A story this past week caught the attention of many readers out there as Agent009 asked a question about brand loyalty when it comes to car buying. The timing of the article is ironic in that my wife declared her desire for a new car the same day Agent009 posted his story. Since that point we have spent a lot of time driving from dealer to dealer driving different cars and SUV's on a quest to find "that perfect vehicle" that fills all of the requirements my wife is looking for. (A side note here is appropriate, as I am not sure she knows what she is looking for - but I digress!)
When it comes to cars, I know that I know more than most people. I can quote specs and performance numbers, engine sizes and the pros and cons of most cars - as can probably a good number of our loyal readers here. I think it would be fair to say that walking into any dealership I probably know at least as much as, but often times more than the salesperson that latches on the moment you pull into the dealers’ lot.
Last night we spent some time looking, and it allowed an interesting comparison to car sales, and I think help explains why some brands have really high loyalty while others don't. We started the afternoon looking at the Mercedes-Benz ML350. I have a couple of friends at the dealership so walking in we where treated to a cordial response from people who know me. The general manager asked one of the sales guys to assist and show us the car. For the next 45 minutes or so the sales rep went over every detail of the car and answered every question asked without hesitation. I was impressed in that I already knew the answer to most of the questions my wife was asking the sales rep, but it was refreshing to see a salesperson truly know the product they were selling.
We drove the ML350 and I have to admit that although skeptical on the front end, I was really impressed with the handling and performance. There are a lot of back roads that we drive, and the MB handled extremely well with very little body roll, the brakes were strong and fade free and the acceleration was strong, although not fast.
After finishing up at the Mercedes dealer, we also spent some time driving the X5 3.0si, and again I was impressed with how well the sales person knew the vehicle he was selling. (The sales person from BMW is a friend of mine, and I have bought several BMW's from him so I really wasn't concerned about his knowledge of the X5)
However...
After the visit to BMW, we went and ate some dinner with friends and the conversation turned to cars. My wife asked me what other SUV's could we look at, and I mentioned to her that when talking to Agent001 earlier in the week, he had mentioned some big incentives on the Volvo XC90. Previously I had not mentioned the XC90 because I have never been a big fan of this SUV. She insisted we go take a look, so at the conclusion of dinner we made our way to the Volvo dealership. Things started to go downhill fast.
As we pulled into the Volvo dealership and park the car, a salesperson quickly put out the cigarette he was smoking to rush to the front of our car to "greet" us. Or so I thought. He rushed to the car, BUT DIDN'T SAY A WORD - NOTHING.
Ok, I thought to myself, we proceeded to enter the showroom seeing as an XC90 was sitting on the showroom floor.
And the sales guy followed, however at this point he still hadn’t said anything, not even a simple Hello. We were literally being stalked, walking into the showroom from a salesman who wasn't saying anything.
My wife proceeded to climb into the XC90, and start tinkering with the buttons like one does when shopping for cars. Although I really wasn't interested in the XC90, I decided to have a little fun, so I feigned interest and starting asking questions of the sales guy who at this point STILL HADN'T EVEN SAID HELLO to us, but he was standing there not more than 3 feet away "stalking" us.
The XC90 on the showroom floor was pretty much stripped, so I inquired if there was a bigger engine available (I know there is) and how much does it cost and could we get navigation and how much would that cost.
And then he spoke!
Well, sort of.
He moved closer to the XC90 on the showroom floor, put on some reading glasses, and proceeded to read the window sticker to me in terms of engine size and output. He told me the XC90 had a 3.2 Liter V6 - information he was able to obtain by reading me the window sticker.
I bit my tongue deciding to inquire a little further as to this salespersons knowledge of the car he is trying to sell.
I asked, "Um, is there a bigger engine available?"
He again leaned in to the window sticker to have another look, again repeating the 3.2 Liter V6 line he read me once, took a step back and settled into a posture suggesting he was satisfied with his response.
I took another stab asking, "I thought the XC90 had a V8?"
He looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a moment, excused himself for a moment and went to an office that was out of my line of sight.
Returning a minute later, he told me that yeah, there is a V8 available, but they didn't have any so we were welcome to drive the V6 on the showroom floor.
(For those of you not up on your Volvo knowledge, the V6 the salesperson spoke of is actually an inline-6.)
At this point the salesman should have picked up on the fact I wasn't interested in his "V6" XC90 he had, but I think he really was completely oblivious to this fact. I decided to take one more shot, so I asked, "How much would an XC90 with the V8, navigation and all the other options cost?"
He retreated again to the "mystery office" and returned a minute or so later. He told me that a loaded XC90 would run somewhere in the neighborhood of $68-$70K. Making a last ditch effort he again offered the test drive of the V6.
I politely declined the offer, and my wife and I left the dealership. As we were pulling out, the fact that there were in fact V8 XC90's sitting on the lot was not missed.
I commented to my wife on the drive home the most basic of sales rules available to the car salesman, when you can't answer the question the customer is asking, simply reading the window sticker should suffice.
When we got home I priced out a loaded XC90 on the Volvo website, and arrived at a price of $60k, almost $10k less then our sales person told us it would cost. His lack of knowledge of the XC90 really didn’t cost him a sale in our case as I have previously stated I didn’t want the Volvo, but how many sales has it, or will it cost him if others experience what we experienced?
To make a long story a little shorter, I think the X5 will probably be the SUV we go with, the advantage of the third row is something that from time to time would be nice to have, and in terms of handling the BMW is the closest to the ride of a car in an SUV body.
So what is to be learned from the Volvo experience? There are good sales people in every line of work. There are people who take the time to educate themselves on the products they are selling so they can be prepared to answer any question that may arise. Every so often you run into a salesperson that is passionate about what they sell. Those people are easy to identify, just find the plaque hanging in the waiting room that lists the sales person of the month. Usually the same couple of names occupy those plaques year after year.
I know I am not alone in bad experiences, and with the discussion we had this week about brand loyalty, I am confident a correlation between loyalty and salesperson knowledge / dealership experience can be made.
For the time being it is back out to see if we can't make a deal today on a new X5. For the rest of you, share some of your auto buying experiences - good and bad.