Would agree with that. From memory the LR salesman's hardest task was telling me there would be no discount available.

To be fair to him, he knew all about the car and seemed to genuinely enjoy what he did. A good measure of a salesman is the answer to the where can I go on the test drive?

He said' Wherever you like, I haven't got an appointment for an hour.'

Another non LR salesman would only let me go a 1/4 mile in a S/C, couldn't even open the taps.

The best salesman I have ever encountered sold me a car that I had never intended to buy............ I hadn't even been into his showroom! I had taken my then 3 months old Rover 216 (same design as the last Rover25) to see about chopping it in for a VolvoV40 which had then been just launched. I was amazed that there was a 4 month wait for a Volvo and then left the showroom. While wandering through the used car lot I ventured into the Land Rover section. At that time (1994) I had never even thought about buying a Land Rover. The outlet was a multi franchise Land Rover/Bentley/Volvo dealer in the city centre in Glasgow. I happened to look through the window of a Biarritz Blue Disco1 V8iES. The salesman was out like a shot to ask if I was interested in it and I said "not really it's a bit big for my needs" The sticker price was very high too anyway the salesman ushered me back into the showroom and sat me down with a coffee and proceeded to ask me how much I paid for my Rover (it was a new model and then quite difficult to get hold of in the top spec I had), how many miles etc and then the offer came "If you insure the Disco for the day we will give you a full tank of petrol and it's yours for the day, drive it where you like but please don't take it off road. I think you will want to buy it after a day of driving it". Well I wasn't committed to buying so nothing ventured (a day's insurance of a 4.0l V8 Disco wasn't as expensive as I had imagined) nothing gained. 2 days later I left the keys of my Rover with the dealer and collected to key of the Disco........................................... I didn't even use half of the tankful of petrol before I had found that I really rather liked the rollypolly suspension but the power was addictive. 4pm and I returned the car which wasn't new - it was 2 years old with 26k miles and every option box had been ticked so all the toys were there. Salesman came out to greet me and we went to talk.
I started with words to the effect that I couldn't afford the sticker price - he countered with an offer to buy the Rover at the same price I had paid for it.................. then when I hummed about it he asked , me how much I would be prepared to pay for the Disco so I grabbed a figure out of the air and suggested it. he took a deep breath and went to talk to his manager and came back beaming - he could accept my offer of £20000, and they stood buy the offer of £15000k for my Rover. The deal was done and I have been a Land Rover owner ever since! I ran that Disco for 3 years, then sold it to my brother who ran it for another 6 years. Despite me finding out that it had sat for nearly a year on the dealers forecourt the car never suffered any corrosion and more importantly it was 100% reliable. IIRC the only thing that only ever went wrong was when the battery in the remote locking died and I replaced it myself not knowing there was a special procedure to reset the immobiliser. Apart from scheduled service I also had an intermediate oil change done every 4000 miles as that version of the old Rover/Buick V8 had a problem of sludging up when the oil got a bit old. Well done that salesman for being flexible when it came to getting shot of a car that they couldn't shift off the forecourt. Since then I have bought 6 other Land Rovers and don't feel any real need to change marque. Only one car has broken down at the road side and none of the rest has put a wheel wrong in 15 years of Land Rover owning 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Fair play to him, Tim.

Think the key is repeat business, instead of a quick sale. Once they've got you coming back for more, the initial investment of that first good deal pays dividends.

Have to say an hour in an RRS did it for me, if they gave me it for the day they could have had my house.

No effort at all was required by the local dealer when I bought my 2.7 RRS, took my FFRR in for it's service on luanch day of RRS, saw the car having the sheets pulled off it at 8:30am in front of a showroom full of people who were also checking in their cars for service and told the salesguys just to warp it i would take it in exchange for my FFRR. I bought what was supposed to be the demo car, in Givery Green with a beautiful Aspen and Parchment interior and cherrywood panels. Car was on my drive 5 days later! Buying the TDv8 was a somewhat different process - it took Kam100 all of 60 minutes to find me the car I was looking for at the right price and available within the week whereas I had been told no discount and 3 months lead in time at 2 dealerships! The thrid dealership locally also had a Stornoway Grey TDv8 but it was being run as their demo car and they also wanted list price for a 3 month old car with 8k miles on it! The dealer that Kam had located the car at was CHPR. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Must admit all of this makes lovely reading....

Would love to say those words when buying a car on launch day - Just wrap it and put it on my drive
Very James Bondesque

To put a dampener on things, someone I knew pulled into his local LR Dealers on his way home from work(owns his own haulage firm) in his battered Mondeo and he was covered in crap from the Lorries.
What prompted his visit, was a minor bump in his Mondeo, and decided he should finally get himself a better car.
So he walks up to salesman and asks if he could speak to someone about a new FFRR.
Salesman replies 'Do you realise how expensive they are?'
His reply 'Yes I do but I'm fu**ed if I'm giving you any of my money.'
He had to drive thirty miles and across the Dartford Bridge into Kent to the next nearest dealer, where they treated him with respect, and he promptly ordered one there.
He's now on his second, which is a FFRR Autobiography.
Where do they get off judging people, letting alone talking a sale out of the door.
He obviously warned me off them, and I steered well clear when buying my RRS. So another sale lost.

Islider I had similar as well............................. That 1st Disco was great but Disco2 had been launched and I made an appointment with a different city centre (the dealer I bought the V8 from closed not long afterward and made into a Vauxhall dealership) dealer to go and chat and have a test drive. Turned up and parked my freshly washed top of the range 4 year old Disco1 right in front of the showroom window, went inside and was promptly ignored not only by the reception but also by the salesmen who were sitting munching their lunches. Waited 10 minutes and then walked out and went home to phone the salesmanager. They tried everything they could to get me to go back. I am glad to see that that dealer (still selling Land Rovers) gets regular mentions in the Customer Bad Experience tales in What Car? Anybody who has asked about them I have told to them to use any dealer except that one. Mercedes Benz in Glasgow were the same (in fact they didn't ask me about being able to afford a Mercedes SLK, without even trying to sell me one the salesman told me I could not afford one!) and the BMW and Audi in Stirling also are extremely rude to prospective customers who arrive in non- BMW and Audi cars on their forecourt - yet they seem to welcome owners who already own a car of their marque with open arms! The reason for me refusing to buy BMW's has been exactly because of the exceptionally rude reception I have had at 4 of the dealerships in Central Scotland - basically I have been ignored when I have been in the showroom. Even when I have been standing at the literature racks nobody comes to talk to you yet salesmen sit at their desks chomping on bags of crisps or surfing the internet ignoring the money! The impression I get is that all is well in the Mercedes/BMW and Audi worlds and they don't really need to sell any cars. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on Fri Aug 21 2009 10:35am. Edited 1 time in total

one of the Freel2 forum members was told by a sales person "I'm trying to start a rumour that XYZ dealer was going bankrupt" (XYZ was the dealer he had bought the car from)

I won't repeat the dealers name that said it about as this sort of underhanded stuff i really out of order IMO and that's how rumours start etc

I spoke to the dealership that said this in Doncaster when i first bought a LR and they didn't fill me with confidence then, and after hearing that they never will either......

Got to admit my dealers sales chap at York wasn't too pleased when i let him know i had sourced a car out of courtesy to him, but if he had said i might be able to source you a ex-demo instead of we won't be getting a FL2 HSE demo, i might have sat at his desk longer, but TBH i already had made my mind up on the CHPR offer

All this goes to show that a good dealer is worth his weight in gold  

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Ha NP, that was my experience after I had committed to buying the TDv8 via Kam100 and CHPR. They had since welcomed me back with brochures etc so will be asking them to give me their best deal as well when I go to order the next car. If they cannot compete on price /delivery (and they will be up against Kam100 and James) thenthey won't get my business. The problem they have is they are a family concern with only one Land Rover franchise and cannot offer the deals that the big boys can offer 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on Fri Aug 21 2009 10:41am. Edited 1 time in total

Quote:

All this goes to show that a good dealer is worth his weight in gold

James at CHPR must be worth a small fortune then!  2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


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Suppose it depends on whether you are after sales/turnover or profit VA...................... sometimes lots of sales at a lower profit margin can get the dealer more than only 2 or 3 sales a month at full list price. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Sorry Tim - my reply was to Shmoogles post. I've edited now to make it clear. 2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


DO NOT CLICK HERE!

 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW