What I Learned About Young People While Trying to Buy a Car

This past week, I went to five car dealers in an upper-middle-class suburb of Los Angeles to see what SUV I'd like to lease. I wanted to patronize local car dealers because I want them to stay in business.

In each case, I experienced the following: I was greeted pleasantly upon entering the dealership. A young salesperson asked if he or she could help me. I told the salesperson the model I was interested in. He or she made a copy of my driver's license and returned with a key to the car, and off we went.

In every instance, the salesperson was sweet, unenthusiastic and largely ignorant of the car in which I was interested.

All of them answered most of my questions -- such as "Is this SUV available in all-wheel-drive?" -- with some version of "l'll look it up."

I began car shopping many decades ago but have rarely gone to dealerships in the last 25 years (I generally drove the cars of advertisers on my radio show). My recollection of my experience in earlier days is that car salespeople (especially those of foreign cars) were car enthusiasts. They were passionate about cars in general and very knowledgeable about the particular cars they were selling.

But in every instance this past week, I felt I knew more about the car, from doing some research on the internet, than the salesperson did.

It seemed to both my wife and me that these car dealerships hired any decent young person who applied for a job, and that these young people regarded selling cars as no different from selling shoes: It's a job. It requires you to show up on time, be polite, accompany potential buyers on a test drive, look up answers to questions on your smartphone and go home at the end of the day. Their interest in cars was not necessarily greater than drug store employees' interest in hair brushes. Selling cars is just a way -- one of many others to come -- to pay the bills.

My wife saw in the answer "I'll look it up" one possible key to the problem: If the young people we interacted with this past week are representative of their generation, many do not feel the need to know much, because all the information they need in life can be found via Google.

I focused on another issue: While these young salespeople were unfailingly pleasant, none of them evinced passion.

I remember young (and old) car salesmen who loved cars. Sure, they would exaggerate a car's qualities, but they knew all about it -- inside and out. But this past week, not one of the salespeople said anything about the car during the test drive. Unless I asked questions, their only words were "Make a right at the next corner."

It makes me wonder what young people are passionate about in our time: favorite TV shows and actors? Music? Video games? Sports? Global warming?

If a 65-year-old salesman seems to be doing little more than going through the motions, we understand that perhaps we have met a modern-day Willy Loman. But a passionless 25-year-old? That's just sad.

Do the car dealerships know this? Do they care? At one time, the general critique of car dealers was they were too pushy. If my experience is at all typical, I can assure readers that pushiness is no longer a problem. The only thing any of the dealers pushed was free bottled water.

I am aware that every generation laments "In my time ..." But that doesn't necessarily invalidate what follows.

In my time, young guys -- I can speak with greater knowledge about men -- had hobbies/passions. And ambition.

If I were 25 years old and had a job selling cars, even if I had other aspirations for my life, I would still aim to be the best car salesman in America. That's what we refer to as ambition.

I would learn everything I could about the cars I sold. I would learn how to advocate for the cars without being pushy. During the test drives, I would say a lot more than where the customer should next turn. In addition to talking about the car, I would ask customers about themselves.

I detected little ambition in the sex previously known for professional ambition -- men. But no one should be surprised. Many young men have been coddled by parents and by society. If you receive a trophy just for playing, why try to win? If self-esteem is given to you without having to earn it, why try to earn it? If the government will take care of you, why work hard? Anyway, ambition in men is probably now considered a form of "toxic masculinity."

Perhaps most importantly, young men have been given the message that women have no need for the support of a man. Women, they have been told all their lives, are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and any children they might have.

So, then, if the government will take care of you and your income is not necessary to support a family, why be ambitious? Why push yourself to succeed?

Talk to the young men in your life and ask them if they are ambitious. Don't be surprised if they answer "I'll look it up."

We bought a new Chevy Malibu this summer, we are seniors and wanted the Bells & Whistles to compensate for the changes in our bodies that age brings. Hearing, vision, body stiffness and slower response time, and more comfort. We didn’t chose blindly, we knew what the car was capable of as hubby is a Car Nut and we had googled the Specs of a variety of sedans. But we also knew what we didn’t want or need. Since they’ve gone to ‘packages’ it makes it harder to get the features you want without the Crap you don’t, like a Moon/Sun Roof. We both wear hearing aids, any air leakage from windows drives you nuts. Beyond that unwanted $1,500 moon/sun roof we had a hard time finding a Dealer willing to look for a car with out it. Finally found one. So we got what we wanted sans the sun/moon roof.

Hubby has in his 78 yrs owned a variety of cars of makes, models and cost. Worst was the Carmen Gaia, for me the worse was the Corvette most uncomfortable car we owned; best is this new one as far as safety and comfort goes.

Age means you want comfort and safety to compensate for hearing loss, Side Vision loss due to cataract implants, stiff bodies, slower response time, and those medicines that make you tend to get sleepy and you lane drift. Back Up Camera that does both front and back, and lane assist parking. We got all that this time as this is the last car we hopefully buy. We don’t need SIRIUS radio. We put OUR music on a USB Stick. We can go 8 hrs with out a repeat song and NO commercials.

No CD player, well all our music is on a USB stick anyway. OUR MUSIC. not some stations canned crap with commercials.

He is more into the ‘gadget’ end and as a Electronic’s Prof and 20 yr teacher of it in the Navy picks it up easy, and sets the car up for both of us. I need the safety of the gadgets and I’m not a Nerd. I don’t even turn on the radio, hearing aids have limitations I’d rather hear the on coming Emergency vehicles than music.

Good summation, where the youth know the “Gadgets”, they don’t know a lot about the ‘Nuts & Bolts’ of the car. The young sales man set most of those ‘Gadgets’ up in no time flat. While his spiel went over my head, hubby knew what he was talking about as that is as I said a 40 yr career field.

The older manager knew the ‘Nuts & Bolts’. And was able to locate the car we wanted minus the Moon/Sun roof. Hey, it even has Tubro Boost and both can hear the Turn Signals.

It is actually a tad longer than the 5 yr old Equinox SUV that is the older car we kept. Now the Equinox has window air leaks that drive my hearing aids NUTS. Since that is the hearing Freq he doesn’t hear due to jet engines hearing loss, it doesn’t bother him, he can’t hear the turn signal, I over hear it as my hearing loss is Low Freq. Put a volume control on it please.

Then the haggling began, 10% off as Ret. Military, 10% if we financed through them, which was with a Credit Union, which had CD’s slightly over 2% as a bonus for a yr. And it was on sale as the last day of the sale, and a more off with haggling off the final cost above the sales price. Which meant hubby had to go home and dig up his last DD-214. All in all a good bargain. We paid it off in 4 months so the dealer got his ‘cut’ of the Discount for financing through Chevy. A $35K+ car became a $25K+ car SANS Moon/Sun roof. Manager sent a driver 60 miles to fetch it from another dealer. He went beyond what most managers do today to satisfy a customer who might or might not be a repeat customer. Who knows if we both live long enough and better features come out we just might get another car.

The 8 hr trip to Pigeon Forge to my sister’s was less stressful and we had plenty of room.

Plus hubby and Manager to got to talk CAR Talk while we waited. And we were sent a box of 2 coffee cups and a tin on chocolate chip cookies. Old fashion service.

How can someone have passion...for a car that looks like every other car on the road, is a technology laden piece of “something” that can’t even be worked on?

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A good salesman, one who actually wants to make a commission, will know the cars he’s selling inside out and can approach the potential buyer with answers that fit the buyers interests.

There is nothing more useless than an unengaged salesman. It says they don’t want to be there and really don’t care if you’re there. Now Im not talking a pushy salesman, but I am talking a salesman who sizes up a potential buyer and speaks to their interests. If a buyer is looking for safety in a car or reliability, a good salesman should be able to talk about those aspects of the car. Whatever aspect the buyer is interested in, the salesman, a good salesman, should have knowledge to help the buyer. Otherwise, why are they there at all.

And all that technology in modern cars? It has made today’s cars far safer and more comfortable and reliable to drive. If your wife or daughter was out driving the family car, you’d want that car to be reliable. You’d want the car to have traction control, brake-assist, and GPS to prevent possible accidents and ensure they get safely back home.

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