I know that for a lot of people it's a real chore, but when someone I know is looking for a new car, I always feel a little charge of glee. Virtually regardless of the type of car, it's always cool fun to wander around the car yards poking, prodding, driving - and laughing at sleazy salespeople.
For this little odyssey, there were five main contenders. The ones most people would recognise were the Subaru Liberty (Legacy in most world markets), Mitsubishi Verada (Diamanté elsewhere, I believe), and Toyota Camry. There were also two local-only contenders, the Holden Commodore (Holden is GM's Australian subsidiary), and the Ford Falcon (on which platform the next Mustang will probably be based). An outside contender was a Honda Accord, but they have an image of being overpriced here.
Anyway, the closest dealer is the Toyota one. The car we test drove was the base model, which might be why the sales drone was so happy to give us the keys. There's always a catch of course - the drivel when we got back.
"It's the best car on the market!"
"Well, we still have to look around a bit more. This is the first we've looked at .."
"Don't bother looking any further. I've half filled out the contract for you; would you like to sign today?"
"Err, no ... Goodbye ..."
Seriously, I don't know who would ever fall for the hard sell: it's just so offensive! I suppose someone could talk me into a bag of lollies, but to part with forty thousand big ones on the spur of the moment is not going to happen!
Next up, the Holden dealer next door. The Holden Commodore is arch-rival to the Ford Falcon, and a new Falcon has just been released. The expectation was that Holden salespeople would be thrown at us in a desperate effort to keep sales up. But no, we stand around for five minutes being ignored. Sure, we probably looked a little less serious as we poked and prodded the stroked top-of-the-line GTS model, but to be ignored?
Eventually we asked and were shunted around the back to the Fleet Sales area, which comprised a demountable in the back yard. But the approach to sales was so much more pleasant; we were given all facts and no crap, shown the exact model we were after, given a similar vehicle to test drive, and given a quote. Offered a drink, and just treated pleasantly.
Buoyed-up and thinking that there actually were humans working in car sales, we skipped past the Nissan yard (the Maxima is getting a little old), and lobbed at Mitsubishi's door. This time it took ten minutes before we got bored. We checked out the top 3 litre model - thinking it might be worth a look - before looking at the 3.5. Still nobody approached us, they just slowly walked around inside the showroom and talked to each other.
We finally went in, and sat inside the Verada model we would have been considering. After a short while we started slagging-off the car, partially because we couldn't fit in the back seat. Still no response - so we just left.
Now, I'm sure all Mitsubishi dealers aren't like this, but it really puts me off. I don't know how everyone else feels, but I tend to think of the car in a bad light purely because of the way the dealer acted. The car itself might have fewer flaws than the others I've just looked at, but it's easier to notice them for some reason. But then this was the dealer that had a definite sale on a 4WD turbo Galant VR4 three years ago if he'd bothered to ring me, but he never did ... so I suppose it's not too surprising.
Now, just around the corner was the Ford dealer. They had a good selection of new Falcons lined up, having only released the model the previous week. There were tyre kickers a-plenty checking out the new car, and the dealer seemed quite happy to let people just go for a drive; serious buyer or not.
The problem was that nobody took us seriously; we must have looked too shifty or something. The best we could get was a rough estimate as the fleet sales folk weren't available. Basically, the car was something interesting, being new, but the sales approach was again a bit of a turn-off.
The final port of call was the Subaru/Honda dealer. The dealership was wrapped in a hessian sack, balloons were flying, streamers flapping, and people with rock-hard smiles and clipboards were waiting to valet-park your car at no extra cost. I really don't understand this approach to selling cars. Who doesn't haggle as hard as they dare when buying a new car? During sales like this, you never see a better quote than on any other day of the week you walk into the dealership. But I suppose there must be people who fall for it, or the dealers wouldn't bother.
But worst of all, no test drives! The cars were apparently packed in too tightly to allow you to test a car, but if Sir would like to come back during the week ... what, we don't have jobs? So after an instant baulk as the Accord was quoted at 20% over the price of the equivalent Subaru, we grabbed a few brochures and left without even their quote on the Soob. They couldn't tell us whether we'd get a fleet discount; again, the fleet salesdroids were MIA.
The verdict? Well, it's pretty hard to say. The Mitsubishi that a friend owns is nice, with pretty good power and is almost eerily quiet; but hey, if you can't fit in it?! The Camry wins on power and throttle response, but I can see why it's criticised for having a cheaper interior than the previous model. Falcon and Commodore fill out their standard roles; the Falcon feels more grunty and has a better ride, the Commodore better handling and steering response. The used Subaru I've driven since felt nice on the road, and you know it's much nicer in the wet, but it didn't quite match the others on power or interior room.
There's a reason many car comparison tests often don't have a winner - while there are differences between cars, it seems to be a case of swings and roundabouts. I'd be tempted to buy the Holden, purely due to sales approach!
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