'They Want To Be The Gatekeepers': Car Dealers Are Stopping Customers From Buying EVs
Car dealerships are resisting the transition to electric vehicles.
Went to the dealership the other weekend to test drive an EV with my wife. She knew the exact model she wanted, and the dealer ship wouldn't let her test drive it. They kept trying to get her into the model lower that didn't have all the bells and wistles.
It only after we got frustrated that they tried to let us drive the model she'd been asking for. We just left. Dealships are pretty pointless
The history of dealerships is pretty fucked up.
Through lobbying they've made themselves a required middle man, and the owners make a shit ton of money. You can pick your dealer, but you can't pick to not use a dealer.
Having to go through a dealer shouldn't be a thing in the first place.
It sort of made sense back when there were ACTUAL customization options you could have. What paint job? Seats? Trim? Wheels? Extra options? It was neat.
These days, just buying from one of three canned models? Yeah, fuck dealer middle men.
The one thing that dealers provide which is still of value is the test drive. Customizing on a web site is all well and good, but trying before you buy is crucial with such a major purchase. I would rather not be stuck in a car that I find uncomfortable for any reason.
I love that one of the dealers main complaints is that customers take longer because they want to know more about the vehicle yet the dealers don't know shit about them. Maybe it wouldn't take customers so long to pick one if the dealer could answer the questions?
Understand your cars and your customers.
We went to try a Volt back in 2018 for my mother and the director just sent us on a road test, never explaining the regenerative braking and after we were done he said "I forgot to show you the engine!" and proceeded to show my mother, a lady who doesn't know how to change an air filter, the engine bay as if she cared about it.
Went to Mercedes to try the small 250 models, went for a drive in the B250 and GLA250, salesman never even mentioned the power or any of the specs, just talked about the comfort and safety and how practical AWD would be with her living pretty far out of town.
She ended up with a GLA even though from a financial perspective the Volt would have been much more logical (she now has an EV for this reason).
Dealers hate and resent EVs anyway so no way are they gonna learn more about them.
TBF it's normal that dealers know less about particular models than customers. The internet exists. When you're thinking of buying a car, you're likely to do a lot of research about the particular make and model you like. You're a specialist on that model, while the dealer is a generalist for the make.
They just work there. For you it's likely the most important financial decision you'll make that year.
I disagree. If you work at a dealership, you should know everything there is to know about the cars your dealership stocks. I'll give leeway to trade-ins from other car makers, but if you work at a Chevy dealer and you can't tell me about Chevys, you're a bad salesman and you're not going to make commissions.
Nah, I work in IT and I'm expected to learn new software all the time. To become the subject matter expert in a few months at most.
I recommend these sales people learn about the products they're selling, you'd think if it's how they feed themselves they'd be up on all the current models and trends.
I sold cars for a major automaker for a few months. We had sales reps come in from corporate to train us on new models (including a new EV that was coming out, first of its line for the make). I had managers tell me that I needed to walk the lot and study the inventory every day.
The simple truth is that 95% of the salespeople I met before during and since are just complete fuckups and borderline carnies. There’s an incredible amount of down time in car sales, and there is an incredibly limited number of models to need to learn about. It’s less dynamic than learning a restaurant menu. They just don’t want to.
Thanks for adding more fuel to my dealership hate.
This is just another reason why the independent dealership model needs to end. They only make the purchasing experience worse, at this point.
Last time I went looking for an EV the dealerships tried talking me out of it, they even said hybrids are a fad… ridiculous that we’re forced to go through these business full of grade-school intelligence douches to get a car we need. Hopefully all the companies take the route of Tesla and Ford and allow direct buy from the company soon
My friend went into a Ford dealership in Sacramento to try and buy an F 150 lightning. The dealers completely talked him out of it. They make bigger commissions off of ice vehicles
This was one thing I really enjoyed with buying a Tesla. 0 pressure to buy, did a test drive. Went in and purchased afterwards with no extras, markups, or dealer exclusive garbage. Was a great buying experience. I'm sure Rivian and the other EV only brands are just as easy and great
Imagine being a paying customer then being talked down as if you are a brain dead idiot to be milked.
