jnx911

I would be curious to hear if you are contacted by the dealership. If so, I would stand my ground and not purchase from them no matter what they may promise. You did the right thing.

SpinMonster

My sisters e55 costs far more and they let you sit in the car as long as you like as well as a test drive.....gimme a break already GM.

GasmanZR1

I emailed that particular dealership via Buypower about a Z06 they had in stock and was informed that they were asking $10K over. I replied and told them I was not interested in over MSRP. I still get emails about all the specials they have. If I am not mistaken, this is a brand new dealership and because of this they were able to get a lot of Z06 allocations, which really doesn't seem fair to the established dealers. Rant off....

netcruizer99

The only thing with this scenario is that Frisco is not some rural Texas town. In the last few years, its grown to become a suburb of Dallas. it also happens to have one of the highest income levels in the state - so there's definitely enough wealth there for people to buy Z06's or anything else for that matter. 5000 sq ft. houses, 120k for the latest mercedes' is nothing for many of Frisco's residents.

I'm really shocked that the dealer acted this way. I can see saying no to a joyride, but not letting someone sit in it is another thing. Especially since it was a customer who was in for the 2nd time, with (i'm assuming) his wife to look at a car. That tells me this person is serious about buying. He may not be serious about buying my car, but when you drag you're wife down to the dealership, you know some heavy discussion is going on in the car and he's serious about buying a vehicle. I'm sure that the original salesperson was really pissed at the second one for not letting you sit in it.

I tried my hand at selling cars years ago, and I don't know how many times I would get mad at the sales manager for wanting to play games with the customer, so as you can imagine, I didn't last long (2 weeks.)

sounds like I agree with everyone else - find another dealer.

Big Ron 77

That's some offensive comment from a guy that posted this "tree hugging" comment on the "What is wrong with C6 Owners?" thread:

Pick a side of the fence or straddle the middle, but quit hopping back and forth. So your message appears to be not to worry about status or competition, but you're sensitive enough to recognize us poor hillbllies down here that can't afford good personal hygiene. Those 'ol stinky rural Texas tire kickers may drive to that thriving metropolitan state of Oregon (please note sarcasm) and teach you some rural manners.

Sorry to hijack your thread Jim, I'm in a mood today, and ignorance appears to truly be bliss.

fts

I know that dealership and your experience is typical. I was treated extremely well by Jim Aldridge and Steve Hardy at Reliable Chevrolet in Richardson.

own2vettes

Sheeeet. When I was looking at my BMW 745 Li, the dealer practically begged me to take it home overnight for an extended "test drive". "get to know the car" he said. "See how it feels." It felt good. I bought it, or rather leased it. That was an $84K car. Nobody batted an eye. I don't understand what the issue of letting people sit in cars is. I would've pestered them into letting me sit in it. Just keep bugging them. They'll let you sit in it just to get you to stop. Remember Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman" at the Ferrari dealer?

RRvet

As I'm reading all the posts here, I can think of 3 times that I've left a dealership because of the lousy sales effort, driven to another dealer, and actually bought a new car.

It happens!

BT ZR1

In 1979 my dad and i walked into a dealership in shorts and tee shirts.We looked rough but he did this entirely on purpose. Well he was treated with respect and in about 10 minutes bought the car, but i can tell you that salesperson was a smart dude because he did not judge a book by its cover.

steveo242

I completely agree. I recently went from an '02 to my new '06 coupe. Before I even started, I sent our about 25 emails requesting the build sheets from the dealers on the cars they had in stock.

Believe it or not, this small task really weeds out the good dealers from the ones that do not care about you. Surprise surprise, Woodfield Chevy in Northern Chicagoland area never replied. Funny enough, they had among the highest quantity of stock on their lot though.

I ended up buying a little more than I wanted originally, but the dealer about 75 miles outside of Chicago really stepped up. I dealt with the General Manager directly, no salesman until after the deal was over to go through the car. When I arrived to the dealership, the GM was having the car washed and then pulled it around for a test drive right away. We talked numbers, went back and forth a little, and I got the best deal I could in the Chicago area.

I am a National Sales Manager for a Forklift Battery company. I treat my customers better than these car salesman, and my customers only buy $ 2,000.00 products, not $ 55,000.00 products.

The problem is, and I do not want to be brash here, but unfortunately, the dealership has the same kid working with you with your Z06 that was working on the new Chevy Colbalt with Joe Schmo a half hour earlier. In my business, we have junior sales people handle junior products and senior people handle the larger deals. A Z06 is definately a big deal.

It will not offend the salesman after you buy it, the GM will probably commission one or two guys depending on what or how they help.

JMHO, sorry for the length...

GTC

No shame at all in walking. Yeah, maybe it is time to change brands.

Hoonose

That's a very sad testament to the character of a dealer. No one should ever have to suffer through or endure the kind of customer abuse that you encountered. From any dealer. Any brand. Just goes without saying.

However it has nothing to do with GM's demise, and I'd suggest that your comment on GM was mostly an emotional one. Although certainly deserved at this point in time.
Despite this and other dealers' malfeasance (my new word for the day), they will still sell all their produced C6's at a fat profit. Fat profits both for the dealers and for GM. The Corvette remains their one sacred cash cow. (OK maybe Caddie) But GM's problems run much larger and deeper than any of this. Well into the financial core of the company, that maybe even Corvette can't keep afloat.

You have my sincere condolences, as I have certainly been there myself.

cthusker

In fairness GM dealership aren’t the only ones that can have lousy customer relations. I was in the market last year to buy a new V8 LTD 4Runner. Stopped in my local dealership and asked to speak with the Jim the owner as my company has bought at least 8 cars from them. I personally dealt with Jim on every deal. Well he wasn’t available so I said no problem have Jim call me. Several days go by and no call. Figured he didn’t get the message so I stopped back and no Jim again. Gave them my business card and said to have him call me. Once again no call. Now I’m pretty annoyed since we’ve given the dealership a lot of business over the past 14 years. I finally got his secretary on the phone and she say’s, “He very busy with his new Mitsubishi dealership but he’ll TRY to give you a call within the week. Said thanks and called another Toyota dealer I knew. Made the deal on the phone and picked it up 4 days later. Now it’s not a vette but it was still a $43,000 SUV!

I never got a call from good old Jim. When I serviced it several months later I took it to good old Jim’s Toyota dealership. The service manager knows me and said.. hey how come you didn’t buy it here? I said ask your boss Jim U. Guess Jim got the message because he finally called me to tell me how busy he had been and never had time to call me back. Said no problem Jim because I found a dealer that wasn’t to busy to do some business. You can bet Jim won’t get anymore of our business and we buy at least 2 or 3 sales cars a year. Guess good old Jim was just to busy to take care of the folks that helped build his Toyota dealership. I suspect Jim is now a victim of his own success because he doesn’t need to call people back who are actually buying cars. Lousy customer relations are not confined to GM they just seem to have more idiots then most.

djfullshred

The first dealer I went to wanted me to test drive the car. As soon as we started talking price though, they acted very arrogant like they were the only place I could buy a car from. They seemed totally shocked when I walked away instead of drinking their kool-aid. Fortuantely I found a good dealer in my area (within 50 miles) that were good to work with, and gave me a decent price. Now I just need to get through the next several weeks without going insane waiting for the car I ordered to be built & delivered.

lexaudio

At least people are taking charge.
Some dealers act as if they are doing you a favor and act as if you'll get the same price and service at another dealership, so you might as well do it with them.

Guess that is why some 'have' to go beyond MSRP, and other don't.
A dealership that can give you what you want, close to what price you want is going to get alot more business.
Smaller ones that will do the same will grow and get bigger.
Small one that want to get bigger, but give no room to move stay small.

In my searches around so far, I have seen both.
One dealership who will stick to there guns and quote, and do much to get my business, and another who wants more even though knows I can get a better deal at a dealership further away.

LEX

Tommy D

Unfortunately, it is sometimes the luck of the draw. There are some sales people who are good at what they do and know how to take care of a prospective customer. Then there are the others as some of you have already described.

Apparently, GM has an over abundance of the later.

promod69camaro

The sales people who sold my car to me were very aggressive, but they came around after several months when the cars started to pile up on the lot. I liked the sales staff well enough, I just wanted a good deal.
The service department is another story. They must loose a bunch of sales because of after sales service hastles. I purchased from Reliable Chevrolet in Richardson. I was not impressed with their service department.

Big Ron 77

Took my C5 in for service there once. They recommended I rotate the tires at my mileage. I asked to speak to someone who knew what the hell they were doing.

Just bought my Dad's car there in October though, not a terrible experience until we went back to Finance and played the wait 2 hours while I try to get you to buy all kinds of horse sh**t add ons. My poor Dad who's growing short on patience said if he left the room once more or asked him to buy one more thing, he would shove the car up his...you get the picture.

ST31

Nope, not a word to date. I guess that I shouldn't be suprised.

tanko

I had a similar experience at the same dealership in Frisco. No test drive until I made a deal to buy the car. Seems absurd to me, but they must believe they can sell the cars under that policy. I simply left and bought my Vette a few days later for $5100 under MSRP from a top notch dealer in Oklahoma. Outlined the deal over the phone, including prices for the Vette and my trade-in. The deal went through smoothly as planned, with a test drive before finalizing the deal, and an excellent prep job on the new car. Highly recommend this straightforward dealer outside Norman, OK.