12:56 pm, August 9, 2022
British car dealers have been revealing their most memorable customer interactions of the past year as part of a new study by CarGurus.
The survey, conducted by the Car Dealer Podcast sponsor, lays bare the weird and wonderful request dealers have to handle every day.
One customer inquired whether a car could fit a medieval jousting pole in it, while another asked whether the the dealer could pay the insurance for them.
Elsewhere, one customer told a salesman that his wife would divorce him if there wasn’t a bigger discount applied to the car and one even offered his children in part-exchange.
Another customer even stated that the dealer was offering them too much for their trade-in vehicle, before settling on a valuation halfway between the dealer’s and their own.
CarGurus’ survey also found dealers’ experiences were no less strange away from the forecourt, with test drives once again proving an ideal opportunity for bizarre interactions.
In one case, the customer took a test drive home to put their pets in the car.
There was also a tale from a salesman who found himself swapping shoes with a potential customer to make sure they could drive safely and comfortably.
Among the unusual things left in cars were severed mannequin heads, false teeth, prosthetic limbs and mysterious powders.
There were also used nappies and dead mice left in cars that had been traded in against a new purchase.
Chris Knapman, global director of editorial content at CarGurus, said: ‘While an increasing percentage of the research required to purchase a car is now carried out online, visiting a dealership remains a crucial part of the buying process for many people.
‘The past 12 months have seen plenty of weird and wonderful interactions between car buyers and dealers. There’s certainly never a dull moment on Britain’s forecourts.’
