[adya33]

Recently my cousin who decided to upgrade from his existing Accent. He was considering Civic, Corolla and OctiviaRS.

So he started to visit various dealerships, he liked RS but since he is chauffeured around from time to time he dropped idea of RS. Then it was visit to Honda dealership and immediately he felt in love with Civic. Well who wouldn't? He had all but decided to book Civic and just because he had decided he went to Toyota showroom. Now here is where fun starts,

In Toyota showroom he was given a piece of paper of comparison between Corolla and Civic. And there were some really weird negative points about Civic like shoulder pain due to short steering wheel in Civic and bla bla. So he started to research about it on internet. He is aware about Team-BHP so he followed various threads on here too. And soon he started to find out that more than half the points which Toyota had listed were not true at all.
During this period Toyota salesman had called him and had given him a list of customers whom according to them had sold of their Civic within 10k KM.

After some extensive testing of Civic on both city roads and highways he was sure that Toyota people were full of cr*p.
So he went ahead and booked Civic and then called Toyota salesman and told him "If 10 people have sold their Civic before 10k KM then I would be 11th and that day I will let you know."


Lesson learnt from this story: Negative marketing about your competitors never work.

[amit]

This actually happened in the Volkswagen dealership that I was working in in Toronto.

A guy drives into our dealership in a Jetta. Says he has been a happy VW customer for 8 years and is looking for a new car so he checks out the Jetta 2.0 Turbo FSI. Andrea, the salesgirl, handles him really well. After the TD, he says he likes the car but since he has been driving VW's for 8 years he feels he could do with a change in brand. Its either VW or Honda he says and the decision is to be made in 3 days. Andrea tells him that it will be tough for her to get his business since Honda's are really very good cars.

A few days later he comes back and tells Andrea he would like to put a deposit down on the Jetta. Deal done she is waiting for the business office to call him in to discuss accessories and finance terms when she asks him about the Honda Accord he wanted to check out. He says, "Andrea, I really liked the Accord. It drives pretty well and is bigger then the Jetta too. Sure it doesn't drive as well as VW's but I was really impressed with the quality and the smoothness of the engine and also the drive. The price was good too." So what made him come back to VW then?

The guy said when he told the honda salesguy that the choice was either the Honda Accord or the VW Jetta, the Honda salesguy started telling him about the problems Jetta have and how unreliable they are and how he has been lucky to get a good Jetta.

Then the salesguy tells him that honda's are reliable because they are built in North America while VW's are made in Mexico and hence all the problems. The guy said that this sentence made me decide that I would buy the VW.

Turns out the guy was a Mexican.

[Dippy]

Negative marketing is nothing new. These days when you go to a dealership they waste more time telling you how bad the competitor car is rather than giving the plus points of their own.

Happened to me when I went to check out the SX4. They put down the NHC to really low levels. And that too after seeing me drive up in a Honda. Silly sales people.

[GTO]

Well, the Corolla isnt a match for the Civic. Thats why the sales guy hits under the belt.

When I was contemplating between the Lancer & City (Y2000), I asked the Metro Motors sales chap " Why should I buy the Lancer over the City"? His honest response left an impression "Sir, both the cars are good and the difference is wafer-thin. Test drive both and pick the one that makes you feel better". No nonsense.

I did eventually buy the Lancer.

[kuttapan]

I went to test drive the Civic, with no intention to buy of course. THe sales guy started calling me and I told him I am considering the Cedia, Corolla etc and he started talking negative about each of these cars !! I told him I didnt like the Civic anyway(blatant lie) and hung up.

[shuvc]

IMO some of this is probably person dependent. That is some sales people do it this way.
But it looks like Toyota has institutionalised it for selling the Corolla. I was checking it out for a colleague. The sales guy came with a laptop and started showing us spreadsheets on how Civic is inferior to the Corolla.

And how VVTi is superior to VTec, since VTec kicks in at 40kmph and VVTi from 1kmph and what not ....

Sadly my colleague decided to go with the Corolla since they have variants priced lower than the Civic.

[bottle]

well ive been handled this bilge as well, when i requested a TD of palio stile the sales female asked me why i wasn't getting an indica and that all prospective palio buyers eventually end up getting indicas anyway

[speedzak]

I make it very clear to the sales guys that I am not here for a comparison. Please don't compare your product with something else to prove a point. Instead talk about the good things your company has added into this car.
But, some don't get it.

[amohit]

Exactly the same thing happened to me when i went to Hyundi & Bimal for TDing getz and swift resp. I openly told hyundi guy that i'l be testdriving swift after this..and he took it really well....but when i said the same thing to bimal guy, he started telling me cr*p abt getz. Since he didnt have any swift for TD, and I was in no mood to listen to his cr*p, I walked off telling him , it would've been better if he had used his 5 mins talking good abt swift instead of talking bad about getz.

Though I have yet to decide what will i buy....

Mohit

[vasudeva]

Bad mouthing competitors' products usually happens not only in cars but other products. But giving leaflets is taking it a bit too far as it leaves a record (unless company sanctioned, and not dealer's policy) and is usually not done. When I was in the market in Feb 07 here is what I heard from various companies:

Uttam Toyota, Patparganj: GM cars are good but do not sell because of brand.
Apex Auto (GM dealer) Gurgaon: Why City? It is so scary and light.
Ring Road Honda and Prime Honda: On seeing that I have a Corsa: `the maintenance costs would be killing you'.

I do not know about Toyota dealers elsewhere, but my experience in Delhi with Galaxy Toyota/Ring Road Honda/Prime Honda/GM dealers is:

GM: very tough to sell and will give you anything to move the metal. But they are willing to spend a lot of time with you, anytime. When you finally buy a non-GM car, you feel sorry for the individual salesman who was denied your custom.
Honda: knock down competitors, and make you feel `honoured and privileged' that they would sell to you. There is absolutely no need to knock down others, since Honda virtues are self apparent. After giving me a TD of Civic, they did not want to come into my home for discussions, as they had to go back to office.
Toyota: gentle selling with no arguments about advantages about other customers' cars (maybe it also depends on salesman to salesman, but all the 3 salesmen I interacted with at Toyota were polite and gentle).

[rahul_intlad]

Walk into the same honda showroom[deccan honda] and tell them you are interested in the NHC but are also considering the sx4 and you will get something like this:

Yes sir we know sx4 has more features but honda is a reputed brand,would you like to buy something from a street side vendor or something from a high end shop[the person named the shop can't remember it now],and yes they too did have the same line sir I will give you a list of people who have come back to us after going for the sx4.And the most interesting bit was that it is unsafe to put 100 bhp in a c segment car[they forgot they sell the vtec too],ABS is dangerous for city driving and stuff like that.

So badmouthing other companies is not limited to any particular company.

[benbsb29]

Guess it all depends upon the sales guy under consideration.
Meanwhile, keep it coming, guys... makes for good reading.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by rahul_intlad

Walk into the same honda showroom[deccan honda] and tell them you are interested in the NHC but are also considering the sx4 and you will get something like this:

Yes sir we know sx4 has more features but honda is a reputed brand,would you like to buy something from a street side vendor or something from a high end shop[the person named the shop can't remember it now],and yes they too did have the same line sir I will give you a list of people who have come back to us after going for the sx4.And the most interesting bit was that it is unsafe to put 100 bhp in a c segment car[they forgot they sell the vtec too],ABS is dangerous for city driving and stuff like that.

So badmouthing other companies is not limited to any particular company.

He he he....


Deccan Honda continues to suck...

And what's funny is - they are the rare dealership who have worse sales workforce than service!!!

Everytime I visit them for my NHC servicing, I do have a chat with the sales guys and they continue to amaze me with their arrogance and incompetence.

And this is what my friend told their manager after taking delivery of his NHC - "If I had gone to Laxmi road to buy a bicycle (than coming to you to buy a Honda), I would have gotten more respect from the shopkeeper."

[DieselFan]

Originally Posted by amohit

Though I have yet to decide what will i buy....

Mohit

Mohit - I suggest you take a test drive of Swift D and Swift P and Getz. Then decide. Swift P is no match at all when you compare the same with D while it compares fairly well with Getz. This is my personal view of course.

You should either try kalyani motors on Mysore road - Really good guys trying to establish themselves as dealers or Mandovi motors in JP nagar.

[benbsb29]

OFF - TOPIC:
DieselFan, this is not the 'What Car' thread to provide advice.
Trust me, mohit has decided to an extent on what he's looking at.