High Pressure Sales
About a week ago, I went with my daughter to shop for a car. She was considering several used vehicles as well as a new Chevy Trax. She also had an older Subaru to trade in. We were prepared to pay cash, but we wanted to compare trade-in offers from several dealerships. From the beginning, we explained clearly that we would not be buying a car that day—we were simply gathering offers and would return to one of the dealerships the following week.
Because she was considering a Chevy, I put Suburban Chevrolet at the top of our list. In the 1990s and early 2000s, I purchased four cars from this dealership and always had a great experience. In fact, I used to tell people that they were so reputable that I didn’t even bother making a counteroffer—I trusted that I was getting a fair deal.
Unfortunately, that was not our experience this time.
We gave them the keys to the Subaru so they could inspect it, and then we waited for a trade-in offer. During that time, the salesperson asked three separate times if we would commit to buying a car that day. The third time, when we again explained that we planned to compare offers from other dealers, he told us the manager would not provide a trade-in offer if we weren’t prepared to purchase that day.
I was honestly surprised. High-pressure tactics like that feel like something from decades ago. Because of that response, we decided to leave.
For comparison, here are the dealerships that did provide immediate trade-in offers on the Subaru without any pressure:
• Eden Prairie Nissan
• Apple Jeep
• Lenzen Chevy (Chaska)
• Jeff Belzer (Lakeville)
• Apple Jeep (Shakopee)
Every one of those dealerships treated us respectfully and understood that we were comparison shopping.
True to our word, a few days later we purchased a brand-new Chevy Trax from Jeff Belzer in Lakeville. We love the car and had an excellent buying experience there. While we were there, I even looked at the new Chevy Blazer and may return later this summer.
It’s disappointing to see how much Suburban Chevrolet seems to have changed from the dealership I remembered years ago.