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I'm trying to buy two cars right now, and this has put a big wrench in the process. The dealership can't tell me what's on their lot compared to what's on their

I'm trying to buy two cars right now, and this has put a big wrench in the process. The dealership can't tell me what's on their lot compared to what's on their Website, except by going out and searching.

wongarsu 2y ago
Maybe offer to bring them more pens and paper so they can send someone out to make a list of what's on their lot.
- bee_rider 2y ago
  This is mostly a site for programmers. I can’t imagine working in computers and not believing at least that the intent is to make people’s lives more convenient and make work efficient. If the dealers have the capacity to go around and run everything by pencil and paper, it seems like either the are really poorly run for the average case where the computers work and make life easier, or the programmers have done a really poor writing useful programs.
  - michaelt 2y ago
    Let's assume you're only selling what's on the lot, and you're not running some complex network operation where you care about other dealerships' stock. Googling tells me the average car salesman sells 8-10 cars per month. Maybe more for a 'high volume' dealership but certainly less than 1 car per day. I would think the paperwork to sell a single car would take substantially less than 8 hours for an experienced worker to complete.
    - bee_rider 2y ago
      The paperwork to do one transaction might not be too bad, but keeping all the inventory on pencil and paper seems like a pain.
      - michaelt 2y ago
        It'd be a pain at the multi-dealership-network level, sure. But an individual dealership has what, 50 cars in stock? That seems easily manageable to me. I'm old enough that I've seen far larger operations running on paper. Of course, the days of paper-based paperwork did require businesses to employ diligent and numerate clerks, and to have filing cabinets, manual calculators, photocopiers, whiteout, and suchlike. I suppose they could have run into some challenges around that sort of thing.
        bee_rider 2y ago
        Yeah, I assume they had an assortment of clerks who’d be hard to replace right this moment, especially given that the duration of their employment would be like, what, a week or two? However long it’ll take to get this attack taken care of.
        HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
        > 50 cars in stock? That would be a very small dealership around here, even in the suburbs. 50 cars on the lot was the amount I was seeing during the height of the pandemic supply chain problems and I was amazed at how empty the lots looked.
    - josefresco 2y ago
      My last car purchase took 14 hours total. 2 separate days, was buying new, no trade-in. I tracked my time because it was a work week! Despite telling them after the first day to "have everything ready" for my second visit, I still spent the majority of the day inside the dealership, twiddling my thumbs.
      - Wingman4l7 2y ago
        It's a major tactic of car salesmen to delay the selling process repeatedly; it physically and mentally wears down the customer and they are more likely to accept aspects of a deal they don't like, to get it over with and completed.
        josefresco 2y ago
        It seems a lot of the process is slowed by "someone has to run to the registry" type stuff which has to be done in a specific order and during "normal" business hours. Typically the sales guy is eager to finish (just wants to sell his next car) but the paperwork is where things get really slow. The entire time I was thinking how much of a "waste of time" this all was for the sales guy. He really didn't do much after the initial 2 hours of sales time, just "held our hands" while the paperwork was processed.
SoftTalker 2y ago
Wow sounds awful for them. They might have to get up from their desks.
- bee_rider 2y ago
  They might have hundreds of cars and not every feature is immediately visible.
  - recursive 2y ago
    Say it takes 5 minutes to manually enumerate all the features of a car. This seems more than generous. An intern can go through 12 cars per hour at this rate. This is a major inconvenience, but it doesn't sound like a thing that would completely disrupt business.
    - SoftTalker 2y ago
      A smart intern would take photos of the window stickers, OCR them, put them in a Google drive folder, and salespeople could then search them. Could be done as fast as walking from car to car.
      - bee_rider 2y ago
        It started last Wednesday, and the estimate for the fix is “several days” according to the AP. I think it will be difficult even to get somebody hired in time.
        riddlemethat 2y ago
        The paid internship... The true unicorn...
        bee_rider 2y ago
        For a STEM student, in the US? I’ve never heard of an unpaid internship, sounds like a scam.
bombcar 2y ago
Even when the system is working they have to go search the lot, because half the cars listed in the system are phantoms.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > half the cars listed in the system are phantoms How? Like, they order a certain number of cars from the dealership--do they just trickle in randomly? Do they forget to log sales? I get misplacing where the car is, but whether it is? Granted, I have friends who work at rental-car companies, and the level of shitshow they aspire to is truly inspiring.
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    [dead]
  - hot_gril 2y ago
    Was going to say, ghost-car sounds familiar at rental places.
  - karaterobot 2y ago
    I can verify that this happened to me last year. The dealer could not positively affirm that they did or did not have a particular model in their inventory, so the salesman and I wandered around the lot for ten minutes before deciding they did not. I told him, "okay, well if you do get any in, call me up so I can come over and buy one." Easiest sale ever. Well, that didn't happen, and my assumption is that they just don't know what they have from day to day.
  - gwbas1c 2y ago
    As in, the car listed on the web site does not exist. It's merely a gimmick to get you in the door and convince you to buy something else. (And probably illegal, too.) Happened to me the first time I went to buy a car. I just walked out and went to a different dealer.
    - 2y ago
paxys 2y ago
Sounds like the average dealership experience.
- josefresco 2y ago
  It does. My last car buying purchase (2023) involved Internet research and then on multiple occasions on the call to the dealership I heard: "Oh we don't have THAT specific model on the lot but we have something similar". Even in person, the people in the office would look at inventory on the computer but then have to send someone physically out into the lot to verify they did in fact have what "the system" said they have.
- 93po 2y ago
  but but we have to make sure manufacturer direct sales are banned, because they don't know how to sell cars
Merrill 2y ago
With all the intelligence built in to current cars, the salesman should be able to send a group text to the cars on the lot asking whether any of them has all or most of the desired features. And if so, what are its GPS coordinates. Or turn on it's emergency flashers and sound horn in five minutes.

wongarsu 2y ago

Maybe offer to bring them more pens and paper so they can send someone out to make a list of what's on their lot.

bee_rider 2y ago
This is mostly a site for programmers. I can’t imagine working in computers and not believing at least that the intent is to make people’s lives more convenient and make work efficient. If the dealers have the capacity to go around and run everything by pencil and paper, it seems like either the are really poorly run for the average case where the computers work and make life easier, or the programmers have done a really poor writing useful programs.
- michaelt 2y ago
  Let's assume you're only selling what's on the lot, and you're not running some complex network operation where you care about other dealerships' stock. Googling tells me the average car salesman sells 8-10 cars per month. Maybe more for a 'high volume' dealership but certainly less than 1 car per day. I would think the paperwork to sell a single car would take substantially less than 8 hours for an experienced worker to complete.
  - bee_rider 2y ago
    The paperwork to do one transaction might not be too bad, but keeping all the inventory on pencil and paper seems like a pain.
    - michaelt 2y ago
      It'd be a pain at the multi-dealership-network level, sure. But an individual dealership has what, 50 cars in stock? That seems easily manageable to me. I'm old enough that I've seen far larger operations running on paper. Of course, the days of paper-based paperwork did require businesses to employ diligent and numerate clerks, and to have filing cabinets, manual calculators, photocopiers, whiteout, and suchlike. I suppose they could have run into some challenges around that sort of thing.
      - bee_rider 2y ago
        Yeah, I assume they had an assortment of clerks who’d be hard to replace right this moment, especially given that the duration of their employment would be like, what, a week or two? However long it’ll take to get this attack taken care of.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
        > 50 cars in stock? That would be a very small dealership around here, even in the suburbs. 50 cars on the lot was the amount I was seeing during the height of the pandemic supply chain problems and I was amazed at how empty the lots looked.
  - josefresco 2y ago
    My last car purchase took 14 hours total. 2 separate days, was buying new, no trade-in. I tracked my time because it was a work week! Despite telling them after the first day to "have everything ready" for my second visit, I still spent the majority of the day inside the dealership, twiddling my thumbs.
    - Wingman4l7 2y ago
      It's a major tactic of car salesmen to delay the selling process repeatedly; it physically and mentally wears down the customer and they are more likely to accept aspects of a deal they don't like, to get it over with and completed.
      - josefresco 2y ago
        It seems a lot of the process is slowed by "someone has to run to the registry" type stuff which has to be done in a specific order and during "normal" business hours. Typically the sales guy is eager to finish (just wants to sell his next car) but the paperwork is where things get really slow. The entire time I was thinking how much of a "waste of time" this all was for the sales guy. He really didn't do much after the initial 2 hours of sales time, just "held our hands" while the paperwork was processed.

SoftTalker 2y ago

Wow sounds awful for them. They might have to get up from their desks.

bee_rider 2y ago
They might have hundreds of cars and not every feature is immediately visible.
- recursive 2y ago
  Say it takes 5 minutes to manually enumerate all the features of a car. This seems more than generous. An intern can go through 12 cars per hour at this rate. This is a major inconvenience, but it doesn't sound like a thing that would completely disrupt business.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    A smart intern would take photos of the window stickers, OCR them, put them in a Google drive folder, and salespeople could then search them. Could be done as fast as walking from car to car.
    - bee_rider 2y ago
      It started last Wednesday, and the estimate for the fix is “several days” according to the AP. I think it will be difficult even to get somebody hired in time.
      - riddlemethat 2y ago
        The paid internship... The true unicorn...
        bee_rider 2y ago
        For a STEM student, in the US? I’ve never heard of an unpaid internship, sounds like a scam.

bombcar 2y ago

Even when the system is working they have to go search the lot, because half the cars listed in the system are phantoms.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> half the cars listed in the system are phantoms How? Like, they order a certain number of cars from the dealership--do they just trickle in randomly? Do they forget to log sales? I get misplacing where the car is, but whether it is? Granted, I have friends who work at rental-car companies, and the level of shitshow they aspire to is truly inspiring.
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  [dead]
- hot_gril 2y ago
  Was going to say, ghost-car sounds familiar at rental places.
- karaterobot 2y ago
  I can verify that this happened to me last year. The dealer could not positively affirm that they did or did not have a particular model in their inventory, so the salesman and I wandered around the lot for ten minutes before deciding they did not. I told him, "okay, well if you do get any in, call me up so I can come over and buy one." Easiest sale ever. Well, that didn't happen, and my assumption is that they just don't know what they have from day to day.
- gwbas1c 2y ago
  As in, the car listed on the web site does not exist. It's merely a gimmick to get you in the door and convince you to buy something else. (And probably illegal, too.) Happened to me the first time I went to buy a car. I just walked out and went to a different dealer.
  - 2y ago

paxys 2y ago

Sounds like the average dealership experience.

josefresco 2y ago
It does. My last car buying purchase (2023) involved Internet research and then on multiple occasions on the call to the dealership I heard: "Oh we don't have THAT specific model on the lot but we have something similar". Even in person, the people in the office would look at inventory on the computer but then have to send someone physically out into the lot to verify they did in fact have what "the system" said they have.
93po 2y ago
but but we have to make sure manufacturer direct sales are banned, because they don't know how to sell cars

Merrill 2y ago

With all the intelligence built in to current cars, the salesman should be able to send a group text to the cars on the lot asking whether any of them has all or most of the desired features. And if so, what are its GPS coordinates. Or turn on it's emergency flashers and sound horn in five minutes.