Dealership Closing

[tbinil]

Late last October, I was stunned to hear a rumor that the dealership where I ordered my T-Bird might close. With less than 2-weeks to my Bird's scheduled delivery date, I thought I was going to lose out. Fortunately the car came in and everything worked out. Today my newspaper said that the small town dealership was closing after 66 years in business. I'm now at the mercy of the larger, impersonal, don't care if you come back dealerships for any service or warranty work. My dealer said he had ordered a new driver's seat for my car because it has a small lump in the front center smooth part of the yellow leather. I would describe it as looking as though a cardboard match stick was underneath. We both thought it might cause premature wear especially since in was in the yellow part. As it turns out, he never received the seat and is now closed. I hope I can convince another dealer to replace it. The car has 700 miles on it although I received it November 1, 2001. It has been garaged for most of the winter. I feel sad that the small town dealers are disappearing. I had purchased cars there since 1976, and it never took more that ten minutes to reach a deal, not the 2 hour run-around you get at the large dealerships whose theory seems to be maybe you'll buy a car if they make you mad. Just feeling a little sad today and wanted to comment. Nice to have a forum like this where car people understand.

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[jt2233]

tbinil

Keep the fath, this happened to me once years ago. I had to search around until I found a dealer with the service I liked. I finally found one, had to drive a few more miles but it was worth the distance. Don't just settle for the BIG dealer, look around I'm sure you'll find what your looking for in a service department. Good Luck!!

 

[tleslie]

This is Ford's well-known strategy. Eliminate the smaller dealers and open up superstores with fast music, cafeteria's, and overall make car-buying like going to the mall. I hate it too. One of these super stores is close to me AND I WILL NEVER GO BACK. WILL CHANGE MY OWN OIL. The service writers out front are plain mean bitchy women who tell you one thing and deliver another. The owner says "home of the dirt cheap deal", but asks for 54k for a tbird...cheap my a.... I buy my fords in good old Bowling Green, Ohio where I can make a deal over the phone, make myself some popcorn while Joe is looking for a pen. When they close this dealer I will buy an Audi...I have sympathy for the smaller dealers who are getting squeezed out.

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[tbird]

Actually folks, some of you are old enough to remember the Ford vs. Chevy pissing contest. I think they both wanted to see who had the most dealerships. They have now learned from other companies that it may be easier to manage less dealerships with larger dealerships serving a greater area. This should give better customer satisfation eventually like BMW has. I have seen two large dealerships that offer incredible service. I have worked in a small Ford Dealership and the Large ones. I would rather take my car to the big one. Each dealership is different one or two people can make a difference in the whole dealership. The size does not matter.

I believe that Ford and Chevy will eventually offer better customer satisfation by getting rid of some of the excess dealerships so they can train people better and offer more services.