A Porsche Tale

tabs · 12-26-2006, 12:11 PM

My friend Sandy met this gal playing Bridge here in LV. She is in her mid 50s, well educated, was a Social Worker and is now retired. She doesn't wear much makeup and is usually dressed in Blue Jeans and some kind of pull over shirt.

So she heads on down to the local Porsche agency. When she gets there she asks them for a test drive in a brand new 996. They take one look at her and think and this ain't a Porsche buyer, so they shine her on and tell her its too hard to move other cars outa the way. She then opens her purse and pulls out $100,000.00 in cash and tells them to go fk themselves. They blew it..She was gona buy that car..

BTW: This gal got her money the old fashion way, she inherited it.. and she has quiet a bit of it...

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

Kinda like that scene in "Pretty Woman" lol...

Any smart and successful sales person knows that you can't judge a possible client by the way that they look... either that, or you learn the hard way as these hacks that work in the Porsche dealership did.

Schrup · Schrup's Garage

I have a coworker that inherited a chunk of money & wanted to buy a new Boxster S. He wears blue jeans & flannel shirts. He went to the local dealer here in Tacoma & they wouldn't let him test drive the car without a credit check disguised as finance papers. He drove to Bellevue & bought it instead, idiots. Now he rubs it in their noses when he takes it in for service.

SlowToady · 12-26-2006, 01:47 PM

Legend has it the same thing happened to John Carmack when he was buying his first Ferrari. He went in in jeans, a tee-shirt and a baseball cap and was looking at (I think) a Testerrosa and talking with the sales guy about it. The sales guy said yes, it is indeed a fantastic car and would make an excellent purchase....in the future. You know, when John has the money. This was right around the time id Software blew up. John wrote him a check.

Can't judge a book by its cover, I guess.

williecoyote · 12-26-2006, 02:55 PM

In the spring of 1982, after reading Car & Driver's road test of the forthcoming 944, I called the Porsche dealer in my home town, Raleigh. The head of sales said that "yes," he had one such car in stock, which was one of the first handful in the entire Southeast, but "no," he wouldn't hold it until I arrived home in two days. He also said that when I got there, to ask for him, and he would be glad to show it to me.
I showed up on Saturday morning in bare feet, ragged blue jeans, and a T shirt. A young salesman came up as I glanced at the BMWs. "Can I sell you one today?" he asked in a smart a$$ tone. "Nah, I don't really like these," I said, "do you have any Porsches?" "Maybe a 944?" I know he thought he was wasting his time, but he led me into the showroom, and got the key to open the car. He wouldn't let me drive the car, but I told him ,"Yeah I'll take it." at which point he about choked on his Egg McMuffin.
We filled out all the paperwork, but had to wait for the banks to open on Monday. That's when the head of sales showed up for work for that day.

craigster59 · craigster59's Garage

Wasn't there a story about John Bonham going into a Rolls Royce dealership on Sunset Blvd. and driving a car thru the window when a Salesman questioned his ability to pay for it?

Steve PH · 12-26-2006, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by craigster59
Wasn't there a story about John Bonham going into a Rolls Royce dealership on Sunset Blvd. and driving a car thru the window when a Salesman questioned his ability to pay for it?

That would not surprise me at all, to be honest it's JB's ability to pilot a car whilst sober would actually have been my biggest concern at the time!

MRM · 12-26-2006, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 930addict
He also ended up buying a home on Pebble Beach and a big a$$ MB, which our dog peed on.

That's by far the best story I've heard in a long time. I had a great day and this was the perfect way to end it.

stomachmonkey · 12-26-2006, 03:54 PM

You guys remember the "Crazy Eddie" chain of electronics stores?

Eddie Antar got the nickname Crazy Eddie because he was literally crazy.

Rumor has it that he was outside one of his stores one day shabily dressed, 5 o'clock shadow etc... He was sitting on the hood of his car, was either a Caddy or Rolls. 2 Police officers wander by and start busting his balls about sitting on such an expensive car and what would the owner think...

So Eddie pulls out his ID and registration, hands it to the police and then proceeds to climb onto the hood and starts jumping around like a maniac and destroys it.

hatpix · hatpix's Garage

Back about 15 years ago, a buddy of mine went to Vegas, won about 5k playing blackjack. Gets back to LA, takes me to dinner at a nice place. We're in our early 20s, wearing tshirt, jeans, cowboy boots.

Right away the waiter starts giving us guff. My friend says, "Excuse me could you bring us another waiter?". After that, we were treated well. Dinner came to about $70, he tipped the new waiter $100 for good service, just so he would tell everyone who worked there and make the original waiter feel like an ass.

IMO that's the only way to deal with jackass salesman, take your business elsewhere.

Walter_Middie · Walter_Middie's Garage

A friend at work, doesn’t need to work – he married well, but still enjoys working in the shop. One day his wife picked him up from work on her way to the Cadillac dealer to pick up her car from the service department. He was dressed in his work clothes and lab coat, and waited in the showroom. While looking at the newest and most expensive car in the showroom, a salesman came up and started making condescending remarks – like wouldn’t it be nice to be able to afford one of these some day? His wife observed what was happening, and came up and asked what was going on. When she found out the salesman was talking down to her husband, she demanded to see the manager. She told the manager she wanted that car, and she wanted it right now! The manager said it wasn’t ready, and needed gas, oil, water, etc…. She said she didn’t care – she was paying cash, and she wanted it right now. They got the car ready as fast as they could, and my friend and his wife drove home in the new Cadillac.

Ronbo · 12-26-2006, 04:56 PM

This thread reminds me of what happened to me at a Lotus/MB dealership about 10 years ago. It was on a weekend, so I was casually dressed in jeans etc. but not grungy. I was in the showroom looking at their lone Esprit. Mind you, I had my hands clasped behind my back and I was looking in the driver's window. I had no intention on getting in the car or anything. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this greasy little salesman in a shiny suit and slicked back hair runs over, locks the car door, and runs off without saying anything. I'd never been so insulted at a car dealer before or since.

Dottore · 12-26-2006, 05:10 PM

This is a re-post - I know - but it makes the point nicely.

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

Everyone looked like that in 1978... unless you worked for IBM.

Moneyguy1 · 12-26-2006, 05:13 PM

Moral of the story:

Most dealers are populated by staff that are "wannabes" and have an aura of superiority brought about by being in the company of things they cannot afford?

911boost · 911boost's Garage

At our local Porsche Dealership there is a salesman named "Adolph" there. No bs, one of the nicest guys I have ever met. I have stopped by there just to talk to him.

Bill

tabs · 12-26-2006, 06:18 PM

A car is just a UNIT to a salesman...

pwd72s · 12-26-2006, 06:57 PM

I hate talking to car salesmen. When shopping for our last daily driver, we walked out of a lot because of a "talking down" salesman. We pulled into a local Mopar/Subaru dealership. It had become obvious that our grocery hauler at the time, a 1979 Volare wagon, slant 6, was beyond the stage of being worth repairing. I've posted here before that no ego is involved when we buy grocery haulers...I really don't care what strangers think about the car we take to parking lots. So, this salesman asks what we were looking for. I told him a car for Cindy, a grocery hauler, with enough head & legroom for me to drive. Did we want new or used? I told him either, whatever Cindy liked. The stupid **** kept talking to me, never once to Cindy. Strike one. He kept talking down to us, strike 2. In the showroom was a red Viper Rag-top. He asked the "wouldn't you like to be able to afford one of those?" question. That's when I lost it...I reminded the ******* that I told him the car was for Cindy, yet not once did he talk to her. Then I told him the truth, that in Cindy's purse was a money market checkbook with a balance that would buy two of those ugly cartoon car Vipers, but that's not the car we wanted. We then walked...went to a Ford dealership, bought the 4 door Ranger. Still driving it to this day. The Ford dealership had no problem accepting Cindy's check, and the salesman asked her if she wanted to go for a test drive...she came back saying she liked it.

Next time we shop for a grocery hauler? We'll probably use a buying service like the one Costco offers. I hate talking to car salesmen. I really hate talking to bozo car salesmen.

74-911 · 12-26-2006, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sonic dB
Everyone looked like that in 1978... unless you worked for IBM.

or EDS...

Dan in Pasadena · Dan in Pasadena's Garage

My Dad custom ordered his first and only brand new car in 1955. It was a black '55 Chevrolet two door hardtop with cream and red-orange interior. He didn't want one of those unproven "new" small block V8's (!) he wanted a "reliable" engine; bought the 235 straight six cylinder with three speed overdirve. I dont know what the price was brand new but it wasn't cheap for those days.

Now, my Dad was a construction worker. A journeyman union "bricklayer" in the parlance of the day. Since we are Hispanic and he worked in the sun all day he was brown as could be and wore a work cap (like a baseball cap but with no writing on it in those days) so he had a white tan line across his forehead. He went to pick up the car one night after work. My uncle who also worked construction dropped him off at the dealership in his work truck, a 40 Ford - just a ratty truck in those days.

They directed him to the part department! He said he was there to pick up his new car and they re-directed him to the service department. He couldn't get anyone to take his money. He took a cab home, called the dealership and when he said he wanted to talk to the owner they asked him his name and when he said "Estrada" they hung up on him! Of course they took his money when he ordered it but they didn't want any trade with "one of THOSE people". It took him a long time to get them to talk to him and that was after threatening to sue them for his deposit.