'They Want To Be The Gatekeepers': Car Dealers Are Stopping Customers From Buying EVs
'They Want To Be The Gatekeepers': Car Dealers Are Stopping Customers From Buying EVs
Car dealerships are resisting the transition to electric vehicles.
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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).
The Volt is a great car. Could've been even better, but still great.
Coming from a Jetta (part of the buyback program) she didn't like how it drove but she now owns an i3S REX (and a Leaf she needs to sell) which is kind of the posh version of the Volt
Interesting, i actually do like how it drives for the most part. I know that was a point of contention within GM though.
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.
They should know, but often they don't.
Then again, OP is over-estimating how rational people are when they buy a car.
Tesla has entirely done away with dealership. They sell plenty of cars anyway. Outside the US dealerships aren't always a thing either.
You're overestimating the importance of sales people in the purchasing decisions of modern consumers.
Guide people around the show room, hand out brochures if asked, make an appointment for a test drive, help fill in the online car configurator, ...
"The computer's asking what rims you'd like. I'll show you some pictures."
"What colour would you like. I have a brochure here? You like red? We have a red car over there. Would you like to take a look?"
"You need financing? I'll fill in your details in our software and see what the computer says!"
Honestly, I suspect some dealership wouldn't see a significant decrease in sales if they replaced half their sales force with an app.
The sales rep's main job is to push the upgrades and other accessories or warranties on you, that's where they make the most margin.
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.
If you're selling used vehicles, I can understand it. If you're selling new vehicles from your manufacturer's dealership, you better know each model on the lot, it's pros/cons and options. There is no excuse there, it's their job.
Thanks for adding more fuel to my dealership hate.