Trade-in values?

[QueenBean]

Why is that "gross"? It's a car dealer; they buy and sell cars.

You're already coming in, they're asking if they can make you an offer to buy your car. That seems...super reasonable.

Each to their own I guess? It seems no different than receiving junk mail saying a dealership needs new cars and will pay top dollar; it's a smarmy sales tactic. Margins on used vehicles are higher, and top dollar is generally not on offer. It is a tactic used to get you into the dealership and into another vehicle.

I probably did miss the part where it was solicited.

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[QueenBean]

What makes it a Toyota or Chevy experience? You don't think Rolls Royce sales will not suggest cars to their premium customers? I find it very interesting that you find it offensive, or associate it with lower class car. Full disclosure, personally I have no problem with sales people suggesting to me something I might like. That said, have you considered just telling the dealership that you never want to be informed of any available cars, specials, upgrades, or anything at all unless you specifically ask for it yourself?

Admittedly, I prefer to limit my interaction with any salesperson in any situation. I generally do exhaustive research before I choose to buy or sell. Once I have decided to make a major purchase or sale, I want a smooth hassle-free experience. The ole sit down in the dealership while I speak with my manager is enough to make me walk straight-out.

It's 2022 and the "tower" dealership model would and should be dead at this point were it not for very strong state/federal lobbies. Most salespeople have zero negotiating ability and must take all offers to their sale manager in, generally his (not "her") "tower" and return with a counter-offer; true even in many premium brand dealerships.

I would prefer a direct sales model with a set price. The only positive thing I see that has come from the recent hyper-inflation of vehicles is that MSRP actually means a relatively fair price, or "the price."

There is no reason one shouldn't be able to receive an appraisal without coming into the dealership. Sure, the used vehicle manager will need to inspect the vehicle prior to selling or trading-in, but there's no reason to sit and wait in the dealership as part of the grand old scheme of "your presence is your bargaining ability." I simply want to know "how much" for the vehicle whether I am buying or selling.

Carvana, Driveway, Vroom, KBB, USAA Car Buying Service (possibly inactive now) have adopted this no nonsense approach and it works.

Apologies for the excessively long post. I do feel strongly about this topic.

 

[kort]

What makes it a Toyota or Chevy experience? You don't think Rolls Royce sales will not suggest cars to their premium customers? I find it very interesting that you find it offensive, or associate it with lower class car. Full disclosure, personally I have no problem with sales people suggesting to me something I might like. That said, have you considered just telling the dealership that you never want to be informed of any available cars, specials, upgrades, or anything at all unless you specifically ask for it yourself?

maybe porsche dealerships need tents, balloons and free hot dogs to entice me. SMH

 

[bj33813]

Really? I can’t get any of the online services to give me a number because it’s too new / not enough data.

I’m hearing new ones are over sticker, and when I visited Los Gatos I had a random stranger offer to buy it off me…

Don't know if I got it thru Porsche NA or my dealer, but somehow I got a free subscription to carfax, and it shows my trade-in value at $135k & I paid about 25k less than that. About 3500 miles on it. And of course this isn't southern Cali either, so not as maybe overloaded with cars for sale?

 

[QueenBean]

Don't know if I got it thru Porsche NA or my dealer, but somehow I got a free subscription to carfax, and it shows my trade-in value at $135k & I paid about 25k less than that.

Regarding newer vehicles, Carvana usually requires you text them for "Manual Appraisal" request (602) 461-7607 with your Carvana account email (you will need an account), zip code, and a picture of the Monroney (window sticker).

Driveway is a bit more analog, but will get to you eventually. Driveway offered $89,000.00 for my 2021 Taycan, Carvana offered $88,000 initially; now Carvana is offering $84,000.

 

[Fish Fingers]

Admittedly, I prefer to limit my interaction with any salesperson in any situation. I generally do exhaustive research before I choose to buy or sell. Once I have decided to make a major purchase or sale, I want a smooth hassle-free experience. The ole sit down in the dealership while I speak with my manager is enough to make me walk straight-out.

It's 2022 and the "tower" dealership model would and should be dead at this point were it not for very strong state/federal lobbies. Most salespeople have zero negotiating ability and must take all offers to their sale manager in, generally his (not "her") "tower" and return with a counter-offer; true even in many premium brand dealerships.

I would prefer a direct sales model with a set price. The only positive thing I see that has come from the recent hyper-inflation of vehicles is that MSRP actually means a relatively fair price, or "the price."

There is no reason one shouldn't be able to receive an appraisal without coming into the dealership. Sure, the used vehicle manager will need to inspect the vehicle prior to selling or trading-in, but there's no reason to sit and wait in the dealership as part of the grand old scheme of "your presence is your bargaining ability." I simply want to know "how much" for the vehicle whether I am buying or selling.

Carvana, Driveway, Vroom, KBB, USAA Car Buying Service (possibly inactive now) have adopted this no nonsense approach and it works.

Apologies for the excessively long post. I do feel strongly about this topic.

Agree 100%.

Back in the 80s/90s I used to train sales people and car dealerships still use these primitive techniques today.
I can more or less guess what they are going to say, but it does make it more interesting as I never play their game

At the end of the day, it should be a win/win situation without all the sales nonsense.

 

[whitex]

Admittedly, I prefer to limit my interaction with any salesperson in any situation. I generally do exhaustive research before I choose to buy or sell. Once I have decided to make a major purchase or sale, I want a smooth hassle-free experience. The ole sit down in the dealership while I speak with my manager is enough to make me walk straight-out.

It's 2022 and the "tower" dealership model would and should be dead at this point were it not for very strong state/federal lobbies. Most salespeople have zero negotiating ability and must take all offers to their sale manager in, generally his (not "her") "tower" and return with a counter-offer; true even in many premium brand dealerships.

I would prefer a direct sales model with a set price. The only positive thing I see that has come from the recent hyper-inflation of vehicles is that MSRP actually means a relatively fair price, or "the price."

There is no reason one shouldn't be able to receive an appraisal without coming into the dealership. Sure, the used vehicle manager will need to inspect the vehicle prior to selling or trading-in, but there's no reason to sit and wait in the dealership as part of the grand old scheme of "your presence is your bargaining ability." I simply want to know "how much" for the vehicle whether I am buying or selling.

Carvana, Driveway, Vroom, KBB, USAA Car Buying Service (possibly inactive now) have adopted this no nonsense approach and it works.

Apologies for the excessively long post. I do feel strongly about this topic.

I hear you on the purchase experience. I've bought many cars in my life, hated the "tower" model every single time. I always felt like I needed a shower after each negotiation, even though I usually achieved the price I wanted. It does get a little better once you are a repeat customer and they know the negotiation is a mostly a waste of time (I once write down my target price on a piece of paper, put in an envelope, then put it on the salesperson desk - after 4 hrs of negotiating, we hit a deal, I told him to check the envelope, within $1 on the monthly payment, next time the negotiation was very quick, as I asked whether or not he wants to take the envelope to his manager and give me a yea or nea, or does he want to negotiate for 4 hrs again so they feel they made some money - they still tried sneaking something in the paperwork, but I caught that before signing). Direct web based sales is definitely something I enjoyed about Tesla purchase experience (though the direct service is actually not that preferable, but that's a different topic for a different thread). All that said, we're talking here about sales reaching out with potential opportunities, not the actual purchase experience which will be the same whether you approach them or they approach you. You don't hit the tower until you decide you want to negotiate. Them approaching you first by the way is actually advantageous for you, since in negotiation they can only go down from their initial price, but if that price is too high you will never even come to the table.

 

[whitex]

maybe porsche dealerships need tents, balloons and free hot dogs to entice me. SMH

Ok, name a company with a sales department which you don't think need tents, balloons and free hot dogs. Even Boeing sales people approach clients, selling planes for billions of dollars per sale.

 

[fullmetalbaal]

Ok, name a company with a sales department which you don't think need tents, balloons and free hot dogs. Even Boeing sales people approach clients, selling planes for billions of dollars per sale.

There are companies that don't actively look for new customers, or pester existing customers.

But I think the bigger issue is not the fact that they try to sell to existing customers, but that they are using the same approach as bargain basement car brand dealers.

If they paid attention to what particular customers are interested in, and tried to actually help the customer, that would be actually something I suspect most Porsche customers would welcome.
"Hey, when you bought your Taycan, you were also considering a GT3 but didn't like the time to allocation. We have an amazing used GT3 that came in today..." F yes. Please!
Or "I know you weren't too happy about the trunk space, want to test drive the new CT?" Less exciting, but still relevant.

Instead, we get Autonation's automated spam-a-lot bot snail mail & random emails from the dealership.

I've gotten the standard "your model is in high demand" so many times, it's funny. It's identical to what they send out to Audi owners, BMW owners and even VW owners.
Often, the value is ridiculously below KBB. Sometimes, I no longer own the car they are trying to tell me I should consider trading in.
The last one: I sold the 911 to the very same dealership I bought it from as a trade in to a new Porsche... just MAYBE they could keep track of that.

It's just poorly targeted and poorly executed. Embarrassing really.

 

[Archimedes]

I was so pissed when my salesman failed to offer me some Grey Poupon on my test drive. The nerve of him. Doesn’t he know how important I am?!

That’s how douchey some of the posts in this thread sound.

 

[MConte05]

...... actually something I suspect most Porsche customers would welcome.

I was so pissed when my salesman failed to offer me some Grey Poupon on my test drive. The nerve of him. Doesn’t he know how important I am?!

That’s how douchey some of the posts in this thread sound.

Agreed. I think some of these posters forget that the bread and butter is slinging $60k SUV's and a plethora of the used cars that come in on trade.

 

[fullmetalbaal]

I was so pissed when my salesman failed to offer me some Grey Poupon on my test drive. The nerve of him. Doesn’t he know how important I am?!

That’s how douchey some of the posts in this thread sound.

Agreed. I think some of these posters forget that the bread and butter is slinging $60k SUV's and a plethora of the used cars that come in on trade.

He or she doesn't have to offer me anything at all. All I'm saying is if they expect me to do anything about anything they send me, they have to offer me something of value.

And if they keep failing at this - there's plenty of startups working on a direct model that doesn't have dealers in the middle taking their cut for no value add.

There are other luxury brands that understand this much better. And yes, their sales people also make commission, and need to sell to earn. Hermes and Cartier come to mind (I don't own either products or stocks, but I've watched their sales). I guess what this is telling me is that buying a Porsche is more like Saks Fifth.

As for the 60K SUVs, touche. some things were better when the average Porsche wasn't a mass market SUV.

 

[whitex]

There are companies that don't actively look for new customers, or pester existing customers.

But I think the bigger issue is not the fact that they try to sell to existing customers, but that they are using the same approach as bargain basement car brand dealers.

If they paid attention to what particular customers are interested in, and tried to actually help the customer, that would be actually something I suspect most Porsche customers would welcome.
"Hey, when you bought your Taycan, you were also considering a GT3 but didn't like the time to allocation. We have an amazing used GT3 that came in today..." F yes. Please!
Or "I know you weren't too happy about the trunk space, want to test drive the new CT?" Less exciting, but still relevant.

Instead, we get Autonation's automated spam-a-lot bot snail mail & random emails from the dealership.

I've gotten the standard "your model is in high demand" so many times, it's funny. It's identical to what they send out to Audi owners, BMW owners and even VW owners.
Often, the value is ridiculously below KBB. Sometimes, I no longer own the car they are trying to tell me I should consider trading in.
The last one: I sold the 911 to the very same dealership I bought it from as a trade in to a new Porsche... just MAYBE they could keep track of that.

It's just poorly targeted and poorly executed. Embarrassing really.

I agree there is a difference between good sales people and automated spam generation. I just ignore the spam, almost subconsciously. I often receive offers in the mail (both electronic and snail) to sign up for products I've already had for a long time sometime. Welcome to the world with machine generated spam. I've had those "your car is in high demand, offers above trade-in value" for years of different cars, some of which I didn't own anymore. So what, I just chuck them in recycling bin before I walk in the house. Call it advertising. You wouldn't get mad to see a Porsche advertisement on a side of the road the very next day after you picked yours up, would you? Treat spam advertising the same way. Also, don't believe the advertising literally, just like you would not expect a bunch of girls in bikinis to suddenly pop out of nowhere to party with you just because you saw that happen in a beer commercial when a guy opened a beer.

 

[QueenBean]

I was so pissed when my salesman failed to offer me some Grey Poupon on my test drive. The nerve of him. Doesn’t he know how important I am?!

That’s how douchey some of the posts in this thread sound.

This is a Porsche forum after all.

 

[mcr21]

Admittedly, I prefer to limit my interaction with any salesperson in any situation. I generally do exhaustive research before I choose to buy or sell. Once I have decided to make a major purchase or sale, I want a smooth hassle-free experience. The ole sit down in the dealership while I speak with my manager is enough to make me walk straight-out.

It's 2022 and the "tower" dealership model would and should be dead at this point were it not for very strong state/federal lobbies. Most salespeople have zero negotiating ability and must take all offers to their sale manager in, generally his (not "her") "tower" and return with a counter-offer; true even in many premium brand dealerships.

I would prefer a direct sales model with a set price. The only positive thing I see that has come from the recent hyper-inflation of vehicles is that MSRP actually means a relatively fair price, or "the price."

There is no reason one shouldn't be able to receive an appraisal without coming into the dealership. Sure, the used vehicle manager will need to inspect the vehicle prior to selling or trading-in, but there's no reason to sit and wait in the dealership as part of the grand old scheme of "your presence is your bargaining ability." I simply want to know "how much" for the vehicle whether I am buying or selling.

Carvana, Driveway, Vroom, KBB, USAA Car Buying Service (possibly inactive now) have adopted this no nonsense approach and it works.

Apologies for the excessively long post. I do feel strongly about this topic.

Could not agree more re limiting interaction with most car sales people - honestly the Porsche Mayfair guy I spoke to (and test drove with, short trip luckily!) made me not want to buy my car from them. Found a much better dealership outside London which for a change was a pleasure dealing with from start to finish - principally because they acted more as consultants than sales people.

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