So I go to the VW shop. After finally finding a salesman who wasnt busy gazing out the window ... first question ... how much do you have to spend? ... "well that depends how much you give me for the Veyron" ...

The joke is lost on him ... well before I tell you that, lets see what you have to sell. Show me the Multivan TDi.

erm...more gazing out the window...erm...like that one? ... no, thats a Transporter, I said Multivan?

erm ... wanders off ... we don't have one to show you ...

How much is it? ... erm ... I can show you the transporter ...

No lets keep it simple ... write down the word Multivan in case you forget again ... M U L T I V A N.

...isn't that a Multivan? ... point out his favourite window ... erm, I don't know.

is there anyone in here that does know their product line? ... pardon? ... I assume you are not in charge, can you get who is in charge of you please ... erm ...

He's not here today ... ah, so when he's not here what do you do? ... erm ...

and so it went on. I tried for 20 minutes to drive the van outside the window and gave up.

They should not build VW dealership next door to Subaru ones ... cause thats pretty much all Subaru has to do to sell cars. Sure 90% of Subaru sales are because people walk over from the VW dealer.

...yes Sir, this is the B spec Liberty ... here are the keys, we close at 5pm, just bring it back before then, and in the mean time, we'll value yours if you like, if not, no dramas. Got any questions Sir?

Needless to say, we bought the Subaru (again), 5th time in a row I've been to buy a new VW and met with some fucktard salesman. Given the price they want for VWs and the low trade ins they insult you with ... you'd think theyd hire staff who can actually read the sales brochure and remember more than 1% of it the day after.

Rant over.

It's not just VW dealers... I worked in customer service/retail in casual and full-time roles for 11 years and I still can't believe how bad 'service' in the car sales game remains...

So do u like the Subie?

i believe

send it in an e-mail to volkswagen australia with the dealership name and see what happens

i have had the same trouble with vw dealers before, and its like most big car dealers, they dont care about the customer

I went through 10 dealers before some one actually gave me discounted price up front without doing the tiresome hagle back and forth over the table. He got the deal and my new T5 comes in january.

Dennis Babarigos at Barloworld VW in Botany, NSW should get all your business then.. I think Barloworld suck overall but Dennis makes up for it as he is such a nice guy.. And does good deals.. We have 3 on order for next year.. I wouldn't go anywhere else.. Although sometimes supporting VW comes at a cost.. My wife wants to trade her passat (05) for one of those new convertibles.. I'd rather a new V6 4 motion (heart) or a diesel (head) passat s/w..

Hard to go past Subarus for value for money, re-sale and reliability ... this is the 5th one I've bought of a guy called Grahame Bell, he was in the city, then went to Penrith ... not gonna waste time emailing VW, it's thier loss (again). Maybe Im crossing over to the other side? OMG everytime I look at the split I get flashes of a black B Spec Liberty on the drive ... must resist ... but I am getting weak ... I can't afford it, but the B Spec GT is licence loosingly quick. I want one.

Last new car I bought was done over the phone. A mate of mine owns four dealerships and I rang hime to see if he had a demo Lancer for my daughter. Ended up with a top of the line Mazda 6. Ahh, hang on a minute, I was only going to spend about $14 - $15k.

people buy from people it seems.

been there ,i went to all the dealers in tamworth lookin for a dual cab for me as we camp alot ,the missus has a 99 magna and i walked off to have a look around ,by the time i came back they had her signing papers for a honda crv ,,,go figure ,cant go offroad real far in a crv ,,,,as too say i never got a dual cab and ended up with her magna ,,,,,,

have had similar experiences too. its really frustrating when the people trying to sell you a car don't even know anything about them. far more information on the net or through brochures.
dont think it is limited to vw dealers though... have had the same happen with ford, holden, mazda, nissan and honda.

Had a very similar experience here in Hobart. Wanted to drive a Multivan. Don't have one for demo's. They borrow one from a past customer but we would have to wait a week.

I said I wanted a drive NOW and their response was - well we can give you a drive in a transporter it has the same engine but we don't have a demo one of them either we have to borrow one from Aurora (power company down here) and it will take 2 days.

Needless to say we walked out.

Crewcabconnection,

Which Subaru Dealer was it?

What was they persons name that gave you that great service?

I would like to congratulate them.

Cheers,

David

I went to alocal Mitsubishi dealer and asked about the new Outlander they had sitting there...

the salesman couldn't tell Me what size engine or how many gears it had...
as it had paddles on the steering column...

I asked for a brochure...

He gave me one for a previous model...

He was a toyota salesman who knew nothing about Mitsubishis....

Lee

You've all experienced the standard the motor industry has set for its sales staff. There's no union representing car salespeople. The governing bodies are made up of the dealers themselves.
The salespersons deal is a "retainer" of about $30k, plus commission, which is usually 10% of profit, plus a company car, minus FBT on the car. Commissions are as low as $50 per car for a volume dealer, and with competition the way it is, (everyone wants a discount), there's usually a situation where the dealer is happy to virtually give the car away to pick up a bonus at the end of the year from the manufacturer/distributer for volume.
Your car salesperson will be working an eleven day fortnight, meaning, work all day every Saturday (8.30 - 6.00), and have a day off during the week every fortnight. Many will have to do Sundays as well. Every day is at least 8.30 - 6.00 and they'll need to do a few public holidays throughout the year.
There's no use contacting the manufacturer if you get lousy service. The manufacturer sells its cars to the dealer. It's the dealer's responsibility to retail them. The dealer has to offer the service and sell the car.
The dealer would love to sell the cars to the end user for full price. If he could sell them for retail price, he could pay good people who could sell even more. But the consumer doesn't like paying retail. The consumer wants it for nothing if possible.
So 10% of bugger all is bugger all, and these days, people don't work 55 hours a week for bugger all. Well not all people. The ones who do are the people you're talking about and it's not their fault.
So the moral of the story is, you get what you pay for.