GM's business must be wonderful. I have not checked the stock price, but it must be at an all time high.
The reason I believe this is that trying to get Chevrolet and GM Truck dealers to call back and follow-up in darn near next to impossible. They don't seem like they want your business at all.
For example, I went to one Chevy dealer on Wednesday and test drove a Colorado. I told the guy to find me a silver Colorado with certain options. I told him I was flexible, but to work up a price and get back to me. I gave him my card. He did not have any cards to give me (a salesman without cards - shame!) Here it is Friday and no call or follow-up.
So last night I go to another dealer. I tell him what I want and to give me a trade-in price on my current vehicle. Edmund's trade-in value is about $9,100. He offers $7,100. So I said thanks and walked out. He has my number, but no calls to work something out. BTW, Edmund's says my current vehicle is one of the most wanted used vehicles.
Today, I go through the GM website and submit requests for quotes from another Chevy dealer and a GM dealer. I get the automatic follow-up emails, but at 3:25 pm (I sent them at 10:00), not a call back. I said in the note "I'm buying this weekend."
I have always tried to buy American, but this may be the first time I go an buy a Japanese vehicle. At least the salesmen at the Japanese dealerships call back quickly, respond to my emails, call the house and act like they want to do business.
So in a little while I will be heading to Nissan dealers to look at the Frontier. It's no wonder the American manufacturers are losing marketshare, they lack training and aggressiveness when compared to the salespeople at the Japanese dealerships.
I had just the opposite problem at a chevy dealer. Looked at a Colorado (glad now i didn't get a small truck!). Started working out numbers, told them that it wasn't going to work, I could get a full sized truck for the same price. Told them i wasn't in market to buy anyway until the insurance paid on my old truck (was totaled in a wreck). Next day I get a call from the sales manager, wanting to work a deal, didn't take not now for an answer. Next day SOMEONE ELSE called... wouldn't take "not yet" for an answer. Next day... guess what? SAME DAMN THING. Finally I told the salesperson that I thought it was rude to keep calling back on trying to sell me a truck i wasn't ready to buy yet, and that there was now a 90% chance i would buy from another dealer, the next phone call would definately mean I buy from another dealer. THEY CALLED AGAIN THE NEXT FRIGGEN DAY. Told them to not call anymore. Finally got my settlement, bought a Toyota Tundra, that place treated me very well, got a great price on it, and they bent over backwards to avoid "pressuring" me. A few days later.... CHEVY dealer CALLS AGAIN..... that phone call got ugly, they havent called back.
Sad considering that the chevy dealer that kept calling is one of the "biggest and best" in the Phoenix area.
I have to agree that would be annoying. Heck, I can't even get them to respond, much less be annoying. Last night we went up to a northern suburb of Cincinnati where they have a big automall. Many of the dealers close around 7:00 to 7:30. So we go in the Nissan Frontier and drove around.
We really liked it but I wanted my wife to look at the Colorado. So I dropped her off at the Chevy dealer. The sales guy came up to the Nissan. I said I was looking to buy this weekend and that I could not find a Chevy sales person who wanted to sell a car and who would respond. He said they were closing in 15 minutes, but he would help us. So I left the wife there and went back to Nissan.
My wife told the sales guy (yet another brain surgeon) that she wanted to test drive an I5 Colorado. So they went to where the Colorados where and he wandered around quite a bit.
My wife was puzzled why they were just walking around. He said he was trying to find a silver I5. She said, "I don't care what color it is, I just want to try the I5." He eventually got the keys for - yes, an I4. She was so frustrated with the guy who told her "there isn't much difference" so rather than wait around again, she decided to take the I4 out for a spin.
He got in truck and started it. Did not open the door for my wife. She eventually got in and started driving. She had trouble with the seat as she could not get the back vertical enough to be comfortable. She was struggling and he did not ask to help or anything. She said the guy was totally rude.
So I heard about this after picking her back up. She said no way in hell she was going to buy a Colorado from that guy and we went back to Nissan.
She liked the looks of the Colorado a bit better than the Nissan, but said the interior comfort and seats on the Colorado are terrible.
Now that makes four Chevy dealers we visited and two I contacted via email. The dealers that I emailed (via the GM website) have never responded (one was a Chevy dealer and one was a GM truck dealer) although I did get their automated response letter telling me someone would be calling me.
The salespeople at the Nissan dealership were professional, well dressed and knew their products. The sales people at EVERY Chevy dealership were rude, unprofessional, dress like cowhands, do not know their products and generally turn you off to buying a Chevy. No wonder GM is having sales problems. There are no standards, no professionalism, obvious lack of training or the salespeople are sleeping through the training. Incredibly disappointing. No wonder Japan is kicking their ass.
I WAS a dedicated buy American kind of guy, but if this is how my wife and I are going to be treated, we're off to buy Japanese for the first time in our lives.
Funniest thing, while I was looking at a Frontier at an east of Cincinnati dealership which is close to Route 32, a guy yells out "buy American!" If he only knew.
I suspect he works at the Ford transmission plant out in Batavia which is scheduled to close. So here's another story. I drive a Ford Escape now. Bought it while I was trying to sell my service to the Ford transmission plant. This is not just blowing smoke, but I have the best service and support and will match anyone's price as I have that flexibility. Anyway, they buy the service from my competitor which is clearly an inferior service. I even offered a lower price. They listened to some consultant who was fired by my company and misrepresented my service - lied in fact. Anyway, the biggest rub in the whole thing - my competitor drives a foreign car! Now if American manufacturers are not going to buy from someone loyal to them, and they buy from someone who obviously thinks they have a crappy product, what the hell am I doing staying loyal to them? Last damn Ford product I will ever buy.
As a professional salesperson myself, I would love to start a business training auto salespeople on how to sell and how to treat a customer. The skills and professionalism at the American dealerships is sorely lacking.
JMHO and experience.
no>> GM's business must be wonderful. I have not checked the stock price, but
i have to laugh at all this, because i have been there myself. one time i asked the salesmen if GM had fixed the 4x4 problem with the button 4x4 and it not going into 4x4. this was back when they had problems i think in 2001?? well he said yes, i said are you sure? he said yes. just so happens i had my truck in service at this time, so i asked him(salesmen) if he knew who regina was?(she was my service writer) he said yes, thats when i BUSTED him and said well thats funny because they haven't, and regina and i are good friends. he didn't know what to say then. another time, same lot different salesmen i was told to get the F*&K off the lot and go else where because i knew more about the truck then they did. they tried telling me the hour meter was the trip od. meter. i said don't the keys have to be in the truck and it turned on? he said yes, i asked where are the keys? thats when he looked in his hands and cussed me. all this was at a chevy lot. BUT when i went to a gmc lot i was treated with the best respect, and they wanted me to buy from them. if the salesmen didn't know the answer, he told me i will find out, which he did. thats why i will NEVER buy a chevy BUT instead a gmc. i know there both about the same BUT the chevy lots are just a bunch of young PUNKS who think there better then anyone else. this is what i think and ONLY my thoughts. this happened at a chevy lot in wake forest, n.c
I did notice a lot of "kids" working in sales at the two Chevy dealers closest to me.
As a salesman, the first thing you are taught is "DON'T LIE." I guess your guy has not passed that part of the course yet ;-)
Anyway, this just gets funnier. The Nissan dealer sales guy who was probably the best I have dealt with so far, said he would call back today at noon. He did not. The other salesman at the Nissan dealer closest to me was supposed to call with the prices/trade-in - he did not.
My daughter's boyfriend is in the radio and advertising business. He did a remote at a Nissan dealer today - who would have guessed. He talked to the sales manager there who is now trying to find me what I want. But get this, the guy told him their sales and all the auto sales in the area are way down.
So if that is true, and I have to take the guy at his word, why the heck will no one get off their ass and try and sell me the vehicle I want? I mean I am ready to buy and have told them that. This is just unbelievable. Never had this bad of an experience in all the times I have bought a car - and I buy a lot of new cars.
I think I mentioned in a post I did ask the GM Truck dealer downtown for a quote. Emailed via the GM website. That was Thursday. Still no response. I think I'm just done with GM.
so true about the style on the gmc. i pointed out sonething to a chevy salesmen and called me a fool for thinking it, UNTIL i showed him. my 04 gmc hood sits in the fenders when closed and the chevy sits ontop and over the fenders. take note of that when you see a chevy and gmc. of course i am only talking about the silverado and sierra here to me the gmc is much better looking. as far as getting prices on line. awhile back when i was looking at 06 tacomas i did a online thing, i am still getting e-mails and calls wanting me to buy. i have even called and mailed to say i am no longer wanting a tacoma. go figure. i guess it all depends on where you live on how they respond. one thing i do is ONLY give them my cell number, that way i can block or just ignore there calls.
Yes, only the transmission is made in Japan. All other components are made and assembled here in the US. When I said, I always tried to "Buy American" I meant from American companies. But I guess this will have to be the next best thing.
Where does the profit go? A while back I did some research on Toyota's business site, somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,600 on average per Toytota/Lexus sold leaves the country. And they beat the states they build in into submission. Tennessee built the Toyota plant, built the training facility, and pays the trainers' and the trainees' salaries. If GM or Ford tried that game everyone would be up in arms. Sure am glad I am not 20 something these days, I figure in 20 years we will be just like Great Briton. Its a piss poor country that doesn't manufacture its own automobiles.
To pay for bloated wages and salaries, medical benefits, and pensions. The American car industry, due in large part to greedy unions and arrogant management, is headed the way of the steel and shipping industries, i.e., overseas.
Yup, that is a fact. At one time unions were good for workers. Now, they have 75% of the blame in sending manufacturing jobs overseas. They went of strike too often. Made unreasonable demands. Burdened companies with benefit programs they could not sustain, protect non-productive workers. Eventually management said enough, the unions would not back down, so the high paying manufacturing jobs went overseas. The unions whined and cried as the jobs left. Union membership has taken a gigantic nose-dive and the greedy fat union management won't change in order to stop/reverse the decline. You reap what you sow.
And the ignorant unions continue to back all the democrat candidates even though the democrats did nothing as the jobs left our country. The unions aligned themselves with the wrong political party.
The entire labor movement and unionization makes no sense what-so-ever in this country.
You have to pay people... other wise, they wont have money to buy your products. By sending jobs overseas, companies are shooting themselves in the foot. The average American workers wages have stifled compared to the average CEO, who are now making 500 times more than the lowest paid worker... at the same time that unions have shrunk in numbers.
Who care what the CEO or other executives make. That's not what's driving jobs overseas. Sure, workers deserve a fair wage so they can buy American products.
But the issue is saddling a company with benefit programs it cannot sustain. Wages that cannot be justified for the skill level. Unions striking against weak companies. Poor workmanship. We've all heard about the union workers dumping loose bolts under the back seats, etc. to make rattling sounds. Keep people from buying the products you make by using stupid union tactics, and you help put yourself out of a job.
Unions are no different than our political system. Democrats and union leaders have learned that if you keep giving things away to people, they keep voting you back in. Union leaders have squeezed companies, pushed companies to the brink of bankruptcy, stuck weak companies, want to share in the profits, but don't want to take a hit when the company is doing poorly. All this so the overpaid union leadership can be re-elected. Take a look at union leaders pay an benefit. They are just as fat as the CEOs of companies.
Where I live the union was so militant and hard headed, that the company moved the jobs south and overseas. What good did the union do for its members? Nothing. My father was CEO of a machine tool company. He would never hire anyone who previously worked at the company. He said they were nothing but "union hotheads."
Unions are dying because they lost their direction. They don't understand give and take. They don't understand global competition.
No to mention, I have three union members in my family, well wife's family actually. They don't even support other union workers. When they need to buy a product, they buy the cheapest, usually foreign produced. They don't care, they want to save money like everyone else.
Union members are proud of their unions alright. But go into their house and look at all the foreign, non-union products.
Not true in my case. The reason I won't buy GM is exactly because of the product. I was burned twice in the 80's with the crap that GM was making and the dealership's refusal to make it right. This turned me against GM and now I won't buy a GM product. They can spout quality all they want to but I don't believe it, not for a minute. As for Ford, well I won't touch one because it's a Ford.
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