversation and I told both I've got money waiting for one as soon as I can drive it off the lot. Salesman 1 said let me see the pics so S2 showed them to him and he looked at me, then looked at S2 and said...

"That is the ugliest piece of **** I've ever seen. God It's ugly."... (STRIKE 3)

Now if your any salesmen at all you don't tell your customer standing right in front of you that the car he likes is ugly. I couldn't believe it. If I did something like that to my customers I'd be out a job. I decided to be nice and kept my mouth shut and told them to watch the news after the 9th for what should be the real Camaro concept.

After this visit, I'm in conclusion that half the people on this board could be better salesman than are inhabiting my local Chevy Dealership... blah

Training, Training, Training people. My God.

Joe K. 96 Zeee!!

Well at least you can scratch one dealership off your list of places to shop.

In '98, I got into a bit of a debate with a salesman over the V6 engine that year. He was certain it was a new engine...even after I informed him that it was the V8 that was new that year.

I'd go out of my way to go to a decent dealership for a new car....200 miles even if I knew I'd get treated decently, have a knowedgable salesman, and get a fair deal.

CLEAN

Oh Lord, that was the funniest thing I've read here in a while

Threxx

"are you getting serviced"... maybe he meant like "is somebody already helping you" (another salesman)?

Just a thought...

NewbieWar

no, he ment what he said... lol, the service lane is a great place to get customers, because well, they are getting a current model fixed, and they have some time to kill...

i got my corvette customer that way

anywho...

lol, if you were in southern cali, i'd say "i'd go tell you all you wanted to know about the ls4", but many times, on vehicles like the corvette management tells us that generally the customer knows more about the vehicle then we do, in my case this is probably un true, but genearlly most of us, arent going to learn anything about chevy's line up from a car salesman... it isnt as good of a profession as it used to be...

just on a side note, a carsalesman in the late 70's average salery was around 60-70k... today thats still true, soo, if you could imagine... there are less people wanting to dedocate themselves to learning every product so they can sell every feature...

but... yea, you wont get any of those strikes from me, maybe other ones... but not those so come and visit so cal...

Threxx

I just don't see how a car salesman averages 60-70 grand. Maybe the average successful one but is that counting the ones who try and end up not being able to make a living at it?

When I bought my Audi the saleslady told me she made about 100 bucks from me buying the car (I asked her as I was curious). I thought that sounded like crap. She said in my case it was great because I was easy to work with... I knew exactly what I wanted, I understood leasing, and I offered a fair deal, but she said a lot of customers come in and treat sales people like criminals (and I'm sure many are but that sucks for the good ones) and like they're being ripped off at every opportunity. She said the kind of people that come back like 5 days over the course of 2 weeks and haggle with her for hours at a time suck. She spent prolly 2.5 hours with me total from the time I called her on the phone to inquire about their inventory to the time I was waving goodbye with the keys in my hand and 3/4 of that time was doing paperwork.

Anyhow... I guess what I'm saying is I hardly saw any customers even browsing at their dealership while I was there and by my estimation, you'd have to work 6 to 7 days a week selling 2 days every day @ 100 bucks a day to make the kind of salary you're talking about.

Unless she was lying about how much she made or her dealership just doesn't pay that well or maybe it's just because I got a killer low-profit deal?

When I bought my 2000 Silverado (new at the time) the girl also told me she was making about 100-120 dollars off of it and I was buying it for 200 bucks over invoice which is actually kind of on the high side compared to some deals I see them make (since they get kick-back they seem to be fine with going at or under invoice)

This dealership I bought my Audi at also sold Porsche and Bentley and I asked her if a customer came in and bought a brand new ~90,000 dollar Porsche and didn't even try to haggle - just paid straight up sticker price, how much would she make? She said that has happened a couple times and she got 400 bucks or so. To me that just seems like complete crap considering the $$ made by the dealership and manufacturer on that Porsche!


In fact, on that subject matter, I've often considered taking the salesperson aside and just telling them "I want you to get me this car as absolute cheaply as the dealership will possibly allow you to sell it for - I know that will hurt your comission, but I'll give you a hundred bucks cash on the side and make the entire transaction painless for ya." What do you think they would say to that? They make the same amount of money, gaurenteed sale, and easy transaction. Then again they may not be able to save me that much money anyway... I dunno...

NewbieWar

you accually think people would tell you what they make?

sure i usually skimp out, and tell everyone 100 bucks when they ask, and usually the people who accually think about it, are the ones making sure the dealership has no profit left. but there really often times the money can be made in bonuses or spiffs... so while my comission for 20 HHR's might only be 2-3k dollars, i would receive a 7500$ bonus for selling 20 vehicles during the month...

so in truth i did only make 100-150$ on the hhr, but... if i were to accomplish that task i'd be well off for the month... those are the rules at my place, the rules are different everywhere... i might also make extra bonuses because i sold 2 or 3 durring a weekend or 5 or 6 durring the course of a week, and there i can make a 500-700 bucks depending on the weekend spiffs...

but on the vette i sold, i put 1200 in my pocket...
i know a guy who sold a ford GT for 250k... got a voucher for 20k...

you never know what you get...

but GM gives mark of excellence members 75$ for each sale... and the salesman has no control of the price, so it wouldnt do you any good to pay the salesman.