Dealers Must Be Getting Deserate

:nono:Whining??? Well stop whining about poor treatment from your dealer. You get back what you give. I love it when somebody sells you down the river and goes and buys a car 100 miles away to save 50 bucks and then they "whine" "why doesn't the service dept. give me this and that for free and why do I have to wait?

 

Agree with you there. There is much to be said about buying a car locally. I would gladly pay a little more for local care. No one should expect the same service if they buy a car from a dealer in another town. Sorry If I offended.

 

What I really love is crappy service from your dealer when you bought the car from them, plus the extended warranty, plus you visit them for service.

Face it... dealers are As**ho*z. In fact I believe recently Toyota's dealers ranked 33rd out of 34 brands for service satisfaction. Toyota makes a decent product, but their dealers blow and pretty much EVERYONE on this planet who's bought from them shares the same opinion.

sucks to be you, pap.

 

Well, my local dealer (Conicelli of Springfield) is less than a mile from my house. I would have loved to bought from him, except his reputation was well-known. The salesmen were all sleazebags, and they wanted to charge me $3000 over sticker for a car they did not even have in stock. They said they could get me a car from another dealer. I said, "If I can get the car I want for sticker price at another dealer, why should I have you call them to get the same car for me for $3000 more?"

I would have gladly stayed local for a couple hundred more, but I just couldn't stomach the way I was treated there. I found a dealer that gave me $1200 under sticker, so I saved $4200 vs. my local dealer.

So you can talk all you want about how you hate customers like me, but the fact is that some dealers make the whole industry look bad.

And, yes, I go to Conicelli for service (those guys have been a lot nicer than the sales guys). Since I did not buy it there I've never asked for anything for free (aside from warranty work), although I do wish they had more parts in stock so I don't have to bring my car back to have repairs completed.

 

So, if I extend this logically that means that if I take a road trip and find myself in need of service on the car (for whatever reason), that means I should expect to get screwed because I'm not local?

I'm sorry, but I have a real problem with thinking like that. It's akin to saying that if you go the McDonalds down the street and they know you're "local" you get the best food they've got, but if they don't recognize you as "local" or you go to the McDonalds in the next town over it's OK for them to serve up whatever crap they have laying around, up to and including food poisoning.

My expectation for automobile service is that it shouldn't matter where I'm from or where the service department is. It really yanks my chain that both dealers and people try and make a link between service and sales that goes beyond the good business sense of the dealer trying to retain customers.

When the time comes for me to get service on my car, I'll go to the most convenient service center and expect to be treated with the same courtesy and professionalism as I'd get from any other Toyota service center in this country. If they don't, I won't be back, and I'm likely to be very vocal about it to make sure that as many other people know about my experience.

 

welcome to the world of a Toyota dealer's attitude

 

Well, I hope I have a different experience when the time comes.

 

me too.... FYI I bought local, paid cash, full asking price, bought the extended warranty and was treated like trash when my prius died. The only thing complaining directly to toyota netted me was having my cell phone # added to their spam call list... coincidentally just last week (about a year after I called to complain) I got a phone call from toyota asking me how my experience was with my dealer... I let them have it since they NEVER bothered to call me back to help solve my complaint in the first place.

Toyota's dealers really are a joke. As bad as the Dodge dealer was, I was treated far FAR FAR better by them when I had my durango... same goes for my honda, my ford etc etc... Toyota's by FAR been the worst... what makes it worse is that the dealers appear to have a "our sh*t doesnt stink" attitude and that they can do whatever they want since they have popular cars... they treat the lowly customer accordingly. I believe I am done with any further toyota purchases. I will drive the prius into the ground and get back every penny of my extended warranty in the process.

 

Re. Toyota sales, I had phone relations with about 10 in our area, and 2 got it and were nice and reasonable. Most of the rest (80%) were slick. I'll name dealerships if requested.

Re. Toyota service, don't know yet. Had good-enough experiences with my non-green car, one of Ford Motor Co.'s car lines with respect to service both at dealership under warranty and at an independent shop.

 

BTW, what is the invoice price for a new package 2? And out-the-door price incl. tax, fees?

 

My dealer was really good. But I followed the recommendations of a couple users on this forum.

The first couple dealers I went to were scumbag nitwits who didn't know anything about the product, though.

 

About Toyota dealers: by and large they really suck. I have had good experiences with two (fortunately one is local), several I've only had minor contact with and can't really comment about, but roughly eight others spread over three states have been absolute shit. You never get a survey form from the ones that suck...I wonder why?

 

Your kidding. McDonald's vs. Toyota dealership.

While I think Toyota would like to have the control over dealerships that McDonald's has over franchises this is currently not the case. Very few people are taking their Big-Mac in after 3 bites and wanting to check the special sauce. I suspect if this were to happen we would see McDonald's asking if you had purchased your Big-Mac here.

There is no single cause that makes dealers want to work together. While I think it is in a dealers best interest to service all cars like they were purchased at their dealer,.... you absolutely want to take care of the customers that did purchase from you. If that means that a car purchased somewhere else moves to the back of the line, so be it.

McDonald's doesn't service cars and Toyota dealerships don't sell burgers.

 

Very smart thing on Mazda's part. All car companies could learn from this.

 

you are COMPLETELY out of your mind. Dealers are mandated to maintain an OEM's product, regardless of which dealer it was purchased at... "special sauce" or not.

wow.

 

Well, that may be true in smaller areas still, but its harder and harder to find a true local dealer. The days of a local dealer, like the days of family farms, are gone now. Now it all mega-dealers in large urban areas. Your salesman (the only one who knows you) is unlikely to still work for the dealership by the time you need your first oil change and at most dealerships, the service department is so separate from sales that they neither know nor care that you bought the car from the sales office there. Shops must keep their profit margins up so it does not pay them to do more or less for a person depending on where the car was purchased. Your salesman, if if still at the same dealership has ZERO pull in the shop.

 

Prius is not selling.

Inventory was 12 two week ago, grows to 15 today.

Inventory Search

 

Dealers are indeed desperate now. The dealer we bought ours from last month at MSRP just sold a touring #6 to my father-in-law at invoice. Obviously I timed it badly. With gas heading down, even if just temporarily, people are taking a wait and see attitude. On the bright side, used SUV prices are skyrocketing because of the direction in gas and because nobody can get loans for new SUVs. With new supply somewhat limited because of production cuts, if gas stays where it is for while, those with 2 to 4 year old SUV's should be able to get a good price for them.

I have a Dodge Durango Hemi Limited which I couldn't have sold from more than 2 or $3K 2 months ago. Now I'm seeing similar vehicles(year, mileage, and trim) go for closer to $10K.