To feel dirty after visiting a car dealership?

[gownofdoom]

Apologies if this is your profession or that of your best friend but AIBU to find the process of shopping for a used car a skin crawlingly awkward and unpleasant experience? Why do car dealers seem so shady? I really do need to get a new car but I find the process excruciating. Is it just me?!

Just you

I don’t go car shopping alone. I take someone with me “for support “.

How strange. My DH is a car dealer and no way is he shady.

My experience has been that they’re either rude and dismissive or polite and helpful. Not creepy though.

I have never had an issue.

If I felt uncomfortable with the salesperson I would just walk away and go elsewhere anyway.

I bought my Mini from an official car dealership. Got a used one. They were shady as f.

Sometimes shady but not creepy.
I would nearly always go for private sellers though.

I find salespeople difficult to interact with because they're so friendly and matey but we all know it's just about the sale. Maybe I'm odd, but I'd rather just do the deal without the pretence.

I'm currently looking for a new (to me) car and have had a few salespeople to deal with.

Flip side being it must be a really exhausting job, with a fair amount of time wasters so I can see that side of it too. Sales jobs are so pressured!

Not just you. Some sales people can be really smarmy. Yuck!

No problems they are always very eager young guys. I know what I want and drive a hard bargain which they realise pretty quickly so none of this patronising ‘I’ll just go check with my manager’ crap. I now have history with them find they are decent people just trying to make as much as they can from each sale.

They weren’t creepy- I would run a mile if they were. Just the whole thing, wondering if it’s a dodgy car, trying to haggle (which we don’t do in normal life), and often compounded by a salesman who seems.... difficult to trust. Also I haven’t got a clue about cars and feel strongly at a disadvantage.

Not just you. Their fake chat makes me itch.

Shamefully I've always let dh deal with it

I don't try to haggle at all tbh. It's very simple. Go in, look at car, ask to test drive car, check it's not been reported stolen or written off, check insurance cost, buy car.

The hard bit is deciding what make and model of car but you should do that before you even make it to a showroom using online reviews and guides.

Maybe I should haggle, but I just can't face it.

People who just accept the price they offer are their dream customers!

Go in knowing your price, walk out of they won’t give it. They soon come running after you

It's horrible. Yanbu

Yeah I think most people hate it. You just always feel you're being turned over on a massive scale. It's so
much money for a depreciating asset.

Not all of them but one we visited last time we were looking for a car was a very uncomfortable experience. The guy made up a nick name for my dp and even after being told the car we were looking for was actually being purchased by me, he still insisted on running everything by dp first! Who would just tell him straight it was nothing to do with him, he was just there for a nosey. I find that with a lot of car dealerships though. That one guy I particular made my skin crawl though, he reminded me of someone I really hate, that could have affected my perception of him I suppose 😂

Yes part if it is the big financial outlay for a depreciating asset! It’s just so much money. I definitely haggle though, I got them down by a thousand today but haven’t fully agreed to anything until Monday.

Agree with OP

They all do put you on edge. The last two we bought private - after the initial viewing we arranged for the AA to give the cars a thorough check - they even measure the paint thickness to ensure its all genuine.

Someone I once knew who dealt in used cars said he always tried to make a minimum of £1000 profit. Another reason to buy private.

It's hilarious, I took my dh with me for company when I went to buy a car. The salesman kept looking and talking to him even though I was buying it outright with my money. This was 2018 ffs.

I loathe shopping for cars. The awkward small talk, the indecision, the worry that the car could turn out to have all sorts of unforeseeable problems, the wondering if you're getting a decent deal (and whether or not to attempt to haggle, which I also loathe), the paperwork (when you finally do decide to buy). Every part of it is awful. Fortunately, we don't have to do it very often.

My DH is a salesman himself. The haggling was quite a thing to behold. Two big professional egos to be satisfied. I wandered off and left them to it. They seemed to be having fun.

Most used car salesmen remind me of that slimy bloke off Wheeler Dealers.

We found a secondhand car dealer that was a pleasure to deal with, no pressure, no hard sell but it was the only place that was like that.