I do the car deals in our family.
I don’t give a rat’s patootie about any of the above BS.
I want to get the vehicle I want at a decent price, and I always do.
And I want to make sure the people working at the service department know their stuff and that repair pricing is honest and transparent.
And that is ALL I care about.
Note to Ford: At the moment there is not a car in your lineup that I would buy.
So I won’t be setting foot in one of dealerships any time soon.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
How to really make it easier.
1. Fixed price sale at a reasonable MSRP like Saturn did. No negotiation, but the price is reasonable without the markup to give negotiating room.
2. Make the Finance and Insurance guys dig their own graves and the shoot them.
“brand ambassadors”
“collaboration”
“dedicated hospitality spaces”
I see Ford hired a bunch of MBA’s.
A better approach would be to build dependable cars the customer wants, not DC.
Nothing about keeping salesmen from lying like rugs or building cars that don’t fall apart. I guess I will stick with used Toyotas and Subarus.
Hard to believe, but GM and Stellantis are even worse than Ford. They never learn.
Cut to the chase: free beer.
They’ll do anything but build basic, affordable, good cars.
How’s that EV effort going? Hahahaha.
It reads like they didn’t even ask a single customer about making the experience better, they just made some stuff up.
.
Takes writing like 10 e-mails, saved me thousands.
“Ford Is Redesigning Dealers to Make Car Buying Feel Easier”
“Hey sales guy! What’s in those five gallon buckets? Motor oil?”
“Nah, K-Y jelly. Helps make car buying feel easier.”
Anyone that trusts a car salesman is going to get the deal that they deserve.
I hope the writer means that Ford is redesigning dealerships and not dealers. Or are they working on some creepy robotics? 🤔
I am old enough to remember “Win on Sunday, Sells On Monday.”
Long before wokism and political correctness, Nascar was something to behold. The cars all looked different. The above phrase had to do with bragging rights, and actual performance.
I also remember tuning up my own cars with timing, dwell, points gap; yes, I had a gapper tool and a timing light. Advancing and retarding the distributor.
Today’s auto companies took the massive government checks and produced EVs, as long as the cash and subsidies flowed. They were just like the Soviet tractor factories. Each day, the tractor company’s employees would walk by row upon row of brand new, rusting tractors outside the tractor factory. Inside the factory, everyone “had a job” producing more tractors to put outside in yet another row.
....Or, just sell your cars at a set price, without all the negotiation and attempted screwing the customer over. Easier, the customers are happier, and a dealership only needs maybe two sales guys per shift, instead of an entire department of them!
Re-arrangeing the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Could care less about all the touchy feely BS. I also don’t want a relationship with the dealer. They’re not a charity, their mission is to make the highest possible profit off of me. I respect that.
What I do want:
1. A price that is reasonable. Your product is a commodity, I can and will go elsewhere. You have no leverage on me whatsoever.
2. Don’t waste a second of my time with BS. If I’m not the most important priority for you, I’m walking. Considering the cost of a new or late model vehicle I deserve it.
3. Give me a damn good reason to buy from you. It’s not about what you can upsell me on. It’s about what YOU will do for ME.
4. Make it convenient for me.
5. Don’t embarrass yourself. If your salesperson isn’t able to speak English, has body odor, doesn’t know his product, wants to tell me all about his stupid boring life, lacks class and professionalism… it tells me all I need to know about you the dealer.
What I will give you the dealer: Professionalism and respect for your time. I will have likely already done my homework on the vehicle I’m looking at. I have great credit, and probably will show up ready with a contact at my bank for you to close the deal with. Lastly, I will set my expectations with you, politely of course, so you’re not surprised if I get up from the table and walk away.
I guess I’m a prick. Whatever…
If only Detroit would go back to making cars that weren’t held hostage every few thousand miles for electrical issues.
How about just make it easier. Really the process is insane. Last time I bought a car I had it all set. I had the VIN of the car I wanted to test drive, I had a cashiers check for the down, I had a pre-approved loan that would cover the rest. 20 minute test drive, yeah I like it, lets pull the trigger. Then FOUR FREAKING HOURS of... I don’t what. Honestly. Yeah in there was 10 minutes of signing crap. But everything else was just, whatever freaking churn the dealership has. And sales people talking to me constantly about nothing, bad socializing. Fix that. I should have been in and out in an hour tops.
They are known as stealerships for a reason. They steal.
I had a Honda stealership change a 3 year to a 5 year between the sales desk and the finance desk.
Plus always lying saying something is broke on your car when there is not like the cv joint cover they said needed replacing at $150 each front wheel. Or the air filter that did not. I had a tire valve replaced as it showed cut and rotate the tires. I checked afterward and found the valve stem was new but the valve core was not screwed in all the way so the air leaked...
I go to a shop that verified the cv joint was fine. The mechanic look of disgust when I told them as if they had heard this before. The air filter I had replaced just a few months before.