I work for a car dealership AMA

[AMA2023]

AMA

If anyone is interested

Do you think Frank Butcher of EastEnders portrayed a realistic example of a second hand car dealer - or was it cliched??!

What’s your favourite food?

I've never watched eastenders

I work in service but do venture into sales most days, we sell new and used

I have to choose?!

Pizza or cake, don't make me pick

When is the best time of the year to buy a new car? What extras can you ask for which you will most likely be given ?

When do you think car buying will be a buyers' market again?

What’s the best way to get money off a car?

Am I better to wait until after 1st march to part exchange my car? (Cash not pcp)

Is the Mercedes I ordered last July in any danger of turning up anytime soon? ( I don't actually expect you to know the answer but my goodness we could be waiting forever and you did sayAMA!

End of the month or end of the quarter

I work in service but from buying cars myself and watching sales I always ask for (and have seen people get
Tank of fuel
Paying to swap private plates
If you have a dog or small child then a toy/dog bowl/other item
Mats
Free first service/MOT

Pass. We still have delays on new cars coming in which obviously affects the second hand market too

Honestly at the minute you would struggle
You're better to ask for extra stuff like X amount of services/extra warranty

I don't think there's much of a difference now TBH but I'm service based, I can pick sales brains though if they aren't too busy arguing over who gets what car

Stick a pin in a calendar

I work in service but new cars are coming in slowly.... however I'm speaking to people daily that are waiting for new ones still
(I don't work for Mercedes!)

The dealership I last used had six men making sales and two women doing back office admin. At the time I wondered why there were no women selling cars to the public. Is it a good place to work in sales if you’re a woman?

We have a mix I would say

@ChungusBoi posted too early! I would say it's changed a lot over the last 25 years or so

Service - a mix, currently female heavy but has been all men and me before

Parts is 50/50

Sales is all men apart from 1 woman

What is the % markup on used cars?

Honestly not sure, I would have to bribe sales to tell me

I work on the servicing side mostly and some customer service, booking cars in, warranty, MOT/service reminders etc and that kind of stuff

If people trade in a car approx how much do you make on the car?

Do you give people better deals if they trade in or better if they have cash?

I was buying with cash- best deals were for those who were taking our finance- guy didnt seem that interested.

if buying a used car from a large dealer - do they fix up the body work before selling? Saw a car and it had a couple of dents in it but obviously no reduction in price and sales guy said the bodyshop would sort the dings out?

How often do customer's cars get damaged whilst in fire a service?

Are the salesmen all twats or was it coincidence all of my XH's colleagues and bosses were vile?

Very very rare. We video the car as it comes in with the customer there, and then video again as it's finished before the customer collects

Not sure on how much
Cash definitely isn't king now, finance is what sales want