Am I being a jerk?
I test drove a new-to-market EV SUV at 2 dealerships in Canada. I'm having 2 different experiences, and I'm wondering I'm just being a difficult customer.
Dealer 1 has been working with me for some time, primarily to answer questions and offer insight. When the vehicle landed, we did a test drive, they answered more questions. On the pricing side, they offered very fair pricing (MSRP + admin, freight, PDI, licensing - incentives). The salesperson left us in her office only to come back having dropped the admin fee to $300, without us even asking.
Dealer 2, I did a test drive. The salesperson is only a couple weeks in, and had double-booked herself. During my test drive, she called me (presumably to ask me why I'm not back yet?) I didn't see the call, only took 15-20 mins for the test drive and saw the missed call only when I was back at the dealership. Once inside, I noticed she didn't have a corporate computer. Everyone used their own laptops. She didn't have EasyDeal (or whatever they use) on her laptop and everything had to go to a Sales Manager. She called me back this week, and I asked her to beat the other offer i got. I broke down the pre-tax price, but didn't mention any incentives. She came back to me with a higher price after applying the incentives. When I called her out on it, she put the SM on the phone and he claims to have priced out a trim that won't even be in the market for another 4 months! He said he'd call his GM, and finally came back to me with an offer that is worthy of consideration. They wanted a deposit on the call. Overall, I didn't like that I wasn't talking to someone who couldn't even give me an initial price, offered me a negotiated price that was higher than expectations, and then the urgency to put a deposit down right away.
I spent similar amounts of time with both dealers, but dealer 1 was more about questions about the car and very hands-off beyond that. Dealer 2 was almost all about pricing. They aren't even aware that the vehicle isn't sold in the US, and that the trim they quoted won't be in the market for a few months.
I don't want to fault the salesperson for being green. She's younger, new to car sales overall, and very new to this dealership. But I also don't want to give the SM or GM any courtesy for not proactively offering a good deal when they reached out to me.
So my questions. Would I be a jerk if:
- Went back to dealership 1 with dealer 2's pricing?
- Ghosted dealer 2, or didn't work with them, despite their better pricing?
If you're a dealer, is this an average experience? Is there not enough margin at MSRP to offer a great deal off the bat, rather than making me work for a deal? Am I just being a difficult customer?