Dealers are stupid.

5 years? Wow! I hope that five years was spent at home mulling it over and not tons of time spent on the lot with a salesman because if a salesperson had to work 5 years to sell a vehicle for a single commission......It would cost him money. What about all the people he could have helped out if he hadn't had to dick around with a 5 year think about it type?

 

If it makes you feel any better, I'm a tech at a toyota dealership here and I've told the salesmen EXACTLY what I'm looking to buy and when I'm buying it. And they constently try to sell me other shit. lol Diff. colors/models/anything. I've told them god knows how many times I'm still saving for a down payment and they're like all trying to talk me into it now. lol I'm always just like sure if you'll make up the difference on my payments. Lol

 

Wish I coulda spent my time in the Navy sitting in a cushy office with new cars to drive.I couldnt buy one back then because they considered military to be to risky a sale. Once i got out,pay doubled,.. yep they were all wanting to sell to me.
It is the job you chose. If a person waits 5 years , i'm sure he put family or life first over personal wants, until the right time. So you need to be greatful he chose to buy a new vehicle/Toyota intsead of driving a paid off one for 10 more years. I feel you should thank Tacobale instead of acting like he owes you, honestly.

 

I don't care if it took him 5 years to buy a Toyota. That's not what I'm saying. Maybe he had other priorities. I can appreciate that. I'm saying I hope he was not frequenting a dealership for five years and stroking salespeople. Maybe it took him 5 years to buy a truck....but it only takes an hour or two to go in and buy AFTER the five year decision is made.

 

A lot is lost between our "just looking" and your "stroking the dealer", a test drive implies buying, but is often a function of research /decision. Hell I get nervous just sneaking into the parts department, briskly moving through the lot.

 

In December 08 I bought a new 08 Prerunner for $5600.00 off list price out the door in Columbia SC. I live in Georgia in the former Soviet Union as an expat. I thought it was a good time to buy a new truck so I went the internet route entirely and I think I was very successful. I even arranged my own financing with my credit union back in the states. I did not deal with a salesman until the day I went in to close the sale. The internet has terrific resources for car buyers and you can avoid the salesman completely. But you have to know exactly what you want, what you can pay for and be willing to take your time to find it. The internet works.

 

Marcola,
How is it for you when a buyer comes in with their Edmunds.com printout and says, "Give me one of these." Probably saves you time and hassle as well?

I can relate - I used to sell bicycles, same thing - a guy would come in 3 weeks in a row, ask a million questions, bring his friend in to look at it, do a test ride etc etc. Couple weeks later he'd be in buying an innertube and tell me, "Oh yeah, I bought it down the street / online because it was $20 cheaper (on a $2,500 mountain bike)."

 

The same bs happened to me when i went to get mine.

 

Well I spreaded the "dicking around" between Toyota and Nissan dealers and countless salesman because most of the salesman were on the job... 5 Mins!

I always seem to know more about the vehicle I am buying than the sales people.

 

Yes I had a 10 year old Nissan truck with 125K miles. Was running fine. Everything worked. Didn't need a new truck just wanted one. I could of drove the Nissan for quite a few years more I bet. And in the last 5 years....I could of bought ANY Tacoma on ANY Toyota lot anywheres for CASH, so it wasn't that I didn't have the money it was just that I thought the Tacomas were over priced! I found one I thought was reasonably priced after 5 years of looking.

 

I to have a small rant! About 6 weeks ago, right before the CARS program kicked in good, I went to trade a Jeep in on an 09 Tacoma. As with others, I had been looking at buying a Tacoma for a month or two. So I kinda knew what I wanted and didn't. Once I get to my 5th dealer of course I was getting lease picky. I got a Speedway Double cab long bed base model and so glad I got it. I LOVE IT! BUT... it didn't have the towing package. So the sales man told me they would throw in the exact hitch that came with the in SR5 pack. Two weeks went by and they called to installed my hitch. Stupid me should have check it before they put it on but didn't. They put on a class 3 hitch with a 4-pin wiring harness. When they told me it was done, I went to look at it and flag went up. They said that was the only hitch they could order. So what they're telling me is that a "dealer" can't look up or order factory installed parts. That's BS! Heck google can do most of the lookup. I found the class 4 hitch part number in under 5 minutes. Sorry for the short rant!

 

you looked at the price now you must buy it! MAHAHAH
Not yet , just reasearching!
BUY IT ! NOT YET!!
Told ya i wasnt ready dewd.

 

So it's ok because you didnt waste a lot of a single salesmans time. You used many sales man and put them "on the job" for only five minutes at a wack. I dunno about any others but I know when I'm on "the job" no matter if it's selling cars, working construction, or factory work.....any kind of work.....I gotta get paid for being "on the job" Were those many salespeople you dicked around obligated to help you for free...if only for five minutes? So you wasted bits of time from many differnet salespeople only to buy from someone else in the end. That is an insult to each and every salesperson you stroked. That's what your not understanding. Salespeople are working trying to earn a living the same way you do when you go to work. What if someone stole your time on the clock? Would that be ok?

 

Helping a customer for 5 minutes,are you obligated? Probably yes. Knowing they are looking a 2-4 brands all the while, its up to you to convince them to buy, or just assist in their questions.
I love it when the salesman stays put until im ready. Thats the same 5 minutes i see them all smoking or shifting if we showed up or not.Thats why i go " just looking" in the rain.
At 5 minutes helping a customer thats walks away and might be back later, you call it , "stroking you", what do you call it when we buy a base tacoma instead of a loaded DC Tundra?

 

You guys.

Salesman know theyre gonna put in X amount of hours to make Y amount of sales. That's sales, period. What's with the guilt trip over wasting some dudes time? Honestly, that's totally ridiculous. First tacoma I looked at was the exact specs of the one I picked up. Did I buy that one? Hell no. Why? He wanted 29600 for it, plus 400$ in doc fees, and assorted other dealer bs costs like 250$ for "window tinting" which I believe wasn't anything but the stock tint from toyota. Nonsense. I picked mine up for 27400 including flatbed transpo to my driveway and all doc fees.

But oh the poor poor salesman who spent 20 minutes with me and took me for a test drive boo hoo for him. Please.

 

Maybe that's why I'm not in car sales!

 

Don't forget the $250 scotchguard treatment, and $500 card key anti theft gimmicks.
I'm not sure if Marcola is posing n stirring the pot,or really believes the people of America SHALL buy cars regularly and with gratitiude. Like EricT says,"no sympathy", well guilt trip actually.
The only stroking is of the customer at every move to get just a few more dollars from them. On my $21000 truck the dealers first reasonable offer by their standards was $500 for 84 months , thats $42000! ...THATS YOU MARCOLA!? I was pissed they thought i was that stupid to even consider it reasonable. After day one they still hadnt got payments down to a normal $245 that I pay. (never deal in monthly payments with a dealer, EVER!!!) always deal in trade-in value if you are trading, new vehicle value and run the ammortalization formula (i had several pre-ran and written down).

Now all i can think of is salesman dancing to Billy Squires "Stroke me"

 

Bohn Toyota. Lakeside didn't have anyone competent and Toy of N.O. couldn't provide an availability date for when the model in question was going to hit the port. I went to Ray Brandt once and they were running around crazy trying to deal with CARS. I can't blame them. I thought about going back there, but Bohn contacted me. In the end, hopefully, I will be getting the exact truck I want.

Nothing had to be sold to me. I did months of research, particularly on this site, and told each salesman I spoke with exactly what I wanted. The only time spent or "wasted" on me was them trying to locate one in the system. It could not have been an easier sale.

 

Well, not no sympathy ever. The sales manager that hooked me up did a crazy good job with me, I'm a fan of her and her dealership like you wouldn't believe. They did me just right. But I went through a bunch of other ones first.

They know the drill. Make the buyer happy, or, no sale. My local dealership is about 90 minutes from any other dealership, and they act accordingly. They really couldn't have cared less when I walked off the lot, and the feeling was mutual.

 

Think i lurked this forum for 3-6 months , pricing used ones at kbb.com. Truly a shopper should go in and not jerk a dealer around for info they can get themselves.
Odd thing , the access cab as a lil bit better deal, i still went Reg cab.
My dealer is about 5 mi. from home, 3/4 mi. from work, I want to think of them as an asset.