My uncle sold Chevrolets for almost 35 years from the late 1940's until he retired in 1976. He basically worked 6 days a week. When I asked him about that, he said, "if I'm not there, I can't sell anything." I loved to hang out with him when I visited and went on many test drives and deliveries. Every night before bed, he would make a list of people to contact the next day. Ironically, he was not a car person, but he had a lot of friends and customers and loved talking to people.
This was always the most irritating part about selling cars. People make appointments, then come wildly late. That messes up your other appointments. Or people saying that the ONLY time they can come in is on your day off, then they show up hours late like it's no big deal. Selling cars involves sitting round with nothing to do all day, then after 5 when you are ready to go home, people start showing up.
I'm honestly surprised how often people come on time for your appointments. Selling cars to me always seems like something where no one cares about your time.
She could have found another vehicle for the price she wanted elsewhere but she could have said that an just be honest up front. We walked out of 3 dealerships before we found the price we wanted. We purchased the 4Runner and all 3 dealerships called us with a price reduction but it was too late. ⏰
Had a very similar experience mid last year. People are just too scared to walk these days, which I can partially understand until your deal is final. You want to keep your options open while getting the best fit at the right price. My biggest hang up was I was not willing to pay a market adjustment or buy any dealer installed accessories. I just wanted a fair MSRP deal on a 2LT Blazer with the Midnight Sport package. I ended up having to drive almost 3 hours, but I found an excellent dealership and salesman. Even if the market is completely different and deals can be found everywhere the next time I buy a car I will remember them and do everything I can to work with them again even if it means driving much farther to pick it up.
@@Clay_333 awesome my friend I had my tundra shipped from ny because it was cheaper there than where I live and we drove a hour away for the 4Runner so I understand the 3 hr drive ✅
The reason you guys don’t have full inventory is because GM is artificially limiting production to match the demand. Even the head of GM acknowledge it. But some GM dealers still using the “chip shortage” excuse to trick the consumer into paying add ons & markups.
There is no chip shortage. That's GM being greedy. They lost me as a customer in 2008 when instead of pushing to produce a Prius competitor, they decided to kill off Saturn completely. Their Saturn dealers were a total about-face: annoying, high pressure people who spammed my phone 24/7. I was so fed up I bought a MINI instead. And if they thought i forgot the horrible experience, I haven't. After selling the MINI, I got a VW.
@@largol33t1 Chip shortage was as real as it could get up until first quarter or so of this year. I own a company that manufactures electronics and it was crazy the last couple of years. Chips that distributors used to be able to ship same day were out of stock for months and when they came in they were immediately bought up. I had orders direct from Microchip that took over 2 years to fulfill. We had sourced from just about every major distributor who had processors and also had to change to other models of chips (meaning many code changes) so that we could continue building. Anytime there were parts available you had to buy them up and stock pile because there was no guarantee they were coming back in time. We saw some of our processors go from $6 a chip to $11. I see some of those are now back down to $8. So while things are getting better with availability the pricing is going to stick with us for a long time. As far as your dealer experience you have to be straight forward when you are no longer wanting car dealer calls otherwise they will bug you. Keep in mind that was a dealership experience and not GM in general. VW had huge fines ($2.8 billion in 2017) for programming their car computers specifically to cheat the emissions tests and mini's have had their issues with reliability. Definitely no perfect brands out there.
I think someone that called to find out what time you close only to not show up/or call at all after several hours may well have bought something somewhere else. Personally I don't know why anyone would be buying a new car right now anyway with interest being as high as it is (never mind the depreciation factor). People are taking on such enormous monthly payments and doing so for 6 years or more, it blows my mind.
I have always found that the people who acted like their life depends on getting the vehicle are usually the ones who drop off the face of the planet. People today suck!
Being a retired Chevy salesperson, I certainly can relate to your Suburban experience. I remember this happening to me when I started as a "newbie" back in 2003, and I thought I was responsible. Luckily, I had a great seasoned salesperson mentoring with me and he told me this is just part of the business, and to just move on to the next real customer. When I retired in 2020 from the business, I couldn't believe how many prospects were no longer loyal. The disrespect of leading the salesperson on and not even being up front and honest seemed to have grown with the times. I always thought these people would have enough guilt and not ghost me. I'm glad there are still many great customers out there to give you guys the opportunity to still make an honest living and have fun while helping them with their buying process. Those" Ghosters" often times will find their actions will come back and bite them in the future!!! Keep selling them Chevies and enjoy the peaks, as we both know, there will be valleys come January and February as sales tend to slow down.
That is why most people should never make appts. If you show up , you show up.. if your salesperson is busy just walk around and look for yourself. If you shouldn't be in a major rush to buy a car any way.
The problem now is dealerships in general dont care if you bought 3 cars a year from them they still treat you like crap and try to stick it to you every time. Dealer principles in Germany along with their greedy GM’s who are only out to line their pockets lol. Yeah i left too because of the same reason but it mostly due to just bad dealerships. Very few honest dealerships out there. It is competitive out there and delaers i think have lost their way these days.
I went to a Chevrolet dealership that had a sale price on their website and then when I get there they said it was a glitch. It could go both ways why waste a customers time. Maybe things happen for a reason. At least you were up front with the customer Dave.
We live in a world where you can't do through a single town in the US without passing by at least half a dozen places that sell cars new and used. If you as the salesperson nudge them in any way that they feel is un-needed, un-wanted, or un-warranted, they can and will simply walk away and go do business with someone else (it's really that simple). The term "the customer is always right" comes from the automobile salesman of the early-mid 1900s. Get with what makes people buy cars, or find yourself another line of work.
My guess is this an example of something that happens quite regularly. I am not in the car business, but I would suppose it comes with the territory, as they say.
In the next 4 years I'm hoping to go from an 04 trailblazer to a 2021 or higher traverse! Feels like the natural upgrade from what I have, its literally all I want next, butni won't settle for less then an LT!
I had a brand new 2016 Chevy Spark for 8 months and my brother backed into it with his big stupid truck cause he said he didnt see it. It had over $4000 in front-end damage. I put a braw on the front to hide most of the damage and traded it in on a new cruze in 2018. I was back at that dealership a month later and my smashed spark was repaired and they had it on their lot for sale . Thats why you always want to do lots or history research on any used car you buy
If the Suburban customer magically shows up on her own time, I’d play a prank on her and tell her the vehicle sold already (preferably a short time before she was in) and tell you “You snooze, you lose” and see what she says/thinks
Maybe I’m just the oddball but when I say I’m going to be come down to look at a vehicle I show up. If I can’t make that time because of a problem I will call and tell the salesperson I’ll be down later.
I’m sure you had a lot of people wanting a car only to back out or not show up. Retail sales is not an easy occupation. Good sales people can always make a living though. If I lived in Jersey I’d check out your dealership.
When I was selling my Jet Ski... I tons of calls.. I waited for a guy to show up .. told me to hold it don't sell it , he is on his way .. so I waited all day and turned down many buyers and the guy never showed up, never called. After that I said first come , first get the Jet Ski. People were driving hundred of miles to buy it.. I did sell it to the first person who came to look at.
New GM's not selling well as finance rates all time high & GM have to refund all EV's purchases as Mary Barra got GM in trouble again. Used car values dropped so much as I see in the Black Book & MMR reports.
I'm fairly sure you knew which way that Suburban sale was going to go. If she didn't show the first day there was little to no chance she would ever show. I've sold quite a few private sales in my days, and I will say Dave, you are much more patient than I would have been. 😀 BTW, 37K for that Sub is a fair price.
I always have the thought that something could have happened that stopped her from coming in her personal life.. thousands of possibilities.. I plan on following up on Monday
I am not saying Dave does this but often times sales people push for an appointment to close the deal and the customer gives in no matter their true intentions of buying thus, they end up not showing up. As a rule the harder you sell the more this will happen along with customers backing out on sales overall.
That lady could have at least been honest & said she had second thoughts or went elsewhere. That being said, I see they have quite a few standard box Silverados on the lot, like the one you highlighted awhile back. That being said, you gonna get one & mod it out ???
As a previous used car salesman The saying is "buyers are liars". Why would it be so hard to just say "if you can't meet my price I'm not interested". End of conversation. Next.
Will it make me happy? It might at least till the first payment or maybe till you register it and have to pay $4000 in sales tax, Or you might be happy till your insurance premiums double
People are never easy. I manage a flooring store in Jersey. We have 4 locations. Customer buys 30 k of wood from me last week. Without stairs. His steps are custom. I said we need to look at them. I tell him stairs are 10 k. He said do it all for 30 k. I said here is your refund. Bye.
Why not just stay an hour or so later and if they are truly coming over you may get the sale, isn’t that the objective. Is there a law that says car dealers have to close at 5/6pm.
Notice the state of the economy, the best selling cars are the CHEAPEST, this should be the game plan for '24, stock up now on the CHEAPEST cars possible to hedge for the coming bloodbath next year.
Hey Frank, just be honest with your intentions to check out and test drive the Colorado. Let the salesperson "sell" you the vehicle features and benefits. If you get a good vibe and like the vehicle/price they offer buy it! If not, just tell them you want to check out the Tacoma as well.
Do your research on that truck im hearing they are having battery drain issues from their over-the-air updates. Ive seen a few of them with modules going bad also. And they have to sit at the dealers waiting on new modules So just make sure you can get a free loaner car if yours breaks
Talk about flaky customers, sheesh.🙄 Must not be too serious about their "purchase". Either that or they are still on the hunt for a better deal and stringing you along 🤔.
@@DaveBsellsChevy “The average transaction price (ATP) for a new vehicle in October 2023 was $47,936, a 1.4% decline year over year; ATPs are down 3.5% from January.” KBB
@@Bum_Hip From what I understand of that data I gather this: Average transaction price is only going to mean what people are paying. This does not correlate to the vehicle price. Only what they paid. A lower average transaction price could simply mean that people are no longer buying high trim model vehicles. This doesn't mean the car price itself was lowered. We are only seeing data for the amount that exchanged hands. People could still be overpaying but they no longer are buying $70k F150s and instead are buying a midsized truck or families that were considering a Tahoe are looking a equinox. They may just no longer have the money to pay to the more expensive vehicles or even be qualified for them.
Just picked up a 23 Silverado ltz 10k off msrp, received 3,500 more on my trade then car gurus were offering…..looking for 5 months for a deal that made sense
I mean dealerships and sales people don't exactly have the best reputation. You said yourself that for a period you were charging dealer markups on basic cars. LMAO. People don't respect you, or your time, or the dealerships and so it's not really hard to figure out why this happens so much. You literally just added random amounts of money to cars as a "markup" and I am supposed to feel bad for someone flaking on you?
Is that like how I might need to buy another warranty for my factory warranty to cover the paint protection package and the wheel package along with the oil change package and after I have said no to all that, you offer 3 more never-to-be-offered-again packages? It's not about money, though ;)
We had the diesel here for a couple years. We only sold one! It was a client of mine who factory ordered it to replace his VW after that diesel scandal
