Everyone’s first car buying experience should be a special one, however for many it is not that way. When I was finally ready to purchase my first vehicle I decided to start looking online as most college students do. There were many car dealerships around my house, but I have always had a bad perception of car salesman. However, I found a car that I wanted at a near by dealership and decided to go and see if I could accomplish the impossible and get a qualified salesman. When I arrived, I was immediately bombarded by salesmen asking if I needed any help. The first one that I answered was a young man in his late twenties who seemed like someone I could get along with. Right from the start it seemed like he was interested in what I wanted and wanted to try to help. He did ask me if I had any preferences and I told him that I had come to look at a specific car that I had viewed online. After that he seemed to only be focused on that car and did not try at all to show me any other car that I might like so I was disappointed I had no options to choose from. He did however ask if I wanted to take a test drive and at first, I thought he knew a lot about this car, a jeep compass, but later I found out that he was just agreeing with everything I said, and I quickly caught on to this. I chose a manual jeep because I have always had manuals and love driving them. However, I have never owned a jeep and did not realize that there is a special way to put it in reverse, so I asked the salesman how to put it in reverse and he sat there speechless.
After all that time of telling me about all the nice features this vehicle had and how it would be the perfect fit for me, I realized he had been saying what I wanted to hear in order to make the sale. I obviously decide not to go with the vehicle and never went back to that dealership again.
BoweryJE22
It’s so unfortunate that this is the way your first car “buying” experience had to be. It’s definitely interesting though that you were more prepared than the salesman, in the experience I had, we were just going back and forth spitting facts in an almost competition-like way to see who knew more.
I found this post interesting and like how you used a personal experience. It’s unfortunate that this was your first experience purchasing a vehicle. I am surprised that the salesman knew so little about how the car operated. This example highlights that salespeople need to be aware of the basic functions and operations of the product that he or she is selling.