Here's my dilema

[Gumball]

I just got done reading 2 seemingly unrelated threads. One about being able to mod your car w/o warranty fear and Fords' reason for building the car. The other about dealers putting excess mileage on your car before you get a chance to pick it up and how to prevent it. Suddenly it dawned on me. How do you basically "insult" the dealer by telling him you want to be notified the moment the car hits land, so you can come document mileage and delivery condition. Then turn around 6 months later and ask him to turn the other cheek when your chipped and pulleyed monster is wheezing and sputtering like gramps after a night on Viagra?

All of the warranty advice seems to fall on the "take it out and make friends" line. How exactly do you make friends with the service manager, along with the rest of his little tire spinning hoard whom you've just told you don't trust as far as you could throw.

I didn't post this to start a dealer bashing party. And no, I'm not a stupid, all trusting fool. I just thought it was interesting these 2 topics were so close together. I was also curious if the non-trusting crowd was also the make friends crowd. I'm really not trying to piss any one off, but if I did I'll apologize now.

 

[ArizonaSnake]

Well.. in my case... I am a "person" known at my local dealer. (not on the sales side.. and they change like underwear over there anyway) However on the parts and service side.. they know me, my wife, my kids, my dog (yes one of the parts folks is a lady and she LOVEs the Yorkshire terrier.. RUFUS) etc. I stop by just to BS. I made it plain I wanted to "hang out" when they worked on my car. One of the parts guys asked if I'd take him for a run.. You BET I will.. I'll even let him drive it. But I'll be there.

(shrug)

That is how I am doing business. (course I've been doing business there for over 3 years.. on a lot of my different projects)

OH.. and I get quoted prices like this...

List price is xxxx
Your price is xxxx
Rufus's price is xxxx.

I grab the Yorkshire and down to the parts department we go!

:beer:

 

[fafafoey]

me too! I was there last night to buy 1 quart of oil. By the way I burned about half a quart on 2000 miles after the first change. Be nice to your dealer and it will pay dividends.......

 

[DD2000GT]

The difference is WE give the dealership MONEY, not the other way around. How would you like to go out to dinner at a restaurant, cook the food yourself, serve the food to your waiter/waitress, then pay for the meal. It's as simple as that in my book. Dealers marking up cars $5k because they can screw the customer and get away with it does not endear me to them one bit. Just my opinion...

 

[cubes]

Sometimes Andrew Jackson or Ben Frankin can be a big help.

 

[ArizonaSnake]

I'm hip about the money thing... however in my case I didn't buy my Cobra at the dealership I have locally.

The bottom line of all of it tho.... if you stay within the letter of the law on your car.. then you can DEMAND certain things... especially from warranty... You get outside the letter of the law.. you can't DEMAND anything. (regardless of money spent) In the latter case, it is then a matter of having a good relationship with the dealer.