Carsten, you are not wrong with this comment. However, there are a lot of moving parts and variables in play within a car dealership. [USER=16794]@Jon Singo[/USER] and [USER=7]@joe.pistell[/USER] are touching on them.
Technicians are paid commission. In regard to a vehicle that is in Inventory (not customer pay), their job is to drive them and write down absolutely everything that they notice the vehicle needs. Within that list of items is where the technicians commission lives.
On the other side is a Used Vehicle department manager that looks at that list on each car and immediately starts crossing things off of that list. He is crossing them off because it is his job to maximize profit in his department so he limits his reconditioning (typically) to items that he believes will keep the used car from selling. So after this happens about 40 times, the technician realizes that the inspection is being done for no reason. So the technician just stops driving them.
So what we have is 2 people within the dealership that are actually not "sitting on the same side of the table". but we expect our vehicles to be reconditioned. The system is broken.
How do we fix it? We have someone test drive the vehicle from a Consumer Perspective, not a mechanics perspective. They find the things that they know need attention. Now when the vehicle goes to the technician, it includes a list of a few items that the technician knows need repaired. The technician is more likely to actually LOOK for issues that are hidden. In addition, the test drive is less important.
Technicians are the hardest people to hire. I am not saying to let technicians hold us hostage. What I am saying is don't throw one out because the system is broken.
