Ford Is Redesigning Dealers to Make Car Buying Feel Easier

[Nasto]

Kind of feels like that new Cracker Barrel revamp that fell flat. I'll ask my Sales Consultant "Brand Ambassador" about it.

https://tinyurl.com/y6b4wupn

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[Buyer2021]

I don't want car buying to "feel" easier, I want it to be easier. More transparent, less stressful.

It's not the building or the titles, it's the dealership attitude / business model that counts.

 

[DarienAL]

Are they redesigning car salesmen and finance managers too cause that's where the problem is... oh and whatever the title is of the person that you actually sign the papers with and they badger you with additional addons (not sure if that person is always a finance manager).

 

[Antimatter22]

They need to make it where the salesman are forced to take a seat unless someone goes into the building for help. Prevent them from tagging along for rides unless asked. That type of stuff.

The person I ordered my original truck from didn't know much about the truck I was looking at and was incorrect half the time when he did talk about features. I'm pretty sure he was one of their "new truck" guys. I only spent a few hours researching before looking at trucks and I knee more than him. He also never once called to tell me the truck I ordered was going to have options removed (2022 truck).

I didn't feel bad declining the truck when it arrived 6 months later because I ended up finding a different color truck with the all the options 2 weeks after ordering the original.

 

[jkosh22]

Dealerships have to be the most condescending hospitality I have ever experienced.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Kind of feels like that new Cracker Barrel revamp that fell flat. I'll ask my Sales Consultant "Brand Ambassador" about it.

https://tinyurl.com/y6b4wupn

Kind of surprised they didn't go with "Automotive Transportation Asset Acquisition and Mobility Solutions Liaison" or something like that.

 

[obert]

Find car online
Contact online
Dealer says fill out a pre approval...........Trap
Go to dealer
Test drive
Dealer says that's the final price.........Lies
Let me go talk to my manager..............Lies
This is the best we can do.........Lies
You want a million month loan to lower payments
Leave with new car
Feel like you got taken in some way

Or you can play the game, car fax says it is worth this much

I will look elsewhere knowing it will be the same at the next dealer

Going in with info and money is always best but not everyone can do this

 

[jkind]

I miss the days when USAA had a vehicle buying program, easiest method I ever used.

 

[Old Hat]

Sales people have mostly been ok with me. It's the finance guy I detest. How many times must I nicely say I'm paying cash and not doing any add on's? Still have to sit there and continue listening to the hustle. Oh well.

 

[jkind]

One of the main reasons I kept my previous truck so long was because I hated the thought of having to deal with the sales people at any of the local dealerships.

 

[Old Hat]

One of the main reasons I kept my previous truck so long was because I hated the thought of having to deal with the sales people at any of the local dealerships.

That, and if I'm not having any mechanical issues with my present vehicle why would I sign up for one that may have them? Plenty of new vehicles have issues. Even with a warranty visiting the service department is unpleasant. At least the sales experience is over in a few hours or days, one could be tied into a poor service experience for months! Fix that.

 

[Riddick]

I'm not sure if all dealers work this way but I had a great experience working with their Fleet Sales manager. I inquired online and lucked out by getting their fleet sales manager reaching out. I shared a priced I received from a high volume dealer about 2 hrs away and asked them to match it. I would of gladly accepted their deal if they matched it but he came in about 1k lower saying lets get this done. I don't remember the exact numbers but i ended up about 10k off MSRP with basically 0 negotiation.

The dealer tries to upsell you on lojack and paint protection packages. I straight up said I don't want it and he deducted the cost with 0 push back. Truck still came with lojack and their paint protection package which went straight into the trash.

My wife and I are both on the title so we had to both sign. Due to work schedules we could not be there at the same time. He promised to have everything ready when we came in. I'm not kidding when I say this but we each spent 10 minutes inside the dealership signing papers. Signed and walked out, no extra BS, no haggling. I did bring my own financing and had all of this pre coordinated to us signing papers. There are some good dealers out there still although they are few and far between.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

If you enter into buying a vehicle and you are educated on the process, the pricing, and all that stuff it’s really not that difficult or stressful

Do your homework and don’t rely on the salesman to have to answer questions. Have your own financing

If possible, do not trade in a vehicle, sell it out right. If you can’t do that and you must trade once again, educate yourself know what your vehicle is worth and expect them to make an offer that would be 15 to 20% less than what you think most likely books at

 

[bjl95mustang]

I can say with all my previous purchases my last truck was actually pretty easy. They had a new GM and she was trying to already change the way they deal with selling vehicles. No surprises and games. I did some back and forth in the price and in the end paid what I wanted.

And even the finance guy was easy and not pushy. He even tried to get my esp on my trade cashed out for me. But he couldn’t because I didn’t buy it from them.

 

[Snakebitten]

I'm fortunate to have a couple of gentlemen in the automobile sales industry that I have been purchasing from for a couple of decades. So the "salesman" portion of the transaction is never a negative. Those guys are straight up great folks.

But there's a limit to their autonomy over the entire acquisition process. And certainly the aftersale ownership experience. Or put another way, the dealership can still sour what would otherwise be a straight forward positive acquisition and ownership experience.

Sales managers
Finance guys
Service writers
Service managers
Technicians

It only takes one of them to fail at being an ambassador of the brand, to spoil the whole party.

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