It's because most people don't do research.

 

when i was shopping for a new car (wrecked old protege, just looking for anything at this point), i stumbled upon a protege mp3. low miles and hard to find, so i was interested. from the internet pics i saw it had a carbon fiber hood and some chrome trimming. when i got to the dealer the salesman tried to tell me it was all standard on the mp3. he told me there was an "upgraded" stereo--it was a cheapie headunit that the previous owner put in for a proper trade-in. the subwoofer was also removed. the carbon fiber hood was the DG Motorsports air-duct hood with AEM filter which quite honestly looks awesome in person. the person had also installed many of the DGM interior trim pieces including a few extra CF vinyl overlays. i guess they had a thing for CF. again, the salesman tried to tell me it was all dealer installed. yea...right.

ultimately i was still in the n00b stages of learning to drive stick. after i drove it, i noticed the exhaust was really deep and wasnt sure if that was stock either. i was impressed by the taught suspension but hesitated on the fact that i didnt know what else was "upgraded" and the salesman wasnt telling me about. i asked my friend to drive it for me, and 3 days later i called the dealer to see if they still had it for another test drive. turned out as i was on the phone, paperwork was already being signed. oh well, who knows, i couldve been rockin a riced-out mp3, or could have inherited someone else's problem!

 

i think that most car sales people aren't "car people." as natural car enthusiasts who get behind our cars and/or the company that makes them, we could sell cars, i think, fairly easily based upon the fact that generally our enthusiasm makes us learn/find out so much about the car--the customers get at least a knowledgeable sales person (us) that is hopefully as honest (like not saying hondas are crap just to say it. because hondas ain't shabby vehicles) as possible...point is, the customer should and hopefully will pick up on the intellect and passion that say, a mazda vehicle, should exude.

i can understand bla toyota salespeople because the car are passionless appliances (reliable too, just like a refridgerator) and the customer/demographic that buys those cars is looking for just that: reliable a to b transportation.

i worked as a porter at an acura dealership here. fortunately, acuras are a fantastic product (i worked under/in the service department, i have a generally good idea of what breaks on what cars and doesn't by virtue of being around techs and advisors all the time) and the dealership where i worked at was well run with great employees. there's a lot to get behind and fortunately our sales staff was at least decently informed and a few have enthusiam to a decent degree to be able to naturally communicate that through their explanation of the vehicles to potential customers.

 

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/car/423410625.html

His other post called it an 1988