this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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The thing about the i3 episode here that I find particularly baffling is that anyone who is into cars at all, which hopefully includes someone who sells them for a living, should know that James May is a prominent owner of one. Yes, that James May, the "oh cock" guy, famous for along with the other two driving and talking about many, many cars on the television. He personally own(ed) one. He's done multiple films and videos on it, notwithstanding the segment from their Grand Tour show which included his going head to head with a Golf and has (I just checked) 2.7 million views on Youtube.
There should be no person on Earth in a position to look at or sell a BMW i3 who doesn't know every single little thing about it.
More to the point, who in their right mind thinks that BMW would be selling a car with a 45mph top speed? Like, at all?
The fact that a person who works for a BMW dealership of all people would genuinely think this is simply not credible.
Even the comical Isetta had a top speed north of 60.
Top Gear got cancelled, again. It is not the powerhouse it maybe used to be around the time they had Matt LeBlanc as a host because whatshisface assaulted someone over a sandwich and got cancelled for a few years? Hell, I assume there are a significant number of people who just know it as "some show ymfah made fun of" at this point.
Also, I am pretty sure the average person buying a BMW just wants a luxury car and doesn't give a shit about car culture. I don't know the models well enough, but I assume if you asked that salesperson about their SUV or their super luxury sedan, they would know every single inch of it.
"Car culture" people are not going to be asking the dealer questions about specs. Well, I know a guy who would but only because he wants to show that he knows more than they do.
Which is kind of the real point of it. Dealerships want to sell volume. Spending time answering every single question is not volume. I think they very much need to recalculate that, but, for the period this likely happened, "What is the range on this car" is comparable to "So I know this says I should use 89 octane gas. But can I just use 87 octane gas? I know they are different but one is a lot cheaper and...". Where the response to both is to just half-ass and face them the moment you see a new customer.
Like, I am sure there are dealerships that specifically cater to the kind of customer who NEEDS their salesperson to be a "car guy" as it were. But the vast majority do not.
As for "they have 2.7 million views on youtube". The OfflineTV video where they cooked food with some streamer and (Anime with) Alvin Zhou has 1.3 million views. Normie Jesus (aka "Charlie" aka "Moist Critical")'s latest drama commentary video has 1.9 million views in 19 hours. 2.7 million is really not the accomplishment you think it is, relative to the current day celebrities.
Hell, the ymfah "Top Gear" episode for Dark Souls 2 is at 1.2M views.