Is It Really Necessary?

[The_Blur]

Sometimes, I like to hit up some used car sites and see what it would take to get me into a Camaro, and I look at the ads. Frequently, they're listed in a column with a small picture to one side, a title that includes its trim and model, and a short description, usually highlighting some of the features of the car. There's always such a long list of features that I took the time to read several of them for various cars rather than disregard what is obviously trash-quality content.

I discovered a very foolish habit that dealers tend to use on all of their cars. They waste their time regurgitating the entire sticker. Most of these used car managers aren't educated, and I'm confident they're not adept at typing essays of information as a result, so while customers wait to meet the boss for a negotiation, they're sitting at their computer, sipping coffee, and two-finger-typing a list of features. Let's talk about this list.

On the same page that they highlight Active Fuel Management or Direct Injection, easily two of the most high-tech features available on different Camaros, they are sure to point out the included power windows, power locks, and tachometer. When you're trying to sell a car, shouldn't you know to point out the big features that would sell the car rather than the mundane features we all expect out of everything on four wheels? Is it really necessary to tell me that my future car has a tachometer? If I didn't know that, I don't know that I should be driving at all. It seems like our so-called sales professionals really need to up their game and realize it isn't the 1970's anymore. Buying and selling cars has come a long way, and they need to make it a lot easier to sort the good products from the lame ones when trying to highlight their supposedly great inventories. Flooding the Internet with lines of garbage isn't the way to get noticed.

It's a shame these dealers are such idiots. With a little technical expertise coupled with a big enough pocketbook, a good businessperson could really renovate the entire process of buying a car.

[The Stig]

While I completely agree. I do have one comment. Some cars do not have tachometers. Example: my ****ing smart car.

[JoeP@TeamBeckyD]

Originally Posted by stieger

While I completely agree. I do have one comment. Some cars do not have tachometers.
Example: my ****ing smart car.

It's not....


....SMART?

please explain...

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[The Stig]

Ridiculous is the only word I can use to describe the car.

Completely ridiculous.

[2012 Mustang GT]

^ LOL, but the tach might take the room needed for your kneecap

but I do agree, the average consumer knows more about the car when they go in to look at it than the sales staff. Which, is kinda sad...that some sales people do not even know much about the product in which they are selling. This is true not just in car sales.

[Johng57]

I don't think they make 1000 rpm tachs...

[fielderLS3]

To a car guy, it sounds foolish. But to the average person, who probably doesn't even know what half of the stuff in that list is, it makes the car sound better. Most Camaro buyers know their stuff, but car buyers in general tend to be clueless. They just read the words, and think it must be great.

The other possible reason they do it is just to fill space if it happens to be a car with absolutely no options.

Oh, and I've seen Smart cars at car shows. A tach is apparently an option....and it plugs into some weird place on the dash that is separate from all the other gauges.

Another Smart car fact....it was the only car at the Chicago Auto Show that I could touch both the front and rear bumpers at the same time.

[fielderLS3]

Originally Posted by The_Blur

Sometimes, I like to hit up some used car sites and see what it would take to get me into a Camaro

I thought you had a Camaro. Did you sell it, or are you looking to upgrade?

[COPO_Chevy]

+1 Blur.. I was honestly thinking this same thing a day ago looking through used cars online. Car salesman have become very repetitive with A LOT of the features that are found on cars pretty much standard today, and frankly makes it a chore to look through all the options to find the ones you want to know about.. I've seen some pretty poorly planned out lists in the that way that they display the options along with the options used, or even not used in some cases.

Originally Posted by 2012 Mustang GT

but I do agree, the average consumer knows more about the car when they go in to look at it than the sales staff. Which, is kinda sad...

Completely agree. When I went with my brother to find a car that was better on gas that what he currently had several months ago, we had went passed a 2011 2SS/RS in the building. My brother and Me, being the car people we are, started chatting about it. I was rattling off information to my brother who had asked a specific question. The salesman that was with us looked at us with a dumbfounded look and literally said, "I didn't know that.." Wouldn't you think if you're selling a car you would know about it? IMO, if you're job is being around cars everyday and trying to sell them to others, you should not only have a knowledge of the product you are selling, but also a passion for what you are doing (which encompasses a passion for the cars as well).

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by fielderLS3

I thought you had a Camaro. Did you sell it, or are you looking to upgrade?

It didn't make sense to join the Navy with the LS, so I got out of it when I could make the most of it. Now, I'm driving a Grand Am GT until I can get into something that burns more rubber.

[Christiancoach]

As a past Internet Sales Manager. The person "writing" the ad is not the Used Car Manager. It is almost always a third party company that takes the pictures, compiles the description, and posts the cars online. When it comes to features it is a menu, like if you go to Kelly Blue Book for a used car price, you simply go down the list of ALL the possible options, and click the check box. They list every single option, because somewhere out there, someone types in power windows (their 30 year old Corolla had manual) in as a search term. If it isn't in the description their car doesn't show up.
You would be pretty amazed at how uneducated most people are about cars. I have aquaintences ask me from time to time to help them buy a car, and I am stupified by their lack of knowledge sometimes.

[PAUL SS]

Originally Posted by fielderLS3

To a car guy, it sounds foolish. But to the average person, who probably doesn't even know what half of the stuff in that list is, it makes the car sound better. Most Camaro buyers know their stuff, but car buyers in general tend to be clueless. They just read the words, and think it must be great.

The other possible reason they do it is just to fill space if it happens to be a car with absolutely no options.

Oh, and I've seen Smart cars at car shows. A tach is apparently an option....and it plugs into some weird place on the dash that is separate from all the other gauges.

Another Smart car fact....it was the only car at the Chicago Auto Show that I could touch both the front and rear bumpers at the same time.

You have to take us smott peeple out of the equassion.

[Wondering]

Originally Posted by The_Blur

I discovered a very foolish habit that dealers tend to use on all of their cars. They waste their time regurgitating the entire sticker. Most of these used car managers aren't educated, and I'm confident they're not adept at typing essays of information as a result, so while customers wait to meet the boss for a negotiation, they're sitting at their computer, sipping coffee, and two-finger-typing a list of features. Let's talk about this list.

They don't type out anything. It's a cut & paste.

[Ultrakiller]

Originally Posted by Wondering

They don't type out anything. It's a cut & paste.

This, even mongs here in UAE do this, only a very few here know how to properly inform potential buyers about the cars, but a part of the fault here is that most of the people looking for performance cars buy them for the looks and that's it. In US you would smash a blower in some guy's skull is he's got a Camaro and would not know that the arch-rival is Mustang.
Here, only one person knew not only this, but the differences, and only one dealer which was in a city close to Dubai and sold Chevrolets (from Aveos to ZR1 Vettes) knew them inside and out, and he was a standalone dealer, so he not only sold around 500 corvettes and 6000 other cars, in which 200 I reckon were SS Camaros (no LT/LS here), all alone.

This is what sales people should do: learn the specs, get paid or gtfo.