Reply #32: Car dealers especially can be a piece of work

[geniph]

When I bought my Subaru, I'd done a year's worth of research before selecting that car. No joke. I'd test driven it precisely a year earlier. When I went in to buy it, my husband came along with me just so he could see it (his finances weren't involved in the purchase, but I wanted to see if it was comfortable for him to drive, too, since he's so big). The salesman kept trying to tell HIM things about the car. My husband kept turning away from the guy and saying, "I don't know anything about this car and it isn't my purchase. You have to talk to my wife, she's the one that knows about it." The guy even tried to talk me out of buying a stick because "women usually prefer automatics." Um, fella, I've been driving for 30 years, and I HATE automatics.

Unsurprisingly, I ended up going to a different dealership to actually purchase the car, one with a sensible salesman. The guy talked to me for about two minutes, then went in the office, collected the key, and said, "let me know what you think after you drive it."

Car salesmen are almost all guys, and they stand around all day and try to out-guy each other, so some of them turn into complete unregenerate assholes (presuming they weren't to begin with).