McDonald’s are franchised restaurants yet in this country, no matter which one you go into, the price and the service is the same.
Do you mean their quality control is universally the same cheap unhealthiness everywhere? 
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Biggest irritation in the past when buying a car for my wife has been that if we went to the dealer together the salespeople generally ignored her despite being told she was using and choosing.
This was a significant reason she bought her first Honda, and several thereafter. They treated her as the customer, discussed the car with her, took her on the test drive and basically ignored me. What a revolution!
It has improved a bit, although not at BMW when I bought her i3 recently. After the first preliminary visit she sent me back alone because they were pushy and a bit intimidating. All sharp suits and bullsh*t I’m afraid. They were however selling the car she wanted.
Bruce
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but the attitude of the salesperson has a pretty decisive effect on what make of car I’ll buy, not just at the time but in future.
Best experiences have been with the old Ipswich Land Rover dealers where we bought our Range Rover (although latterly Land Rover, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the mostly rural county of Suffolk didn’t need a main dealer in either its largest town or city), Lexus Ipswich (although we didn’t actually buy from them in the end), Honda Ipswich, and Audi Ipswich. We shall never darken the door of a Mercedes dealer again.
The only exception to my rule is BMW. The Ipswich dealer’s terrible, but I really wanted an X3 a few years ago so went along to their dealer in Bury St. Edmunds who turned out to be great and we’ve now bought four cars from them.
If we’re ignored, we walk out. If they’re discourteous, we walk out. If we’re treated as idiots, we walk out. if there’s any sharp intakes of breath, we walk out.
I’m starting to feel poor reading this thread…
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Its not just the premium dealers who can be singled out. The long-suffering now Mrs.Ex-Jonners had a Renault which was subject to a recall notice. Whilst waiting for the work to be done we sat in reception listening to the Service Secretary tell customer after customer who had also taken their cars in for the remedial work, the garage’s technicians had found this and that wrong with it as well and asked if they would like the work carried out. When it was our turn we got the same treatment. “The work has been carried out but your front offside is borderline illegal and your aircon needs recharging, shall we go ahead with that for you?” I was fuming and said I thought it was a bloody disgrace they were using a recall notice as a sales opportunity and if they had found anything wrong the least they could do is to fix it free of charge as a goodwill gesture to make up for the fact my wife had been driving a rolling fireball.Naturally they refused and when I wouldn’t pay they insisted I signed a disclaimer because of the tyre which I would not do. The secretary wouldn’t give me the keys back until I did so it was stand-off until she had to get her patronising manager to come out and explain why I had to sign this disclaimer. I said “a tyre is either legal or illegal, it can’t be both, so as its borderline it must be legal”. He went off for the keys and kept us waiting a further 5 minutes all in front of other customers. When we picked up the car we found they had changed the tyre, I guess they had been that confident I would pay and explained why the secretary felt the need to go into unarmed combat with me!
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This is why I will probably never own an Audi. There’s general/unfocused unprofessional behaviour, maybe someone having a bad day, and then there’s downright rudeness. I say “probably” because shop staff don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t own. So never say never. But I won’t use that dealer, which cuts down the probability considerably.
With apologies to the salespeople who are members of this forum,who hopefully are far more professional than others, based on my experiences over the years, albeit nothing to do with cars, I consider the sales profession to be pretty near the lowest of the low.
Once when we agreed for a new driveway to be laid by ‘gypsies’ who promised all sorts of things for an exceptionally low price, at s time my wife was not working during the day. Knowing the risk of shortcuts being taken she kept a close eye on what they were doing. Seeing them skimping on materials but after having done more than half the work (prompted a numbrr of times by her such as when they clearly hadn’t dug deep enough), she went out and spoke to them, and there was a big argument. They demanded to see the man of the house, knowing I was at work. She said it had nothing to do with me, as she was the one paying. They downed tools and walked off, only to come back in the evening. You would have loved to see their faces when I said it was nothing to do with me as it was my wife who engaged them and would be paying. She told them they could stop there and not get paid a penny, or carry on but do it properly Rather than not be paid at all they carried on meekly and did it was properly, and we got a good driveway at a good price!
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Not me - I buy the best car to suit my car driving needs and desires (best balance of), as limited by budget. As with anything I but, salesmen/women don’t feature at all, though they may affect from where I buy.
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I look after a substantial number of travellers who have a historic link with the town.
They are a fascinating cultural group but one thing to note is they are very much a traditional patriarchal community and doing business with the woman would seem alien to many. Previously few of the women had formal education and a fair few did not read or write.
Bruce
This is something I have a big bee in my bonnet about. Cars are a big passion of mine and as a child had posters on my wall and one day said I would own one. I have been very fortunate to own higher end cars for a good few years and EVERY single dealer I have used has been terrible, not just bad, but terrible. I have had new/pre owned, used main dealers and supposed “specialist independent” dealers. It does not matter if it was buying/running, maintaining/selling it was all the same. Straw that broke the camels back was my last car which was delivered back by a main dealer and put in my garage and instead of putting it somewhere it would by safe and away from other stuff, he put it close to one side and when he opened door to get out he whacked the door against a motorbike footpeg. Rather than owning up to this he left the car there with toeing eye attached and stuffed the keys/paperwork through the letter box and scarpered (he should have shown my wife around the car and handed keys/paperwork over by hand). When I called the main dealer they said they would never do that and I must have done it when I got in the car ! It was a special paint job done at the factory as a 15k option so painting the door (ie whole side of the car and would be very costly). A long dispute and I finally sold the car and staying away from higher end cars now. I drive a 595 Abarth at a 10th of the cost and get treated better than I ever did with higher end dealers (but still not great TBH) and I muck about with old mud pluggers to keep my hand in and enjoy cars. My daughter is currently helping me do a chassis change on a Defender. 20 years of pain with sports cars is enough for me.
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The interesting thing is that with my way we achieved better with them than I think we would have otherwise - perhaps because of the cultural shock! And the result was that we got exactly what was promised, unlike the many tales of woe one hears after such works are commissioned from said people…
[Reposted with corrections after seeing what my iPhone made of my typed text!]
As I said I have a lot of contacts in the travelling community locally. I’d be careful not to use too many generalisations for how they work or act etc. Some of the warmest and most generous people I care for.
‘Gypsies’ is viewed as a bit of a perjorative or even racist term by some, although it all gets rather complex when you go into it in detail and most I know are fairly unbothered. Romany Gypsies vs Irish travellers etc etc. I’d suggest ‘travellers’ is a safer term generally, even though many don’t travel.
Big digression, sorry!
Bruce
Indeed, that is why I put the term in parentheses. As you say, a better term may have been “travellers”.
I have had good experiences with BMW, Clifton Moor, in York for both BMW and also Mini sales. For both new and used cars.
Good, helpful, knowledgable and non-pressurising sales staff who listen to what you are looking for.
Richard
My experience over the past decade or so has been with mainly Mercedes dealers and a few dealers. I can’t say I’ve had a bad experience compared to some of those described earlier but then I suppose that it is tempered by my expectations. With each and every Mercedes salesperson I’ve dealt with I’ve found that I know much more about the models and variants than they do. That has led to occasions on which the salesmen (always men) should have displayed some degree of embarrassment when I have corrected them, but most bluff through. As well as knowing my stuff on models I always go prepared on price ie I know what discounts are available on the models I’m interested in or, if used, the s/h values of the car on the forecourt that I’m interested in; and, where necessary, the value of the car I’m trading in. Most salesman, or the manager they go off to speak to, work out their customer knows their stuff and adapt their strategy accordingly. The many conversations always stay polite and reasonable, even where we can’t agree. So my advice to anyone would be: do your research before you enter a dealership and don’t be afraid to display it.
No, I mean it’s crap Debs 
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You obviously haven’t owned a Linn LP12 Mike_S!
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