“It’s comical sometimes to see how little they know about the products they make their living off of.”

Here is the thing. They do not make their livings off of cars. A few of them do, but most do not.

If you were to shadow a top dollar car salesman, you would find that he makes his money off of people, not cars. I know it sounds semantic, but it’s not. While many dealers will have one, maybe two really good guys that make a good living off repeat and referral business, the rest of the money makers are simply better at picking the right customers, closing them on a deal, and negotiating higher dollars out of them.

The car is just a prop in their magic act.

Do they train them to know anything about the cars, or just say anything to sell them?

Caddy salesmen that argued the new CTS doesn’t have Direct injection.
Chevy dealer telling me the Malibu had even better AWD than my Subaru, AWD?

V6’s with all new DOHC engines that turn out to be ancient push rods when I pop the hood.

It’s comical sometimes to see how little they know about the products they make their living off of.

Quick poll: Has anyone here walked into a car dealership and known LESS about the car than the salesman? Anyone…anyone…?

Ummm, yeah, actually. I was looking to replace my Crapalier, and decided to get a compact 4×4 pick up.

Now, having a long, long, long dislike of Ford, my choices were basically the Chebby S-10/ZR-2(?) or its clone, the GMC “Highrider”. Of course, after describing exactly what I was after, the @$$hole salesman at the Chebby dealer exhaled his cigarette laden breath on me, and pronounced that “most people looking to by a 4×4 get the Z-71″.

So much for the Chebby. The nearest GMC dealer confessed that he would love to have a Highrider on the lot, but his manager would not spring for it. Since the GMC dealer also happened to be a Honda/Toyota dealer, I glumly considered the Toyota “Truck”, as the pre-Tacoma model was called.

I described what I was looking for (V-6, 5 spd, locking hubs). The Toyota salesman thought for a moment, and allowed that he thought there was one such vehicle on the lot. It was – the just introduced 1995 1/2 MY Tacoma. I had no idea there was such a beastie…

I took it home. I never regretted it. GM regretted the move, but, well, tough. The light pole I wrapped it around, on the other hand…

Except in my case, no salesman would ever be selling me a Chrysler…

And the past few times I’ve been in a dealership, I’ve known 20 times more about the cars than the salesperson…..another reason why I despise dealerships.

But, it came with the custom “classy” landau-style vinyl roof!

But, I got SUCH a good deal on the Excursion!

brianmack: Quick poll: Has anyone here walked into a car dealership and known LESS about the car than the salesman? Anyone…anyone…?

Well, no. But theoretically it could happen.

Bunter1: And I can’t, in good conscience, recommend any vehicle with a poor reliability record. Even to people I dislike.

In L.A., years ago, it was widely said that the perfect car for your ex-wife was a Maserati Biturbo.

Sixthted (is that a word?). Buying a car is such an emotional purchase that most people don’t listen to advice or come up with their own, often misguided reasons. A friend a mine, severely overweight and with chronic knee problems, bought an explorer so she can “go skiing in the winter”, like she did when she was 18 and 110lbs. She hasn’t even exercised for the last 5 years…..-sigh-
My father-in-law still cannot believe that my VW Gold can even reach highway speeds, because “it only has a 4-cyl engine”. Nevermind that his rental Opel wagon loaded with luggage reached 130mph on the autobhan…and it sure wasn’t a V-6.

Ow, I can. I once recommended to a D.C.-area colleague I despised that they should buy an Explorer. This was at the height of D.C. carjackings, and the Explorer was number one with a bullet on the thieve’s charts.

So, if only 2% of the “non-s” are influenced by us are we “influentials” actually influential?

That said, I have found others take my advise more often if I am thinking about what kind of vehicle will satisfy their needs and desires rather than what I think would be “cool” for them to own.
And I can’t, in good conscience, recommend any vehicle with a poor reliability record. Even to people I dislike.

I suspect a lot of car salesmen give up trying. Since they get lied to by their managers about everything, they would have to do the research themselves. My manager tried to fill me full of all sorts of lies.

From a customer perspective, I did once learn a lot from a BMW salesman. He had only been on the job a few weeks. Before that, he had been running the service department.

Ah yes, nothing like being tasked to act as the effervescent echo chamber.

Tell me about it.

Amen brothers. After enough frustrating conversations you just have to say “go buy the effing Honda/Toyota, then. Why are are you wasting my time?” (Because I love talking about cars and motorcycles. To the point of being an absolute bore.) A lot of people have their minds made up. They’re just looking for approval from a friendly “expert”.

Has anyone here walked into a car dealership and known LESS about the car than the salesman? Anyone…anyone…?

Not lately. Sometimes the car salescritters get to go on boondoggles to track days or a factory in Europe, and I like hearing about that stuff. But about a car I’m interested in? It’s very rare that they offer a detail I don’t already know. They might pretend to have some dish on a new models/features though.

It would depend on the brand.

But since I’ve never been in any of the dealerships of which I have no interest, perhaps a moot point.

Quick poll: Has anyone here walked into a car dealership and known LESS about the car than the salesman? Anyone…anyone…?

Tell me about it.

They know next to nothing about vehicles but don’t want to come off as incompetent when it comes to their second most importance purchasing decision (after their home) so tend to be dismissive.

An interesting article in Fast Company on this topic. Not saying that I agree with the author, but it certainly did challenge this guy’s marketing brain. I was going to send this to RF anyway.