Bottle of wine with your new car, Sir?

[SKODA vRS147]

I only got half a tank from Steve Jarvins when I picked up my Superb. Miserable bastards. Glad they don't sell Skodas anymore.

That does not surprise me at all from Steve Jarvins.
I dont like saying it but they deserved what was coming to them.

[SKODA vRS147]

That is one thing that really annoys me, when you go to a car dealership that sell a specific brand of car and they don't even know them that well. It is there job to know everything there is about the cars they sell! It basically makes you doubt anything they say and look for your business elsewhere.

When I bought the skoda through Wes at Trivett (free plug )....I was extremely happy. Full tank, 12 months rego, free tint and kept in the loop the whole time the deal was being processed and the car being delivered. If that is the service I get, then don't worry about giving me champagne! I'm already happy!

+1 From me on the Trivetts plug - I also dealt with Wes and he was great.

[woofy]

I mist admit, I did buy the car due to George actually knowing about it. The guys at Preston are pretty up there so do well.

I would be out of a job if I didn't know the technical side of things, I have to know the best part of 1500 intricate products, kits and systems and be able to know about the other 1000 within a short bit of investigation.

And most of the time apply that to a customer on the fly, so when there are a few models with most of the time under 10 options I would hope they know that much, I bet most salespeople can work out their commission on fly.....

[sh|tbmxrider]

Whats this Full Tank nonsence?

Car Salesmen sell cars, not fuel.

You say they are stingey bastards, well, lets flip it around, after you, the customer screws, and screws, and screws down the price, why would you expect otherwise... You want to pay as little money, and he/she wants to earn as much as possible...

Did you purchase the car at full RRP? No? Then shhh, you.

[woofy]

Wrong, they sell an experience, the car is just part of it.

The wanky Audi sales guys at Richmond even use that phrase directly! It is true, noone buys a car they buy an experience, so if it's crap they will avoid it. If that experience has a minimum expectation of petrol then people will feel cheated. Little things count and I've found the dealers who have the full tank, little delivery gifts also tend to be the better place to go to and also tend to do better.

You get out what you put in...

[bobski]

Look at it this way. How many people get shirty if they get a brand spanking new car and don't get a full tank of fuel, then go on to complain about it to their friends/family/message board.... That little bit of extra satisfaction makes the difference, so I'm sure good dealerships would factor in needing to put $80 of premium into each new car when doing the haggling.

[Transporter]

Yeah, I think that the full tank of fuel is nice, but to say that someone goes to buy a car from the particular dealer only to get the gift and for experience? I don't think so.

But hey, maybe next time some dealers will give us a cheeseburger and fries with a new car .

[brad]

Whats this Full Tank nonsence?

Car Salesmen sell cars, not fuel.

You say they are stingey bastards, well, lets flip it around, after you, the customer screws, and screws, and screws down the price, why would you expect otherwise... You want to pay as little money, and he/she wants to earn as much as possible...

Did you purchase the car at full RRP? No? Then shhh, you.

Couldn't agree more. Explains why a lot of the cars come with low oil, low coolant & low washer fluid. Thank goodness they offset it by giving us extra air in the tyres & leaving the shipping blocks in the springs.

Seriously, would you be happy to buy a carton of discount beer with some of the bottles only half full?

[Antiplastix]

I d rather have extra air than flat spots on my tyres. A bloke at work just bought a XR6 ,all 4 tyres had flat spots from sitting in the holding yard for umpteen months.

[woofy]

I think my comment went over a few heads. Cars for the most part are very emotional purchases, yes there are practical constraints, but noone buys the RS over the 1.8 TSI for any real practical reason, same with the GTi etc.

Thats a basic example, but most purchases in our lovely consumeristic society are based on experiences. A non car example is why everyone went and bought blu ray players and LCD screens. LCDs are only just coming up to a CRT quality, sure they are bigger, but before HD, a 76cm WS TV actually had the same resolution in SD. The rest was the emotional experience and the hype. 68cm were big for a long time for a good reason, they were the right size for living rooms.

Things like petrol and little scrimping weigh on peoples heads. In a game were Skoda aren't front of mind, they don't want to be saving $40 and losing a repeat sale of 40k down the track. The petrol debate comes up in every car forum, but the end result is the same, if you bought from a dealer that stiffed you on petrol and one that didn't you most likely already will be favouring the former, and again its your experience with buying that car.

I'm due to changeover soon and front of mind for me is that George has left Richmond Skoda and the rest of the crew there haven't caused very positive experiences, I would like a Superb, but again DSG issues and some people I know that have had them, have tainted my experience. I almost diverted there on the way to the office just before, but thoughts of seeing another numbnuts there from the Audi part really put me off so I didn't.

On the other hand at the Mazda dealer, they keep in regular contact, even though my 6 is 5 yrs old now, and I've had nothing but a good experience with them, so getting another 6 keeps coming back to me. Again none of this is to do with buying a car, but all purely the experience of it.