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?!

I don’t finance, I buy a good 2-3 year old used car I can afford in cash (last one was about £20k)

Mmm.If I had 20k in cash to spend on a car I wouldn’t be looking at finance either. Or worrying I was buying a wreck because the choices in my price bracket were either old but low mileage or a great service record but high mileage.

@nothingcomesforfree I just checked and you can buy a 2015 Fiesta with low mileage for about £5k and if you read the rest of my post you’d see I said that if you need finance it’s better to get it through a bank instead of the dealer. My badly expressed reason for saying I paid £20k for a used car would have made more sense if i had finished my thought and explained that the same car went for about twice that when new. Buying new cars is for idiots and using dealer finance is for mugs.

I don’t think it’s too big a deal. The dealers where I live seem fine. It does really help to do lots of research online first re prices, models, etc. The last car I bought was six months ago which was about the equivalent of GBP35,000 I actually just bought online sight unseen and got them to truck it 5 hours north to me. It’s a few years old and is fine. It’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought online!

They are professional sales people, they are trained to sell ice to eskimos. I don’t buy from car dealers as I hate the hard sells pitch, I was sold my first car by a dodgy car sales man, I was young and stupid and ended up getting a car on finance, it was the worst car ever and was forever going back to the garage with things wrong with it. I find most sales people awkward and unpleasant, even the people that jump on you in shops like lush 🤣.

I don't know about car salesmen as I've only experienced buying cars from individual sellers but recently felt bleurgh about buying a bed.
The sales chat was cringy as was hearing them shmooze other customers. The Oak Furniture Land man was patronising and sexist.
We bought a bed from the final place we went to as it didn't feel like he was actively trying to sell us a bed, he just gave us the information we asked for, made relevant suggestions and left us to it.

There are more good salesmen/women than bad.
Take a friend,two heads are better than one.

My dad has run his independent car dealership for 50 years. It's completely family run, my brother has worked there for over 25 years. You'd be hard pressed to get a better buying experience elsewhere (I know I'm biased). They've got much more knowledge than most main dealerships and are far more attentive.

Me and DH bought our last cars brand new. We really wanted mine, but by god it was painful. I was in that garage well over 3 hours on a boiling hot Saturday afternoon. DH's needs replacing, I'm not going not with him

There is something depressingly old fashioned about dealerships generally - the female secretary sat at the desk and the salespeople are nearly always men.
The last few times I've bought privately and saved money and found it a better experience & - they don't have to charge the 20% vat.

I've done it many times and still find it a little bit gruelling, the most recent time being trading mine in for a newer model through a main dealership earlier this year. However I do masses of research beforehand, know which car I'm interested in, familiarise myself with all the different spec levels, options and I know the basics of how cars work (I don't do it now but in my early driving days I did a lot of my own maintenance). Also got various quotes for trade-in price for mine, research online into prices for the one I was interested in etc. Many hours spent on Auto-trader, Webuyanycar, Parkers etc

The salesperson this time seemed slightly surprised that I didn't bring my husband with me (I let that go but was a bit hmm). The thing that took me by surprise was the haggling - I had a minimum trade-in value in mind for mine, but previously they have made an offer on my old cars after inspecting them. This one inspected mine then asked me what I wanted for it so I named my top price and they said yes straight away, making me wish I'd gone higher! But I knew it was a good offer and a good price on the one I wanted to buy, so all OK.

They did do a hard sell on finance with me, but I held out. But yes, they were my new best friend by the time we'd been right through the process, fine if you are chatty (I am) but I can see why some might find it a bit full-on.

I keep finding the dealers are lads I taught! They are soooo lovely and remember school days with great affection and never recall when I nagged them or told them off.

Otherwise, pretty gruesome experience, buying a car.

I have dealt with two female car sales people. Both brilliant at their jobs.

I know exactly where you are coming from . I hate buying cars !!! .. in fact I'm moving soon nearer to the city with terrible parking .. so I'm ditching mine altogether!!!

Elision “If” I read your post? I read your post and understood what you were saying. And I agree. I used a 0% credit card offer ( cash bank transfer) for my last two. Bought my current car on eBay 5 years ago.

Don’t take umbrage. I thought it interesting you feel the need to post the considerable amount of cash you spend on your car whilst offereing advice to others about credit.

They are generally fine if you've done your research in advance and know what you want. If you just turn up on the forecourt saying you need a car at or below a particular price, then they sense weakness and will waste time testing out what they can get away with.

Some sales people make you uncomfortable - others don't.

That's not limited to car sales!

My recent car purchase (newer and in finance) was amazing.

I went in and young guy listened to what I wanted and talked to me about buying old v newer car and financial differences (resell/driving to scrap etc)

I asked questions about the different models of same car and different prices of each and what you got for money.

He was totally honest and said the 1.5k cheaper version of car (same Male model and year) was sufficient for what I drove and type of driving I do.

Also turns out he left the local secondary the year my ds started and they had a great chat about teachers still there etc!

I've already decided when I want to Pex for newer model I'll go straight to him (if he's still there!)

I hate car buying. I can't stand the over-friendliness of most car salesmen, although last time I bought a car (2years ago) was the first time I actually made one angry after I pointed out he was spinning a web of lies about a car's history. With hundreds of fiestas for sale in a 20mile radius, there was no way I was going to give £8k to this guy and I told him that. He actually had the audacity to get angry. So I walked and spent my money elsewhere.

I think that's the benefit of buying a really common car, I'm not afraid to walk/worried I'll miss out. When I bought my current car I wasn't fully happy with the price offered, so I walked. Salesman phoned back a few days later offering a better deal. I popped in after work and signed the papers there and then.

DragonNoodleCake

Picanto? And I scrapped my ancient car with them so a car that was worth buttons became worth £2k. Win Win!

Possibly outing me but I work in the accounts department for a motorcycle dealership. We're attached to a car dealership. I love most of my colleagues and get on well with a few of the car colleagues but I will say that I am convinced that they grow car salesmen in a factory. They're all so interchangeable and have very similar personalities. Motorcycle salesmen are the ones that grew a bit wrong.

You should try going to an specialist electrical hardware shop OP, Way worse than a car dealership.

My skin was crawling.

When I bought my used car from a dealership the bloke asked if I wanted to call my husband to check he was happy with it!

I've always hated car shopping, we always get brand new. They do this really urgh thing of sort of flirting with you (I always go with my husband) but they still hone in on me yuck. They also always belittle you as a woman and do the same jokes about the woman making the final decision zzzzz. I know a fair amount about cars and I'm not stupid, so this playing to me being the silly little woman who knows nothing drives me nuts. The last car we bought the salesman had the sale as we had spent ages chosing the car we literally just needed to order it, but he was so smarmy and rude we actually drove to another dealership and bought the exact same car there. He rang my husband a few days later still trying to sell us the car and my husband just told him we bought it elsewhere as he didn't know what he was talking about (he'd tried to offer us finance that would have equated to over £3000 more than what it should have been!). I didn't want to give him the sale anyway just because of how he was, rude and arrogant when we pointed out he was giving us incorrect info!

I think it depends on your attitude, I went in alone, I knew what car I wanted, what colour and features, and how much I wanted to pay. I haggled from above my ideal price to a bit under! The salesman did the whole "I need approval from my manager" show and I sat and drank my brew then signed the papers. Took about an hour.

Agreed and I spent many years working in car dealerships (thankfully not in sales)! At my last job, even the people who worked there hated the sales team

Unfortunately, they're still very male dominated places. I was the only female manager and I often got left out of meetings and not invited to events as "someone had to stay behind to be in charge".

Thankfully, I changed my career path but even i hate buying cars or taking them in to be serviced. Car dealerships are as much fun as the dentist.

Everyone hates the sales team. Lazy wankers.

I work in a luxury car dealership and yes, definitely male orientated mostly. We have two female sales who are great at their job

I go to VW but a specific dealership usually as the sales guy there is great and usually puts his head on his desk when he sees me "oh it's you, have you come to take everything you can get off me. Again?"