My local Ford dealer admitted to me that they had only sold 2 cars a couple of Saturdays ago, pretty shocking for a sizeable dealership..

Craig, I can only suggest that you go and visit a Skoda dealer. I picked up my new Octavia vRS estate this morning from Jewsons of Oxford: factory build and 12 weeks, exactly as they said.

As I've reported here before, my first Octavia was in for its 20,000 mile service and the sales team prepared a quote, without my even asking, for a new similar model at £80 a month less than I was paying. A no-brainer - but the point is that they wanted to sell. Like you I can't understand why so many of them - mostly on a low basic salary + commission - don't make the effort.

Car salespeople are lucky - most people actually want to buy a car and enjoy the process, as opposed to, say, insurance or cleaning materials. It should be easy to make the whole experience enjoyable - mine was, both times from this dealer. Maybe Oxfordshire is a good place to buy cars: Cross Roads Garage (Renault) are also absolutely excellent.

For test drives, the trick is not going via the dealer.

When I wanted to test a ford company car, I went through their company car club (talkback) and it was delivered to my home - and from central stock, not by the local dealer

Edited by Marlot on 12/03/2011 at 07:57

I am now retired, so smaller budget, and when i was looking last summer at various new kia ceed's and hyundai i30's it was a 12-14 week wait for the basic colour car but if i wanted to take what was in stock which was more expensive and more extras available immediately. It's the same EVERYWHERE in the motortrade. in the end looked at a few cars in dealerships + a couple of the car supermarkets and got a nearly new car from a dealership at a silly low price, because unloved model/type of car, but got really good deal, car was supagarded and had balance of manufacturers warranty and by buying nearly new saved myself a lot of money. (at the time new ceed £11,000 basic car, i 30 approx same both 1.4 petrol. got chevrolet epica vcdi turbo diesel £4000 less! (£6745) But if you are a company car driver less room to compomise, car must be new! Also had experience of visiting a dealer while wales playing france at Rugby (2007)and all the salemen watching the match so got ignored, result walked out went elsewhere (50 miles away) and bought a car from a saleman who was courteous, helpful and gave a decent acceptable valuation for my trade in. bought same model i was looking at too. Importer not bothered when i called.

Had the same experience too 2 years ago when i went to a jaguar dealers, couldn't care less.

if they can't be bothered, why should i care if they only sell2 cars a month. Sooner they're out of business the better!