SCW-Greg
Active Member
You know, the dealers use the main talking point about how they're an advocate on behalf of the consumer. Consumer protection they say. Righttt.
I nearly forgot my own opposite experience of this, about 2 years ago... one of my tipping points to the Tesla.
We have a 2006 Cadillac DTS. At 65,000 miles, all of the sudden, overnight it developed a pretty significant oil leak. We took it into the only remaining Cadillac dealership/service center left in the Northern Oregon area, Vic Alfonso. When we took it in, after looking at it for half a day, the service manager came back and told us we have an (engine) "case half" seal leak. Even told us it's quite common with the Northstar engine. WTF?! Common?! I thought the Northstar engine was supposed to be one of the most reliable ever built, with no maintainence required for the first 100,000 miles. I asked how much. About $3,000 he said. But this car is just outside of warranty. Sorry, it's pretty typical he said.
So not satisfied with that answer, we didn't do anything that day. After stewing about it, my wife called Cadillac direct and told them the story we were given. Cadillac HQ wasn't that happy with the answer either. They called the dealership on our behalf. After a day or so, Cadillac called back and said they are having the repair bill lowered to $2,000, and that our out-of-pocket would be $950.
In this case, the factory stood up for us (quickly I might add), in place of the greedy dealership. If these numbers are to be believed, the dealer tacked on an extra grand of pure profit. And sounds like they do this commonly, and are likely getting away with it every time.
By the way, where's the competition dealerships talk about... with only one Cadillac dealership in all of Northern Oregon!
The other key talking point the dealerships bring up, is that the dealership model creates jobs, jobs that a factory-direct model doesn't. This is not a zero sum game. With a factory direct operation, you're still going to need nearly the same body count to run show rooms and service centers, direct or not... but without unnecessary bloat dealerships bring/steal from the barefoot pilgrims that slip I nto their shark infested lots.
I nearly forgot my own opposite experience of this, about 2 years ago... one of my tipping points to the Tesla.
We have a 2006 Cadillac DTS. At 65,000 miles, all of the sudden, overnight it developed a pretty significant oil leak. We took it into the only remaining Cadillac dealership/service center left in the Northern Oregon area, Vic Alfonso. When we took it in, after looking at it for half a day, the service manager came back and told us we have an (engine) "case half" seal leak. Even told us it's quite common with the Northstar engine. WTF?! Common?! I thought the Northstar engine was supposed to be one of the most reliable ever built, with no maintainence required for the first 100,000 miles. I asked how much. About $3,000 he said. But this car is just outside of warranty. Sorry, it's pretty typical he said.
So not satisfied with that answer, we didn't do anything that day. After stewing about it, my wife called Cadillac direct and told them the story we were given. Cadillac HQ wasn't that happy with the answer either. They called the dealership on our behalf. After a day or so, Cadillac called back and said they are having the repair bill lowered to $2,000, and that our out-of-pocket would be $950.
In this case, the factory stood up for us (quickly I might add), in place of the greedy dealership. If these numbers are to be believed, the dealer tacked on an extra grand of pure profit. And sounds like they do this commonly, and are likely getting away with it every time.
By the way, where's the competition dealerships talk about... with only one Cadillac dealership in all of Northern Oregon!
The other key talking point the dealerships bring up, is that the dealership model creates jobs, jobs that a factory-direct model doesn't. This is not a zero sum game. With a factory direct operation, you're still going to need nearly the same body count to run show rooms and service centers, direct or not... but without unnecessary bloat dealerships bring/steal from the barefoot pilgrims that slip I nto their shark infested lots.
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