In my work in the automotive industry, I unfortunately run into more and more people disillusioned with the dealership model. I often hear things like ?we love the vehicle we bought, but the salesman we dealt with was unprofessional.? I routinely get some variation of this too: ?They gave me the run around in service and still haven?t totally fixed my car.?
It?s rather disheartening for me as I started my automotive career at a dealership; a good one for that matter. I learned the ropes of the car business from people that had it figured out, both on the sales and service ends.
Either dealerships like this are few and far between, or the whole dealership existence is getting worse.
Sour Tastes
Recently, I had not one, but several dismal experiences at a particular dealer group here in Michigan. It?s not that I was treated badly, but I wasn?t exactly treated well; I was treated more like a number rather than a valued customer. The first salesperson forced me to quickly play the ?I once sold cars too, so stop the nonsense? card, and my visit to the service department a short time later wasn?t much better. It resulted in them telling me they lost another customer?s keys so my car was blocked in and it ?might be awhile.? To be fair, I asked myself if I was being too critical about this dealership. Maybe they were just having a bad day" Or several" Then I remembered my younger years at Sioux Falls Ford – had I treated a customer like that, or lost keys, I would h...