Running the dealer gauntlet
I had a day off this “weekend” and was near civilization so I decided to get some time inside two of my shortlist van platforms: the RAM Promaster and Ford Transit. Luckily there was a Ford and RAM dealership next door to each other on my way home.
I’d seen a High Roof (HR) Promaster in the lot a couple weeks ago and didn’t get a chance to stop until now.
First stop: Ford
I parked and looked around. They had about 20 Transits, evenly divided between Low Roof (LR) and Medium Ro
of (MR). Zero High Roof models. The HR is mandatory for my purposes so I bailed.
The MR is actually quite tall at 72” and the HR is a gargantuan 81”. If I were 5’10” instead of 6’0” I could fit in a finished MR Transit.
There was no salescritter nearby or I would have checked out:
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the seating position (The Transit is said to have better driving position, particularly for tall drivers)
-
seat-to-cargo walkway
-
structure of the cargo area
There were none in shouting range so I went next door to RAM.
Next stop: RAM
Walked over from the Ford lot. The HR I saw before was no longer in the lot; I guess I waited too long to see it. I covere
d the lot and didn’t see any Promasters of either LR or HR type (there is no MR).
Because I felt like punishing myself I voluntarily walked into the salesdroid building.
The first two salesmorons had no idea what a Promaster was, then both denied they ever had one on the lot. This, dealership owners, is one of the reasons why people hate car salesmen.
The sales manager in her glass booth overheard the clueless sales dudes bumbling and chimed in. Yes, there was a Promaster, a red high roof model that had sat out front and sold about two weeks ago.
She didn’t have any in stock or on the horizon, but could arrange for the first braindead salesman to drive me to Dallas to see one in their sister store. Uh, no. I asked her 2x where the store was but she dodged the question both times. This, dealership owners, is one of the reasons people hate sales managers.
I left.
When I build up enough tolerance for stupidity I’ll try again somewhere else, with fresh morons.