What is your experience with car dealerships?

Question

Hi, I am writing a book about dealership principles and how the dealership operates. [hidden fees, surcharges, etc.] what is your experience. anyone have a bad experience with the service department? thanks for your input. this is just a new hobby of mine that shares my knowledge, I dont plan on making a best-seller

Answer 1

As someone who was in the industry and has many friends in the industry (from service advisor to district service rep), I could write a book on it too! Basically, the service dept. is where all of the money for the dealership is made. I've seen honest shops and dishonest ones. My fav. dishonest one was a Cadillac dealer. If a car came in and had an oil leak, the FIRST thing they would find out was, "is it under warranty?" If it was, then they'd find out if the customer had complained. If the customer hadn't, they'd ignore it (warranty repairs pay less to the dealer than non-warranty repairs). Now, if it WASN'T under warranty, they'd grab a mechanic and generate a quote right away so the service advisor could tell the customer and potentially make more money.

The flip-side to warranty dollars is an experience I had with one of my cars. The brakes had a silent warranty extension because they wore out too quickly. I was nearing the end of the extension and the brakes were getting worn down. I told the service advisor I wanted those replaced under warranty and was greeted with surprise that I actually knew about it. Then he told me they'd have to "inspect" it to see if they were under spec (well duh, why would I be bringing it in?). I told him to do whatever they needed to do but if they didn't want the warranty dollars, I would simply replace them myself at home. AMAZINGLY enough, they WERE out of spec and replaced under warranty. Warranty dollars are better than no dollars! hah

ALWAYS consult the owner's manual regarding service requirements. I can't tell you how many times I've been told I "HAD" to have a service performed (for example, a 31,500 service) for HUNDREDS of dollars. As soon as I mentioned it wasn't required by warranty, they knew I knew the game. That'd being said, make sure to perform regular maintenance and keep records of it in case of a warranty claim. It can get pretty nasty.

I could go on and on about bad service dept. experiences (have lemoned 2 cars) and that in a number of instances I knew more about the vehicles than the service managers.

Hmm, what else? Finance is a HUGE scam on their part, they make a killing there too. Bought a new car and had already gotten my financing (@4%) AND told the dealer I didn't want ANY of their financing pitch. Go back to start signing the papers and they started talking about loans, blah blah blah. With my "excellent" credit, they offered me a 72 mo loan at 13%. I laughed while I told him my FICO was >750 and suddenly, it dropped to 10%. Of course, that was still WAY above my 60 mo at 4% and I told him to quit wasting my time, but it's amazing how that can change.

They also like to try and get you to focus on the "payment amount" and not what it would actually cost with financing. I had one persist in asking me what I wanted my monthly payment to be, despite me telling him to ignore that and tell me the cost of the vehicle. Finally, I said "I want to pay $.01/mo forever" and he told me to "be serious." I told him to "Be serious" and give me a damned price, which he finally did.

Hidden fees are vast. I had one dealer tell me they had a $350 advertising charge for domestics and $500 for foreign cars. I told him that was the cost of doing business and I wasn't about to pay it but I guarantee they get a LOT of people to do just that.

I've also seen them charge customers $600 for "undercoat protection" on a new purchase. They then drive the vehicle back to a service area which isn't viewable and let it sit there for 90 minutes. The only actual work performed is a sticker that's placed on the glass. A nice, $600 sticker.

Lastly, dealers live and die by their CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) scores. The scores determine a variety of things, so I won't get into all of that but I'll give an example: At Honda, a service advisor's pay is a base amount plus the gross sales for the service area multiplied by a factor which is based on their ranking. So, if the dealership service dept. as a whole is highly ranked amongst other Honda dealers (it's a National ranking), they get more money. I'm talking about a bad month being $2K+base and a good month being $4K+base and that's just at the service advisor level. That's why a lot of them are so keyed up about making sure you give them a good CSI (or whatever other term they use for it), because it means $$$$ to them.

Now, there ARE good dealerships and staff, but you have to find them.

Answer 2

We've only used dealerships to purchase brand new or nearly new cars and thus far we've had no problems with either the sales staff or service staff. Our last purchase, August 2006 was exceptional through a Nissan dealership. We were shown the entire file of the vehicle (it was owned for a short time by a leasing office operated by the dealership) and we were able to view the service records, leasee info, everything. Follow up was exceptional, we even received a Christmas card from the sales and service departments. We receive reminders of our regular service appts for oil changes etc, and a thank you afterwards with a short survey that asks us to rate the treatment we got and the level of service performed as to whether it was acceptable or not and was quality original parts/products used etc.

We've never had a bad experience thus far but then, I have a brother who is in the industry and managed this type of business as well...so we always refer to him for his recommendations. This last dealer he recommended highly and we can see why.

Ahhh, totally forgot about a few (good service does that to me I guess)... I was purchasing a car about 12 years ago, went to a dealership another brother was Service Manager for. The sales guy first talked to hubby and hubby pointed to me as the purchaser...the sales guy asked me what I was looking for..I told him anything good looking but nothing green...he immediately steered me towards a really pathetic ugly car (won't say the make) and of course the color was a two tone forest/sage green! Exactly what I wasn't looking for, guy couldn't understand why I didn't want the car....another time the guy drove the car out to the house ... great car, runs perfect yadda yadda, I kept saying No, didn't want it, the car was ugly in my view, gotta have a car that doesn't scream ugly on it...it sprung a leak in the driveway and wouldn't start afterwards, had to be towed back to the shop (this was a used veh), sales guy asked me if I'd known it was going to do that...well sort of, I could smell it heating up the whole time he ran it. My son test drove a brand new car, brought it home, salesman inside, beautiful car...he turned it off, tried to start it again, wouldn't start, felt bad for the sales guy tho in this instance. So yes, had a few oddities I guess now that I think about it but still nothing horrific :)

Good luck with your 'hobby' :)

Answer 3

Generally, I have a good experience with the Dealer's Service Department. However, this Dealer has a Body Shop, and when one gets a Body Shop estimate -
the Manager/Estimator inflates the quote. He figures that every body damage quote is going to be paid for by an Insurance Company so he inflates the Estimate.

Answer 4

They are expensive, and rude at times... I have a 01 Lexus RX300, and they said it would cost something on the lines of 150.00 for an Oil + Filter Change!! WOW!! Then when I dropped i off the dealer said they had already given away my "Loner Car" so I would have to be shuttled home! ( That took 1.5 HRS. with all the ppl getting dropped off b'4 me) Then when I got back, the service people just wanted my money..

Answer 5

well, good luck with the book. experience wise, i'm not sure if this is the answer you're looking for, but here goes: being female, i refuse to go to a dealership alone because i honestly do not know a whole lot about cars. hubby always goes with me, and the salesman always trys to talk to him first, but hubby tells them "my wife is looking for a car." if they don't direct their attention to me after that, then they do not get my business. we bought him an used car a few months ago after looking at several local places. the car we wanted was $5995 and we had $5000 cash on us, hubby tells the guy that we've got $4500 and asks him what he can do with that, well, we went to the office and he did the whole "punching numbers on the calculator" thingy and counters the $4500 offer with $5070 which we accecpted. the whole process seems to go a whole lot easier when you deal in cash and don't have to hassel with the bank.

Answer 6

I took test drives at several dealerships. At one, I was looking at an economy car in my price range, but then I saw a Dodge Viper on the lot. It listed around $60K at the time, but I figured I'd make an offer - so I told him I'd give him $15K cash on the barrelhead. But the guy actually LAUGHED IN MY FACE - and then he didn't even counter!

Answer 7

I made a nasty vehicle purchase many years in the past and vowed not in any respect to make that mistake again. One time at the same time as i grow to be attempting to purchase a vehicle I were given thrown off the lot. i fairly did not do some thing "incorrect" to deserve being thrown off, yet I did stand my floor. considering i grow to be status on the floor they owned i wager they felt they could question me to go away, which I did and that i found a vehicle actual down the line from a private broking. Peace.