More Evidence of FoMoCo Tightening the Screws on Dealerships.

thekingprawn

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I'm all for dealers being brought to heel. My dealership is theoretically one of the best in the state, and it was still a terrible experience. I think my salesman really enjoys the sport of the traditional car sale, but I'm more into a no BS, straight forward, zero games experience.

I think we're probably seeing a paradigm shift in auto sales, and I question whether many dealerships will make it through the change. My coworker ordered and bought a Tesla at the same time I ordered and bought my Bronco, and his experience was much more enjoyable, but he's also a past (and sort of still part time) salesman for a local Toyota dealership.
 

13MikeH

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Well I've said it a few times, the dealer experience shouldn't feel like a poker game. Bought a Honda for our daughter. Guy showed us MSRP, broke it down to the dollar for monthly financing, said you owe the first month on delivery, and that's your payment for the duration of the loan. They didn't add anything and didn't even offer anything. Gave us a call to see how it was going and now we get emails every three months offering service and opportunity for questions.
My old 90s ranger ran into a random issue. The Ford dealer couldn't "find it" until warranty ran out. Quick call to Ford HQ and the dealer was bending over backwards to correct it, Ford threatened to pull their blue oval status. Ford cares. They may not know about "you" but enough complaints will come back hard on dealers.
 

SportWest

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I think we're probably seeing a paradigm shift in auto sales, and I question whether many dealerships will make it through the change.
Another sea change from the pandemic era. A huge number of people placed retail orders for the first time and saw that too many dealerships are a value detractor under that paradigm. Like you said, it's one thing to "play the game" when there's inventory, new vehicles flooding the lot, and the dealer has to move cars before the quarter ends. No one has an appetite for b.s. when it comes to a retail order, though, and it's clear that some dealers refuse to adapt.

My dealer seems to recognize this shift: throwing in $500 on top of Ford's rebate for retail orders, encouraging people to leave reviews highlighting price protection.
 

AmazingSieve

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My generation is at the point where we’ll be in the car market for the next 40yrs or so and if Ford doesn’t get their dealers in line and other manufacturers do, I think our money will simply go other places.

Ideally eventually everything would be direct sales. It’s be nice just to have a straightforward process instead of having to game up to buy a car so you don’t get screwed.
 


13MikeH

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Talk is cheap. When Ford actually forces the dealers to stop all of this, then I will believe it.
All kidding...you also didn't believe your desert dweller would arrive or be acceptable...Ford does get it right more than they don't. More than 100 years of building cars is a good resume'😎🤣
 

JerryC

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All kidding...you also didn't believe your desert dweller would arrive or be acceptable...Ford does get it right more than they don't. More than 100 years of building cars is a good resume'😎🤣
No worries Mike.

I'm still salty over the state of the paint when it got here and the dealer not being able to fix it.
After a lot of my labor working on the paint it is ok now.

But the little bugger has been winning me over day by day. I've recommended it to all that have asked about it.
 

13MikeH

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No worries Mike.

I'm still salty over the state of the paint when it got here and the dealer not being able to fix it.
After a lot of my labor working on the paint it is ok now.

But the little bugger has been winning me over day by day. I've recommended it to all that have asked about it.
Haa haaa...I know I was just pulling your chain, big picture Ford does care, they do a lot more than you'd know. Imagine how many dealers there are in your area alone...hard to staple all of them to a tree
 


thekingprawn

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the dealer experience shouldn't feel like a poker game
Poker game? We could only be so lucky. It's more like a prison sentence...you go in hoping to merely get raped as little as possible.
 

thekingprawn

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This is fairly good.
 

Glamdring70

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Some people like the dealership model, some do not. I think generally speaking younger car buyers do not. So they eagerly cheer for a new age where there are no dealerships. Be careful what you wish for- that's the path to Tesla where there are no deals to be made because there is no dealership, and you don't really buy anything, you just rent a computer that makes wheels go round and round. Then you struggle to find service, and repairs cost an arm and a leg because everything about the vehicle is controlled and compartmentalized to the point that you become a slave and drone to the corporation.

I'll try to negotiate a deal, but I am not a huge fan of haggling and back and forth. So I get that people don't want to spend hours at the sales desk writing crap on slips of paper. That's a waste of time. It's a mistake to go into a dealership and expect that you're going to pay less than every other person that has ever bought a car. That's a mistake most people make. Know what a deal is when you see it. The age of the internet has given car lots a slew of tools to leverage against buyers. Conversely, a car buyer could use the same internet to do research, and go in armed knowing what is a good and bad price as well as how the process works and what they can and can not do as part and parcel of the sale. Walk in like a sucker and expect to get treated like a sucker.

It's always the sleazy car salesperson that has a stereotype. That's another mistake. The sales agent wants to make a sale. They're more of an ally to the buyer than anyone else at the dealership aside from maybe the GM. If you think they're slimy then you really don't know finance guys working the back end of the deals. Salespeople just catch a bit of the slime dripping off the guys in the back with the shades and big gold rings on. By all means, kill the dealership model so you can pick a price off a laminated placard. Then start begging for good, honest, local repair technicians that people trust because the company "just isn't fixing my issue". Or figure out how to spend 6.5 hours taking the dash apart to replace a cabin filter because "the company service wants $299 to do it!".

It's worth mentioning I have never met a realtor that I would do business with a second time. I however have been to car dealerships that I would return to.
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