This post is just me venting and yes, it is absolutely max tedium, but I am finding myself increasingly annoyed with dealers asking when I can come in to pick up my new car. UGH. I can come in when you provide me with some actual damn figures!
I know it’s because i’m emailing a lot of dealers at the moment and I get that internet departments have a lot of useless queries to get through, but without fail each one has responded initially with a 'when can you come in / when can we get together / when can I book you in / when can you come pick up your new car aaghhh.
I guess I should switch to tea from coffee and get over it.
Understandable on the other end I get 5-10 inquires for quotes a day, and some people double messaging when they don’t get a quote in an hour and finally when I send one no response. We try to prioritize the “I’m ready to buy as soon as possible if the numbers make sense” vs the “I have 6 months left but may close if the deal is good enough”
I got a lot of that too. I know that everyone tells you to use email, and never go into the dealership until you get the quotes that you like, but almost everyone I worked with would pretty much just ignore my emails, and wanted me to come in. I had a dealer 60 miles away that wouldn’t give me crap over email and kept insisting that I come in.
Next time, I’m going to just get the list of salespeople from the dealers’ website, and just email all of them and tell them that I’m looking for someone that will correspond via email. I’m not sure if there is honor among car salespeople where one only of them can work with you.
It particularly infuriates me when I’m dealing with an out of state dealer on a car that they have in stock. I’ll fill out my contact info, ask for quotes based on the set parameters I’m interested in and then I get that all-too-often “When can you come in?”… Dude… I’m two states away. Let’s get this done through email and I’ll either have the car shipped or pick it up once the deal is done. I’ve even had this happen on a used car that I purchased for my son. Car was on dealer’s lot, looked clean, mileage was good… asked them for a competitive quote based on a NY sale and they replied with “When can you come in to test drive it?”. This was for a car that was on a dealer’s lot in Louisville, KY…
I likely enter into a lease on a vehicle at least 2-3x a year for either myself or a family member and it’s an absolute breath of fresh air when a request for a quote is simply met with a quote.
I do think this is probably the best approach. Follow up an initial email response with a quick phone call to establish contact and show that you’re a serious buyer.
But as a whiney millennial, practically allergic to using the phone and working in a fairly busy hospital, it can be tricky.
I found 99.5% of the time the people working the general inbox are the new guys (i could be wrong). Try looking at the website of the dealer you are targeting, identify someone at the manager level, and call looking for him specifically. Truecar.com also typically identifies a manager at the target dealer and could be a good way to identify someone specific to speak with.
Explain to the dealer that you need certain information so that you can create a one-page lease proposal in order to discuss things intelligently. Ask for the dealer’s lease worksheet. This should include base money factor (buy rate), MSRP, residual factor, term, acquisition fee, dealer doc fee, selling price, sales tax / sales tax rate, DMV fees, mileage allowance, etc…
Having done your homework, you should know all this information except, perhaps, the DMV fees and the dealer doc fee. You should know all incentives being offered and have already formulated a selling price. What you want to do is compare your information with that of the dealer’s to make ensure that you both are on the same page.
Once you’ve obtained all the information, you can craft a lease proposal. Here’s an example…
After you email the dealer your proposal, you’re basically negotiating selling price. I do all of this via email… I’ve never had a problem and never set foot in a dealership except to sign documents and pick up the car. The dealer emails me the completed lease agreement to review before I sign it. On your initial call, be sure to speak with a manager, not a floor sales associate. Often, they don’t know squat.
Most of the time you can’t even email the dealer because they have those stupid internet inquiry forms. Almost better calling and getting an actual humans email address first.
I also hate the internet inquiry forms. Sometimes after you get the initial email reply, you get a system generated email from the GM or other manager level person. Bingo, that’s probably the guy you need to talk to instead of the new guy that is eager for you to come in.
I find that some dealers (Newport Beach Mercedes dealer comes to mind and their affiliates) will ALWAYS ask you to come in to “test drive” the car. Even if they don’t have the car you want! They received my contact info via TrueCar and their response was always the same. If one of their other dealers had the car, I contacted that dealer and the same thing… “When can you come in?” Only had one of their dealers (of the 5 that I contacted) was willing to provide some numbers over email. This recent (last three months) experience with this dealership has me really turned off on them.
