Couple of gripes about these.

1. The "chat" window that keeps popping up and obscuring much of the information that I actually want to see.
   
   "Hi, I'm Julie. Do you have any questions for me"
   
   "Yes, Julie, why don't you go sit in the corner and play with this nice sex toy, get off my screen so I can actually see what your company has for sale."
   
   
2. Much more screen real estate is devoted to financing options, than to description of how this vehicle is equipped, what options, etc. I have no interest in dealer financing, none whatsoever, but I really do want to know about the vehicle.

Those two website "features" are really counterproductive. I don't thing that the dealers understand how many potential customers are driven away by these things. I know that I won't waste my time on a website like that.

Those popups still happen when you're on their website at times that the dealership is obviously closed.

Why must the car shopping/buying experience be so painful? That's why I bought my last car from a rebuild specialist. I'm done dealing with the traditional dealership buying method.

I bought the last two vehicles through United Buying Service:

http://www.ubs4cars.com/

And not keeping the on-line inventory current.

Sure, I get it if you sold it yesterday but when you schedule a test drive for me on a vehicle that the car fax report shows as already titled to a new owner then you are a shit stain dealership that is just trying to sucker people onto the lot.

And then you don't understand when I am not interested in looking around to see what you do have.

Bought a Durango and then a Charger primarily on line. The so called "negotiations" were done by e-mail and often hilarious. I worked the deals while in my recliner and then went in, signed and drove off. Despite this, the dealerships STILL tried to alter the deal or up sell a bunch of BS to
me. Old habits die hard! My BMW dealer is 400 miles from me. Not only did I do the buying process on line, they drove up to deliver the bike and pick up my trade. Buying by computer works pretty well for me. Only drawback: Hard to test drive!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Couple of gripes about these.

1. The "chat" window that keeps popping up and obscuring much of the information that I actually want to see.
   
   "Hi, I'm Julie. Do you have any questions for me"
   
   "Yes, Julie, why don't you go sit in the corner and play with this nice sex toy, get off my screen so I can actually see what your company has for sale."
   
   
2. Much more screen real estate is devoted to financing options, than to description of how this vehicle is equipped, what options, etc. I have no interest in dealer financing, none whatsoever, but I really do want to know about the vehicle.

Those two website "features" are really counterproductive. I don't thing that the dealers understand how many potential customers are driven away by these things. I know that I won't waste my time on a website like that.

I just bought a car a week ago and the website had nothing at all about financing a car to the best of my knowledge, or at least I never saw it. The chat thing did come up and I used it to make an appointment with the Internet Manager to look at cars, though, then I minimized the chat box and kept browsing.

Perhaps the dealership I used is better done, more professional than the one you went to.

They used to be good but now they’re not giving really good prices to buyers. They’re gathering really good leads and potential buyer contact information for dealers and any other entities who pay for it.

I've always felt car dealers were crooks. Every last one of them. Then my wife tells me to calm down, that somewhere there might be an honest one. Maybe. To me, its simple. Give me a price and I'll see if I like it. Then I tell them to take off all the extra crap they added (profit pads). To them, its equally simple. Give me a false leader price then pad it with crap.

The last car I bought kind of started that way. But their fiance guy upset the apple cart. He went ahead and added his favorite finance company. To my credit, or my wifes calming, I didn't walk. But I did swear I'd never do business with them again. Not hard, it was over in Buckeye-ville and I'll just never go back. And it renewed my opinion that all dealers are just crooks at heart.

Seemed to be going well and off we drove in that new jeep. But a few days later in came a fat envelope in the mail. So I took it down to the friendly court house, my first of 6 trips. I was stupid (both for dealing with them and not really looking at what they sent me.) Well, what started as an easy trip turned into a shitshow of epic proportions. Seemed simple to me, take the MSO and get my plates. Wrong. The crooks sent me the paperwork for some other poor fools Dodge truck.

So I didn't really know what to do. So I made my first payment. I wish I'd just written a check. Took a couple of months to get it straightened out. The other fool with my title was enjoying my jeep title and his Dodge truck.

After about a month I started my harassment campaigh. Daily phone calls to the dealer, then their finance guy, then their title clerk. I'm retired, and harassing folks who aren't retired to make them do their job is kind of fun. They got to know me. And I did give up my only leverage, the Dodge truck title. Could have been more fun if I'd just refused.

One of my many trips included going back to the dealership because my temp tag had expired. They gave me a dealer tag, figuring another 30 days might not have been enough. As in really screwed up. After my umpteenth call to the nice lady who started the screw up, she said "good news", and the they had it figured out and fixed. They put my paperwork in the mail! With no confidence at all, I made my 5th or 6th trip to the courthouse, where the nice folks were laughing. They never figured we'd finally get it figured out. Rule of thumb: Never deal with Ohio business'. Then a week later, I went to the dealership to return their tag.

The (the salesmen) were all standing around bullshitting. I guess that's what salesmen do when they're not cheating someone. I asked who the head salesman was. One guy with a suit on said "that'd be me". He took the plate and asked how I got it. I told him the guy with that job before him gave it to me. I was nice and didn't say "fool" or any thing bad. So I walked out.

Having a fat bank balance was nice, but I'd rather have had a clean deal. Its not over yet, I've still got to get their lien released. Nothing in that transaction has made me waiver in my belief that all car dealers are crooks. To the bone. And make me wonder if its smart to screw with gun guys. I don't think it was intentional, they were just stupid and incompetent. Probably pulling down big bucks, too.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Those popups still happen when you're on their website at times that the dealership is obviously closed.

Why must the car shopping/buying experience be so painful? That's why I bought my last car from a rebuild specialist. I'm done dealing with the traditional dealership buying method.

"Titallia was a pimp"

Car dealers are not selling cars, they are selling payment plans. Walk onto any car lot, greet the nice salesman, and it won't be long until the question comes up, "What sort of payment are you looking for?".

Old guys like me remember when $20,000 would buy a brand new 3-bedroom, bath-and-a-half, attached garage, on a half acre. Now $20K won't cover the dealer handling charges and extended warranty program they try to tack on to every invoice.

But they can put you behind the wheel with no money down and easy monthly lease payments!

I live by the golden rule; I have the gold so I make the rules. There are a dozen other dealers within rock-throwing range, maybe one of them wants to make a deal today. What do you think?

quote:

Originally posted by LoboGunLeather:
Car dealers are not selling cars, they are selling payment plans. Walk onto any car lot, greet the nice salesman, and it won't be long until the question comes up, "What sort of payment are you looking for?".

But they can put you behind the wheel with no money down and easy monthly lease payments!

I just bought a car a week ago and the salesman only asked once if I wanted to finance it. I told him no and that was the end of it. Very civilized.

The pop ups are annoying on a PC, not bad, a little pop up in the bottom corner

I was on our website via my Galaxy phone, the pop ups open another page that totally blocks the other page. It's very annoying, trying to search inventory? Fuck you, here's a pop up to stop you every five seconds. I even went to the GM and showed him that the site was unusable on a phone


I recommend that everyone deal directly with a dealerships internet department only. Get pricing and financing (if needed) done before you ever step foot in there, they shouldn't have a problem giving you drive out pricing. If they do not give figures freely, move on to next dealer

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:

The pop ups are annoying on a PC, not bad, a little pop up in the bottom corner

I even went to the GM and showed him that the site was unusable on a phonef they do not give figures freely, move on to next dealer

Your company's site is a lot better than some of the others, re the financing crap obscuring vehicle details.

However, the pop-up for chat is annoying as hell, even on a computer. Yeah, there's a small thingy in the bottom right corner, but every time you click on a different vehicle, the chat window with Lucy or Penny or whoever, pops up to about two-thirds the height of the window. Really, REALLY, annoying. Pushy! Want to do it right? Leave a "chat" button in the lower corner of the window, maybe make it a really obvious color, and trust that the customer has enough brain power to click on it if (s)he wants to chat, instead of having the chat-bot get in your face every time you look at a different vehicle.

As long as you're telling the GM about the phone problems, maybe you can tell her about this? Please?

I believe that I'll be ready to make a move on a truck fairly soon, when I'm ready to do it, you'll hear from me by email, to see if you can meet me needs.

I will do my best