Is buying a car really this difficult?

[Freakuk]

The itch is there and I'm on the lookout for a new motor, I posted the other day regarding a C63S.

If I'm honest I hate buying/selling cars and generally dealing with car salesman, as soon as I'm out of the door that's it as far as they're concerned.

Over the weekend I did the usual looked on Autotrader and also MB's website. I found quite a few nice examples, new with £££ discounted and some good ex-demo/2nd hand approved for sale. On MB's site you can view photos and get some info about each vehicle, and then you can select I'm interested and fill out a very short form. I've done this for say 6 cars, I've left my phone number off for now as I just want some black and white info, trade in, finance that kind of stuff so I can digest.

One dealer came back and said they'd sold the car - fair enough, another (where I'd enquired about 2 cars) came back and asked a few questions, to which I've replied and I'm still waiting for a response and that's it?!?!?

Given dealerships are currently closed I would have thought email etc would be the go to for these guys....

I'm at the point of leaving it given the disinterest so far.....

Rant over!

[Jasandjules]

I have left messages with three MB dealers. No response. Pretty sure they don't want to sell their cars ATM..

[blueg33]

So about the same as when you walk into a Merc dealer then

One of teh reasons my wife has a new Volvo is because the Merc dealers were like this even before lockdown

[anonymous-user]

Why not use a broker?

[Red9zero]

blueg33 said:

So about the same as when you walk into a Merc dealer then

One of teh reasons my wife has a new Volvo is because the Merc dealers were like this even before lockdown

Same here. We tried the local Merc dealer, but couldn't get any of the salesmen to even acknowledge us. Ended up at Volvo, where we were made very welcome and got a V40 instead.

[ThisInJapanese]

I've asked this question many times, some dealers value email, some see it as an annoyance that is just ignored. I've never understood it personally, it's so much easier for me to drop an email to somebody, rather than a speculative phone call that might not reach the right person, and if they call back I might be busy.

[anonymous-user]

Red9zero said:

blueg33 said:

So about the same as when you walk into a Merc dealer then

One of teh reasons my wife has a new Volvo is because the Merc dealers were like this even before lockdown

Same here. We tried the local Merc dealer, but couldn't get any of the salesmen to even acknowledge us. Ended up at Volvo, where we were made very welcome and got a V40 instead.

Same here, I can only assume I look like I don't have any money. I spoke to the lady on reception who told me all the salesman were busy, but if I waited around they might be able to find someone to spend five minutes with me.

She ended up taking my number and 2 years on I am still waiting for the phone call.

The only conclusion I could make is that they have more buyers than cars so don't have to actually put any effort in at all.

[Ziplobb]

Its not just Merc
i have tried to buy a new transit combi. My exisiting one is 3 next month. dont need to trade in unless the price is right . its quite time consuming and painful really. Ford running an 'upgrade' campaign for commercial vehicles but no stock to sell ! gave up after speaking to local dealer and 2 others. By contrast enquired about a Nissan Navara with a dealer in the West Country. Superb discount, 3 shortsphone calls and deal done . It could not have taken any longer than 25 minutes.

[ZX10R NIN]

I've found actually speaking to a salesperson works better than Emails but some dealers are just rubbish at communication.