I wear flip-flops almost all year around, no matter the situation I'm in and t-shirts most of the time... I definitely don't look any part but *ME*.
While I did end up with a raptor, it was a very circuitous route to get there and Ford dealerships won zero points along the way.
Went to a Ford dealership with the express and specified intention to buy 2 vehicles that day, one for the wife (explorer), and a Raptor I wanted them to pull from another store for me. The Ford dealership had a very difficult time letting me take a raptor out for a test drive, and flat out ignored my request for an overnight loaner to see if it is what I really wanted. Heck, they would only loan us a used explorer for the night (needed to see if some things fit in it...).
Wife decided the explorer wasn't for her, so we went over to Mercedes and ended up finding a CPO GL450 for my wife which we bought that afternoon... while there I eyed a C63 in the showroom behind numerous vehicles.. just expressing interest resulted in the "wave of cars" magically moving and them pulling the C63 out for me to test drive. I ended up placing an order for a C63S as a result. This is a "starts around 70, and can hit 100k very well equipped" vehicle that I didn't even have to ask to test drive.
Left Mercedes and went to check out a a 2014 and 2017 GT-R I'd found... no problems test driving that either of those and I ended up buying the 2017 GT-R that night.
A month later, I sold the GT-R and picked up the Raptor.... I still haven't cancelled the C63S order as I might ultimately go back to that V8 sound...
The point of this rambling is Ford dealerships thinks way too highly of their Raptor. It's a great truck, but Ford dealerships do not know how to treat their customers in a the 75K+ market space.
-j
I think that door swings both ways. Yes, you're spending $75,000+ on a vehicle. But the sales guy you're dealing with moves primarily base Escapes and Fusions that cost a third of what a Raptor does. You can't suddenly expect them to alter their behavior because you're spending more money. If they had that ability, they would be in a much different (and higher commission) space than selling cars.
Though honest question, and maybe my viewpoint is somewhat narrow... But why do some people in this thread come off as offended by this behavior? There have been plenty of times I've been judged by the clothes I choose to wear in my free time, and I find it amusing. If a car salesman treats me differently because of how I dress and loses out on a sale because of it, I'm still going to get what I want... Just not from him. Why be offended? Isn't that his loss? (Again, I'm not trying to diminish or discard opinions... just attempting to understand)
Something that happened to me fairly recently was I visited a local millworks to grab some lumber I couldn't get from your local big box store. (I like to woodwork in my spare time) I showed up in clothes that you wouldn't expect someone with knowledge of woodworking to wear. The guys there gave me the initial, "Another white collar yuppie....." look as soon as I walked in. Within 5 minutes of conversation, they understood I knew what I was talking about and dropped the attitude. I wasn't offended at all, as it's likely the vast majority of the guys who walk in looking like I did really were going to just waste their time. And their time (much like the miles on a Raptor) is valuable and better spent elsewhere.
So yeah, I think spending a small amount of time proving that you're a serious buyer (or have knowledge of the material, in the case of my lumber mill example) isn't such an awful thing. Or, let's put it in a more specific scenario: You're selling your Raptor privately, and someone texts you asking for a test drive. You're pretty certain based on your limited interaction they have no intention of buying, they just want to drive it for the hell of it. Would you let them without further establishing motive?
(Though I do want to be clear, taking this behavior too far or flat our refusing any test drive specifically on bias alone wouldn't sit well with me either)
