Sometimes you just have to sit back and laugh, Dealer

Every time I'm in the Service Department for something, I get follow up email and phone calls, asking me to rate their service, a "how'd we do" survey. Seems an odd phenomena that's just grown and grown, over the last decade.

 

I do recall when I owned my Acura MDX that I gave a particular negative review to a service my vehicle had undergone and I actually heard from Acura corporate who got the dealer to make it right and give me a partial refund. Go figure. The dealers who claim they have customers waiting to buy your vehicle are pure crap.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

When I was negotiating my purchase of my '16 Prius; the sales manager I was working with bought my 2010 V with ATP for cash. We both got a good deal. I got $1500 more than the trade value and he got a car that was in outstanding condition.

Yeah, sometimes the dealer is looking for exceptional used cars; sometimes for themselves.

 

First off condolences on the Sunday defeat. Good year, but as soon as Boswell missed the extra point, the nail was in the coffin.

The last time I went into the dealer for servicing I had taken the cover off of the engine.The service advisor mentioned this while I was there and I told him I had it at home,but that made no difference.

For 3 months after that service, every Tuesday I would get a "follow up" to get me to come back to get the cover replaced.

It is amazing some tactics or plots that are employed to drum up business....

 

You would be surprised how many new cars get sold to people having their cars serviced or by those flyers in the mail.

 

Had you raised the car to get the cover off? I'm scratching my head as to why you didn't just do the oil change: warranty concerns?

 

we get people here all the time asking if it's a scam. plenty fall for it i'm sure.

 

Reason # 594 for not getting your car serviced at the dealer.

When they say that there are people waiting to buy your XXXXX, tell them that you know.....and you don't want to be one of them.

Pretty soon they'll stop sending you mail.

 

It was the silver cover on the top of the block ( the name of what they call it escapes me now). Forget the reason I had it off, but they didn't miss the opportunity to tell me.

 

Oh, you mean the NO. 2 CYLINDER HEAD COVER? I kid you not:



For some reason this hearkens back to my draftsman days:

The material handling department had done a layout drawing for a reclaim conveyor (one coming out of a tunnel under stockpiled material, pulling material from the bottom of the piles). The tunnel was indicated on the drawing to have shallow slope, specifically:

1.19348942 degrees

This got me scratching my head, and I started doing detective work: why such an out-to-lunch angle? No one could remember. I had a little cluster of MH types looking at the drawing, and one structural compatriot wandered over, said "I think it was originally 1/4" in a foot pitch. Oy vey...

 

I get those, too.

True story. We had a guy in our office from another country. An elderly fellow getting low pay who would not take anyone's advice. He had bought a new Nissan Altima and, one time about a year later, his windshield wipers needed replacing so he went to the dealer. YIKES!! Bad Idea!! He came back with a new car. Unbelievable. He explained that the dealer told him that he could get into the new car for the same payments.

 

We had the same thing happening for my wife's 2011. Is a death trap.....$2K over Black Book value.

 

But he probably has two extra years of payments to keep the same amount each month.

 

Exactly! Poor guy had no financial sense and wouldn't take advice.

 

I think any sort of car loan is an exercise in delusion. If you can't pony up cash for a car, taking out a loan only sets you on a debt treadmill. Wait till you've got the cash, get your car, repeat as needed, say every 5~10 years.

 

There is a demand for any car to an extent but yes that is a tactic used by dealers to get people back in and looking at other cars. This is how they make money!

 

I paid off my last car loan in 1999. Sure is nice to be saving toward a new-to-me car rather than still paying for one that's on its last leg or at least that I'm tired of.

 

I feel that tug a bit, every time I'm in getting parts. In a way that's good, frequent visits (every 6 months at least) serve to immunize you.

 

Agreed. That's solid financial planning. It takes discipline to stick with it, though.