No More Hard Sell For Porsche And Mecedes - Let The Experience And The Vehicle Sell Itself

While some people do not like being "sold" to - that is in reply to the Hard closing tactics of some mangy used car salesmen and dealers. WHile many new car dealers still employ "closers" to make the deal when a floor jockey cannot - the biggest push is when you get to the aftersale person - who sells the extended warranties and Added things you don't need like undercoating.(Yup-dealers still sell that).

However - when push comes to shove - it is the salespeople who keep this business running - and without the - dealers would have yards full of cars they "HAD TO" buy in order to get the ones they really wanted from the Manufacturers. In the end - dealers are essentially judged based on how many cars they sell - and these new "soft sell" locations will still have to justify themselves with SALES. Otherwise - this is just a pure waste of time.

In moving up from Nissans/Hondas/Mazdas to Audi/BMW/Lexus over the the years I can say that I have never experienced a "hard sell" at a luxury car dealership. In fact the last Audi and Lexus I purchased all negotiations were done via email, a deposit was paid over the phone and I just went in to pick up the car. I do live in a relatively affluent area where the luxury car dealers (especially Lexus) move a ton of volume so there is less incentive to play games. It would be interesting to hear the experiences of others, as in my area the Lux dealers have already moved to a softer sales technique, the local Lexus dealer to an extreme where you could spend all day walking around the dealership and no salesperson will bother you until you ask the receptionist to speak to one.

@malba2367 - Precisely. This was my exact experience when I got my BMW. I could have camped out and nobody came up to me until I asked to speak to someone. It was a very pleasant experience. They help you buy/lease the car you want, they don't sell you a car. Funny the biggest gripe I had was the 30 minute once over the sales lady took me through. She did a great job and was very thorough. I just didn't feel like learning all about the car at that time. 5 Stars.

In my area Audi, BMW and Mercedes sell enough cars to not care about a hard sell or lowering a price. The last Audi I purchased, I negotiated over the phone and went and picked the car up. They even wait until I arrived at the dealership at 9, which was 6 hours away. They had everything ready and I walked out with paperwork in no time.

Sounds like Mercedes is trying to copy the Tesla model (which isn't even a soft sell btw, no sales commissions are paid to the people in stores). There should never be a hard sell on a premium car. I can't say that I had a hard sell experience with Lexus, but did have annoying multi-day negotiations.

People don't like being sold to. They much prefer paying too much because they are too spineless to negotiate.

Great idea. Why not make every product negotiable in every transaction? Turn your Safeway into a Middle Eastern bazaar and go demonstrate your manliness by negotiating your yogurt and bacon.

I'm sure negotiating for food will happen given that the religion-of-peace people are here to take us back to the 12th century.

As for cars, if someone wants to pay full Monroney plus any market value adjustments upward, I wholly support such morons.

Doesnt matter if you are buying a car, you are being sold to all day long. Just look at the advertising space on every site you visit. Some car salesman are old school fly by night and some are about relationship building and hope to keep you a customer for life. They aren't in the business of pissing you off, they hope you enjoy your experience and you tell your friends.