Earth to Dumbass Car Sales Reps - Insulting the idea of Women driving manual - not good idea

I swear I'm not shopping cars but shopping for sales reps that aren't vile. As soon as the guy said "Didn't know if you'd be interested in stick, most ladies can't drive them". Did I just time warp back into the 1970s?

Mind you I prefer automatic - it's just much easier for city living, but I've driving some very top line stick shift cards including a Dodge Viper and a variety of top end Porches & Acuras.

Some of the salesmen openly mocked me when I said that is what I wanted. Bad idea. I walked out.

:hi:

after the sales guy kept trying to point out the "lighted" vanity mirror on the driver's side!!! When I kept telling him I didn't care about that & wanted to know about airbags & brakes, he asked "But don't you want to look in the mirror to see if you're pretty?" "*IF*? Bye."

dg

How much can you pay per month?!

That's not how I'm going to pick a car. And the answer is, as little as possible because I don't want to spend 5 years working for a bank loan.

went to San Antonio & bought a car there, hassle-free. "Oh, you want a standard? Cool,right this way."

dg

like that. Sigh. Now I'll have to deal with the unenlightened next time I have to get a new car. Boo.

how one of their sales women came to Saturn to buy a car after being shown the vanity mirror & ended up working for them? I thought it was a cute commercial, until it happened to me. :grr:

Yeah, I drive a Saturn & was looking to get another one. Oh well. :(

dg

I was actually sad when they pulled the plug. We had bought 5 or 6 of em over the years... :cry:

I too wish they would've stuck around a bit longer.

I told the reps what I wanted; no condescension, no pressure to upgrade to useless bells and whistles and I got exactly what I asked for. Damn shame Saturn went belly up.

The second one didn't have electric-adjusting seats and electric windows like the first over-priced one did. He wanted to prove to me that the cars would drive the same. How stupid do these assholes think we are? I wound up buying my car from AAA's buyer's program. No hassles, no haggling down the price. Got a pretty good deal. Will do it again next time. Besides, cars with standard transmission are difficult to come by in my area. Easier to get what one wants through AAA.

:grr:

:wtf: I've never owned anything else!

It's speaks volumes that sycophantic, oily car salesmen can't even rein in their inherent misogyny when their commission is on the line. WTF? You throw like a "girl" turns into you drive like a "girl".

It's still the worst insult a guy can hear. Idiots.

tell him that no one with a dick will be involved in the purchase of your car, including him. ;)

Then ask to talk to someone with some brains and manners.

and after we returned to the dealership and got out of the car the salesman said to me, "You handle that stick shift really well, for a girl."

The look I gave him could have curdled gin, and I walked off the lot right then and there. This was about 35 years ago, but it appears that things have not changed.

:banghead:

Horsepower-do you know what that is sweetie?" :grr:

I sit on my porch, I don't drive it.

:eyes:

About 1975 a salesman waltzed me all over the lot, away from anything with a standard transmission. Kept showing me cars with the line "all the ladies luuuuuuv this one". I had already not seen anything I'd be interested in, but wasted enough of his time that other customers went to other salesmen. When I got ready to leave I asked him, as if only making chit chat, if he remembered his first car. Since he was all of about 22 he looked at me as if I was nuts and nodded his head. "My first car," I told him, "was a 1964 GTO."

I didn't tell him that the GTO got stolen and wrecked, to be replaced by a Corvair. Yikes. But Dad, bless him, made sure I knew enough about the engine that I couldn't be swindled by any disreputable mechanics. Thus, when I stopped for gas just west of Bumfuck, Wyoming (back in the days when gas stations had people to pump your gas and check under the hood) I emerged from the restroom to find the attendant shaking his head as he looked at the engine. "Lady," he said, "it's lucky you stopped when you did, you are completely out of radiator coolant. I'll be happy to take care of that for you." I asked him to show me the radiator "cuz my Daddy told me there isn't one." That exchange was overheard by a couple of truckers, and he was so embarrassed he forgot to charge me for the tank of gas. But I'd be willing to bet that he shared some genetic material with the car salesman.

-

. . . asking pointedly if I was "Jewish" because I was haggling over the price of a car. :grr:

I NEVER went back. And I tell everyone I know never to go there. Sonofabitch.

BTW, I'm a female of WASP-y descent.

at this point, gender is hardly the deciding factor on driving stick. A lot of dudes can't drive them either.

If my dad hadn't made me learn I wouldn't know. Definitely a valuable skill though.

I fucking LOVE Porsches. My best wet dream is a Porsche Carrera GT:

2005 model:

what was the diameter of the clutch plate on his make of truck. We went to the next dealer over and drove away
with a fine little truck.

The Tikkis

I can get by with them but Seattle has steep hills & heavy traffic. Who needs the aggravation?

everything else seems like a dream in comparison. i looked at Manhattan traffic and mused, "at least it's mostly flat and has a consistent grid just about everywhere."

When I first read it, I thought this thread was going to be about separate driving manuals for women. :blush:


I hate automatic transmission, however I don't live in a city. But, the sad thing is, most women don't know how to drive stick these days. Neither of my sisters do. Or, my niece. Or, most of my female friends. I dare to say a large proportion of men don't, either.

:rofl:

Her: I'm sorry all we have right now is a stick. Can you drive one?

Me: I prefer a stick and yes I learned to drive with a stick. They were standard on dinosaurs.

Her: Wide eyed bewildered stare.

because many people have no clue how to drive stick - men and women. That's a generalized question that isn't an attack on my sex. To comment that as a female I probably prefer automatic is a generalization.

To be honest, I do prefer automatic. I live in the city and driving stick is a pain in the butt, especially with parallel parking. Perhaps if I was in the suburb I might consider stick - but I'm not.

I had the definite whiff of "this old lady will freak at the thought of a stick"; wouldn't have been the first time. If I have a preference, I state it up front.

If I were living in a city, even the 'burbs, especially if the terrain was flat with relatively straight roads, an automatic would be the way to go. However, in rural New England there may be all up less than a hundred miles of flat straight roads, even on the freeways. Either you work the shift to break or wheels spend a lot of time in the shop getting new pads.

Class AZ license in Ontario, Canada. The salesman kept telling my husband that we should be looking at automatics and should leave the manuals to the 'guys'. He looked pretty embarrassed when he took a photocopy of my license to hold while I was out on a test drive with the car I wanted.

There are a number of online auto buying services for both new and used cars, autobytel is one I remember off the top of my head. If you know what you want you enter the specs and the service will solicit bids anonymously from 4 or 5 local dealers for that specific model.

I bought my 2003 Honda Civic that way. One dealer about 20 miles away had the low bid by $100. The second low bid was a dealer about 5 miles away. I called them, asked if they would match the low bid and they did. The first time I went to the dealer was to sign the papers and pick up the car. No haggling, no high pressure pitches. I will never buy again in person.

A few years after that my son needed a used car and we bought one on ebay motors. It was a trade in at a local Volvo dealer and rather than wholesale it they put it online and we got it at near wholesale price.

Consumers Reports has an excellent auto buying guide. You can join online for cheap, I paid $5 for one month.

Ask anyone that works in a dealership. If we share 97% of our DNA with a chimp, we're at 70%, tops, with a salesweasel. And, to be fair, there are certain "empathy with the machinery" issues that some women will never overcome. (and a very few men as well).
Riding your Harley into the dealership may tend to defuse the chauvinisim - yes, I know a lady who does this! Wearing a car club hat or jacket may help, as well.

Bell Brothers...they insisted that my husband should be present. To paraphrase, as a woman I might not ask all the right questions.

They sent someone who was just like a car salesman. He put the pressure on us to make the deal the same evening, before we got other estimates. I told him that we need to sleep on it and that we'll give him a call. The other 2 companies where about half the price and we made a deal with one of them.

Why would it be more difficult for a woman? I've driven one all my life - my husband will freely admit that I handle a manual transmission better than he does.

Used to piss me off about playing pool, too. What about the game of pool makes it difficult for a woman to play? And yet so many men used to give me a hard time about playing.

Idiots. I hope you informed him that he just lost a fat commission.

but we needed a car asap. First he ignored me and tried to sell the SO a truck. He didn't offer a good enough trade in for the SO's truck (he was emotionally attached to it)so that was a wasted couple hours. Then the SO remembers we are there for something that holds more than 2 people and tells the sales reptile to talk to me. I knew what I wanted, was willing to order for the color I wanted but they had one on the floor they wanted to get sold. I let him talk me into buying it but it had all this extra stuff like a stripe on the sides, clear coat, rust proofing,up grades this and up graded that. As he started on the price of each thing I told him I didn't want it. He would say but it is already on there so I would say take it off. He would kindly explain that it could not be removed or taken off. (Really? I didn't know that. lol) I would say fine I'll go somewhere that they can give me what I want. This went on for about an hour and I said enough, I would go talk to someone that really wants my money. We ended up leaving with that car for 1/3 of the asking price. The SO still laughs about it and tells people to take me with them to buy a car. If you are going to treat me like a dumb blond female then be prepared for me to use it against you.

I don't want to drive an automatic. They're boring. I love football more than most men do. I can beat you at poker.

Just because I have ze girly plumbing does not mean I think of nothing but shopping and makeup all day long.

:woohoo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FgtRazfIP8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiQA0rKl6MY

Much better experience than I had when I bought from men. I remember testing a male sales rep once; I went in the first day and sent my SO in the next day to the same guy for the same car. He was offered a MUCH better deal. Then we went in together. Sales rep was pretty embarrassed. And I got the better deal.