Took my GF to an Infiniti dealer in the SF Bay Area today....do these people not want to sell cars or are they just retarded?

We have been putting off getting her a new car since we are both busy and her 5 series BMW still goes great, get decent mileage and frankly we love it.

We knew we liked the new sedan and I researched it quite a bit, but we wanted to drive a 6MT. We were prepared to write a check and take it home (we can buy any car we want in cash) The kid (literally) says we can drive one, then comes back after awhile and says they have a non-sport auto demo that we can drive...umm thats not what we want, and we are about to spend 40 large.
We ask the kid if he is sure there is not a 6 speed to drive (3 on the lot I saw)....no he says they dont want to put miles on it, when we gently press him he then gets an attitude saying we can take it up with the manager and he has to do what they say, afterall he could lose his job.
At that point we just say forget it, get out of the car and leave. Unbeliveable! Do understand, we were polite the entire time and assured them we were serious buyers.

Thinking this was a fluke we call the next closest dealership and ask if they have a 6MT we could drive....the anwser came back " ummm, well we don't want to put miles on them"

Ok Infiniti, I am sure its a great car, seems so from everything I have read but really I would like to drive it...ya know, afterall we plan to keep it for awhile!

It's funny, at the BMW dealer they were more than happy to let us drive a 6 speed 330i. Likewise Lexus let us drive anything we wanted and were very professional, the experience at the first dealership was like a used car lot rather than a luxury dealership.

We are so dissapointed in our experience that we are damn close to scratching it off our list, and it was at the top! There are SO MANY great cars out there right now, you would think they would want to show off thier product! I actually feel bad for Infiniti (Nissan) all that engineering and hard work they put into the car, just to all be pissed away by completly WORTHLESS dealers! Then again, maybe if Inifiniti NA can not supply a few demos then they dont care either.

Sorry for the rant...we were just so dissapointed!

 

I think its due to the "availability" of the car itself rather than dealerships, you mentioned the BMW, if you ask them to test drive the new 335 coupe? they probably going to say no as well, I know very few BMW dealership was willing to given the test drives on the M3 coupes but its different story for the verts tho, cus they might only have 1~2 coupes on the lot but 5~7 verts on the lot all year long.

If you look around and find one with 6MT on their lot and then ask to drive it? they probably will let you, back in 03 when the coupe first came out? none of the 5 dealerships in bay area was given the test drives till towards end of the production year.

 

Go back and re-read my post....there were three, yes 3 6MT's sitting there, and that is just what I saw in the front, maybe they had more in the back!

And now that I think about it, aside from one other couple there, we were the ONLY people on the lot! This was a Sat. afternoon in the middle of Silicon Valley!

These people are going to be BEGGING people to buy these cars at invoice later this year....they have no idea what is about to happen with this economy (think housing bubble).

 

Hahaha...Maybe they just dont like you then...

 

Hmmm...funny...I know its a lot to ask to drive the same model of car you want to purchase....I am sure that business practice will work well for them long term!
And even if they didnt like us, our money is still green....guess I am going to have to settle on the fact that they are indeed retarded.

Thanks for your input!

 

Just busting your chop, dont read too much into it... I am just wondering what dealersip you went to?, Its pretty odd that they have the cars on the lot yet they dont allow you to test drive it, I know you said you call other dealership, but maybe you could try some others, there are plenty of them around in Bay area, if it still doesnt work? call Infiniti Consumer Affairs, 800.662.6200, see what they can do for you.

 

I think you aswered your own question.

Like limeg35 said, it's probably a suppy issue right now. The car is hot and they can't get enough in country.

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. You walk into that dealership and they have the exact car you are looking for. Now you go and sit in it, lite it up and you see miles on it. Would your buy it ? From what I gather in your post I don't think so but that's okay. Just trying to show a differet light on this.

Don't be hatin on the sales dude, it was prob his sales manager that put the kabash on the test drive. If it was up to the 'kid' he probably would of given you the keys to the store if he could ....lol

Btw, do you know if those three were sold or had a deposit on them They also may use one of those three for a swap to another dealer for a car they maybe looking for. Maybe they are not expecting more coming in for awhile, and the list goes on.

Alot of variables that might have been in play on your observation but niether he or you were aware of.

There may have been someone right behind you after you left that did put his 40 large down and bought one of those three puppies. Their doesn't seem to be a shortage of customers right now.

 

lease... lease....lease....

 

because I was at the same dealer, and drove a brand spanking new 6MT.

 

I agree with you man. I tried to contact 3 dealerships in my area about the 07 sedan and they were useless. I got to drive one before they were released for sale but nobody even cared to give me any details or anything. Heck, they wouldn't get in touch with me until Infiniti interviened.

 

it BS how dealers wanna keep mielage low unless its a "serious buyer." This hapened to me when i was looking at an SI.... how the hell do they expect you to seriously consider buying the car without a test drive.. MORONS.. i walked out as you did but dont let that stop you from buying it... Try and get in touch with a Fleet manager... They do not BS like the damn salesman... they wanna sell as many cars as they can.. at sticker price too.

 

I'm just glad this guy can buy in car with cash. You better be 24 like me( however i am not married) b/c if you are any older that one little comment holds no water, and i am not sure why you found it necessary to add it....

Anyhow i couldn't pay for the 335i in cash so just get that and let us know how nice it is

 

I'm new here and this is my first post, to the first thread I have read here.

I gotta believe the problem is 3 fold, 1 the salesperson, 2 the limited availability as already stated and 3 expectations.

I'm here because my wife and I just bought her an 07 Coupe.(the following happened Sat 3/27 starting at 4 pm, the dealership closes at 5:30pm) We were interested in 2 in particular. Our salesman moved 3 cars to get the first one out for us to test drive. When we got back my wife decided she really liked the one on the showroom floor better. They pulled it out for us to drive too, it had the Sport tuned suspenson package and active rear steering that the first one didn't have. I was "kind" enough to leave the key for our trade with the saleman to speed things up while we were on the test drives. To cut to the chase here, we left the dealership at 6:30 most all papers signed (the finance guy as backed up over an hour yet, had 5 other deals before us so we came back on Monday to finish and allow them to redetail the car) Our car did have 16 miles on it...most likely from a demo ride or 2? Our salesman bent over backwards for us both on Saturday and Monday when we picked it up, spent almost 1 hour with us going over Nav, seat settings..name it. The dealership was even accomodating enough to purchase my trade instead of insisting on a trade, they cut me a check. (trade wasn't fully depreciated out)

My opinions here... if I was looking for a model as select or rare I woud have called ahead, verified availaility and test drive availability and made an appointment.If that model isn't available to test at that dealr maybe the zone rep has one and could arrange for a test drive? Upon arrival if there was a conflict I would have tried management. I'm sure the dealer or any dealer really doesn't care on way or another if a buyer pays cash or finances.

I've left dealerships before when mistreated or mislead and wound up at other dealerships for the same brand, business goes where it is invited and stays where it is treated well.

It's not Infinity that caused you to walk, it was the dealership. But if you didn't or don't buy that car there obviously is enough demand for them NOT to worry about you leaving.