Auto Dealerships Update for a good laugh

[buckaroo]

I’m curious, because I wonder what people outside of this forum think of car dealerships?

Unless you have money and don't really care you don't ever bring your car back to a dealership for service and the ones that do don't have to worry about money and can be sold the gates to hell. They make very little selling vehicles their bread and butter is the back room. You have some foolish notion about them selling you a service when you don't really need it.
The reason most vehicle manufactures have now changed the rules to only their dealerships servicing your vehicle is because people got hip to the game and the dealerships were loosing money.

Your father may be smarter than you give credit for. He's probably been taken advantage of a time or two in his life.

 

[Dave P.]

Perhaps my question needs a separate thread, but For those of you that work in a dealership, if you tell a customer they need some sort of service done, such as a new air filter for example.

Does the customer follow your advice? Or do they day “no.” ?

I think the issue goes beyond that in some dealerships are trying to sell you things you don't need. I'll pick on the above mentioned
Toyota dealer. Wife took her car in for brake work, they call and say it needs new engine and cabin air filters and front struts "worn".
We went to the dealership, I got the service advisor and asked him about those things...yup, definitely need them.
Got him and the service manager went out to the car and had them pull the filters that I had replaced myself less than a week ago
and show me they were bad. You can guess how that went, then my wife pulls out the invoice from about 5 months and less than
5500 miles where they had replaced the front struts. We then took a walk to the general managers office.
Basically this was the final straw for the Toyota.
My wife when truly pissed off can be a absolute Rosie O'Donnell, about two weeks later she went and traded the Toyota in on a new loaded up
Chevrolet Traverse. Had the salesman take her picture with her phone outside the front of the dealership
and sent it and a short "bite me" type message to the various people at the Toyota dealership and a separate one to Toyota corporate
customer service with copies of the estimates for needed repairs from the dealership.
It did nothing, but made her feel better. That was in 2018 and she still sends the Toyota general manager a Christmas card with pictures
of her last what's now 3 new cars since then.

 

[hittman]

Maybe each of us would like to post our profession so others can highlight the negatives.

Who here is shocked to now discover there are bad players in all walks of life? Wondering if the auto industry has a higher percentage of bad guys than say ….. electricians, home builders, gun stores, banks, etc.? There‘s something like 70,000 new car dealerships in the country. Lord only knows how many hundreds of thousands of employees that covers.

 

[Cholo]

I'm retired, and you know what a bunch of crooks those people are LOL

 

[Dave P.]

Maybe each of us would like to post our profession so others can highlight the negatives.

Who here is shocked to now discover there are bad players in all walks of life? Wondering if the auto industry has a higher percentage of bad guys than say ….. electricians, home builders, gun stores, banks, etc.? There‘s something like 70,000 new car dealerships in the country. Lord only knows how many hundreds of thousands of employees that covers.

I'm not in the auto business so may very well be full of crap. Locally most of the dealership techs I know ( thinking 4 right now ) are all
paid basically straight commission. If they're not billing labor hours and selling parts they're not getting paid. plus some are on sliding
scales of pay as in more dollars billed gain them higher percentages. The incentive is there for dishonest techs to just maybe sell things
not really needed and the shear volume in a big dealership makes it tough to keep track of.
I think the whole tech pay system of dealerships leads to a lot of the issues people complain about. Couple that with every body owning
a car and all needing work at some point leads to dealerships being a popular target of how not to service customers.

 

[bobsyouruncle]

I think most people wouldn't know if they were being treated fairly/cheated or not, they are to busy trying to earn a living raise a family, have a life. If they misplaced something while the car was at the dealership, well it must have been stolen, right? Most of the tech ,service people will have worked at all the manufacturer dealerships over time, making grifs industry wide. About twenty five years ago, cocaine went thru most of the trades in this area, people got 2nd mortgages and put the proceeds up their nose and then lost their homes, got divorced, etc., etc. All they had left was a mountain of debt, and the only trade they knew

 

[JPGLSG1234]

I'm retired, and you know what a bunch of crooks those people are LOL

Yeap, not one of us can be trusted, want to buy a gun....only shot 6 times.

 

[bobsyouruncle]

Reminds me of that bar in Alaska, Chillkoot Charlie's, their moto "We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you"

 

[mjpchief]

Somebody bought a “new” Rubicon and didn’t notice that the off road tires had significant wear???

Somebody needs to pay more attention to what they are buying.

Can’t believe that is right.

 

[bobsyouruncle]

As an excuse, we had just lost our home in a wildfire, we had the clothes we were wearing, needles to say we were busy, we weren't allowed back in until mid June, winter can come early here, so no time to dilly or dally

 

[Colonialgirl]

Okay, all the stories and now here is mine:
I use to work for a franchise that did "Touch-Up" on used autos for various dealerships. The touch-up was for stone chips, scratches, and lovebug splatters. Also did minor repair and touch-up to bumpers, etc. Basic price for touch-up on an used auto on the lot was $65. I would walk the lot, pick the ones I thought could use touch-up and submit the list to the Used Car Lot Manager and let him cross off the ones he didn't want done.

Well, due to the cost of paints and other materials,The franchise raised the charge to $75. There was one Chevrolet dealership where I KNEW the used Mgr was a "Crook" (had seen him in action) SO I went into the office and told him the franchise was raising the charge to $85 dollars !! WOW, you would have thought I was -- well, use your imagination --!! I finally calmed him down and said "thanks to the number of autos we did on his lot that I was ONLY going to charge them $75"> He said "WOW !! Thank you pick all the autos you think need touch-up and they ARE approved". Then he walked off. I thought one of his salesmen was going to DIE from choking and he finally said , "I KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DID !!; Congratulations !
He knew I had scammed the Mgr just like the Mgr SCAMMED his customers !!

 

[Jeepnik]

But the money didn’t come out of the manager’s pocket. It came out of the dealership owner’s.

 

[JPGLSG1234]

Just got off the phone with Phil my car guy, keeping him up to date with all that has been said good and bad regarding experiences with dealerships. He said he'd be grateful to read all the posts and I plan to share it with him.

I thank all of you for the responses, this is very valuable information on the auto market and the personalities behind them.

Well now for the laugh.....Phil told me about this young man that kept showing up asking for a job. On his third time in.....well old good hearted Phil decided to give the kid a chance. Now Phil told me that this young man didn't, as he said not to cast any negativity towards this man's intelligence...but he hoped he could be trained in the oil change department.

Well everything was going swimmingly to today in the shop until it wasn't. Newly hired oil change expert....dropped an 2022 $88K GMC monster to the floor of the shop, jumped in and proceed to leave the shop for the parking lot. Newly hired employee was thankfully stopped just before leaving the exit door. Leaving a trail of 8 quarts of oil behind him...damn I said, at least they got him stopped before any possible damage was done to engine. A good thing. Then I said, well crap there's only about six things you need to remember in the process of an oil change how in the hell could you not remember that!!! Exactly he said, and we just laughed and laughed and laughed. This was after I had shared some of your laughable comments with him from the thread, he sends his thanks, it's good laugh he said, he got a kick out of the remark of the name be stealerships and no longer dealerships, he hadn't heard that before. Good hearted old Phil made him cleanup his shop mess and told him if he ever did that again he'd kill him..

What's the labor force in the auto world coming to

 

[JPGLSG1234]

As an excuse, we had just lost our home in a wildfire, we had the clothes we were wearing, needles to say we were busy, we weren't allowed back in until mid June, winter can come early here, so no time to dilly or dally

Bob I truly hate to hear about you and your family losing everything you owned in a fire. I can only imagine the crap storm ahead of you in getting you life back together. Buddy I'll keep you in my prayers that the burden you're face with is eazed everyday.

 

[Mike J]

I hadn't really followed this thread closely but when I was growing up my father worked the Ford dealers. He tried selling cars & we about starved so they put him in the service department. He started there doing "new car get ready", then went from that to being a mechanic, then a service advisor, then service manager. He was good at his job & most of his customers liked & respected him (I met many of them). He kept the service manager job for about 9 years. During the last couple of years of it the dealership General Manager managed to run it out of business. Then he proceeded to work a deal to become part owner (the former owner being out). After the place reopened dad went back. He wound up quitting though. It seems the former General Manager's nephew needed some engine work done on the Mustang Convertible that was his pride & joy. Dad gave him an estimate, got the go ahead & tore the engine down. After they got into it they realized it did not need everything that was listed on the estimate (I don't remember the exact particulars of what was wrong). Dad went & told the former General Manager he had good news it was going to cost as much as the estimate. The man told dad to charge him anyway. Dad told him that wasn't right & it was his nephew. The former General Manager told dad, "If you can't xxxxx kin folks who can you xxxxx." That was the day Dad quit the Ford place.

In all honesty my experience with dealerships has been decent but I very rarely use them for service. My current 2016 F-150 is over 200,000 miles with nothing done beyond maintenance & brakes though it is telling me my air pressure sensor is messed up. My last F-150 was a 2000. I let it go when I bought the one I have now. It had 390,000 miles on the engine & transmission when I let it go but I did have to make some repairs after about 300,000 miles. I don't think I've ever felt the need to display a weapon when negotiating a business deal.

 

[JPGLSG1234]

MikeJ " I don't think I've ever felt the need to display a weapon when negotiating a business deal."

I'm with you Brother, I certainly hope none of the young non-member followers of this forum and post think that type of action would be acceptable under any circumstances.

Sounds like your Dad was a stand up Man, hope he is still with you.

 

[buckaroo]

I certainly hope none of the young non-member followers of this forum and post think that type of action would be acceptable under any circumstances.

The younger generations won't put up with the crap we've had to and you really never know who you are dealing with.
Perhaps your car guy buddy Phil gets a clue that uneducated grease-balls in a shirt and tie are so yesteryear.

 

[hittman]

The negativity is simply suffocating ….

 

[bobsyouruncle]

Bob I truly hate to hear about you and your family losing everything you owned in a fire. I can only imagine the crap storm ahead of you in getting you life back together. Buddy I'll keep you in my prayers that the burden you're face with is eazed everyday.

Thanks, that was 2012 and we have moved on, on the upside, if a person has complaints about,dealerships, insurance companies,government agencies and regulations you get a free psychological evaluation and the diagnosis is always the same, "yer nuts" Don't worry millions of dollars was collected on behalf of the fire victims in the form of grants etc. and I'm sure we'll be hearing from them any day now.

 

[black1970]

I worked at the Detroit Diesel dealer in Nashville in the early 80’s. We worked on most of the country music stars buses because at the time almost all were powered by DD’s. I saw the company GIVE new engines to people when they had this type of problems. Not just a long block but complete engines to get them back on the road as soon as possible. It was the BEST dam shop in the United States and the BEST people running it. I pulled the engine from a dump truck and ran it suspended by nylon straps because of a vibration problem the truck dealer said it was in the chassis. I installed a new engine in same no questions asked. BTW-those kind of people running that place are long gone. Dealerships now only want to CTA. They will lie about what they had for breakfast.