I Know You'll Be Excited By Yet Another Article About The FT86
by Jack Baruth
March 7th, 2014 1:01 PM
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As part of a partnership with the nice people at Road&Track, I’ll be writing an opinion piece for them once a week. Because, you know, I have opinions. Today’s rant recaps my attempt to help a friend buy an FR-S. Check it out. And before anybody asks — I stole the above photo from the R&T website, but it’s okay, because I’m the one driving.*
*It’s still not okay, probably.
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Jesus. Tell me which dealerships you went to, so I can avoid them forever. They were at 270/Sawmill, weren't they?
I'm not surprised at all that the Toyota sales guy was ill equipped to handle an FR-S customer. What bothers me is that the Subie rep was a total incompetent. This is the company that sells the WRX and STI! At the same time! For that much money! What do they do when those customers come in? I've dealt with a lot of dealerships and there are only two common threads I've seen that lead to good sales staff. They are 1)a low percentage of income derived from commission, and 2)a sales manager who is an enthusiast. #2 is more important in my opinion, the enthusiast won't tolerate ignorant staff unless they get stellar numbers, and that doesn't happen unless they are an awesome person to talk to (hence, no problem even if not really knowledgable.)
Funny article but I have had the same experience with any kind of car, sports car or not. There are a lot of salesman that simply don't want to know about cars, they want to make the quickest, easiest sale. If they think you are wasting their time they cut bait and move on. Sure, I have met some good ones, enthusiasts who just like cars, or professionals who take their job seriously, and they are a pleasure to deal with. But its a transient job, and sale in general is about 80/20 for morons to good guys, why should car sales be any different. Two of our three local Subaru dealers LOVE the BRZ, the third I think doesn't even know what it is. The local Toyota/Scion dealer I went to had a sales guy much like yours, knew nothing about the car, or any car, and didn't even seem interested in showing us any of them. But the more dedicated Scion dealer in Tampa was very proud of it and very knowledgeable.
Great article as usual, Jack, but the headline is completely misleading (on TTAC; the R&T headline is on point). The article primary subject is the salespeople and process; the Toyobaru has a minor plotline. Also, despite you harassing your buddy about the Accord being faster, I'm pretty sure that you have said in your writings that ultimate speed is but a minor issue in a vehicle. Maybe it was your piece on taking the Camry rental to Summit Point? Also, like a few others have said, the Toyobaru lower-than-expected sales projections are in Europe, not here in los Estados Unidos. That statement might get you a few more clicks but it does degrade your journalistic (blogolistic?) integrity. I am one of the few (maybe not in this crowd) who enjoys battling with the salespeople, lecturing them how they don't know the product they are trying to sell at all. I still don't understand how anyone can be successful in sales and be clueless to their product (and customer), but that seems to be the preponderance of car salespeople.