Holden and the ZF!!!

[Bluehoon]

Hi Guys, here is an intersting one.

Went looking for a new ute for work, and thought i would check out the other side...

After having the pleasure of test driving a BF XR6T, with a ZF (thank you Ratt)....

I went over to the holden crew, and looked at the utes, no tip tronic on the utes, no 5 speed.

I (admittantly) played dumb and stated how good a ford was, and do they have any ute with that new auto that ford have, its awesome.

The standard holden response is:

1) nothing

here is a killer..

2) "When it breaks down it is more expensive to repair" ::

I nearly cried with laughter when i heard that. This was from 3 sperate holden dealers, and the responses were text book.

It is also Holden are in a spot of bother, and are very desperate to sell cars....

Makes you wonder...

[SSBUB]

wonder what?

[rag top]

Should have asked them "how expensive are they to repair", and see if all three get the same price.

[lowriding]

Makes you wonder what ? What a silly post .
What else did you expect car salesman to say ???

[Bluehoon]

Originally Posted by '67

Should have asked them "how expensive are they to repair", and see if all three get the same price.

No one knows how expensinve it is to repair.

It's not a silly post, its a (funny) worry, that at the moment, the best PR / marketing response Holden can come up with, is the cost of a repair, when there is a thing called warranty.... :evil_laug

It is sad that, this is the best response they can give. :the_finge

[flappist]

Originally Posted by lowriding

Makes you wonder what ? What a silly post .
What else did you expect car salesman to say ???

Well a SALESMAN who can actually SELL, as opposed to fill out a deal with a bit of help from his mananger, would probably say something like....

Yes they are a great gearbox, I think Ford might have done a clever thing by installing a box simmilar to our next model. I wonder if they are also going to improve their suspension to match our IRS ...blah.. blah...blah...
.... I see they have finally made traction control available (we have had it for years)...
.... talk up all the good points of holden.... sus out from you what is important in your mind and then work on that, get you in the car and create a bond between you and "YOUR NEW UTE"....

Unfortunately their are very few SALESMEN working in the auto industry, most are in real estate etc. where they can make much more commission. Motor vehicle dealerships seem to be a collecting area for "also rans" who live by statistics... (if 100 heads wander past and 3% buy then I will sell 3 cars)

Words of wisdom flappist, although not the part about "also rans" lol.

[lowriding]

Most salesmen will happily tell you whatever to keep the conversatioon flowing in their direction ,most likely the salemen couldnt care less for Holden or Ford , but they are interested in cutting a deal .That's their job and puts food on their tables.Thats life unfortunately. I can't beleive anyone would take what they were saying with anything other than a grain of salt though. Simply immature ."ha ha i went to a hold-on dealer and told him how tops the Ford gearboxes were an then he reckoned they would probably cost heaps to repair ,as if he'd know hehe "
What are we 14 years old ? In all honestly salepeople aren't necessarily rocket scientists but to their credit ,in my experiance,most have a pretty good nose for sniffing out time wasters as i suspect might have been the case here .

regards

[SpoolMan]

Originally Posted by lowriding

What are we 14 years old ? In all honestly salepeople aren't necessarily rocket scientists but to their credit ,in my experiance,most have a pretty good nose for sniffing out time wasters as i suspect might have been the case here .

regards

Yep I would agree..
The customer also most probably driving to a Holden dealer in a near new Falcon says something also....
I wouldn't go to a Holden Dealer because he couldn't sell me one.

[ltd]

I think it's a bit of a relief that they are not confirming that they are going to get that gearbox. They might still be umming and ahhring about the much cheaper GMC 6 speeder currently under development. For Ford, that's a good thing if it's so, because the ZF is renowned for its quality and longevity - something the american 6 speeder doesn't yet have and won't have for some time, and therefore a unique selling point for Ford.

I would also tend to agree that most car salesman are not all that knowledgeable of the product, and many a time I have been frustrated at even Ford salesman for telling me rubbish that I know to be all lies. An example of which is when a mate of mine went to buy his LTD, that he wanted his in mercury silver with mats etc.
My mate had his credit card out for the deposit and was ready to sign when the salesman started telling us a whole bunch of crap about how great the car is and how it is more fuel efficient than the AU2. I asked him what makes him think so and he answered that everyone who owns one knows this. I told him that I own both an AU2 and a BA LTD's and get more mileage out of a tankful on the AU2.

He then commented that my BA must have a problem, and I should get it checked. I told him that it had been in three times at the same dealership for that problem and I was told by the service manager and Ford that it has normal fuel consumption.
He looked totally perplexed and embarrassed. He then went into a mental shutdown for 2 minutes and didn't say a word (you know those uncomfortable silences). I broke the silence and said, "well regardless, we're here to order this car so can we get the order finalised?"
Poor fellow must have only been 22 or something so we didn't give him a hard time, and ordered the car. In order to do the deal though he spent a hell of a lot of time running back and forth to his manager when we were discussing price and options.

In the end the deal was made but in I must say that in my previous experience as a sales manager for a large firm, keeping a customer waiting by not being able to broker a deal on your own is extremely unprofessional.

Truthfully, my friend took delivery of the car with a sour taste in his mouth from the lack of visibility in the negotiation process. He is convinced that somehow he has been cheated because the guy brokering the deal wasn't in the room.

[Lukeyson]

most salesman bag the opposition, which is a no no , and i hate it when a salesman in any field makes it there point to tell me how S*&t their opposition is