Buying a car?

Ok, as a car salesman I have this need to vent for a moment. If you are currently shopping for a new (or used) vehicle I hope none of this offends, but it needs to be said.

Let me start by providing a bit of background into how a car salesperson earns a living. He/she sells a car, period! There is no consolation prize for being there all day and not selling anything. You basically just worked for free. Imagine for a minute that the job you work at paid in this manner. Let me give you an example. My bother is in law enforcement. Let's say that he was required to be at work for a set shift but he did not make a cent unless there was a crime commited AND he was the arresting office. Now, we all know that there isn't a day that goes by that someone somewhere isn't breaking a law. For the sake of the example, though, let's assume he went to work and the town he lived in was not typical and they had days without a single crime. He would have worked for free. This is how it works for me. I don't sell a car, I don't make a dime.

Now, for all you negative folk out there ready to tell me something along the line of "you picked that job, if you don't like it find a new one...." give me just a bit longer. Let me make the situation worse and give you another example. Let's say you work in the mall. Stores in the mall usually get a lot of traffic in and out. I would imagine a good portion of it is for window shoppers. Maybe they have no intentions of ever purchasing for that store or maybe they are just checking to see what is there. Now, let's use the above example and say that you had to work a full day in said store but the only time you made any money was when you sold something. Now, let's say you are at a store that is plagued with an over abundance of window shoppers that have no intention of making a purchase or want to start looking today for something that you won't even have in 6 to 9 months. Hell, you probably won't have whatever he is looking at in 6 weeks. So, you just spent the whole day showing off and answering questions about some product that they probably could have researched online and not gone into the store well before the time they are ready to make a purchase. This too is my life.

It seems to be a trend in the winter. People like to go looking at cars with no intentions of buying one. This whole month has been riddled with people that are three, six or nine months from buying a vehicle. If you are this person, i bet you are thinking to yourself or have recently told some poor salesperson trying to provide for his/her family: "Oh, I just like to know about the features before I narrow my list of actual vehicles I am considering." I do not know of a single manufacturer that does not have a website. They will have all the information that anyone could ever want to know about the vehicle. Do your research through an outlet that does not pull someone out of a position to provide for his family. Call the store if you must, but don't show up and occupy someone's time for an hour or two with no desire to actually buy a vehicle for any length of time.

Oh, BTW, if you are looking to buy soon and you simply didn't like the vehicle, when they call you back to follow-up just tell them. By all means don't tell them that you like it and set up a time to buy it and then never show up and stop answering your phone. We can handle being told "No".

Well, I feel better. Hey, if you are looking to buy a vehicle let me know ;)