Thinking of changing S4 order color... maybe Meteor Gray??? - Page 6

congrats, and damn! paying cash at 27, only to sell it back 2 years from now?! what do you do for a living, if you don't mind me asking?

It's good that you left immediately, they didn't deserve your business. I've had to walk out a couple of times myself due to rudeness.

I've found with "premium" brands the sales staff can be terrible. I'm young (22) and when I went in to talk to them about an S5 on behalf of my dad they simply laughed and suggested that it would be too expensive. Naturally I left. I then headed to the Aston Martin dealer, simply becuase it was there. I chatted to the SA for about 20 minutes about the merits of a used DB9 against a new S5 and he didn't once suggest that I might be too young/poor/stupid to own one. There is something about the middle section of the market that makes the SAs believe that they are selling gold bricks rather than lumps of pig iron.

Lulz @ S5 and DB9 being "the middle section of the market."

Actually, LOL my farking arse off.

Whats wrong with that? (by "middle" I don't mean the cars that most people have, I mean cars that are about half way up the overall car-food-chain) VW Golf: £15k VW Passat: £25k Audi S5: £50k Used BD9: £65k New DB9:£100k Cheap car dealers don't act like tools, and high end ones don't either.

I think you got it all wrong . You ARE indeed a customer for middle-class aspirational cars like Audi, however the salesman "prequalified" you pretty quickly and concluded that you are just an afternoon "stroker". At Aston the story is different, salesman is on a payroll and gets salary plus comission, so he is encouraged to chat around and socialise and would not care if you are for real or not. He simply gets paid for just being there in a showroom. His boss does not expect him to sell to every third customer who wallks through the doors unlike at Audi.

Im not arguing that I'm not the right customer. I'm simply saying that the brand representatives at these places don't seem to have any time for someone who isn't actively giving them money. The Aston Martin guy recognised that I may not be a buyer right now, but in 5 years time I could well be. As far as Audi are concerned I wasn't worth even being nice to, despite the fact it meant that another dealer got a wad of cash when my dad got his car there. If the guy hadn't been a jerk then he'd have another £50k on his scorecard.

Ah, you're talking median not the mode. I guess I sort of get that.

Btw, Pezzy is correct. When you're working on commission, you play the odds. You did not fit the statistical profile of who will buy so the thought is not to spend too much time with you, that you're basically a wasted "up," and get you broomed out before a better "up" comes in. Outliers happen but you don't bet your paycheque on them.

What you have to remember though is that just because the facts have changed doesn't mean peoples expectations/assumptions have. Also, while we all know appearances can be deceiving, they are still used...and often quite valid...in making some assumptions. A well dressed, distinguished looking man of middle years drives up in a newer MB, regardless of race, and only an idiot would not go for him vs. a poorly dressed 22 y/o in a 15 year old VW Golf. Now, I know someone is going to come back and tell me the older guy might be a bum and the younger guy might be worth billions. Certainly this could be true...but that case would be such an outlier as to be meaningless.

I'm not making any value judgements on this situation, not saying if you're the on the receiving end it isn't annoying, just giving the calculus of the SAs and the fact people's perception do not always align with reality. I've gone into places dressed down and dressed in work clothes, and I can tell you unless the SA knows me, work clothes gets a better reception.

Agreed.

So, have you got it yet, or later this week? Must have delivery pics posted.

If you are consolidating, try American Express. We've been very happy with them for years.