Salesmen are like a box of really cheap chocolats. When you open the box, they're all huddled together on one side. They all wear the same cheap wrappers and it's really hard to pull them apart without some of the goo from one getting onto the other. There's not much variety and they go stale really quick. Some should be sent back to the factory for re-packaging. In time, they get moldy looking and you try to feed them to your second cousin's kids, but they won't touch them either.

 

The trouble with most salespeople is that they don't know when to shut up or when to listen. They feel compelled to say something even if it is dumb, stupid, snotty or not true.

As a matter of fact I walk out of a dealership that will tolerate an idiot salesperson. If management will allow this before they have your money what's it going to be like when they have it. I never hang around to find out. There are dealerships with decent sales departments. You just have to look for them.

 

Know your car. Negotiate over the internet via email. Possibly pick up the phone. Expect nothing from a salesperson.

This way you can only be pleasantly surprised.

 

I had a nice experience with a salesman. When I bought my current S, he was just nice to me and let me call the shots. He put in an order for some license plate plugs (with his own money) after we determined that the car had none... I actually stumbled upon them in the cup holder (last place I'd think to look) so he cancelled his order with parts. He's a nice guy. Every time I go in for service, the salesman finds me to see how the car's working out for me.


On the other hand, when I was looking into buying a used Acura because I couldn't afford maintenance on the S2000 (years ago), the salesman used the safety issue to try and coax me into trading my car in. After three and half years I hadn't had a single accident, I'd read stories on s2ki about how well it holds up in crashes, safety wouldn't work on me.

EDIT: I am speaking of two different salesmen here. So there's no confusion.

 

 

It is unfortunate that this particular sales person put down another maker. I would have advised him to highlight strengths of Solstice. I wish GM would do better but it really is sad to see those who are in the front line for GM are engaged in that kind of practice to sell cars. I truly wish there are good sales people out there meeting the needs of those who are looking to purchase cars.

 

I donno, all you foos seem to wrap your S around trees, there must be a reason!

 

HAHA, if you push your car enough, you might eat those words. And as many wrecks that do happen in S2000's, we don't hear of many deaths, backing up his statement of how well they hold up and protect the driver in the event of an accident. The S2000 is a nicely balanced car that rewards drivers better than any other car in the Sub $50k market (except maybe Elise). The reason it's superb balance and of how much it asks from the driver, when the driver can't serve up the talent that the car is asking for, that's how they get wrapped around trees. Most time, it's a shortness of driving talent that puts the S2000s in trees.

That said, I'll take the miata over the Solstice.

 

Yes, it was. And mine's out there at least once/week during the summer.

 

There is one simple rule to abide by when talking to a dealer:

Whenever they refer to a car as a "bad boy" or as a "puppy" you need to just get out of the situation and stop talking to them because they are feeding you

When my last car was stolen, I went to a dealership and this guy came up and was trying to really swindle me into a deal. He was the typical guy who'd refer to a car as "check this bad boy out" and whatnot. I told him I wanted a car that was only manual, only 2 door, and nothing less than 160-170 horsepower (this was a Toyota/scion dealership, in the used car section). They didn't really have much available, except a silverstone 03 S2000.

I told him I wanted to test drive it and he was like "well, that car is really tough to earn a test drive in, why don't you check out this jetta over here" (it was auto, which I already told him I would never buy an automatic tranny ever in my life) and I finally settled for test driving a new Scion tC. I told him it didn't have enough power, and that I really wanted to drive the S2000. He said I'd have to do a credit check, and that came up fine and after driving he told me an absurd amount of 28k - this was only 7 months ago and granted it only had 5000 miles, but I told him that that was just ridiculous and he didn't want to budge. He tried to get me to buy the tC "these puppies can be modified like crazy, we even have air intakes and exhaust you can finance with the car" I just got tired of him and said I wasn't interested, and that I'd just go buy an S2000 from autotrader.

Boy am I glad I did.