Tuesday, March 11, 2008

For what it is worth...

If there is one group of people that can be even more annoying than politicians it is car salesman.
We have been looking into replacing our family car and as a result we have visited one or two second hand car sales outlets. We were going to have the weekend off from cars when we passed a huge car sales showroom whilst on the way to visit friends. Naturally we could not resist so we turned the car around and went in to have browse. Unsurprisingly we were greeted by a salesman wearing a corporate racing jacket and a big cheesy grin.
We told him our requirements and how much we could afford on top of the trade-in value we expected for our car [estimated on several quotes we had received previously].
He was very optimistic that he could work out some favourable figures based on the screen price of a car he showed us that we had until now not even considered. The car was very clean, low mileage and was big enough for our requirements, we were naively optimistic.
Having spent a good ten minutes in a side office consulting his books and discussing a deal with his business manager he retuned to the desk where he had left us drinking coffee and began to tell us how much of a good deal he had managed to secure for us. He began by telling us that with all the extras, included a key-fob that could be used in a shopping trolley, we would be looking at a figure £1200 pounds more than the screen price!
I took his pen from him and began to scribble over his figures and, starting with the original screen price, I wrote beneath it the price we told him we could afford and then explained that it was usual to negotiate a price somewhere, preferably, between the two, not to add more to the value and then negotiate back down to the advertised price.
He was somewhat bewildered as we thanked him for the coffee and walked out of the showroom, this time with smiles all over our faces due to sheer audacity of the man.

He did do us one big favour though, the following day we secured a deal on the same type of car for less than the screen price of the one he showed us and it was 18 months newer as well.
We pick it Friday. This time the salesman was unlike any of those we had encountered before, he was affable, amiable, patient and dare I say it, honest.

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2 Comments:

At 5:05 pm , Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

used car salesmen in the states are the lowest of the low...people would rather their daughters marry the devil than a used car salesman..ha

 
At 9:44 am , Blogger old enough to moan said...

I have four daughters, has the Devil got any brothers?

 

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