Topic: Dealership Experience

[pi314]

Good Experiences? Bad Experiences?

Do you think dealership experience is as important as reliability to maintain brand loyalty?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

To me it is. I've been treated well by the Subaru dealer here and in Fredericton.

So far as sales experience, things have been pretty good in general in Regina. There's one Ford sales guy that I wasn't impressed with, but the rest have been pretty well informed and not pushy.

[mmret]

I'd say its a pretty significant part of the experience although moreso for less reliable makes.

I've never been overly loyal to one dealer or another. They've all been sort of various shades of average in my experience, although the few times I went to Acura of North Toronto with the TSX its been alright (they warrantied a weird plastic weather guard piece that broke and was rattling around at speed without any real questions other than puzzlement at how it broke, and the one time I had my car aligned there it was dead on accurate).

BMW Autohaus was very "by the letter of the regulation" with fixing noisy lifters on the Z4. Once the letter was satisfied all was handled, but they did try to reuse the same old oil gasket which just ended up leaking and I had to take it back. On some level I expected them to be a bit cold given it was a US car.

MB Thornhill was meh. On one hand they fixed a few things for free that probably should not have fallen under CPO warranty. They also never once charged me a diags fee. On the other hand they did charge me for an alignment once upon a time without even doing the alignment, just said it was the tires and let it be. Tires may have been part of it but the alignment was still out.

Downtown Acura where I bought the TL seems like they have a pretty efficient service op going, we'll see how it goes. My service advisor seems like a good guy though. Parts on backorder so just waiting. (Car came with some ill-fitting trim pieces...)

[rrocket]

We almost never need to visit the dealer.  But when we do....nothing like the Lexus treatment....(except at Windsor Lexus....which is crap and not a real Lexus dealer)

[me_2]

Internet already altered the all buying process. You can get online specs, prices & deals but the bottom line is, either you do an act of faith buying reserving your car, sometime even never saw it in person, sometime without any test drive and take delivery later at the dealership. Or, you go the your prefer dealer and drive off the lot with your new car. Or a mix of both.

Last time I have felt VIP at my dealership was in the early stage of Saturn (1995). Sure, they were economy car but you felt like a "special" customer. My dealer experience has never been so enjoyable since, not even the latest one... but the Volt maintenance schedule is not cumbersome, very light maintenance...

Here you get the picture
http://www.gmfleet.com/content/dam/gmfleet/global/master/nscwebsite/en/Home/Shared_Resources/PDFs/GMC1-12-01151-226-Volt%20Maintenance.pdf   

[tooscoops]

i won't participate in the actual poll being a dealer..... i always treat myself awesomely.

i was speaking with my grandpa the other day who had been a dealer for most of his life... he was talking about people not being loyal anymore...

i attempted to almost defend the new customers... cars are no longer something that you purchase a new one every year or two. back then, my grandpa used to take 700 bucks and get them in the new years model taking the old one... now, cars last a long damn time. average age of a car on the road i believe is up to 11 years now.

where it used to be, deal with someone you trust, because when you want out of the car next year, he'll help you out... now, it's get the best deal on the car you want, because the salesperson or dealership might not even be there in a decade when you want a new one.

basically, my opinion is that a dealership should act at least up to a minimum standard... then it comes down to individual deal/value... if they don't meet that minimum standard, the "deal" you get won't be worth the paper it's written on.

[Northernridge]

Good questions. For me I had to hold my nose to the Mercedes dealership and buy the car I wanted. For other brands we often buy the vehicle from one store and have it serviced at another. Did so with the Hondas...and all of my pickups.

I envy you guys in large markets for having multiple choices for higher end import stores.

[sailor723]

Dealer quality/level of service is more important around here as there is usually only one dealer per brand within 100-150 kms or more. So far overall I'd say the BMW dealer in Moncton has been better than the local MB store here in terms of service....certainly more of a "premium" experience.

[tpl]

Last four dealers I have visited:
Local Honda dealer.  Been servicing the old Fit for years and they have been fine. Buying experience for the new one. Meh.
Local VW dealer.  Service as always good.
Local MB dealer. Good sales experience, haven't yet had any servicing.
The "old" BMW Waterloo.    They basically refused to sell me a new car...that is they refused to even see if they could get one even close to what I wanted from another dealer and ( this was in May 2008 )didn't even try to persuade me to order a 2009

[Fobroader]

Dont give a flying....you know. Just shut up and let me sign the papers....I said shut up, I dont want undercoating....are you still talking about scotchgard, shut up and let me sign the papers. I just want to negotiate a deal and GTFO of the dealership ASAP. If there is any warranty, I might use the dealer, but most likely Id end up doing the work myself as dropping the vehicle off and being vehicle-less for a day is a huge pain in the arse for me.

[dr_spock]

Not too much to me now as I'm learning to do most of the repair work myself   Although it is probably good to build a good relationship with your dealer if you ever need a good will repair.