If You Know Their Rules ...
You Can Play Their Games

The Delivery
The professional will make the delivery of your vehicle a special event. When you arrive, your car, van, or pickup will be sitting in a special place out front for everyone to see. The interior and exterior will be spotless. When you enter the dealership, your salesperson will be waiting, and immediately you'll sense that he or she is just as excited about this moment as you are. You'll go to the desk to complete the paperwork. Really savvy professionals will even go so far as to clear the top of their desks of everything but those papers and booklets relating to your purchase. They want you to know that nothing is going to distract them from giving you their total attention.

Once the paperwork is done and you've handed over the check, the salesperson will take you back to the service department and introduce you to the service manager and, very possibly, to the service writer who will be assigned to you. In good dealerships these people will be genuinely happy to make your acquaintance and welcome you to their family of customers.

Parenthetically, the author has been in dealerships where the service department is so much attuned to customer needs that customers will continue to buy their cars from the dealership even if some other dealer beats their price. There's an old saying in the car business: "The first car is sold by the salespeople and the second by the service people." Very true.

Anyway, after you've met the service people, the professional will take you out to your new vehicle. Don't be surprised to find a small gift waiting for you. Some of the best professionals we've known always have a bouquet of flowers for their female customers. Key holders, document pouches, and the like are all very common for men.

During the delivery you'll be given a complete "walk-around" of the car. You'll be shown how to open the hood and check the oil and transmission dipsticks, windshield wiper reservoir, and where to find the fuse box.