Dealers lie...

[JohnL135I]

Well, I have a deposit for my car at one dealership, however I'm pretty high on the list, so I thought I'd try a couple other dealers in the valley.

I contacted a dealer on thursday who said they had allocations for the cars. The sales guy I spoke with I did not like, so I called back today and spoke with another sales guy.

Me.."You have allocations for orders?"
sales- "Yes, we have our allocations."

Me.."Ok, so if I come order a car today I can walk out with a Production number?"
sales- "Yes, you will have a production number........mmmm, can I have your number to call you back, I need to verify some information first."

Calls back five minutes later-
Sales-"All of our cars are spoken for.".....end of conversation.

Lie, Lie, Lie.........they don't have allocations YET!!!!

Next dealership I called said I could be number 5 on there list, however, when I spoke with my current sales guy he said he spoke with a friend at the other dealership and his friend had a list of 12 people waiting.

Lie, Lie, Lie...........ahhhhhhhh

there is no Truth....just lies. I will hope my sales guy will come through for me, but I'm very scared I will miss out on the initial order because of my place in line.

[IrvRobinson2]

I think most of the dealers if not all have received the allocation number.

[Oregon]

Well, for what it's worth, I don't know about your dealer lying, I certainly am in no position to say, but, the reality is dealers and sales people are not the enthusiasts, we are. Enthusiasm for the sales guy lies elsewhere, somewhere outside his job. Selling cars is his work, not his enthusiasm. Doesn't make him a bad guy, or a lazy guy, just another guy doin' his job. That's life.

My sales guy said he would call me when allocations were received. He did not. Heck, he was not even aware allocations had been assigned. When I called to ask about allocations, my sales guy had to ask his sales manager. "Oh, well look at that, allocations were assigned today." The sales manager had not passed the information downstream to the sales people. Was I surprised? Nope.

Being enthusiastic to get my new toy, I hang-out @ 1Addicts which does receive the latest and greatest, the sales guy does not hang here. He's thinkin' about this weekend...

.02

[mikeo]

Right on, Surname...

[atr_hugo]

I want to chime in here also. Some sales guys are enthusiasts but they also are salesmen, there's more to it than we see. A lot of how a salesman behaves or communicates comes from how they're trained and how they're managed. Management sets the tone and sometimes management is bad (just ask me, I've been a manager for years ; -).

Also, for every, 'the salesman lied' story there's an equivalent, 'the customer lied' story. A buddy, who was pushing Rolls Royces at one point, had one stolen out from under him at gunpoint. It's a tough, long houred, and often low paying job that goes through more peaks and valleys than almost any other occupation.

I'm not saying they're all good - I've seen my share of jerks when I was buying - but I wouldn't want to have to meet and greet the vast majority of people wanting to purchase cars with flimsy financials and crappy trades, kids tearing out the bottom three feet of the customer service lounge and attitudes that won't quit. I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do - root canal anyone? ; -)

BMW dealers should have it a bit better - but then they get stuck with the posers and fanboys - tirekickers and professionals (many of whom are total jerks). It's a job I couldn't do and enjoy.

At the end of it all though. I'm glad we have some good salesmen in attendance here.

[JohnL135I]

Just an update, I didn't mean to offend any dealers(sales reps) with the title of this thread. I'm not calling dealers lier's(poor choice of word on my behalf).. This is my first buying experience with BMW, overall I guess I was expecting a better overall buying experience vs. a Dodge dealership, However, what I'm finding is Sales is Sales.

I'm just very excited about this car, and am a true enthusiasts. However, after contacting different dealers and getting totally different stories about production numbers, deposits, ordering dates... it does get frustrating.

[atr_hugo]

Different dealers, different owners, different management teams. It can be a crapshoot.

Part of the problem is that when this country went 'motoring' around the time of the Model T, the manufacturers wanted to keep production lines humming without having to suffer from the elasticities of demand. So they established the notion of selling to dealerships which absorb a lot of the erractic nature of demand - it also places the manufacturer one step removed from their customers.

I suspect if some manufacturers had to do it over again they would be retailing directly.

PS - actually there can be another layer in the process from manufacturer to customer, look at Toyota's business model for example. I wouldn't wish an independent regional distributor (and the confusion that can create) on anyone for love or money.

[willfong]

Irv is the man!

Hey Irv, can you disclose your allocation at your dealership? Any chance of me grabbing a ED on one as soon as the lease numbers are out?

[alter ego]

We got allocation a few days ago. 2 convertables and a 135 coupe that will probably end up as a demonstrator so we have something to show people when they come in. As far as how salespeople are in general.... I was one for a long while and dealing with the lies and games customers throw out every day is what seems to bring out the worst in the business. Its really hard in a BMW showroom because it should be a better experience but a lot of people treat buying a BMW as if it is just buying any other car and forget that they don't need a BMW, they want one and luckily have the means to buy one. The experience comes with a price, you have to pay for comfort. If you want a horrible experience walk in with an attitude and let your salesman know you're going to shop all over creation before you buy. Ask a person to lie and don't be surprised by the outcome.... I don't sell anymore because I found that I love the car more than the jerks coming in to buy them. I was always the enthusiast on my floor with all the M car stuff in my office and a BMW or two in my driveway. In any case, the guys that really like the product and like to help have been slowly displaced by a newer group of people that don't care to know the cars and don't make enough to care. This really started a few years back when BMW decided it wanted to compete with Toyota in volume and made BMWs like Sea Ray boats.... great product but they are everywhere!! This year BMW made no effort at years end to increase volume and there are less people able to look at BMWs than last year with the rising costs of the cars and rates are higher than they have been in the past. If this continues things will change. When you do decide to go order your cars, don't just order from the lowest bidder.... find one of those salespeople that knows the product and is an enthusiast like you. Doing it any other way is just feeding the machine that caused this thread to come up in the first place.