Why do car lots answer emails by telling you to call them instead?

Joined
Apr 11, 2019
Messages
170
Location
Minnesota
I emailed a local used car lot for some information on one of their cars for sale. They sent a reply that I had to call them to learn anything about their vehicles. Just why? I feel like they must rely on their sweet-talking salesmen to be able to sucker people in more easily on the phone?
 
Guess they may think emails are bots? Service is bad on some of these dealers. I emailed to inquire and nobody called me back half the time. One week later someone else emailed me and I told them they have poor service and I am no longer interested. Guess there's an abundant amount of lazy sales people out there.
 
Yes, it's because they think they have magical, charming personalities.

It gets worse. One lot I went to, after we parked they deliberately parked another vehicle behind mine to block me in. Apparently they figured that if I couldn't leave, having to go back in to talk to someone about moving the vehicle, then their hypnotic power of suggestion would force me to buy a vehicle. lol.

Another reason is once they have your phone # they will keep calling you week after week forever even if you ask them to stop.
 
New car dealerships are the same way. Some will deal through email and some won't.
 
The goal is to get you at the dealership.
Then they have a great chance in getting the sale.
After a few words on the phone the next thing they will say is,
When can you come in.....Bam..........
 
New car dealerships are the same way. Some will deal through email and some won't.

Yes!

When I bought my caravan 5 years ago i called a dealer to ask about prices of the model I was interested in. Price was around 26k and change. Saw a similar model online for 24,444 at another dealer. Sent an email and got a phone call 5 mins later following up. Transaction went very well. This was from the number one FCA dealer locally.
 
Yeah... steer clear of places that don't put stuff in writing. I was looking for a car in January and went to look at several cars at different lots , I asked what would be my out the door cash price not one place would put it in writing, so I took my happy A$$ to another place, and eventually got what I wanted but I really had to work at it. Most of the shady places wanted me to do payments and kept telling me they could get my monthly payment around$100-$200 a month, but"failed" to mention the term some where 84 months lol. I had the cash and didn't want to finance the car. Those places prey on people's ignorance and lack of basic math skills. So I ended up buying a 2016 Kia Optima SXL with 37000 miles for 16 500 incl tt&l plus the remainder of the full Kia warranty since it was a COPO. You can find a good deal at a good lot but it takes time and effort.
 
A dealership in Dallas lost my business because they did that. I went the internet sales route and then someone there called me and tried to tell me why Edmunds TMV was "way off" and rabbled on for another 5 minutes.

Did the internet route with a local dealership the next day and everything was cut and dry and I paid a very fair price.
 
I emailed the local Acura dealer's parts department looking for a quote on a bumper cover. They never emailed me back, but their new car salesman called and emailed me wanting to know when I wanted to arrange a test drive. Big jump there from wanting a bumper cover to wanting a whole new car. Idiots.
 
Always use burner phones and throwaway email addresses if you need to deal with a stealership.
 
Yes, it's because they think they have magical, charming personalities.

It gets worse. One lot I went to, after we parked they deliberately parked another vehicle behind mine to block me in. Apparently they figured that if I couldn't leave, having to go back in to talk to someone about moving the vehicle, then their hypnotic power of suggestion would force me to buy a vehicle. lol.

Another reason is once they have your phone # they will keep calling you week after week forever even if you ask them to stop.

That's why I have a phone app on my and give out that number in such circumstances. TextNow... When you set it up, be in front of a desktop
computer with a web browser open and the safe setting off on the google search engine. When you set the app up, it gives you phone numbers to choose from. Pop them in a search engine stat and see what comes back and choose the number wisely.
 
New car dealerships are the same way. Some will deal through email and some won't.

This is my test for a dealer, if they're difficult over email things aren't going to get any better in person. I'll only negotiate a deal over email moving forward...everyone I've done has resulted in smooth and pleasant transactions.
 
This is a great link. Thank you for sharing. I pretty much did the same but not that elaborated.

Among the responses, I would add nasty responses like, you are going to regret getting it from dealer X offering for $abc because nobody can offer this price and stay in the business. This is a real response I have gotten from a local Subaru dealer. I was mad at him so I deleted that email. Wish I would have kept it to reply for my 5th year purchase anniversary to stick it.
 
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