Ford Dealership's

[Amaroo Park]

Took the XR6 in for its first service today and fix an annoying rattle in the gearbox. Very impressed, fixed both the rattle and did the service no problems at all.

Takes a lot to impress me with dealerships but I have to say today I was......

[Airhead]

Who was it Andy?

[Bluebottle]

Refreshing indeed to hear a good dealership story!

[Amaroo Park]

Originally posted by AMoffat
Who was it Andy?

Power Ford, Mate really impressed with them. I mean having worked in dealerships for 10 years it's good to find a dealership that has the same work ethic and customer service as I did.

[spanner]

Its one thing that puts me off buying a Ford in the UK is the reputation of the dealers and the level of service from them.

[Bluebottle]

Originally posted by spanner
Its one thing that puts me off buying a Ford in the UK is the reputation of the dealers and the level of service from them.

If you take a wander through the dusty archives of ths forum you'll find several threads about dealerships of most major manufacturers and the dreadful service people have had from them- and a few good stories as well!!

[garcon]

As a precursor to the rant below, I should point out that the standard of service does vary from dealer to dealer, but as generalisations go, I think I'm fairly accurate...

Warning, what follows is a rant and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Ten-Tenths. (To be honest, it probably doesn't even represent the opinions of the poster when they aren't ranting.) The sad truth - in the UK at least - is that the quality of customer service from any mainstream manufacturer dealerships - whether it be Ford, Vauxhall, Rover, Fiat, Renault, Citroen, Peugeot etc. - is truly diabolical. The standard of quality control at these manufacturers is such that you are the exception if you don't have to take your car back to the dealer to have something fixed, or some rattle solved or something. And when you do, you find unhelpful customer-facing staff, backed up by poorly trained fitters who don't have the basic knowledge to actually diagnose and solve problems - all they know how to do is replace one part with another. Badly. The real shock is that dealerships for premium marques like BMW and especially Mercedes appear to be descending to a similar level - the main difference being you pay three times as much for the same lack of service. We now return you to our normal ramblings.

I don't know why it is, maybe a culture thing, but if you want an acceptable level of customer service in the UK, you have to buy Japanese. It is not by accident that Lexus have won the JD Power customer service gold award four years running, and Subaru won it the two years before that. I've had four new Subarus. None of them had any quality control issues (or any faults whatever) on delivery, and the service from the dealerships has always been good. Only ever had two minor complaints with my local dealer - they once slightly overfilled my car with oil, resulting in a misfire and a minor visit to sort it, and they've stopped washing cars at service.

[Crash Test]

Working in a Ford dealership I don't have a drama leaving my car there to be serviced (heck, it's currently there in a million pieces!). There's a lot of switched on people out there who do bloody good work. But you hear about dramas from time to time with people who take their dramas from dealer to dealer. Effluent happens, and I'm sure it happens everywhere...

[blackx]

I can only echo the comments of Crash Test as i also work for a Ford main dealer here in the UK....
There will always be cases of poor treatment in the press and making the headlines somewhere but on the whole dealers have had to raise their game in order to keep customers as most modern cars are now sooooooooo similar in comfort levels and performance etc that the only clincher there is is the back up offered by the dealer..

[bartman71]

working as a tech in a toyota dealer i also agree with crash test.
most people only have somthing to say if it is bad.

[touringlegend]

Talking about the Lexus dealerships in the UK - are they manufacturer owned, or franchises? I think a lot of the manufacturers have realised that they can provide much better service on their own. We've just had Mercedes Benz open their own dealership up here, and Audi are not far off opening one.

There's one particular dealer - Arnold Clark - who almost dominates the industry - they have been in it for 50 years yet tried to tell my boss his ONE year old Fiat required an MOT...

[Amaroo Park]

I spent 10 years in Holden dealerships in there service dept and from what I saw it has made me reluctant and very negative about dealerships in general

[bartman71]

what gets me is i am charged out at $70 an hour yet only get paid $15

[Amaroo Park]

Mate been there done that I know exactly what you mean. It is wrong

[touringlegend]

I'm sure it's the same in every industry though, I know it is in mine too.

[Mattracer]

Originally posted by bartman71
what gets me is i am charged out at $70 an hour yet only get paid $15

Maybe it's the uniforms, palm trees, coffee machine in the waiting room and the courtesy bus? :confused:

[bartman71]

they spend $800,000 rebuilding the showroom 2 years ago and then another mill on an audi dealership in hobart yet they have put off getting they workshop floor resurfaced for 3 years.
was only going to cost $75,000

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally posted by bartman71
what gets me is i am charged out at $70 an hour yet only get paid $15

Same in every industry, i get charged out at $120/hour but I'm only paid about $32/hour.

[Amaroo Park]

Originally posted by bartman71
they spend $800,000 rebuilding the showroom 2 years ago and then another mill on an audi dealership in hobart yet they have put off getting they workshop floor resurfaced for 3 years.
was only going to cost $75,000

No different to every other dealership in the country

[bartman71]

yet they wonder why that can't find techs.
today at work one guy was moved to spare parts (better money)the forman handed in his notice taking on a service manager at another dealership
and i might be going to used car sales

[BlueBlood]

I had my BA back to the dealer because it leaked due to a wiring grommet locted incorrectly when the selling dealer fitted the towbar.
They removed all the console, seats and carpet to dry it.
After I got it back, I had to return it because they messed up the gear selector, so all the console came out again.
Then it went back again because they didnt adjust the handbrake right when the console came out the second time.
Then it went back again to replace the handbrake warning light switch they damaged taking out the console.
Then it leaked again, this time they found the leak from the tow bar fit, and they also fixed the scratches they put on it during the previous visits.
Now I finally have it back, and the screen is covered in overspray, the interior has dusty finger prints and the paintwork has polish remnants in all hard to reach places.

[Amaroo Park]

Originally posted by bartman71
yet they wonder why that can't find techs.
today at work one guy was moved to spare parts (better money)the forman handed in his notice taking on a service manager at another dealership
and i might be going to used car sales

Mate that was the reason I got out of Dealerships. I went from being a Mechanice to a Workshop Foreman and that was enough. The dump on the workshop all the time. I was asked when I left the last dealership why I was leaving by the DP. I answer honestly "The service manger is a dead **** who wouldn't know his elbow from his arse"

[DAVID PATERSON]

It's no wonder that most mechanics don't want to work as a mechanic, they can get better money, doing easier, cleaner jobs that don't require nearly as much skill or training. Crazy isn't it?

[elephino]

Dealerships are entertainingly inconsistent at times, and most of the time it has nothing to do with the mechanics working on the cars.

Good experiences:
Pennant Hills Toyota - never had a problem with them. All warranty stuff fixed first time, they never grumble. A little slow when picking up the car but that's usually cos they have only one person organising it all at the end of the day.
Paramatta Subaru - Fixed a rattle within 2 days that took another dealership 8 days not to find.
Lexus of Chatswood - Most of it is Lexus standard stuff but they pick up the car, wash the car, etc and do what they say they will do and call for anything else before doing it.

Bad:
Scuderia Veloce Motors - those that know me know my opinion of these guys. I won't go into too much detail but the simple version is over 2 cars (one mine and one not) had to take the car back at least twice for anything. Plus they blatantly lie.
Tom Kerr Subaru - good reputation. As mentioned above, couldn't find rattle and told me never to return when I called back for the third time to get it fixed. Very rude.
Monaco Motors (Volvo) - no longer exist but they were extremely dodgy. Over-charged, didn't do work specified - basically they epitomise the stereotypical bad dealership service.

[Morris 1100]

At the place I was working the manager used to get the key cut of the cars of the complaining customers. You can work the rest out.....