Are Luxury Car Dealers Intimidating?

When browsing the internet, you often see things like “Luxury car dealers are hard to enter” or “They check your watch, so it’s better not to wear a cheap one”. Some even say “If you go to a Maserati dealer in a T-shirt and jeans, you’ll get a really nasty look.”

> Seriously, isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration? (laughs)

It feels like these rumors have taken on a life of their own, becoming more entertaining than factual. So, I asked my husband about his experience when he first visited a Porsche dealer.

On the Way Back from a Meeting

My husband’s first visit to a Porsche dealer was on a weekday in the winter of 2014. It was around the time he thought, “I might finally be able to afford a Boxster.” Since a work meeting ended early that day, he suddenly thought, “Hey, why not stop by the Porsche dealer to check out the Boxster on the way home?”

He called the dealer right away and said, “I’d like to see the Boxster on display…” and was told, “We have one on display, please come by.” So he went straight there. When I asked, “You just went to look at the display car, not to test drive?” he said,

“I’d never really seen a Boxster up close before, so I just wanted to take a good look at it first.”

Then I asked, “What were you wearing? Did you pay attention to your watch or anything?”

No, I didn’t think about it at all. I probably just wore a normal shirt and pants. I stopped by after work, so I don’t even remember what watch I had on.

By the way, the car he drove that day was a Mercedes-Benz SLK350.

Once You Test Drive, There’s No Turning Back

When he arrived, Mr. H, the sales rep who still takes care of us, came out and showed him the Boxster on display. While chatting, my husband said, “I’m torn between the Boxster and the Boxster GTS.” Then Mr. H said,

“The GTS is definitely better. We’ll get a Boxster GTS test drive car soon—shall I contact you as soon as it arrives?”

He replied, “Absolutely!” and went home that day. Later, when he got the call that the Boxster GTS test drive car had arrived, he went right away, and after the drive said, “Wow, this is amazing! I’m buying it!” He placed the order in January 2015. (That was fast! lol)

By the way, I had never been to the dealer before he ordered the Boxster. One day he came home and said, “I ordered the Boxster!” and I was like, “What!? When did that happen?ヽ(ﾟДﾟ )ﾉ!?” But we had talked about buying a Boxster quite a bit before, so

→[Reference article] How my husband won over a wife indifferent to cars and bought a Porsche.

from my perspective, I figured he’d buy it sooner or later—it just surprised me that it was sooner than I expected.