Used Cars

A friend of mine is looking for an inexpensive used car to replace his old one that was the middle of a three car accident. We’ve been all over the place the past couple of weekends. Let me start off my saying that I used to sell cars a long time ago and worked for an auto manufacturer for almost 7 years, so I know all aspects of the industry.

Last week, we started by going to new car dealers and end up at a Nissan dealer, we get out of my car and before I even close the door to my car……….a salesman comes out of the showroom. We start walking around the lot trying to ignore him, but he’s our shadow. Finally we hear, “Hey guys, what kind of car are you looking for?” Both of us turn and explain the situation, price range and all. He says, “Well we have this Mitsubishi in the back. Let’s go take a look.” We walked back there and the car looks ok, but it’s locked and we can’t see the mileage. The salesman goes to get the keys and disappears for like 5 minutes. We start to walk back to the front of the lot and another salesman jumps on us. “What’s up guys? Let me help you find what you’re looking for.” We explain that Chris (or whoever) is already helping us. He walks away and 30 seconds later another guy comes out and tries to help us. WTF?!?!? We’ve got a salesman! Now were annoyed. Finally, Chris comes back out with the keys. We ask him how much the car is and he doesn’t know. Come on asshole! You were gone long enough to get all the info! So of course he wants us to follow him inside so he can find out. *sigh* Here we go………… He wants all of my friend’s info before he gets the price, this way he can bother us well after we leave. We’re being kind of short with him. The sales manager comes over and starts drilling us since the salesman is about to lose us because I’m giving him shit. I say, “Look, we’re not here to fuck around. We’ve been here for 20 minutes and no one can tell us how much the damn car is.” He finally tells us, we say, “OK, thanks.”.........and we walk out. Of course the two of them are following us the whole way trying to get us not to leave. We just get in the car and drive away. This repeated a couple of times throughout the day.

This past Saturday, we stopped by a Toyota dealer. Here it is, pouring rain, and there is a guy standing by the entrance stopping ever car that comes in. I put my window down and he says, “Hello. Service or Sales?” So I say, “Sales”. He then says, “OK, drive over to the left (*points*) and those two guys in the blue shirts will help you.” I put the window up and pull forward, I look at my friend and we both say “Fuck this place. They’re going to get us BEFORE I get out of the car?” So I do an immediate u-turn to leave and see that this guy is questioning people as they are trying to leave. There’s a line of cars three or four deep. Is he insane? So I drive around him going out thru the entrance and he looks at us in complete shock as we drive past him as if to say, “I don’t understand why they’re leaving?”

I love car shopping because I love cars. I know a lot about them mechanically and since I have professional experience in the industry, a lot of people ask me to go with them. I will never understand the high pressure tactics they use. Not every place we went was like this, and funny enough, the used car lots were the easiest to deal with. Needless to say, still no car…......