WTH is up with dealerships these days?

[Roady]

@Jim Bandy I'm squarely in the Atari / Nintendo generation and that technology is what led me to the career I am in today. It has provided very well for me and my family. Don't group us all together.

I understand what you're saying, I really do.... but when I order a burger from McDonalds, I don't expect them to tell me how the meat got to the restaurant. When I order a package from Amazon, I don't expect them to tell me what route the truck driver took to get to my house. If I go to Home Depot and buy a 2x4, I don't expect them to tell me what state the tree came from.

Most dealerships sell vehicles that are already on the lot. Custom ordering is a service they provide and I'm guessing a very small percentage of their business. To expect my salesman to know the logistics of how that vehicle is delivered to the dealer, I think is unrealistic and I don't consider it bad service.

Now, Would I expect at least one person at the dealership to be knowledgeable in that aspect, yes. It's typically the order manager, but they do not interact with customers...nor as a business owner would I want them too.

We can agree to disagree. I respect your opinion and you have every right to it. Enjoy your new truck my friend and thank you for your service.

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[Pedaldude]

I remember test driving a Toyota Highlander a few years ago and the salesmen was in the passenger seat. While on the freeway he said "watch this" and threw the shifter into reverse. I about sh*t myself before I realized that throwing it into reverse would enable the backup camera.

This is exactly why manufacturers need to get together to agree on new standards for the new technologies that are going to be staying on motor vehicles from now on. Imagine someone is so used to that feature and then borrowed a car that didn’t work that way. Goodbye transmission!

We’re practically back to the days when you would need to relearn how to drive a car when changing brands.

This is a Ford Model-T, none of these pedals are what most people would guess.

My aunt bought a Volvo and the salesman kept urging her intentionally try to hit concrete light poles in a local parking lot. He wanted to demonstrate how the car would stop itself and avoid the accident. She told him that she only wants to know how well that works once, when it keeps her from having an actual accident.

Different manufacturers use different methods for their accident avoidance. Some only work at certain speeds and some are termed as accident mitigation. I saw some tests where they were using large cardboard boxes as stand-ins for cars and pedestrians. That’s about the only time I will try and deliberately drive into something. Then with a pole or the end of a jersey barrier, you can’t be certain that the car will even recognize that.

A guy that I worked with at a shop was telling me a story from the late 70’s/early 80’s about a service manager that killed himself and a customer test driving the customer’s car. The customer complained that the car was pulling to one side while braking and several other people drove it and claimed it was okay, several mechanics at the dealership had tried to diagnose the problem and the customer kept returning to complain. The last thing that they knew was the customer returned one last time after having his brakes inspected and was yelling at the service manager about how the mechanics didn’t do shit to his car and the manager drove off in the car with the customer in the passenger seat and then flipped the car on the highway without hitting anything or any other cars nearby. The best guess was that the car did pull to one side when braking!