Enough!!

[Chaz_23]

If I want to buy a car, I'm not going to have a salesguy get in the way of that. If the first salesguy is a jerk, try another one, there's dozens of them around. If none of them work, try the internet guy online.
I get the sense that just as with cars, when it comes to domestic dealers people expect miracles, but if the foreigners do ok then that's spectacular. That's not to say that domestic dealers suck, they do, but that doesn't mean I'm going to sell my soul to the enemy.

[atomicshark]

I see this as a major problem among many dealers regardless of the brand they sell.

Back in 2000 when I was looking for a new car I had several models from different brands that I was equally interested in. My money went to the dealer with the best customer experience. I am positive this happens a lot across the country.

P.S. - A Toyota was on my list back then and that is when I discovered that Toyota has one of the worst dealer experiences out there. Horrible!

[2002 Caddy]

Originally Posted by HoeyHimself

I myself would never make a decision based on a dealership experience. Good dealer, bad dealer..it doesn't make a difference on the actual vehicle.

I don't think the GMC dealership did anything to lose this customer, I think that the Toyota dealership lucked out. If it had been a few month later and they had already placed most of their inventory orders, they may have been giving him the same situation as the GMC dealership.

I couldn't disagree more. And I'd bet if you asked around you will find that you are in the minority.

IMO The dealership experience is critical, and is critical to the survival of GM. It is also my personal experience that GM's Dealership experience is broken and in desperate need of repair.

Put it this way... How many of you would return, or recommend to your friends, a restaurant with a world class chief but with servers who were rude, slow, dropped things, screwed up your bill, etc...

My family and I have been buying new GM cars since the mid 60's... IMO, sometime around 1990 GM forgot how to service customers and sell cars. It is all too easy to find GM dealers with salesmen who: have no idea about the features of the cars they are selling, have no idea about how to get a car that the customer wants, have no idea what the competition is offering, have no idea how to treat the customer with respect, and fail to fulfill promises and expectations.

If the sales team are incompetent jerks one of two things will happen:
1) As above the customer will buy something else. This isn't the 70's anymore there are LOTS of options out there... Everyone is building nice cars and trucks these days... or
2) The customer will hold their nose and buy... But you and I both know that the customer is now thinking about where else to take the car for service, maintenance, etc. The customer is also thinking what kind of company would let this happen. Just what GM needs... A brand new car buyer with doubts...

My parents experienced a rude salesman and sales manager when they went to buy a new Caddy 2 years ago... You'd think that since we pulled up in my loaded 2002 STS they would have thought "hey these guys are going to buy another Cadillac" Nope, rude, snotty, zero product knowledge, unwilling to negotiate, called my dad's trade-in Oldsmobile "worthless junk" (which was the truth but he didn't need to say it) They never called them back, like salesman said he would, etc, etc.

Against my advice they bought a new Lexus.

A completely different sales experience.

For example, prior to delivery the salesman called me up to find out what kind of music my parents liked and loaded up the cd changer with a very nice selection of new cds. He thought this would be a nice surprise for my folks... he was right.

Since then Lexus has invited my parents to free concerts, "closed track" driving events, catered new car introduction parties, and they get a free monthly Lexus magazine. etc.

Guess what they are going to buy next time... Guess what my sister trader her Intrigue GLS for?

Don't worry... I'm still dyed in the wool, and I'm trying to talk my wife into a 2008 XLR... But your dealers are making this an uphill battle for me!

[trailrider325]

you people just kill me, no matter how bad a dealer is or how bad a gm product is you exspect people to still buy a gm car or truck

[zete]

So, a case as "do as I say and not as I do", then. Buy union? Not for the union? Would he have crossed a UAW line to deliver stuff? Probably not. But he'll buy from a non-union shop to save some cash. Hypocrite.

As for whether Toyotas never have problems, explain to me why they have service bays? And why, at least here in Ottawa, they work late? What are they doing, holding raves?

[zete]

Originally Posted by trailrider325

you people just kill me, no matter how bad a dealer is or how bad a gm product is you exspect people to still buy a gm car or truck

I think it boils down to the fact it was a union guy. And he didn't have a bad experience with ALL the dealers, just the one that seemed intent on not selling him a truck.

In the end, the dealer experience is key in my opinion, at least. My family has soured on Toyota simply because of the horrid dealer experience we had at 2 of the 3 local dealers. The third was quite nice, but is also the smallest. Go figure.

Lexus, on the other hand, has an amazing dealer experience. I know more than one person who bought a Lexus solely on the way he was treated figuring the attention to him as a customer would continue post-sale. He's been mostly correct. In fact, other than Lexus -- and one local Infiniti dealer -- none of the local luxury dealers come close. They could ALL learn from Lexus.

I am, however, eagerly awaiting the new Cadillac dealership being built at the corner of Merivale and Baseline roads here in Ottawa. Myers will have a separate Cadillac and Chevrolet showroom, with totally different experiences from historic Cadillac dealer treatment. I'm awaiting a visit once it's done next year. They treated me exceptionally well the past 4 years while I had my CTS so I'm very interested to see how the showroom and treatment change with the new building.

[BusyBody]

This guy should not be a union leader. I don't care what his service is, he is not supporting the workers he supposedly represents. What a jerk (no way excusing the poor service- but IMO, this guy is an idiot.)

[GMfan1111]

I think what we have here is someone that had a bad dealer experience and decided to get a toyota. after all this is america not the USSR so you can choose to buy whatever brand u want. However SDracing brings up a good point this gentleman is one of the union directors what message is he sending to workers by driving a tundra. I think what he should do is buy GM and not because of wheteher hes anti american or not but because of the wrong message he could send to his workers as idrector by driving a toyota instead of a GM vechicle

[bouda]

Originally Posted by GMCdriver

If Union leadership in other industries are willing to buy a non-union built truck to get a bigger discount or save a few bucks how does this guy figure he can protect his own way of life from non-union competition.
It seems like it would be hard to convince consumers and employers that union labor is "worth" more if union leadership isn't willing to pay a little more for it themselves.

Exactly what I was thinking. So what if he's a hypocrite, at least he saved a few bucks. And it doesn't sound like a little higher monthly payment would force him into eating ramen soup every night either. It's this kind of behavior that's making me less and less proud to be of this country.
Maybe the the other truck was a a decent price and he was being unreasonable.

[AndrewGS]

There are only about 72 GMC dealers in the Houston metro area, why would his experience at David Taylor spoil something as big as a vehicle purchase, especially when Weisner (that happens to be about 75 miles away from David Taylor) offered to help him in every way they could? He could've driven both the Toyota and GMC, decided which one he liked more and then bought the Toyota if he liked it more or waited a on the exact GMC he would've wanted if he liked it more.

Another problem with his story is that Toyota dealers don't "order" trucks in the typical sense, Gulf States Toyota sets the configurations and allocates them to dealers. If you really like a Toyota and you're used to the usual ordering process, you will more than likely never find that Toyota optioned the exact way you want it.

I see people perfectly happy with their American products get hyped into or just out of curiosity buy foreign, but they really have no idea what kind of damage they are doing to the economy. My aunt, for example, had Oldsmobiles for a long time and never had a bad experience, but in 1992 she got hyped out of her beautiful, loaded 1986 Cutlass Cierra Brougham on a 1991 ex-rental Camry DX with an AM/FM radio, no clock and those sweet black bumpers. She gave the Ciera to her daughter who wrecked it not long after. After the Camry she bought a Honda Civic LX and then traded it on a 2003 Accord EX-L. She's now a Japanese car advocate despite not having owned an American car for fifteen years and not having problems with the American cars she did own. I could also use my cousin as an example as he bought his first foreign vehicle in 2004, a Titan, and just recently traded it for a new Tundra because "it's the fastest pickup on the road." This, despite his great experience with GM trucks over many, many years.

[BigAls87Z28]

Reading the story, it sounds like the guy wanted the GMC dealer to neg. on the price and make it to the level of the Toyota.
Now, that could mean a lot. If he was going for a fully decked out GMC, and he was matching it with a 4.7 equiped Yota, then I can see why the GMC guy said to go cram.


But lets not get crazy here ladies and gents. Dealer experiance and attitude is a BIG reason why people buy cars at one place, and not at another. Lets forget that he is an union guy, and that he's just a regular guy working a 9-5 job. If you go one place and they treat you like crap, Im not going back there again, I dont care HOW bad I want that car. I will find another dealer. And it seems as if this guy did, but the first dealer went out of thier way to DECLINE the transfer of the truck over!! Now THATS being a prick to the 10th degree!!
Just by that I know that this first dealer was probably being a pain. Now this being Texas, Im sure that trucks move at a decent clip, faster then they do here in NJ. If the two trucks were of equal equipment, right now id say that Toyota's cash on hood is probably higher then GM's. So why couldnt the GM guy work out, or at least put on his salesman hat and sell him the better truck. Instead, he did nothing and they lost a sale, and the truck sits.
Im in sales, and while its not vehicles, its auto service. I am very good at what I do. Are there others out there that are cheaper then me? Probably, and others have a lot more wiggle room to negotiate prices on things like tires and services, but we are still jammed with cars every day, while the others just sit there. I think that its cause who I work for, we are VERY educated on product, we are very effiecent at what we do, and we are very reliable. Those three right there are why people keep coming back to us, and why they refer us to others.
If there is a difference in price, and some place is cheaper then me, I know for a fact that NO ONE packs a better warranty then me, no one offers better service then me, and I know no one can do it as fast as I can, and right. I sell THAT to the customer.

If this was a GOOD sales person, he or she should have put on thier sales hat, and really drilled into why this truck is better, stronger and in the end will end up saving him money due to repairs and gas milage vs the Toyota. Instead, the Toyota guy probably outsold the GMC guy and quite possibly planted the seed that the Toyota is better over the GMC, and at a lower price, its a win win.

Now this guy drives one of the ugliest trucks on the road. IMO, this is a loss for GMC.

[Inchworm]

I would hope, at the very least, that this union official has to park his Toyota at the far edge of the union parking lot.

[SirRaven]

Originally Posted by Chaz_23

If I want to buy a car, I'm not going to have a salesguy get in the way of that. If the first salesguy is a jerk, try another one, there's dozens of them around. If none of them work, try the internet guy online.
I get the sense that just as with cars, when it comes to domestic dealers people expect miracles, but if the foreigners do ok then that's spectacular. That's not to say that domestic dealers suck, they do, but that doesn't mean I'm going to sell my soul to the enemy.

Thats what I did. I wanted the new Astra, and I needed a car soon (before 08), so I wanted to put in an order ASAP. Talked to one guy (online salesguy), he said wait for the pricing and we will order one for you. That came and went and I talked to him said not yet. So I called the dealership they said not until October. So instead of waiting another month I went and emailed another dealership and they said yes you can put in an order right away, had one ordered the next day. The dealership is further away, but they have been much more helpful then the other dealership. And the guy that I first contacted that said he would let me know when I can put in an order has still never contacted me, and I have had an order in for at least a month and a half. There was no way I was letting a dealership come between me and the car I wanted.

[afdude2018]

Sometimes there's not another dealership within reasonable driving distance. Like here in Rapid City, South Dakota. We don't have really any duplicate dealers in town. If I have a bad experience at any of the dealerships in town and there's not another one of the same make in Spearfish(45 mins away) then I'm going to be pushed to go to another dealership of a different make. Next closest major town that may or may not have another dealership of the make I may be looking at may be in Chadron, Nebraska. And that's a couple of hours away. Some of us aren't as lucky as some of you people close to major metro area or other bigger towns that may have say two Chevy or Dodge dealers in town.

[goodwrench1]

Originally Posted by Inchworm

I would hope, at the very least, that this union official has to park his Toyota at the far edge of the union parking lot.

Stole my thunder! I think ALL businesses should do this!