GM dealer sells rather than comply.

[ddavis]

The owner should have sold the GM franchise and had the new owners move the dealership around the corner to a GM approval building and purchased a Ford or Toyota franchise and moved it into the dealership. That would have stuck it to GM and hurt their feelings because selling the dealership only makes GM happy because the new owner is going to make the changes that GM wants. If he could convert all his GM buyers to another maker, that would piss GM off good.

John, you give these factory guys too much credit. We think in units and dollars, these people are purely political. We work on commission and bonuses and these guys are on salary. These people are concerned about titles. You pay me enough money and call me a "clerk". They won't miss a few hundred cars if they even notice.

 

[Eley Duke]

Simple and yet so true Joe. Though I would say maybe a little longer on the 10 years.

"Dealer Challenge......You can buy a Chevy Anywhere, How do I stand out?" - This is the one that I try to get dealers to focus in on. Most dealers still have the mindset that the local customer are "Their Customers" and no matter, they are going to at least get the opportunity to sell them a car when they are in the market for their make of vehicle.

I agree Jeff, we see a lot of our business from outside our PMA as well as inside. Just this Fri and Sat we sold 50% of our vehicles to people outside our PMA, some 2 PMA's over from us. We have people travel to us from Va Beach to buy a Chevy, they have to pass 3 other Chevy dealers. Its how you take care of the customer, and that doesn't always mean having the right vehicle on your lot either. We just sold a couple a Buick Enclave that live 45 mins away in Va Beach, drove by 2 Buick dealers to get to us. We located the vehicle for them. In their review they said, "we saved the best for last", we paid attention, listened to them, and took care of them.

Now, we have certainly lost a few out of our area as well. Most of the time it is due to inventory, we are much smaller than our nearest Chevy dealer that has 300+ in inventory and we have 80 or so. Suffolk has developed into a bedroom community and a lot of people living in our town work over in Chesapeake, Norfolk, or Va Beach and might already have a relationship there when they use to live there.

Just because they live in your area doesn't mean much today, people will drive to get what they want from a dealer that listens and takes care of them.

 

[Eley Duke]

John, you give these factory guys too much credit. We think in units and dollars, these people are purely political. We work on commission and bonuses and these guys are on salary. These people are concerned about titles. You pay me enough money and call me a "clerk". They won't miss a few hundred cars if they even notice.

Doug, you are correct they are somewhat political in the fact they have one focus, move metal. However, they are not just on salary, they beat our doors down for contest, to take inventory, to move accessories, etc. They are on a lot more than salary only. And when it gets down to the local area reps, a few hundred cars will matter, they are worried about volume, if we are not moving volume, they are not selling.