Holy smokes. They represent 8 or 10 different makes, cover a full mile of one road in town (both sides!), and they've done their best to consume all the "small" dealers in the area. It's a love-hate dealership: people are all about them because of their pricing, but love to hate them at the same time. The company has its fingers in everything in the area -- cars, real estate, Friday night racing, property management, sporting goods retail, construction, the list goes on.

I bought a truck there some years ago, because my old truck decided to puke right in their parking lot. The truck (Toyota) was great, but the transaction took all... bloody... day. Seven hours, y'all. Absolutely insane. The sales experience absolutely sucks dog doo. In hindsight, I should have called the Nissan dealer and asked them to bring a rollback and pick me up. Anyway...

What really irks me about this crowd is the frequency with which I hear one of their commercials. This crew is ALL OVER the local radio and TV. It's like there's one of their commercials on the air every five minutes or so. And the poor voiceover guy can't pronounce Subaru correctly. Cheese and crackers, man!

There's a fellow out the road who works for them... I don't like him, either. The sources of the dislike are distinctly separate, but I still lump him and his employer together. Buncha jerks!

The Mega Dealer in the town east of us handles everything from the cheapest Asian stuff to Mercedes Benz, the showroom covers nearly half-a-mile.

Their Jeep mechanic doesn't have the slightest idea how to fix brakes, even when I tell him what to do. Last time, my Girlfriend's Grand Cherokee nearly caught fire when the right-rear caliper seized after he wouldn't replace it, said it was the brake line.

We bought a Chevy Cruze from the GM dealer across the street, a much better experience that so-far has gone on for over 5 years.

No more Mega Dealers for me, either.

Would that dealer start wth a "S" and end with a "R"?
I bought a Super Duty from them last year and had the same experience. Took forever.

Conversely I bought a Jeep the year before in NOVA and all the paperwork was filled out and all I had to do was just sign a few papers and drive out. Half an hour tops...

We bought a new pickup in October last year. When I contacted several dealers with an inquiry about the model and options we wanted I made a note that I had a low tolerance for bullshit. Maybe that worked. The transaction went very smoothly.

Occasionally they are nice. Not to deal with, but browse. This one may have Honda and Toyota way out on one end, but the rest of the center mile of the dealership row is nirvana for a car nut.

Penske Scottsdale

Yeah, they've worked a racing museum into the middle as well!

quote:

The truck (Toyota) was great, but the transaction took all... bloody... day. Seven hours, y'all. Absolutely insane

I paid cash for my van and it took about 4.

What the heck?

I just did this last Saturday. I exchanged some texts with the salesman I work with and found the vehicle, nailed down the price, etc.

When it came in, I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.

Super annoying repetitive car commercials is the main reason I no longer listen to AM or FM radio.

I leased a truck from Green Ford in Greensboro NC in 1997 and while it did take a while, it wasn’t a bad experience. Best experience ever buying was at a small lot here in VA, made an offer by email, guy said ok. I went to pick up the vehicle and I was out the door in 45 minutes. Unfortunately the guy was busted on some tax charges a few months later. Haven’t found another like him since.

Dealer groups and mega dealers are the future, unfortunately. More prevalent since the Great Recession/Depression, whatever you want to call it. Thank the auto companies mainly for this. Years ago they wanted individual dealers, I remember when GM in the 1960's and 70's frowned on multiple lines under the same roof in large metropolitan areas, small rural areas it was the only way they could survive.

I was in GM dealerships fixed operations (aka the back end, service,parts, body shop for 47 years and worked in mom and pop stores and mega dealers and dealer groups.

All I will say is that I retired last year and glad of that.

Shovelhead said it all, the single, family owned operations are slowly going away and being replaced buy the mega stores.

I started my career in automotive marketing working for a few stores owner by individuals and then went the the agency/production company side. For the most part the dealers were easy to work with and sometimes fun. When the all started selling out it because a headache.

The one exception that comes to mind is a very successful locally owned dealer that started out as a dirt poor rancher with a Ford franchise and built it into a small empire. A few years ago I ran into the owner at a media function and jokingly asked him when he was going to sell out . He paused, thought about it and said "you know, they offered me a whole lotta money but all that would do is give my kids an excuse to get into trouble, Im not going anywhere and I am making them work for it"

in Spokane Washington tons of people fly in are picked up by a shuttle bus and are taken out to the mega car lot, crazy.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Would that dealer start wth a "S" and end with a "R"?
I bought a Super Duty from them last year and had the same experience. Took forever.

That's the one, sir! You know it.

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
in less than 30 minutes.

And that's the way it's been with my local Nissan dealer, with whom I've loved dealing. Once I've nailed down which vehicle I want, the paperwork hasn't taken more than 45 minutes. However... they, too, have recently been gobbled up by one of the mega-dealers. We'll just have see what sort of processing time the next purchase brings.

The customers themselves are heavily to blame for this trend. It used to be that folks didn't demand car washes, loaner cars, shuttle service, posh waiting rooms with massage chairs, premium coffee/food, hair care, babysitting, free oil changes, etc. ad nauseam. The more people demand the more a dealer's overhead goes up and the less likely "mom & pop" dealers can afford those type of expenditures. Most family type dealers have just said screw it and sold out.

I worked for dealers years ago and I'm not defending them as they're quite often greedy assholes but ... when car dealers are expected to provide foo-foo amenities those costs get passed along. People have to decide if they want to buy and maintain a vehicle or have "an experience".

I'm fine with stale coffee and minimal waiting facilities as long as the labor rates are fair and the work is done properly but my expectations are simpler when it comes to cars.

I let my dealer know that I want a quick transaction, will not participate in any sales games, and must be guaranteed an out the door price before I show up at the dealership. It really took me about 30 minutes to buy my last car.

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
I let my dealer know that I want a quick transaction, will not participate in any sales games, and must be guaranteed an out the door price before I show up at the dealership. It really took me about 30 minutes to buy my last car.

I did something similar, although it still took loner than I wanted, probably 90 minutes when all was said and done.

There was a tiny used car lot here that I bought a couple cars from over the years. I liked the low pressure, and I liked the speedy paperwork. They weren't trying to rob anyone, and they wanted you to get in and out quickly so they could get on with the next customer. I don't think either of the cars that I bought there took more than 30 minutes from the moment I'd settled on buying it until I had all my paperwork and was driving off. I know another person that bought there with the same experience.

Of course they eventually moved to a larger location, changed their methodology, and went belly-up.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

The truck (Toyota) was great, but the transaction took all... bloody... day. Seven hours, y'all. Absolutely insane

I paid cash for my van and it took about 4.

When we bought my wife's Buick back in 2000 we decided that we would not accept any BS, long sales speeches, multiple visits by the salesman to the head man, etc etc adnauseum.

Went to the first dealer, another brand, laid out the ground rules. Want the best offer first, no BS etc, no "negotiations".

First sales critter listened to our position then proceeded to tell us that any offer had to be addressed by the sales manager. We knew what we were willing to pay and told him to get the sales manager. He couldn't figure out how to do that and we left.

Next dealer, same intro, same end result except the salesman followed us all the way to our car trying to convince us to "give him another chance". Nope.

Went to the Buick dealership (way down on our shipping list) and gave them the same story.

One time offer to buy, no dickering, yada yada.

Looked at the car, decided based on our prior research that it was a good deal. Paid cash for the car and drove it out. She still drives it and loves it. Truly a great car, low mileage, etc and has never had a mechanical problem of any kind. Only problem is the tires had to be replaced, but not bad after 18 years.

She had a Ford before that and it was truly a piece of shit. Blew the engine while we were in Florida on vacation, had to replace 3 of the 4 brake disks because they were warped, had to have a valve job. None of which the dealer would handle even though it was under warranty.

We swore never to buy another Ford.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:
Blew the engine while we were in Florida on vacation

I worked at the Honda dealer (washing cars) for a couple of months during college. One day we had to rush and clean a new Accord for a couple who was in the showroom waiting. As it turned out, they were on vacation and their car took a dump. Quickly I thought, "How cool! Get to finish your trip in a new car!" And then a sense of reality kicked in and I thought, "That must suck to have to make that sudden -- and unexpected -- purchase while already spending money traveling!"

I didn't get to talk to the customers and find out which side of that fence they were on, but they did seem happy when we finished moving their luggage and stuff into their new car.

VT the mega dealer in your OP wouldn’t be Berglund would it?