Dealer swing and a miss......

[dogememe]

One issue that Lexus found out was that as they added new tech to their vehicles their older ie wealthier clientele couldn't figure out how to use all of the tech. So around 2015 or so Lexus hired two technical advisors for every dealership. Myself being a car guy when I sold cars for vw and Lexus I found that most people don't care if the vehicle has a dct or torque converter or even understand how it works. I did get a guy who came in and test drove a VW GTI. He specifically asked what the fluid service interval was. I had no idea but had to look it up. 40k miles change interval. He knew the answer but wanted to know if I would just make up an answer to suit him. With all of the reviews and specs online it was truly frustrating having customers walk in with NO IDEA what they wanted.

I still see people in the Prologue Facebook groups posting how upset they are when they find out their “Honda” is a GM product.

Every review of the car online mentions that like five times.

It says GM on the VIN sticker and multiple other places.

The app says HondaLink by OnStar. OnStar has been advertised and owned by GM for who knows how long.

The floor mats came in a huge bag that said CHEVY BLAZER EV on it.

Should I continue?

 

[fat biker]

Over years of conditioning, the harder they sell, the more robust my resistance becomes.

 

[Thebigm]

My son called yesterday telling me of his experience with a local Hyundai dealer. He brought his Accent in for a recall and made the mistake of telling them to change his oil, I warned him.... Anyhow they call him, not once but three times to inform him he needs some GDI injector/intake cleaning procedure, and the brake fluid must be changed. The car has 35K miles on it and is well maintained. We did the brake fluid a little over a year ago. He called to inform me they wanted $800 for the services, and warned him if he didn't do it his brakes would fail and cost about $2,000 to fix, and the engine would need costly repairs if the GDI procedure wasn't done ASAP. He said you were right Pop. LOL He refused the services. When he went back they tried the tech/service writer face to face hard sell again. He said to them we did the brake fluid a year ago, and if Hyundai was such a great car why would it need this high cost GDI service with only 35K on the car. He paid the bill for the oil change and left. Hopefully they didn't mess something else up on spite! I told him there are three reasons to go to a dealer: to buy/test drive a car, for warranty work, and recalls. And on occasion if you're desperate for an OE part or you can't find it online, OTHERWISE STAY AWAY!!! I think it registered this time.

This is nothing new

 

[barryh]

I had all sort of nonsense suggested at a VW dealership when my car went in for a pre-paid service. During the check in process which is all done on line, they want you to authorise an additional sum of money "should they find" anything that needs doing outside the scope of the service. I would imagine the chance of them not finding something is zero. When I declined they were still pushing things when the car was handed back. It makes for an unpleasant experience. I'm used to doing my own servicing and only using the dealership to keep up the full VW service history on this particular car.

The sad thing is this hard sell must work with some less enlightened customers.