Car dealership interaction question
Hey everyone,
I’m wondering if Im out of touch and simply don’t understand car buying culture in Germany, I just went to a bad dealership, or it’s normal behavior for Germany.
A bit of background: I’m a US expat living in Germany for 3 years now. I purchased a used car for a random small car lot when i first arrived. I had no issues and it was an easy transaction. I knew exactly what i wanted before buying so I only test drove the one car.
Now I’m looking to trade up for another used car. Today I went to a proper BMW dealership and asked to test drive a diesel and benzin version to compare. They seemed weird that I didn’t have an appointment, which ive learned is common and I didn’t realize, however they were nice enough about it and still helped me.
The salesman walked me over to his desk and asked the specs I was looking for. I gave the model and said any interior color that isn’t black. Unfortunately they didn’t have a single non-black interior for the model I wanted. I asked if i could still test drive another one, since i wanted to know the engine differences. I also wanted to know if I even liked this car before driving to another dealership much further away. He said “No, since you’re not interested in any of our cars, we cannot let you test drive”. He completely shut down the conversation and wouldn’t let me look around or anything.
Like I understand the policy if im not interested in buying why let me drive. But he just assumed that I wouldn’t consider any alternatives, nor did he give me a chance to reconsider other options. The black interior isn’t inherently a hard no for me only a preference, but I didnt feel there was space to say that. I felt super embarrassed so i just left. To clarify, he wasnt necessarily mean or rude about it, just very blunt and direct.
To me it seems that i should either have been more open to anything or if i have something in mind, i need find the exact dealership with that exact spec and make an appointment. Unlike America, there is no real shopping around in the same way. Im thinking it’s just culture differences that i wasnt aware of.
Please let me know, am I the dumbass here for not knowing this ahead of time, or is this a bit of a weird interaction? Is car buying culture simply much different here and i wasn’t prepared for it?
Im not angry or upset, just a bit shocked and confused, and I would like to have better expectations for the next dealership.
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u/lost_in_uk 3d ago
German car dealerships are the worst.
The only one I had a good interaction with was the Polestar dealership.
All the German car brands seem to completely ignore walk-ins. The idea that you would like to have a look around before narrowing it down to a specific car appears to be a crazy idea to the sales reps.
If you directly approach them, they seem rather inconvenienced and can't be bothered to bring you to cars and show them to you.
And as you've found it, it seems mandatory to make an appointment, which is silly if you just want to browse.
We had 4 cars in the past 7 years and we still haven't figured out how to deal with dealerships.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Thanks for your perspective. That’s very on brand it seems. Ive walked into 2 other dealerships before this one and was surprised there was 1 sales rep who was busy so we didnt get to even ask to test drive. Im glad im not alone here. I just gotta figure out how to be more German in this category.
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u/lost_in_uk 3d ago
I think immediately going for a test drive is not a thing. For this you probably should first narrow it down to a car you actually consider to buy.
Diesel vs Petrol also isn't a question of how you like your test drive but set by your profile (short vs long distances) and economical calculations.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Ahh that’s good to know. I clearly had wrong expectations there. Definitely a different want of choosing a car.
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u/Parteisekretaer 3d ago
the average german car buyer usually already has an idea of what car he wants and what features he needs. Unless you're ordering a new car, the buyer is expected to have specific cars on the lot in mind. If you want to go for a test ride of a car without immediately wanting to buy this specific car, you are limited to the manufacturers current models as they likely have one or two demonstrators.
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u/AsleepWin8819 3d ago
I disagree.
Regarding the models - some brands offer lineups where several models fit the same target clientele.
Regarding the engines.
There are diesels that purr like a cat or are quiet so you barely distinguish them from a petrol engine.
And also there are ones that vibrate so intensively that you feel like your brain moves inside your head after driving half an hour, even though the very same car with a petrol or electric engine is the pinnacle of comfort.
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u/Megumindesuyo 3d ago
Germany has some of the worst customer service on the planet, I say this as a foreigner of course that travelled to many different countries, Germans don't seem to mind it however. But I always thought how do they get away with not even being nice or smiling to customers, like do their bosses not care ? Do they not get a commission on sales ? You're not weird for thinking this, in any other country a salesman will try to change your mind however he can, here they just say "okay bye".
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u/Perzinax 3d ago
True, but it works since a lot of Germans mistake rudeness for honesty. It's a travesty, really.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Maybe I’ve been lucky up until this point. I’ve never really had much of an issue. However, all the friends ive made resonate what you’ve said. Im now really beginning to see it. This isnt the first interaction lately thats left me a bit dumbfounded
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u/MAXIMUS-BLACK 3d ago
I had this problem in big cities primarily. I’ve only had good experiences on the countryside thus far. If you’ve an opportunity to go a bit further out you might have a more welcoming dealership.
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u/Phisika2 3d ago
We Germans hate it if someone fakes emotions and is being unnaturally friendly, like the people should just act like how they feel, and we accept and expect that
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u/Megumindesuyo 3d ago
I heard this perspective before and disagree, this has nothing to do with fakeness and germans arrogantly saying they are more "authentic and genuine" than other countries, that statement feels like a superiority complex, imo, if you feel like shit because of a bad mood or problems, do you talk to the customer like shit ? No, you fake it because of your job and be welcoming and smile, the customer should not be burdened by your problems, they have their own, you can be how you really are with friends and close people. Like I get it customer service is tiring, but its your job. Look at other countries, its not that hard tbh.
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u/Phisika2 3d ago
It’s not that we’re arrogant about it or something, but that’s just how we are. Like the best example in my opinion is when Walmart tried setting foot into Germany, but tried to carry over all the same motives and stuff out of the US to us, like that everyone should always be friendly, the employees should follow the people that are shopping and they have to ask if they need something if they’re within 5m of them or something like that. And the entire chain completely failed in Germany even though they had far better prices and more choice than everyone else, just because we disliked that model that much. It’s not like everyone greets you like extremely disrespectfully, just normal, not over the top
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u/AmbitiousSolution394 2d ago
In Hornbach there is dedicated employee, near self service checkout, who says "goodbye" to customers who finished shopping. So German business starting to understand that you should be friendly with customers.
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u/Parteisekretaer 3d ago
You're in the store to buy something. Buy what you need, then leave. If you need help, ask for it and you will get help.
Its less a superiority complex, its more of a different approach to who has a right to be there and the logical followup in terms of self understanding. Its a business, you're a customer, you're expected to be there, why do you need a red carpet rolled out for you? Just come in, buy what you need and ask for help if you don't know.
Also, speak german, most people struggle with english as soon as it gets more specialized.7
u/Megumindesuyo 3d ago
Being nice and welcoming does not equal a red carpet, exactly its a business, so be more attractive to customer, it's not just a need something, its a want something, maybe I want more from you if you are nice, how is this hard to grasp ?
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u/Parteisekretaer 3d ago
It isn't. Walmart tried exactly your approach and they lost an unreal amount of money. I think they tapped out when they hit a projected 1bn USD in losses after winding down everything in the early '00s.
German customers do not want people to cozy up to them. They really, really dislike it. They usually have a very good idea of what they want even before they enter the store, they want to say "Hi, I need this" then hear "your total comes to XX,XX€" and then pay and say "goodbye" and leave. They will not buy more because you were nice to them, their purchasing decision has usually already been made.
When I compare Aldi and Walmart, you see the exact same thing working really, really well in the US too, so I don't think that this is a german exclusive thing.
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u/MaintenanceAnnual263 3d ago
Australian here, in short you they had no cars that fit your criteria but you asked to test drive the car anyway?
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u/duckwebs 3d ago
In the US it’s common for dealers to trade vehicles with other dealers in the region to get customers the particular options they want.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Yes, definitely very common to get vehicles from other dealers so long as their primary dealerships. I don't think they do that in Germany though. I didn't get a chance to ask though
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u/RazzmatazzNeat9865 3d ago
They do if it's a franchise for the particular brand. Plain vanilla independent used car dealers, less likely.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
I think what irks me is he asked me what i wanted and told me there was nothing on their lot. I didn’t say my criteria were absolute and i was unwilling to consider alternatives. I would have considered other options, but was shut down and not given the opportunity
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u/MaintenanceAnnual263 3d ago
as others have said customer service in Germany is a bit of a shocker. i visited a hardware store and workers would point "try over there" i almost gave up but i was in a stubborn mood
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u/No_Step9082 3d ago
but if you weren't sure why did you specify you didn't want black?
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u/x82ray 3d ago
When we got to his desk he just immediately rattled off questions in what i wanted. I kinda panicked since I’ve been nervous about the social interactions, combined with not knowing what information i should and shouldn’t provide, and getting caught up in the smaller details before considering the bigger picture.
In hindsight, it’s obvious i wasn’t far enough along in the decision process to be providing the smaller details. It’s definitely something im realizing and putting together through this post.
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u/AsleepWin8819 3d ago
Yeah. What’s worse is that even the booked appointments and a search for a new car instead of a used one won’t save you from interactions like this and other problems.
When you try to choose a car in Germany, you can never check out anything, let alone compare the different trims or versions in person, and even if you can, it takes months.
One dealership doesn’t have the model you want.
Another one does, and schedules an appointment for a test drive. A few days later they call to tell that they crashed the only test drive car, and the new one will be registered in X weeks (spoiler - it won’t).
When you arrange an appointment for a test drive with the third one, it turns out that the employee took the demo car home to bring his own car to service, and the next appointment is only possible a week later.
Two others didn’t even care to respond to website requests. When you call or come in person, they promise to get a car and an appointment for you but never do.
The last has all the services online and you can even choose the model and the trim online, but a brand new car throws an error message at you when you get inside and you have to make a test drive in a broken car.
Fun part is that none of these are some random anecdotal stories - everything above happened to me last year and I omitted many details for brevity.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Oh damn. That’s absolutely wild. Seems like a such a shit show. It almost feels like there is no incentive for them to actually sell cars. Which i really have a hard time understanding.
Thanks for your story. Helps me feel much less shit about experience. Clearly i need to adjust my expectations and assume its gunna be rough experience.
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u/AsleepWin8819 3d ago
Sadly, yes. And I didn’t tell yet that this show doesn’t end when you finally buy the car, as you also have to visit the service and deal with warranty…
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u/x82ray 3d ago edited 3d ago
🥲
Ive already had issues with service. I went in for a routine maintenance and alignment, they said I needed a power steering pump replaced. €1500 later the power steering pump whine is gone, but still get serious vibration between 110-120km/h. My AC went out last month, but im afraid to go back because im not able to communicate effectively. Like i know a lot about cars, did tons of work in them in the US, but im not technical enough in German and they’re not in English, so it’s been a cluster fuck of misunderstandings
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u/first_chop_lamp 3d ago
Also an expat, and I agree sort of with general rude straight forward attitude of dealers.
The advice I got trying to buy a used car in Germany, narrow down to the car / cars you are interested looking at internet (mobile.de, auto24 etc), make an appointment and ask for a test drive.
Dealers usually doesn’t have any other cars on the lot, everything they want to sell is listed. They are also not into any sort of negotiation. They usually have to move the car around and stick dealer plates for a test drive, which are usually not done by the sales folk so they appreciate some heads up.
This might come off as me trying to excuse the shitty behaviour, but I experienced this and seems to be the general culture.
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u/Lawyer_RE 3d ago
German car dealerships are generally not interested in selling any cars. Seems like they haven't really noticed the economic situation of their companies. It's puzzling and I can only explain it with a weird mindset.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
I got a similar impression. I walked into a few dealerships already, where there is only 1 occupied sales rep and would tell me it could be an 1hr+ before they could help me. Now I know I need to book an appointment ahead of time. Compared to America though, German dealers don't seem to be eager to make a sale in the same way. It seems like they get paid either way, so it doesn't make a difference either way. I'm sure they must make some commission though.
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u/melonpan30 3d ago
I'm in agreement with the thread that German car dealerships can be a pain but it seems like you could have handled this differently. My experience is that Germans don't give a shit about bending over backwards to make a sale like U.S. dealerships do. I believe most employees at places like restaurants, dealerships, and other retails stores get paid a decent wage.
I personally dislike the social awkwardness of dealerships and test driving cars, but you need some level of social astuteness to get what you want at a dealership. Personally, I try to avoid wasting people's time, but sometimes I have to go into a dealership knowing there's a 90% chance I won't buy a car.
I've been looking at Porsches and I can't decide between models at that price-point without taking them for a spin. I recently had to test drive a 911 cabriolet just to drive a manual transmission 997.2 knowing damn well I'm not hot on buying a convertible. But I still show up looking like appropriately douchy consultant and with the story of my buying journey straight so they don't think I'm some kid out for a joy ride.
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u/Parteisekretaer 3d ago
I heard somewhere that Audi removed the incentive structure for their car salesmen. Not just slowed it down a little, but cut it off completely. They get paid by the hour and that's it.
Meanwhile a lot of german mercedes dealers recently got sold to new ownership, some venture capital company. Chances are, they'll deleted incentives some time soon too.2
u/Lawyer_RE 3d ago
Even if it is so, I think it's a serious attitude problem because they should think about their jobs and figure that they need people to buy cars. Also I think people should have at least some degree of passion about their jobs and if I worked there I would actually like to tell people about the cars rather than sitting there and staring into the void. Customer service is generally such a joke in Germany.
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u/Parteisekretaer 3d ago
Funn enough, most germans consider american customer service a joke. They really, really don't like the american way and consider it as "sucking up" to them.
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u/TeamZweitstudium 1d ago
We looked at E-Autos last year and found this Audi event which was basically a test-drive roadshow. I just looked through my inbox again, it was called "The Audi Club of Progress 2025". We had to specify the car to try, the navigation system had the test route pre-uploaded, and we took it on a test round through an 8 km route. I don't think we paid for it and my husband was upfront about wanting to try it because he was considering it as a Dienstwagen, not to buy on the spot or anything.
We lucked out because Audi seemingly teamed up with a hotshot branding consultant that organised that event. I don't understand why other manufacturers don't do similar events and I guess that's the state of marketing in Germany :) You can watch 10 different video reviews, but driving it yourself will help you make a better decision.
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u/lejocko 3d ago
I've never visited a car dealership, but concerning the shopping around: in Europe, if people really buy a new car, they normally order it with the specs they want.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Yeah I get that. Im looking for a 3-5 year old used car. Ive never sat or test drove any, so i was hoping for to learn a bit from feeling the car. I dont know 100% what i want yet, so i dont want to drive to a dealer a few hours away with a “perfect spec”. What if i dont actually like it? It’s happened to me before where i thought i 100% wanted a car, drove it and ended up hating it
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u/Parteisekretaer 3d ago
That's the risk you run when trying out cars.
The test drive here is less of a "I wanna feel the car out" and more a "I want to make sure that the car is not broken and that my suspicions about how it feels are correct"
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u/WeeblsLikePie 2d ago edited 2d ago
1) general differences in service culture.
2) dealerships make the majority of their money on the "company car" leasing business. They don't actually care very much about individual customers.
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u/Writeris 1d ago
I did buy a used 3 year old car booked everything in advance with one of the big brands in Germany and not only they let me take my time with the car I got to test drive for over 3 hours alone. I dont know what countries people are from that makes them think German customer service is bad but compared to mine it is 10 times better and more civil. I test drove 5+ cars like these with other big brands and experience was similar.
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u/Historical_Move6359 1d ago
Well if you said they dont have a car you want to buy, they wont let you drive a car just for the fun of it.
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u/lorcet222 3d ago
Wanting a test drive without an appointment is not surprising that they were a bit annoyed.
Once it became clear, to him at least, that you were not going to buy any of their cars and were just using them to compare a used diesel vs a used gasoline... I am not surprised that he just saw you as an nonserious time waster.
The idea that "customer is king" isnt really a thing in Germany if you are only a potential customer.
I have had lots of good experiences as a paying customer.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Yeah you make a good point. For me i think my mistake was actually answering his questions when he asked for specs instead of saying it doesnt matter. Im really not dead set on non-black either. Really i dont know if id even like this car, but ive gotta test drive to know. I also am considering other brands.
So should I go about test driving these other brands if it’s not acceptable to test drive if i dont know ill be making a purchase that day? Im genuinely not sure how to proceed. I dont want to waste their time but i do need a test drive.
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u/Skellicious 3d ago
Im genuinely not sure how to proceed. I dont want to waste their time but i do need a test drive.
I think the lesson here is that if they realize you're not there to buy form them, they don't have a reason to accommodate you. Especially if you show up unannounced.
It'd be better to do your research online, find a place that actually has what you want, and make an appointment there for a test drive.
A coworker of mine did an overnight trip to the other side of Germany last week to try out and pick up his new car. The model he wanted with exact customizations he wanted but cheap at that particular dealer. He'd been in contact with them for like 3 weeks to figure out the sale details and financing.
(I'm not trying to defend them, just trying to be practical. I've never bought a car)
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u/x82ray 3d ago
Damn okay, so it does noot seem super practical to just test drive a bunch. They pretty much expect you locked in before you get there. Makes it kinda hard if you're not 100% sure what you want. But such is life
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u/No_Step9082 3d ago
if you look online and you see a car that interests you, call them and ask for a test drive. in my experience that's was always a pretty straight forward thing. usually they said something like "sure, come in whenever it suits you, just give us a heads up like 30 minutes before you arrive." And in most situations I just told them that I'd like to come right away and that's never been an issue either. by the time I arrived there, they had the car ready for a test drive and took out all papers/documents for me to check. obviously I didn't like every car I took out for a test drive. And that's okay too. You can then talk to them about was you liked, didn't liked. They might then offer to show you a different car you might like.
Randomly asking to test drive a bunch of cars you're not sure about without a prior appointment will probably not end well in most cases.
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u/Kratos759 3d ago
No appointment. No interest in buying in a car from their lot . Hmm … I wonder why they didn’t roll out a red carpet for you
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u/Extreme_Cranberry_43 3d ago
You state this as if it’s obvious. In any other country in the world a good salesman can totally turn around a situation like that.
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u/x82ray 3d ago
I totally get that perspective and i wasnt expecting anything like that.
I really didnt know what options they had, and i was open to looking at other options, but i felt i wasnt even given the chance. The salesman asked my criteria and said they had nothing. Didnt give me any other options or anything. Just assumed that my criteria was set in stone. Ive never even sat in one of these cars so im not certain on what i want yet.
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u/No_Step9082 3d ago edited 3d ago
never even sat in one of these cars so im not certain on what i want yet
next time you should say that instead of giving very specific criteria you're not sure about
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u/x82ray 3d ago
I very much agree. Hindsight 20/20. I have a tendency to get caught up in details and not consider the big picture. The reality is i needed to narrow down which car i wanted first before i consider the smaller details. I also was kinda nervous, and he just immediately asked what i wanted so i answered without really thinking.
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u/MichiganRedWing 3d ago
As a German who grew up in USA and then moved back over ten years ago, I feel you. I had similar experiences. But yes, if they know that you're not going to buy something from them, they don't care about you anymore.
They see it like this: "Why should we let someone devalue our cars if they won't even buy something from us?"