US Car Sales

I've been to a local Saturn dealer three times looking a the SKY and
threatening to buy one. At no time did any of the three different saleman
know anything technical about the car except for basics such as horsepower
nor could they explain how the Sky is different from the Pontiac roadster or
how it differes from other roadsters out there. I'm trying to buy a $30K
car and the sales guys don't know how to market it.

A buddy needs a light pick up truck so he goes to the largest Chevvy dealer
in town and wants to buy a LUV pickup truck. The sales guy is ignorant re:
technical aspects of the truck, adding no towing pkg or oil cooler is
available however there is a tow bar option. The buddy goes to a local
Honda dealer and learns the Honda pickup truck has a towing pkg, oil cooler,
etc and a salesman who states "I'll work with you to get the truck the way
you want it. Guess I'll go by that Honda dealership and check out there
sporty cars.

No wonder American cars sales are tanking.

Mike

 

I suspect that the sellers know more or less what the buyers tend to
ask, otherwise they'll get tired of saying "I don't know" to the same
questions over and over and try to find out the answers so that the next
person who asks goes away happier.

-- Mark

 

Well the Sky is supposed to have an improved suspension. At least when
they first came out it did. Why dont you try researching online? Ever
heard of Google?

Luv truck? There hasnt been anything called the Luv truck in the US
since the 70's. He could also try the GMC dealer. You guys can also try
www.chevrolet.com & www.gmc.com and get build sheets online.

If he's looking at a "Ridgeline" then it's obvious to me that he's not
looking for a "truck". If he wants a car with a truck bed on it with
lousy gas mileage have at it.

You guys want to rely on a dealer to do your homework for you??? Yeah
you guys are asking to get burned. Have fun with those timing belts.

Seems like anyone going out and buying something that cost that much
would do their own homework. It seems everyone up until these guys have.
IIRC there are over 100 models in GM's line up. I sure as hell wouldn't
memorize all of them.

Yeah I'm being abrasive.

 

Not the point of my message.

If my job was to separate customers from $30K I'd dam sure know my product
and know how to sell it.

You completely missed the point of the message. Went right by you. . zoom.
.. . . . .

Reread my message as I'm not asking for advice on purchasing a Sky or a
light pickup truck
I'm referring to the vast differences in how the Honda salesguy handled a
potential sale and the availbility
of useful options for the Honda versus the Chevvy sales guy and lack of
useful options for the light Chevvy pickup truck
then speculating how much the lack of knowledgable us auto salesguys may be
responsible for the drop in sales for us autos.
Today, the wife of a friend was discussing why she bought a Camry instead od
a new Saturn.

 

I mostly have to agree w/ BlaBla, and furthermore detect a bit of trolling
here.

I find it hard to believe that these "alleged 3 salesmen" at Saturn had no
product knowledge nor any knowledge of competitive products. That's
insulting. The only apparent "threat' you impose is your failure to stop
harassing your local Saturn store.

"A buddy needs a light pick up truck so he goes to the largest Chevvy
(Chewy?) dealer
in town and wants to buy a LUV pickup truck. The sales guy is ignorant re:
technical aspects of the truck, adding no towing pkg or oil cooler is
available however there is a tow bar option. "

Um, the LUV hasn't been made for about a decade, your point? Don't answer,
we already know.

I'll take that your point is that you had no actual intention of buying
anything at Saturn, wasted the alleged 3 salesmen's time with stupid
questions and arrogance and are too ignorant to type in www.saturn.com or
www.skyroadster.com (you CAN Google, can't you?) and get the statistics
yourself. Um, you would have if you really wanted to know. But you didn't.
You came only to troll. The ill-informed are prime candidates to be preyed
upon by bad salesmen, consider yourself lucky if you actually were in the
market for a car.

Please take your nonsense elsewhere, this is not a place to troll. Being
that you already know how to find this forum, you will find there are many
here willing to help you to learn what you want to know. But trolling is a
no-no.

Oh, and that middle-finger that you're probably pointing at your screen
right now, use it to press the F7 button on your keyboard next time instead.
It may help you look a tad more intelligent, though that's debatable.

Please do not feed this troll any longer. Post closed.

marx404

 

I detect nitwitism in your response or the inability to think or reason
beyond your clearly limited ability to understand what I wrote. If it taxes
your limited intelligence don't attempt to reason it through.

 

You were surprised that Saturn salespeople can not answer technical
questions about a car? I don't know what your experience has been but I
think the bigger surprise is that the Honda salesperson did know.
If you randomly visit an equal number (at least five) of US Honda
dealers and US Saturn dealers, my guess is that you'd find salespeople who
were either knowledgeable or customer-oriented ("I'll work with you to get
the vehicle the way you want it") at both makers' dealerships and lazy,
unknowledgeable salespeople at both makers' dealerships. What you are
finding, I believe, is not inherent in the carmakers but a matter of your
extending your (and your buddy's) experience with just one of each type.

 

Yes, it was very limited two occasion experiences. I was surprised they
couldn't answer basic technical questions about the car. I (apparently
falsely assumed they would know how to market a $30K limited
use auto. I have not made this a project and visited other dealers but may
visit other
dealer both domestic and foreign look at otherr roadsters and to check out
the knowledge
of their sales people.

 

Oh, I'm sure they do. Provided the people to whom they are doing the
marketing are generally not going to ask the kind of technical question you
expected them to be able to answer. If they were wrong, most of their
potential customers would do what you did and buy from someone else and they
wouldn't be in business any longer.

If you do, I hope you'll return and let us know what you find -- I would
be quite interested to know whether my hypothesis is correct.

 

Frankly, I was stunned this is a $30K purchase. I guess people just walk in
ans say what a cool car
tell me how to finance it. Then I remeber the purchasing experience of a
woman I dated. Her vehicle
died near where she worked she had the car towed and the service dept told
her it needed a new transmission
so she bought a brand a new Honda. Guess I just don't get it.

I will report back to the group

 

I bought my first new vehicle in 1986 and was completely taken aback by the
total lack of product knowledge that I encountered. Same thing happened in
1993 when purchasing another new vehicle. The internet did not exist in 1986
or 1993 the way it is today so one would have to use manufactures sales
literature and reviews in magazines to do research. Google has give the
consumer a new edge, but the salespeople are still back in 1986 wrt product
knowledge.

towed and the service dept told

The price of the repair was probably in the $2000 price range. Many people
faced with that size of a bill will often go for the new car.

Keep in mind that for someone who does not do their own work, just replacing
the alternator in a Honda is a $500 job. Me? $30 at the bone yard and an
hour.

-David