Chatham - terrible treatment
10-15-2005, 04:24 AM
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Chatham - terrible treatment
I have to say this morning I left my local dealership shaking my head in disbelief. My mate has just left uni and got his first job (pays well too!). He's looking to get a car and has been swithering between a BMW 330i or a civic type-R as both cars appeal in different ways.
Today he booked a test drive at Chatham and was told he couldn't drive as he's under 25. He accepted this but just wanted a small demonstration of the cars ability. I took him along in the S2000. The saleman that had arranged my S2000 test drive chatted for a bit and asked my mate if he intended to buy and then had the cheek to say, 'because your mate had a test with us and bought down south!'. Ok he is correct but I bought a great car at the right price and the garage had nothing to offer that was as good for anything like the same money. I have since been loyal and given them all the aftersales stuff (which they probably make more profit on anyway!). After taking a few details the 'test driver' (some random old guy) took us out.
First up my mate asked if this car had the aircon and he said that you can't get it on the CTR - ohhhhhhhh really! Cause I seem to remember everyone going nuts about how much it cost!!
We tootled up to the dualled roads, round a few roundabouts (slowly) and up onto the bypass. The car was nicely warmed up and he half-throttled it to 4.5k rpm and changed up. Odd, oh well. We cruised at 70 on the bypass for a few miles and then turned at an overpass. At the top of the sliproad we had 300m of empty road until the join with the bypass. He accelerated smoothly and slowly to 70mph hitting 6k rpm maximum. At this point I was just gobsmacked! We slowly returned to the garage?!!
WTF?! This man is demonstraiting a hot-hatchback the biggest selling point of which is its engine's vtec ability yet he didn't engage it once! He drove like he was a taxi driver trying to eek out every drop of fuel!! I was gobsmacked. How on earth can they hope to make sales this way
Of course, whilst my young(ish) friend was made to wait in the tea/coffee area the salesman was fussing over an old lady looking at a Jazz. Sadly this is the way of things now. The car enthusiast after the top end car is the hard sell and the salesman's time is better spent churning out family cars with options they don't need/want to old women.
Ah well. We're off to see a private sale tomorrow and I'll give the owner a 'if you boot yours I'll boot mines' incentive
Today he booked a test drive at Chatham and was told he couldn't drive as he's under 25. He accepted this but just wanted a small demonstration of the cars ability. I took him along in the S2000. The saleman that had arranged my S2000 test drive chatted for a bit and asked my mate if he intended to buy and then had the cheek to say, 'because your mate had a test with us and bought down south!'. Ok he is correct but I bought a great car at the right price and the garage had nothing to offer that was as good for anything like the same money. I have since been loyal and given them all the aftersales stuff (which they probably make more profit on anyway!). After taking a few details the 'test driver' (some random old guy) took us out.
First up my mate asked if this car had the aircon and he said that you can't get it on the CTR - ohhhhhhhh really! Cause I seem to remember everyone going nuts about how much it cost!!
We tootled up to the dualled roads, round a few roundabouts (slowly) and up onto the bypass. The car was nicely warmed up and he half-throttled it to 4.5k rpm and changed up. Odd, oh well. We cruised at 70 on the bypass for a few miles and then turned at an overpass. At the top of the sliproad we had 300m of empty road until the join with the bypass. He accelerated smoothly and slowly to 70mph hitting 6k rpm maximum. At this point I was just gobsmacked! We slowly returned to the garage?!!
WTF?! This man is demonstraiting a hot-hatchback the biggest selling point of which is its engine's vtec ability yet he didn't engage it once! He drove like he was a taxi driver trying to eek out every drop of fuel!! I was gobsmacked. How on earth can they hope to make sales this way
Of course, whilst my young(ish) friend was made to wait in the tea/coffee area the salesman was fussing over an old lady looking at a Jazz. Sadly this is the way of things now. The car enthusiast after the top end car is the hard sell and the salesman's time is better spent churning out family cars with options they don't need/want to old women.
Ah well. We're off to see a private sale tomorrow and I'll give the owner a 'if you boot yours I'll boot mines' incentive
10-15-2005, 04:38 AM
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Never used Sighthill, so no experience of it. Just have a word with Campbell Chatham - if they think you're a serious customer they will get someone else to take you mate out on a test drive. If he's too young to drive it though, I wouldn't want to be buying it based on a passenger seat ride. (especially as a passenger seat ride in Mrs C7BLE's CTR once made me 
)
)
with euan, just have a word in his ear 
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