Did the sales person demonstrate the RL's audio system to you when you test drove it? Did s/he demonstrate DVD-Audio or explain it? Did the sales person mention MP3's?

 

My salesperson knew very little about cars - much less anything specific to the RL. Nice guy, but BS'd his way through the entire deal. Fortunately, I was already familiar with the product and knew what I wanted when I went there. He came up with some pretty wild stuff but I just laughed to myself and went on with the deal. I acted really impressed when he told me the RL was the only Acura that was hand-painted because the machinery didn't produce as good a job (as he pointed to a nearby TL and compared...).

I really do feel there should be some form of proficiency testing for manufacturers' auto salespersons. It is rare that I run into one that really knows the product or its competition - just a job to most folks I'm afraid...

 

I think the sales person is so shocked they might actually sell one that they just sit there petrified and silent.

 

Aren't car sales people paid on comission? Doesn't it occur to them that know about the product will help them sell the product, which will help them make more money? A proficiency certification would help, though.

I'm starting to wonder if the RL would sell better if it were a Lexus. I wonder if Lexus sales people would know more about the car.

 

My salesman spent a lot of time showing the navi and voice activation, along with some of the other features, but not so much on the audio. He definitely knew the car inside and out though.

 

I was at the dealership for about 3.5 hours with my salesman going over EVERY aspect of the car and it's features, including the audio system. He defintely knew the car inside and out way more then any other experience I've had with a salesman.

 

Was that time or attention a major factor in you deciding to buy the RL?

 

If you go over an RL from start to finish you're looking at 1-2 hours. Most people's eyes glaze over after 30 minutes. It's way too much information to absorb for most people. It's best to ask what features people want to learn about and go from there.

Just going over the Nav in a basic way is 20-25 minutes minimum. Add OnStar, stereo, Traffic stuff, MID stuff, where all the buttons are stuff, plus the HFL and any customer's head will explode.

And turnover is so high at dealerships that sales people don't learn the cars that well.

Some people might not buy an RL if they are not told about certain features on the RL but really this doesn't happen too often.

 

More great points from CL6.

I don't think the sales person should go over every feature. However, it would help if the sales person knows what the features are. It would be nicem, for example, if the sales person understands that you can use the navigation system strictly with voice commands and can demonstrate that.

When I went to the Infiniti dealership, the first thing the salesman did was pair my phone with the Infiniti M via Bluetooth. How many Acura sales people can do that with an RL?

 

My salesperson covered all of the bases. Having researched the car pretty thoroughly, I was quite familiar with it, but I let him take me through it anyway. I actually taught him something...that the A/C is not true "Dual Mode" as advertised.

 

One thing I have noticed about RL drivers is that they have extensively researched the cars and come in the door knowing something about the cars they are considering. Unfortunately, many luxury car customers are unwilling or unable to put forth as much effort into research. Has anyone experienced that?

 

Well this was actually the detailed "how everything works" after I bought the car. They pulled it onto the showroom floor and he went over pretty much everything that I needed to know about the car. Prior to buying the car we spent about 2 hours or so on the test drive and a more brief overview of the car's features. I would say that this defintely helped me to buy the car from them but I pretty much already knew I wanted the RL when I went in there so I was probaly and easy sell. The time the salesman spent with me only made we want the car more and appreciate it to an even greater degree.

 

Mine did. We even tried the acuralink but he told me in advance that he hadn't been able to get it to work with the treo 650.

 

The RL is dual zone but not dual mode as in the TL. I always wondered why it lacks this feature.

Although sales people *should not* think this way... the money made on an RL is not much when compared to the time needed to deliver it to the customer. You can sell an RSX and make the same amount as with an RL but the RL requires about 10 times more effort. People, following the path of least resistance, will often live by this mantra.

The worst thing is when you get someone who thinks they know it all or can't understand anything and you try and explain the RL to them.

 

I'm not sure if I understand what you mean on this one. Could you elaborate?

 

Elaborate on which point?

 

I'm confused about how selling an RSX can be more profitable than selling RL that costs twice as much.

 

You sell an RL... make $150. You sell an RSX... make $150.

Since hardly anybody buys an RL you sell it for nothing so you make... next to nothing!

In the time it takes to sell and go thru one RL you could theoretically get 2 or 3 RSXs...

 

Shouldn't the commission be proportional to the cost of the car? If not, then that explains why some Acura sales people are so lax. Seems like a problem with the incentive system to me.

 

It generally goes off of gross profit. Some people might be lax because they're bad salespeople. Every dealership is different but the comission comes from gross profit. If that is not really present than you get a minimum commission. It does seem harsh maybe but this is how it is.

 

So it isn't proportional to the price of the car. But wouldn't the RL be more profitable per unit than an RSX?

 

Not necessarily. It all depends what an RL sells for. Maybe there is more profit for Acura to sell an RL to a dealer vs. an RSX but I have no idea how much it costs Acura to make an RL or what their profit per unit is.

 

It really is a shame if the individual sales person makes no more on an RL than a TSX. That could be one reason for the RL's low sales, not to mention the NSX's low sales. There's really no incentive for sales people to even push the more expensive models.

 

I don't think your average TL prospect, walking into the dealership, is going to be moved upmarket by $8000-10,000 just on the salesman's talent alone. The RSX, TSX, TL, and RL are in pretty specific price segments, and they're not ones to be lightly moved.

If that is truly the case, the guy should be selling something besides cars....

 

I'm sure I'm unusual, but I considered the TL before the RL. For me, the feature content of the RL was so much greater than the TL that it was worth it. Hell, the fact that the RL is not FWD was half the battle for me.

And it looks like Acura needs to find a way to give incentives to actual sales people to sell the RL.

 

I can confirm CL6's posts. All dealers have different pay plan structures and sometime sales people, depending on the department, have different plans within the same dealership.

To your question on the proficiency of each Acura Certified Salesperson, I would agree that it is a problem. The root cause is that some associates are not willing to use the tools from Acura to constantly improve product knowledge. Acura provides a huge amount of literature, on-line study and ride & drive seminars and backs that up with required testing. The sales people that take advantage of the tools tend to be career focused and end up with the highest CSI and customer return and referrel numbers. Every business, no matter the industry, is going to have slackers.

The slow sales of the RL, I have found, are more the function of demand rather then poor selling skills. The same can be said for the NSX. You just don't have a great number of qualified potential owners. On average, it is not easy to compare a TL buyer with an RL buyer. You would definitely be on the high end of the curve. We have used several cash incentive programs to boost RL sales to little effect. Keep in mind, we have 6 salespeople that are tasked to sell new Acura product. Our average time at the dealer is 5.5 years. All of our reps are Acura Certified (100% on all testing) with one silver, one gold and two gold master level reps. We are the highest volume store in our zone and we average 2 RL's per month.

My average TL delivery is 45 mins. My average RL delivery is 1.5 hours. I usually spend at least 1.5 hours during the sales process (pre-delivery) including the RL demo and walk-around going over the nav, bluetooth, MID and audio system. That usually breaks it up enough so that the delivery doesn't take all-day. I also do a refresher one-week after delivery at the client's home.

 

I wonder if geography influences RL demand. For example, is it possible that the RL sells better in snowy and/or hilly areas where AWD would have more demand?

Also what role does demographics play in RL demand? Do RL customers tend to be a certain age? Are RL customers more likely to be in some professions but not others? Are RL customers more likely to be in professions where they do research on a regular basis?

Overall, I guess Acura corporate needs to work really hard to make the Acura brand appeal to people to who can afford cars over $45K. It doesn't seem like they've been very successful with that yet.

 

Great post rmralston. I agree there are slackers in every field. I'm glad you take the extra initiative to learn about the vehicles and frequent these forums. That is not only good for you and good for Acura but also good for us not on the inside.

Which dealership do you work?

--Josh

 

The RL is actully targeted at a much younger demo than the previous generations. I actully have lost clients who had leased or owned 2000-2003 RLs to competitive brands because they were used to the cloud-like ride of their old RL and didn't see the value in the nav & tech features ( my fault for not showing the cost/benefit ratio ). These clients were a bit older and not open to change. My RL clients run the gamit of professions and most are very savy about the product.

Corps' best move would be to hire a new ad company. They hit the mark with the 2005 RSX-S comercial but the '06 ads are less than impresive. Lexus always nails it. Even when I'm flippin' through the channels, I seem to stop dead when a Lexus ad runs. They show the vehicle performing. The RL, TL and TSX ads seem to focus on the tech features ( i.e voice activated nav, bluetooth, XM nav traffic ). You can do a ton of research, drive every vehicle, put the stats side-by-side ( including cost ) and better then 80% of the time you'll buy on emotion. Acura needs to tap into that.

The AWD is a strong point here in Ohio, but not as much of a buying motivation as Acura was expecting. My fellow TL owners should agree that the TL goes where you point it when you're in the crud.

 

I agree with you on the age factor. The local Acura dealership had a "premier party" for the new RL. Owners of the previous generation were invited. I noticed that many of them were senior citizens who basically wanted a Japanese Cadillac. Like you said, they didn't value the new technology and some were actually alienated by it.

I also agree that Corporate should change advertising agencies. Granted, studies have questioned the effectiveness of TV advertising for cars, but I think it wouldn't hurt to use TV effectively. Also, product placement is important. I also think they should bring in a new ad agency to work on the magazine ads and they should pick their publications wisely.

Good luck with selling those Acuras. Hopefully, future Acuras in the RL's price range will sell better. Hopefully, either Acura corporate will learn how to promote that price range of car (and the brand itself) or it will give up and stick with TLs and MDXs.

 

Product Placement..."24" is all Toyota IS, GS, GX and Avalon. It would be nice to see the product everywhere.

 

Excellent example! That type of thing is actually more effective than a commercial because it gets under a person's radar. It's almost like a subliminal message.

 

I wish I could compare an RL commercial to a Lexus commercial, but I've never seen an RL commercial!

People don't buy RLs because people don't know what RLs are. The question I always get when I tell someone what I drive is, "An RL... what's that?".

Even I didn't know what an RL was until two weeks before I bought one. I just happened to see an article on Forbes.com comparing an RL to a Volvo S80, because they were the only two luxury sedans with five star safety ratings (not counting the American land-yachts). I was intrigued by Acura's all-around safety rating and interior/exterior appearance and was sold when I took a closer look via Acura's interactive showroom. Btw, I think Acura has the best website. That's one thing Acura did right, marketing-wise.

So your average fellow with 50K to spend on a new car just isn't going to think of Acura as an option when he decides it's time to take the plunge. It will be whatever car was in that cool commercial he saw while watching CNN the other day. That's the first dealership he will go to and I have a feeling that in most cases the first dealer visited is the dealer who makes the sale.

Just my two cents.

 

I've gotten the same comments Gator33 has gotten. "That's a pretty car, what is it?" Hell, one time I was in a parking lot and an Acura TL driver (2nd generation) asked me which Acura that was.

Here's an advertising question for everyone: what is Acura's slogan? BMW's is "The Ultimate Driving Machine." Acura used to say they were precision crafted such and such, but what about now?

Here's an idea: maybe Honda should take some of the money that they're spending on developing a V10 and do the following: 1) figure out how to manufacture SH-AWD cheaply enough so they can drop the MSRP of the RL, 2) divert some money to building the Acura brand so that people will know what an Acura is and will be willing to pay for an expensive Acura. If they don't do this, then a V10 Acura sell poorly like the NSX and both generations of RL.

To my knowledge, the RL has only had one bad review (the long-term test). The RL is not a "bad" car. It's just that Acura has some bad dealerships and Acura has been doing some ineffective promotion.

 

Precision Crafted Performance...great points!

 

No.

 

What features did the sales person show you? How did the sales person convince you to buy the RL?

 

Sales person explained absolutely nothing about the car on delivery...by request. I bought the car during a lunch hour and was running late for a meeting, so I asked to skip the delivery routine.

Honestly, it's been a blast discovering all the features. I'm a gadget guy, and did a lot of research before buying the RL, so I was familiar with most of the features. It's been fun reading the manuals and here all the cool tricks.

 

Ditto... I asked mine to skip the delivery, too. I like playing with the car, finding all the stuff -- and the first thing I do when I get home with the new car is read the manual cover to cover....


Plus, the RL came with a DVD that explained everything -- this was perfect for the female in the household.... once I showed her how to play a DVD on the TV...again.

 

Congrats to both of you! Acura needs to really promote the RL to guys like you. Technology is the RL's strength and I think they need to play to that strength. What do you guys think?