Haha, wow - I'm impressed they even acknowledged her! They usually spend all their time talking to me, then by the time they want to get down to paperwork, they've completely forgotten she's even in the room and she's ready to leave.

Then there are the condescending assumptions such as, "okay, let me see if we have any automatics in stock." She didn't appreciate that one very much.

 

Damn, thats like sales 101, introduce yourself in this order> Wife, Kids, Husband (thats how I was trained) . And as most of you will deny, wives are the primary decision maker, so I was trained to sell them before the husband.

All and all, it sounds like you guys ran into some vultures

 

yeah that guy most likely was trying to move to to a different car because he would make more money on a different one. Must have been close to end of the pay period haha....I never rev and it's fine actually it starts easier when i don't rev at all......

 

That's something the Mazda salesmen I dealt with clearly understood. They were great, and helped my convince my wife that I really needed this car.

I always take my wife with me when I shop for big ticket items, even if it's something she has no technical knowledge of. We all make cracks about women shopping, but there are some real skills involved. Never hurts to have an expert along.

Ken

 

I bought my 8 four years ago. I was in the market for a new vehicle and decided to check out the 8 when our local dealer ran a very attractive price on a brand new Silver RX-8 sport with the manual transmission.

When I arrived at the showroom, the salesman tried to steer me over to a loaded brand new blue RX-8 with the automatic transmission. And he stated, "this has the auto tranny, but exactly the same engine.

Oh sure. I bought the silver one.

-1.3L

 

That happens to me all the time when I go to car dealerships with my boyfriend. When I was shopping for a new car there of all the dealerships we went to together (probably about six) only two of them carried on a conversation with me, even though we told people I was buying the car and he was just along for the ride. Those two were the guy at the Honda dealership that I bought my first car from and the guy at the Cadillac dealership where I bought my RX8. I also got the "this is a manual do you know how to drive a stick shift?" question from almost everyone. It was super annoying.

 

Well, let's face it:

The majority of people don't know how to drive stick, and will never learn how to. That's why salesmen ask.

You just feel like the salesman is being a sexist pig because you're a woman, and you're LOOKING for it.

 

I was asked if I knew how to drive a stick. Welcome to America...a lot of people don't want to shift, so when they ask, I just say I do know how to drive manual. End of that discussion!

 

I think it's an insulting question no matter if you're a guy or a girl. I mean come on if you are sitting in the car with your hand on the shifter and left foot on the clutch pedal...seriously?

 

Why is it insulting, I had a lot of customers as a salesman where they were looking at some sort of stick shift and had no clue how to drive one, more people dont know how to drive a stick than people that do. I dont think he was wrong for askin, I always asked politely....

, I had to teach them how to drive it after I sold it to them

 

Maybe I was being a little too sensitive about it. After encountering a lot of other sexist behaviors from sales people I just figured this was another one. I had never shopped for a car with a manual transmission before. I guess I didn't realize that there were people who would want to purchase a car that they did not know how to drive.

 

my favorite from a salesman while test driving the rx8

"i think you'll like it, you're a sporty looking kid. like 300 something horses from a 3 cylinder rotary, you've got to hand it to mazda"

ahahaha i just went a long with WOW that is amazing, i have got to get this. :P

 

A co-worker told me he was thinking about getting a RX8 with the 6 cylinder engine. The dealer (he has a CX7) told him he could get it that way. He wouldn't believe me that it was a rotary only car.

 

My wife learned to drive a stick exactly that way. During her college years she took a trip to Europe with two friends. Wolfsburg was early on their itinerary, where they picked up a Volkswagen they had pre-ordered. When they saw the stick shift, their reaction was "Oh - how does that work?"

So the factory's chief mechanic came out and, within a couple of hours, taught them. Not a big deal.

They were fine until they drove it off a cliff in Spain, but that's another story.

Ken

 

Unfortunately you were in the 10% (or less) of knowledgeable salesmen Renesis.

What has always bothered me is that the salesmen are there all day and if it were me I'd be busy learning all about the car that was right there in front on me. Most are content to just sit there bored. Never have understood that.

btw: hope you didn't mind that I changed your "produce" to "product", as I assumed you weren't selling lemons.

QUOTE=Renesis07;2698780]...

But there are also salespeople who embrace their product line, learn it, and sell off of diligence, follow up, and use the attributes of the vehicle to mesh with the customers wants and needs. (thats the salesman I like to think I was)[/QUOTE]

 

Oh come on, you can't end on a cliff hanger that way!

*zing*

 

yeah, its not just the Mazda dealers that have clueless sales people, most dealers do.

A couple months back my wife and I were at the BMW dealer in my area, and wanted to trade in her 07 328i coupe for a 08 335i coupe for her.

So we told the local guy what we wanted (dark blue, premium package, brown leather interior, auto tranny). He didn't have it on the lot and couldn't look up what was available at the time.

Calls us back a couple hours later and says he found a 135i covertible, wrong color, but everything else was what we wanted, but it was a 1 not a 3. So I tell him no, we want a 335i coupe... not a convertible, not a 1 series.

Calls us back the next day and says he found one in southern California. So I told him to get it and we'll buy it.

A week goes by and still no car. At 10 days he calls and says he has a grey one, with a tan interior- No what didn't you get about that we wanted a dark blue 335i coupe with a brown interior, with the premium package, and a auto tranny...

he says he will get one.

Another week goes by, he calls and says that he has a merlot one with a tan interior... no! not dark blue...and my wife hates the tan interior with a passion. o we call our past dealer in Berkley and tell him what we want. He says that they don't have the one we want, but they will get it.

24 hours later the car is there at the Berkly dealer, we drive down buy the car at $500 over dealer invoice and trade the old one in for edmunds dealer wholesale. No dickering, no showing us the wrong car, no BS.

The Santa Rosa dealer called a couple more times and just is clueless that we said exactly what we wanted, and we were willing to wait, and even told them the deal we wanted, and they just refused to get the car so they blew a $45,000 sale, plus getting a used 07 at wholesale that only had 30K miles on it, that they easy could turn around as a certified.

 

When I was living in Ottawa I had been contemplating the idea of selling my '04 RX8 privately (or trading it) for a left-over '07 RX8 since they had dropped the price by over 12,000...

I went to the dealership several times browsing around and here are my experiences:

1st Trip
Salesman: Hi, how can I help you today?
Me: I'm looking at trading my '04 RX8 for one of your left-over '07 RX8's. Either the Velocity Red or the White.
Salesman: Ohhh, well how about the Silver '06 over there in the corner?
Me: No thanks, only intersted in the RED or WHITE '07
Salesman: Are you sure? The Silver one we have over there is the Mazdaspeed RX8. It's a completely different feeling car to drive, quite a bit more power and much better handling.
Me: LOL... There is no such thing as a Mazdaspeed RX8. That's just a GT with Mazdaspeed CAI, Dual Canister Exhaust, Full Body-kit and MS-01S rims... It's very nice, but it's been sitting on the lot here for well over 2 years and every time I come here I see people out test-driving it... The front grille is broke out of the bumper, the gunmetal accents are all scraped off and the exhaust is tarnished worse than anything i've ever seen before...

Salesman: Well, how about this new '09 R3?
Me: It's very nice, but not what i'm looking for.
Salesman: So what ARE you looking for?
Me: (looks at my girlfriend just ****** dumbfounded) One of your left-over '07's...
Salesman: Well we have a couple here (at this point, some random guy walks up to us and asks the salesman if he could take a look at the '06 with the Mazdaspeed kit on it...)
Salesman: if you have any other questions, there is another salesman inside... (turns his back on me and walks away to get the keys to go for a test drive with this guy)
Me: No thanks, I didn't have any questions was just looking to make a purchase, but have fun on your test drive...

I couldn't ******' believe it... It literally just blew my mind... I know he would have been uncomfortable after I called him out for lying to me about the "Mazdaspeed RX8" but still... I couldn't have been any more direct with him about my intentions or which exact vehicle I wanted... Then he ran off with a tire-kicker just because of the commission that would come his way if he ever sold that '06 Sunlight Silver... lol


2nd Trip
I was in there with a co-worker of mine (we both worked at Subaru)
Salesman: (approaches my friend) Can I help you?
Friend: No, but my co-worker is interested in picking up one of your RX8's
Salesman: Hi there, interested in an RX8 today are we?
Me: Yes sir, looking at picking up one of your '07's... Preferably the Velocity Red or White
Salesman: Ahhh well lets go take a look
Me: Sounds good
Salesman: We also have this beautiful Sunlight Silver RX8 in the corner with a lot of Mazdaspeed parts on it...
Me: Yeah, i'm not really interested in it, I don't like Silver and it's in pretty rough shape for being "new"
Salesman: I'm going to go grab the keys for it anyways and we'll take a look at it
Me: Well, okay but I still don't want it.
Salesman: (comes over with the keys) Hmm, the door locks aren't working... I'm not sure what's going on...
Me: Looks like the battery is dead to me
Salesman: Yeah, it might be
Me: Not a REAL good start when trying to convince someone to buy this car
Salesman: I can still open the door and pop the hood for you.
Me: No thats okay, I have an '04 with the same intake I can see through the front.
Salesman: I'll show you how nice the Intake looks.
Me: Ok lets do it!
Salesman: Pretty nice eh?
Me: Yup, same as mine!
Salesman: you have any other questions about it?
Me: None at all, was really just looking to talk over some numbers on the '07's you have...


That place was HOPELESS... I won't get into their service department because I don't have HOURS to type up my experience with them... I don't think the whole INTERNET has enough space for me to vent that frustration lol...


I know a salesman doesn't like to run into someone who either:
a) THINKS they know more than them
or
b) knows more than them

I tried to play typical buyer looking to upgrade to a newer car with warranty, but when the bullshit starts to fly, i'm all done playing stupid...

 

As far as car salesman/dealerships are concerned, the internet is probably the worst invention EVER! Now you can go in armed with all the info you need, know if it is a shady service department/sales staff/if they won't make deals. I love it!

 

Ain't that the truth. Every purchase I've made in the past ten+ years has been effortless as I go in armed with more info then they have. In fact I negotiated my RX-8 buy over the phone in about ten minutes. closing with "... as its the last day of the month and I'm paying cash if you meet my price I'll be right down."

The first time I used the 'net, in its infancy, for car buying was really fun tho'. I had the invoice price to include all the option package contents/prices. When the guy tried to debate "added features" I just quoted the inclusive package number and he immediately ran off to his manager. Me: "this is your invoice price and you're advertising $300 over. Throw in the foglights and we have a deal."

 

Nearly all car salespeople are clueless and uninformed. Skip them and deal with the Internet manager.

 

I guess I'm just glad the RX-8 I found online was the one they gave me the keys to when I first test drove it. My salesperson was awesome.