My local Jag main dealer pestered me with texts, email and even an old fashioned letter with an invitation to a special “event” with the promise of a remarkable deal on a new Jag. Being curious, and in the area so avoiding a special journey, I turned up. Well surprise they were trying to shift pre-facelift/pre plate change stock and what a mess they made of it. The “special discount” on offer turned out to be less than I could get on CarWow any day of the week and they seemed to think their offer was generous! “And you must sign up today, it won’t be available tomorrow”. Oh yeah. The salesman was verging on incompetent; he seemed unaware of the simple fact that these days we can all benchmark prices at the press of a button. He even took twenty minutes to calculate a trade in price I could get off the Jag website in two minutes. We exchanged emails after leaving and when I read the opening line I was a little stunned: “ Just to correct the below so you understand what we have offered you”. I’m sorry, just to correct me? Er, who is paying? Dealing with these people is getting worse. Also interesting to note that the old paint protection racket has gone up a gear. It’s now Gard-x at nearly a thousand quid, no doubt applied with the same oily rag they use to clean every corner of the car with. Why, when I can get a professional job done for half that?
It really is time for this broken dealer model to be fixed. I suspect most people buying a premium Jaguar are better informed and and more capable than the people trying to sell them. I don’t need glossy showrooms with glasses of orange juice at reception and cupcakes on open display being coughed over by people with Coronavirus. Roll on getting a car from Amazon; it can’t be far off, especially when EVs achieve the same commonality as vacuum cleaners (though Dyson did give up on an EV business). Let’s hope the oleaginous car salesman joins the internal combustion engine in the dustbin of history.
It really is time for this broken dealer model to be fixed. I suspect most people buying a premium Jaguar are better informed and and more capable than the people trying to sell them. I don’t need glossy showrooms with glasses of orange juice at reception and cupcakes on open display being coughed over by people with Coronavirus. Roll on getting a car from Amazon; it can’t be far off, especially when EVs achieve the same commonality as vacuum cleaners (though Dyson did give up on an EV business). Let’s hope the oleaginous car salesman joins the internal combustion engine in the dustbin of history.
