Whats up, I havent been on here in years. I still lurk around a lot becuase even though I no longer own a TL, i loved all the info on this board. I liked my TL so much before that when I started to look for a new career, i realized how badly i wanted to keep workiing with acuras. So i put on a suit, walked into the nearest acura dealership with my resume, and with almost zero sales expereince, got myself hired. I just finished my month long training session, and sold a car on my first day actually on the floor. It was perfect because it was an 01 TL, and back in the day i had an 00 TL. All I had to do is tell my client my experiences with my car, it was cake. But truely if your a car person and your looking for a career, and can put up with the occasional BS, I strongly suggest anyone else on the board do the same.

But thats not the point of my post... I cannot tell you who I am or where im working due to the contract between this site and DCH Montclair Acura, but I am definitely going to bring stuff I see on here into our meeting room in the mornings, because i feel input from everyone on here could take acura to the next level.

On that note, any bad dealer experiences anyone looking to share? I really want to have a 100% customer satisfaction rating, and I would love to hear what have to say about their acura sales/service experiences!

Personally, i know the guy who i bought my acura from was terrible, he couldnt speak english (kind of important when your describing technical features) was shy, and didnt know shit to begin with...

Lets hear it!

 

Ferman Acura in Tampa Fl is a piece of shit. The place even looks horrible. Worst part is it is next to a Hummer, Exotic Cars, and down the street from an Aston Martin Dealer

 

I "sold" my parents the TL over any other car with a 23 page paper(yes I was devoted). If I wasn't 16 I would love to get a job selling cars.

Mike

 

:ibhistrannygoesandyouloseacustomer:

Just be nice to everyone, no matter what they look or smell like.

 

kudos for approaching this topic correctly by respecting our current advertising deals. on the sale too!

 

Just know what the hell you are talking about (and it sounds like you probably do). My worst experiences have been sales people who just really had no clue what they were selling. Like at Nissan where the sales woman kept insisting that the Altima was rear wheel drive.

 

Make sure the service and parts guys actually know what they are talking about when you bring your car in. Example, when the cables for my subs are run up the drivers side, don't tell me they interfered with my air conditioning drain on the passenger side of my car. You will simply look like an idiot when I show you where exactly the wiring is placed. Example 2, which is quite funny. I needed a fog light switch, called Acura, and spoke with a lovely gentlemen that set one aside for me. Asked me to make sure that I really needed it and call him back. Called back and spoke with some asshole that insisted Acura didn't make fog light switches, and didn't have any in their cars. After I explained that my family had owned Acuras with fog light switches, he got exceedingly rude with me. When i explained to him that i was sitting in an MDX with OMG FOGLIGHT SWITCHES, he got even nastier. I in turn, hung up and called the owner of the dealership. Mr. Ass had to call and aplogize to me, and get everything settled with the foglight switch.

 

Wow - I had a rear main oil seal leak on the way to Tampa, and Ferman towed me in.

They gave me a loaner without even looking at my car and I was able to pick mine up in a few days. I tought their service was spectacular.

It just goes to show you how people can have different experiences at a dealership.

 

There are times when I have a hard time deciding who is worse. A bad car salesman or hollywood celebrities?

 

yeah, but you're white

 

and 37
I was a 20 year old with 2 stolen headlights
They didn't position them properly, one of the lights started to flicker, the dealership looks like crap from the outside. They had the car for a month to fix 2 headlights, had to keep calling over and over. No loaner (it was out of warranty so I didn't expect one). The guys there were cool except a few who are assholes and talk down to you once they figure out how old you are.

I am going to go take a picture of the front of the place compared to other places near by.

 

I'll tell ya something....I used to work at a dealership, and the one problem they had with me was that I am too honest.

You'd be surprised how poor in knowledge some people in dealerships are about their product. The store I used to work in always made sure that their sales reps knew product, constantly sending us to workshops about product knowledge. At the store, I became the "go-to guy" because I was one of the only people that knew most of what's going on in the business, such as rate and programs, pricing and specifications, not to mention a few other things that I picked up in the process. The GM used to call me his "other son", because he liked me so much, he used to even ask me information, related to product or not, and usually I knew the answer. Unfortunately after all my hard work, the numbers didn't quite add up to my expectations, and I forced myself to leave because of a better opportunity (or so I thought). I still speak to everyone there, no hard feelings, but I am missed there, that's for sure!

After that I worked for a lease broker for almost 3 yrs who pretty much made empty promises and my 120% of effort went to their benefit, not mine, I left them with an opportunity to acquire an existing independent dealer who was around for 25 years and was ready to retire. I bought the business and have not changed a thing about the way I sell cars. Honesty may work against me sometimes, but I say "I told you so" to the customer many more times when they come back to me because the info they thought they got from another dealer was legit.

Stay straight and you'll succeed, not to mention having piece of mind knowing you're doing the right thing and satisfying your customers and will get many more referrals. This business is all about knowledge, customer retention and referral. Good Luck!

 

 

Damn it they cleaned the place up, usually there would be random used cars up front and one or 2 new cars that might not even be facing the street. I guess someone complained.

off topic: I saw an all white RR Phantom on 22's with a dude wearing a wifebeater and a bad chick sitting next to him. Wish I had one.

 

Santa Monica Acura sucks a$$

Cerritos Acura great service dept and parts dept! Been going there for nearly 9 years now.

 

What dealership was that fdl?

 

That's nothing, I asked an Audi salesman if the A3 was dual overhead cam or single, he said it didn't have cams and that it had FSI.

I just made the face. I knew it had DOHC using FSI. I just asked him to see if he knew what the hell he was trying to sell. He didn't, my mission succeeded.

 

^^^were you buying anything or just jacking off the salesman?

 

When I was in the dealership talking to the salesman about the S4's, he was talking about the audio system. He told me it had a subwoofer in the trunk on the left side. I politely told him I think he was mistaken. He seemed agitated that I questioned him (I didn't question him, I told him he was wrong). He went to an S4 in the showroom and popped the trunk so he could show me. Only problem was there was no subwoofer there. Only the Avants had them there

I used to work at a Dodge dealer selling cars. Worst job I have had. Nothing like doing a job that a trained monkey could do. The management did not allow any of the salepeople to sell cars. We had to collect info, run back to the manager, and then back to the customer, over and over. I got tired of that gig really quickly. I bought a car at the price the dealership bought it at, signed the papers, and on my way out, told them I quit. Got several thousand dollars off.

 

my buddy and I went to test drive an A4 and A3 because we're both thinking about buying Audi's (him and A4, and an A3 for myself)

 

... we could excuse the working at Dodge, but not BUYING a Dodge.
Classy exit though!

 

Just curious.....how much do you guys think a salesman can make at decent acura dealership....or any dealership for that matter.

 

I didn't buy a dodge, bought a Taurus wagon. Not much better but i need something big to fit the dogs and stuff in while working on my house. The best part was while I was walking out, the manager said to me, aren't you working today (as I was getting into the car). I had one foot in the car and said, oh yeah, about that. I quit, and drove off .

 

We make a lot of fun about car salesmen, but in the 80's, I read a book written be a doctor who took 6 months off to do his research about selling new and used cars. He became a salesman so that he could write first hand about his experiences. A bit of his research was conducted in the Washington DC areas of suburban Maryland and Virginia.

Mind you, this was in the 80's . The average new car salesman back then earned between $50,000 and $80,000 a year.. over 20 years ago. A decent percentage of these people earned in the 6-figures. Never buy a car from a relative or a friend who is a car salesman. You will not get the best deal (his research). Car "dealerships" are not called dealers (or dealerships) by people in the business. They're called "stores" (kinda like computer people frequently never refer to computers as computers, but rather boxes or platforms).

In other words, never feel sorry for a car salesman.. he's probably doing just fine. And can you imagine how a lot of Acura salesman did from 2004 to the present when the new 3G TLs came out?

 

$100k plus

 

Don't ignore women or young people or tell them to come back with their husbands or parents. It's insulting. I got ignored at Bridgewater Acura in NJ 2 years ago when I was looking at the TSX. In talking to other people about my experience there, I found out numerous women had been told to come back with their husbands and generally received rude comments.

Good service departments are what makes or breaks things for me. I don't do work on my car myself, so I need a good, honest service department that knows their stuff. I need to feel comfortable that they are knowlegable and will treat me right. I don't appreciate feeling taken advantage of and will go somewhere else if I do feel that way. In other words, the whole package is what I look for... good help when I buy the car, and good follow up service for the next however many years I own the car. A good dealership will get my repeat business (yay so far to Precision Acura in Princeton!! Good dealership so far!).

 

number 1 complaint i have about car salesmen is that they dont know shit about what they are selling. KNOW YOUR PRODUCT!

 

My expierience with them was great...and I like the way there dealership looked...I was coming from a totalled car and needed a car very fast, but I didn't want to settle for just any color combo out there...

I told them I wanted the 05 TL black on black w/ navi and manual tranny...sure enough they didn't have it, but went ahead and ordered a transfer from another dealership in Miami, FL and gave me a loaner for a lil more than week until it came up here (Tampa, FL.) The whole expierence was pretty easy and fast

TWO salemen even followed me in two loaners to the rental place to return my Ford Taurus (last day the insurance had approved me for) that my insurance loaned me for a month...Than they gave me the keys to one of the loaners...and drove away in the other

The one thing that most people say about any FERMAN Dealership is that they don't like playing around with the price and usually sell everything at MSRP...I know I paid MSRP and a couple other of my boys did as well (and their cars were on the lot)

And I like their Service Center as well...And I'm young...most of the time when I Take my dads car to GM for service they dismiss for looking young...just my expierence....

 

And don't refuse me a loaner. My dealer-of-sale did that. Park Acura in Akron gave me two fresh loaners in 2004-2005; my Acura dealer in the Detroit area, where I spent more money, refused one. I bought the car when I was 19, and I'm 24 now. Jerks. If I ever need service in the Detroit area again, well, let's just say I toss all their service coupon flyers. I'll go to Acura of Troy before I return to Jeffrey. I hate driving down to lower Macomb County anyway.