msaeger:

But how's the service department ? My VW salesman was great but the service is such [censored] it makes me want to sell the car.

The sad truth is that while it's a hell of a lot better than all the other local dealers (we have loaner cars and shuttle buses, no one else in a 30 mile radius does, and you can usually get an appointment in less than a week) but it's not what it can/should be. Partially because the service manager is about as useful as tits on a bull, but should be gone any day now, but primarily because VW can't get their supply lines straight and has some mighty [censored] up methods for attempting to move the brand image upward (ignition coil packs and window regulators anyone?).

lectric:

It was the idiots at corporate that made this brilliant decision.

It still burns me that they were willing to stick me for $600 just to save 25¢ worth of cotter pins at the factory.

The manufacturers make entirely too many decisions like this that dealership employees suffer for. They aren't the ones who have to deal with the irate customer, so why would they care? The kicker is, if a dealer decides to start making mechanically sound, but not by the bok repairs, manufacturers yank back a lot of money from them, as this is a violation of the franchise agreement. Our Audi shop got charged back $1,600,000 this past march for sending out a few thousand happy customers with non standard repairs. It sucks for everyone except the manufacturer.

Drakino:

I have had 2 seperate sales people comment on how much they liked dealing with me,

Because it's rare. Don't get me wrong, I have customers that are an absolute joy to deal with. But they're not the norm, especially not in a shitty economy. While I'm sure you're nice to people in other service fields, they're used to being treated with a certain level of respect, so it's not something often commented on.

The jeans and t-shirt bit I get quite frequently too, it's often where you can easily pick out who knows what they're doing. I actually got someone fired in Neiman Marcus once when I was 17 for this. Nasty whenever I asked for something, followed me and my friend around like we were shoplifting, but was more than happy to run up to take my drivers license out of my hand (back when they used to let you use that instead of a physical credit card if you had an account there) and get her 5%. I had her call up one of the salesmen from the mens department because I refused to deal with her. He called the GM, he was mortified.

bonzi:

Liking your job is almost prerequsite to doing it right. I am sure it shows in your dealership's results.

Precisely. Except for an abysmal first month (hey, I had absolutely no management experience at the time, and was only there for 3 weeks of it), our sales are more than double what they were last year. Most of the area is down at least 20%. Feels good to get those faxes on the first of the month, especially since I was hired because no one else was willing to take the job and my name came up in conversation with the glowing review of "She's difficult to deal with, late for work almost every day, possibly insane, has no experience but she does get things done." from my old boss.

DiGNAN17:

The local Honda dealership was selling Odysseys for $3000 over,...Although, even with all that demand, my local dealer let us drive the car.

Most Honda dealerships did up here too, even though they wouldn't let you touch an S2000 until at the very least, money was discussed and it was down to "if I like it I'm buying it now" or they aready had a deposit subject to test drive. Around here, they both went for $3000 over list at that time. The difference being that people rarely go out and test drive a minivan who have no intention of buying a minivan. They do this often with sportscars and SUVs.

several other people:

Re: on test driving cars, and annoying car salesme [re: Drakino]
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After owning cloth interior cars for 4 years, then getting leather in my new Saturn, it is now a must for me.

Ditto. Not specifically because I like the way it looks or feels

This was not stated right. I should have better explained my gripe. More like this:
A women comes in (I have never had this happen to me personally with a man) and can realistically afford a base model car if I sell it short, which she likes how it drives and it suits her needs. She wants the one that is $4000 more and has those options. She expects ME to sell the car at a loss because she NEEDS THOSE THINGS. Then I'm a bitch because I won't sell it at a loss. The worst part is when she refuses to leave after I've told her there's nothing more I can do for her, and continues to argue. It gets much more irritating when she comes back in three weeks later (most likely she's been to every dealer in the area), stating she's ready to buy, and once again refuses to accept that I'm not selling things at a loss.

And I won't buy a car without a sunroof myself. I just don't expect someone else to pick up the tab for what I want.


I really do have several more things to say and things to answer, but I'm falling asleep .