I recently contacted a LR dealership in another state, about 200 miles away, regarding an LR4 on their website. It was a loaner/demo vehicle with 7,000 miles on it, and I told them I was interested in purchasing it and asked them a few questions.
The salesman that replied to my email immediately asked me where I was from (he noticed my area code) and told me since there was a dealer in my city, he wasn't allowed to sell me a vehicle. He never told me why they had that policy, but after a few emails, he told me his GM approved the sale since it wasn't a "new" vehicle.
This sounded extremely odd to me, so I didn't really follow up. It seems ridiculous and I suspect they just didn't want to deal with someone "online." I feel like they were just being lazy and preferred to sell the vehicle to someone locally who was willing to pay MSRP.
What's really troubling is the thought that I HAVE to use a certain dealership. I didn't really care for the service from my local dealership when I bought my LR3 a few years ago, and they only have 1-2 in stock at any given moment.
The salesman that replied to my email immediately asked me where I was from (he noticed my area code) and told me since there was a dealer in my city, he wasn't allowed to sell me a vehicle. He never told me why they had that policy, but after a few emails, he told me his GM approved the sale since it wasn't a "new" vehicle.
This sounded extremely odd to me, so I didn't really follow up. It seems ridiculous and I suspect they just didn't want to deal with someone "online." I feel like they were just being lazy and preferred to sell the vehicle to someone locally who was willing to pay MSRP.
What's really troubling is the thought that I HAVE to use a certain dealership. I didn't really care for the service from my local dealership when I bought my LR3 a few years ago, and they only have 1-2 in stock at any given moment.