map

Honda doesn't want me to buy an S2000 either. If they did they'd have made the seat go further back and put in a tilt/telescoping steering wheel. ;_;

BigRed

I test drove a brand new WRX and a brand new GTO when I had my drivers permit. Even though I was with my dad, they didnt even ask me for my license. DONT BUY THE S2K FROM THEM!!!!
-BigRed

Clavius

Its the age thing and he aint buying right now thing. I went to a Toyota Dealership to test drive a Scion Tc. We get a slight run around with the salesman I previously talked to on the phone and get handed off to someone else. This guy sits us down and he ask's what type of car I wish to see and I tell him the Tc he then goes onto ask "how much are you going to be putting down." I look at the guy straight in the face and tell him, "I'm here for a test drive thats it." he didnt seem to hear me and ask's "Well if you like it would you be buying or have a co-signer?" I tell him "I'd be having a co-signer my mother", "Oh your mother well if you like the car maybe we can swing by her place and pick her up.". I sighed and shook my head and told the guy "No I am not BUYING today. I just wish to test drive the car to see if I like it or not.". He finishes writing on his peice of paper and gets up to I assumed to get a set of Keys of a A/T Scion.

God was I wrong, we waited 10 or more minutes and then seen this guy walk right past us to attend to this other person. He hands them some paper work and is all smiles. The person signs the paper and he walks right past us again, no "I'll be right back" no "I just have to finish this persons paper work and we'll be all good to go" nada! I have my friend with me whois getting verbaly pissed off and I mean saying aloud "This is ******* bullshit man.. what kinda ******* dealer treats potential customers like this.. Honestly **** this lets get outa this **** hole." Well his words (and he said alot more than that) got to me and we got up and walked out. The next day the Sales Manager calls me up to ask about my service, I go off on him hardcore. I tell him how I am in sales also and the way I was treated was inexcusable, and how I gave his dealership the benifit of the doubt because I have heard so many bad stories about their lack of sales service. Mind you I know from someone that works for the dealer that the owner now records ALL phonecalls to make sure salesmen are not doing any more shady business. I told him I wouldnt be going back there and I'd be going to a compeditor in the near future. He apologized, then offered his personal favorite salesman to help me and in one of my rare moments of clarity I guess I just told him "A bit late for that." and hung up.

I'm 28 btw shaved head and usualy clean shaven save for a small beard. lol

Clavius

Oh another quick story I heard from a customer of mine who just bought a car.

He said he went to one dealer and said he wanted XCar for Xprice after his test drive. The dealer wouldnt budge and claimed "You can't get that Xcar for that price this is the best your going to do." after this the customer told me he and the saleman went back and forth and in the end the salesman laughed at the guy saying "yeah right good luck to ya.". Well the guy drove 20miles to another dealer and after telling the salesman the same speel "I want Xcar for Xprice" the salesman said "Sure thing... let me start the paperwork.". The following day the customer drove to the first dealership and parked right infront, walked to the salesman who laughed at him and told him he got the car for Xprice, the salesman laughed agian and said "Bull..." the guy pulls out a zeroxed copy of the sales slip and proceed to laugh at the salesman and said "Your loss buddy...", I've known this customer for awhile and yeah he's the type to do it to lol..

If anything SoFl I say once you do find a new car be it another Rx-8 or a S2k or whateva.. drive to that dealership find the salesman and say "To bad man you coulda had my money.. but that 20mph wasnt cutting it for me.."

lone_wolf025

That Honda crap doesn't sound right at all. If the car is so fragile that you can't take it past 20mph for the first 1000miles then who's to say it won't mess up later.

I'm reminded of when I poked my head into a dealer and asked to drive an 8. I told the salesman I wasn't buying now but doing research for buying one 6-12 months from now. Guy seemed ok at first taking a photocopy of my license but came back saying that "for insurance reasons if you can't afford to buy the car now you can't test drive it...mazda policy." He even went so far as to bs me with a "we're not doing this to you its company policy" line. Well when I do buy my 8 it won't be from them.

Raptor2k

^I think that's a legit policy.

I had to take in my Dad's Honda Odyssey for service and already was craving some RX8 after that ride to the dealership. They had a nice S2K with all the options in the dealership...it looked sweet. After all, I wanted an S2k before the RX8 but I ended up with the RX8 because of the 4 seats. I asked them if I could take a test drive...they told me they would have to check my finances first, so I said maybe next time (being a college student). I was a little pissed...but eh, they don't want people who aren't able to buy it to drive it for nothing.

Rootski

iTrader: (1)

My Mazda dealership, the one I bought my from, treats me very well in this regard... they've let me and my girlfriend test drive new Miatas repeatedly (she should be getting one next month)... they even let us both go out in one alone once, which is actually against the dealer's policy for people under 21 but they let it go. A riced-up Eclipse kept trying to race us.

Oh well, I guess that's the treatment you get when you buy an RX-8 with cash up front.

scarroll

Agreed,

However, I could see a policy of being discriminating on who test drives.

But I call BS on 20 mph for the first thousand miles.
Hell, you couldn't safely drive a car under 20 mph, for that long of a distance. Especially in "normal traffic conditions" You would get your *** run over...

This is how I approached my sales person for a test drive on my 8 two years ago.
Granted, I had my wife and two small children with me.

sp "So your looking at an RX8?"
me "I am probably going to buy a new RX8, I want to test drive a used one first, one with at least 5K miles or so..."
sp "No problem" He realized that I wanted to drive it harder than any rotary with 8 miles on it, deserved.
I left the family in the SUV
me "After the test drive, I would like to put my two car seats in it and see how well they fit.
sp "no problem, but why don't you just take the new 8 put your seats in and drive it until tomorrow, then you can come back and we will talk, just don't put more than 100 miles or so on it"
me "no problem"
So we went on the test drive in an 04GT with 9,000 miles, I drove the crap out of it with the dealer riding shot gun. I explained how had rebuilt my first rotary in my college dorm room 15 years earlier.

When we got back he got the new 8 out and helped me put the carseats in.

and the rest was history...

His wiliingness to accomodate my requests, made purchasing from them, an easy descision.

Icemark

Its not over 70 for the first 1000 miles and not over 5000 RPM.

And why would you want a S2000 anyway. Cheap *** Honda DelSol left over plastics for the dash and center consol, and it doesn't even come with a lined top.

And don't get me started on the lame *** door panels that force anyone with shoulders to actually lean towards the middle of the car.

saturn

I test drove an 8 and explicitly said that I was not planning on buying for 4 months or so. No salesman came along either. And I look like a big douche bag too so I don't know what he was thinking.

SpaYllwS2K

From a former S2000 owner....

DO NOT BUY AN S2000!! You will have to wake up EVERY SINGLE MORNING praying to god that your seats are NOT missing. That your Tops not slashed, Steering Wheel's missing and Shifter ***** gone.


Just a piece of advice from a former S2000 Owner who had her S2000 seats jacked and oh yeah Lives in Miami!

PhotoMunkey

I stopped at one Mitsu dealership, looked at a USED Evo 8, and was told by them that they wouldn't allow ANYONE to drive an Evo. Went down the street to Subaru and was told they don't allow anyone to drive a NEW one, but once I explained to the general sales manager that 1. I needed to know the difference between a TR and an STI model and 2. I write for car magazines, then they were willing to let me drive a NEW one. The TR sucks by comparison to an 06 WRX STI... I just couldn't come to love that nose. They did say that for the first 1000 miles that Subaru didn't want people driving the engine over 4000 RPM, which I dutifully observed.

BTW-I did go to South Coast Mitsubishi and they let me drive several Evos. They had some used ones I liked, but the handling and charm of the RX-8 still won me over. I still love how it looks fast when sitting still.

I've neve tried to test drive an S2000, but I like them. They look cool. If you only want to take one person and a golf bag along with you, it's nearly perfect. Ditto the theft comments. The S2000 is VERY expensive to insure because of dumb-**** Civic owners who constantly break into them to steal the seats, steering wheels, and shift *****. As if there aren't enough cheap mods for Civics in the world...

I can't count the number of times people have said to me "NICE CAR!" when I'm driving my RX-8. Won't you miss that?

pdxhak

iTrader: (2)

Next time if you are serious about buying the s2k be sure to let them know. A good way of doing that is telling them you are preapproved and ready to purchase today. If they do not believe you then who cares. There are lots of s2k's and Honda dealerships.

jmerc

The 20mph/1000 mile thing is bullshit, and you should send a letter to Honda US about this dealer. Funny thing is the only dealers that have given me trouble about test drives have been Lexus- IS350, Acura-NSX, and Toyota- looking for my mom, and the reasoning is the asshats think you should just be glad they are giving you the privilege of buying a car from them and how dare you ask for something like a test drive. I love watching a salesman chase me down when they see me get into my FX and realize "Oh **** he has money"

I have test driven cars from Lotus, Porsche, BMW, Maserati, Aston Martin, Ferrari (used), Lamborghini(used) and Bentley all without trouble, most of these salespeople are smart enough not to assume things based on looks. When I bought my FX in 2003 I was 26 came up in my FC wearing a hat and flip flops and had no problems test driving the car a month or two before I ever bought it.

Winning 8

Just put 2 g cash in your pocket, always works for me.

DarkBrew

The Mazda dealership where I bought my '8 basically threw me the keys and told me to take it for a spin. They didn't even have my ID. I was gone 45 minutes and they almost called the cops but I ended up buying it.
VW dealers used to be like that as well but not so much anymore.
Most other sports car dealers won't let you drive anything until they get some ID and some money. The Dodge dealer let us take a Caravan for an overnight test drive. Different standards for different dealers.

MazdaMonkey

Interesting story about judging a book by its cover in a car dealership.

I used to sell cars back during college. A few days after I had started at a Toyota dealership I was in the back watching product info DVDs. When I came out a few of the salesmen were on the floor joking around and looking out the front door. Outside, I saw a man out looking at the trucks wearing dirty overalls, looking like he just came from a job site. I asked why no one was helping him, and one salesman laughed and declared that the guy couldn't afford a Tundra, let alone speak English.

"Well then", I thought, "I have nothing to lose.” So I walked out and talked to the man (who spoke plenty of English). Long story short, he bought 3 brand new Tundras at full sticker from me with in the hour. Sure he was covered in dirt, paint, etc, but he had good reason: he owned a construction company.

lone_wolf025

They all laughed at the guy, but I bet you laughed at them all the way to the bank on that one.

Camel8

One mazda dealer told me i couldnt test drive an Rx8 due to their insurance policy... although i had a broken wrist at the time, i went to another and they got the first car off the lot and let me nail it on the freeway....

That, and whenever i have been looking at any cars with my woman they have all tried to pressure me into a test drive... if im looking at a beater or a nice car/s2k etc...

Maybe its different location to location? (Or on how desperate the dealer is for a sale)

early 30's crisis

Great story. Similar situation with my husband when he showed up to a local Nissan dealer in his old Chev truck, fresh (and filthy) from work and wanting to check out what they had for sale.

These guys wouldnt even approach him. He called me to say 'and I even have clean coveralls for a test drive, but they wont help me!'. I met him at another dealer, and we walked away with a new vehicle's paperwork in the works.

Upon buying my 8 (no issue with test driving there.. but I showed up alone in a skirt.. how much damage could a SKIRT do?? ) After buying my 8 I swung by that same dealer that ignored my husband, and admired a 350Z on the lot.

They flocked to me like vultures, and I asked to see their new car manager. After being ushered in, I explained to the gentleman about my husbands unique experience at his dealer, and then proudly showed him my Mazda. He asked if he could do anything for us. My only response was "Too little, too late..."


Its a shame... but hey, its their commission.. we're happy

Trekk

A few years back a friend and I walked in to South motors honda. He had a check for 35K$ on him and wanted to walk out with a S2k. When we went in, everyone was talking to each other and some rep's were on the phone. We stood around for a good 15min with no help, they just looked at us like "kids with no money".

A few years after that I was looking at the new civic's. I walked in the door and not 1 person even said "HI". I asked for help from two people talking about what they did last night. They told me to hold on, or go to the desk to get help. I stood in the middle of the show room floor for a good 10min while all the sales people kept drinking coffee and looking at me. (I was 24 at the time). My dad was on his way over to meet me at the dealer. The second my father walked in the door the sales man that told me to "hold on" jumps up and runs over to my father and ask if he needs help. Then I walk over and tell my dad "this A-hole right here didnt want to help me" Then my dad looked the guy right in the face and lied saying "do you know I just gave my son a blank check to buy any car he wants to day?" I look on the guys face was priceless. Then I told the guy to sit down is his fing chair again cause he isn't gonna get any money from me ever.

I was pissed so we just drove up to RickCase. Never shop at South motors, they are jerks and I've seen it first hand 3 times. RikeCase is worth the drive and deals.

Woz

I had a similar problem when I went to look at the Solstice/Sky for fun. I was dressed up hair combed etc and had a leather portfolio folder with me. Very easy to get help that way. I wasnt able to test drive because the regular versions of the car were all sold out and the GXP/Redlines I was told were "too fast" to let anyone test drive.

When my brother went to buy his G the first day he was there one of the sales people was a complete jackass to him the entire time he was there. Next day walked in with the check for the car, waved to the guy and went up to someone else and bought the car from him.

I don't understand why sales people are the way they are, if you get a commission on the sale why be a jackass to someone.

saturn

Wow. You guys are way, way too sensitive. You act like these people are stabbing your grandmother by not taking the time to fake being nice to you in order to sell you a car.

The thing you don't realize is that these guys do this for a living. If they look at you and think "this person isn't going to buy" then it frees them up to wait for someone who will in fact buy. They're playing averages and part of their job is to guess how likely you are to buy a car from them. This is especially true at a busy dealership where the salespeople can afford to pass some people by to get to the more likely buyers.

For every 1 kid who walks in with a check for a car there's 100 that are there to screw around and effectively waste the salesperson's time. Everyone could do themselves a favor by taking all the emotions out.

What you need to do is call around looking for a place that will let you test drive. Go in and drive it. Then call around looking for a place with the best deal on the car you want. When you walk in the door you'll have a salesman you talked to on the phone waiting for you. Very simple and effective.

lone_wolf025

^ Perhaps, but how often do you call up a dealer when its spur of the moment. That sweet looking car on the lot caught your eye after work and you want to look at it now while you have the chance.

When you really boil it down it comes down to its good business to be nice to anyone who walks in your door because you never know who they are or what they want vs someone you don't talk to at all means not even potential to spend any money and now you loose even more because they bad mouth you to their friends.

TomAssBender

Amen. Probably a good part of the reason I bought my RX-8 is the dealer suggested I take it out for a spin after I told him I had very limited experience with a stick shift. He started it up, pulled it out for me and before I got in the car he took me aside and suggested I "tach the **** out of it."

Sold.


Conversely, I went to another Mazda dealer, and the salesman knew nothing about the car. This was before I even knew this board existed and had limited knowledge. He couldn't even tell which models were which, I was saying "Thats a GT, thats the Sport, etc" He actually asked me "How do you know?"!!

Being 22, its a nice power trip when you can walk all over a guy at his own job, but he's certainly not getting my money.