Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

[xebola]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Guess what. The Legacy in question got hit and run today while it was parked. I haven't seen the damage yet. Go figure.

[gb387]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

wow... thats not good! Really disappointing when you purchase a 'new' vehicle and it looks like that.

I was in a Ford Dealer over Christmas getting some work done on my truck and did a little looking in the showroom.... There was a new Gray Mustang in there with several good scratched and more than enough swirls to go around. I checked the window sticker and didn't see the option!!?

[gb387]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Guess what. The Legacy in question got hit and run today while it was parked. I haven't seen the damage yet. Go figure.

Well, now it doesn't get any better than that!?!?

[xebola]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Yeah it *****. Especially since he was ready to keep the car in perfect shape.

Can anyone recommend a good body shop in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area? He hasn't had much luck with those either. You can PM me if you like.

Thanks

[stealth]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Must be something about Subaru dealers. I bought 2 new Subaru's in 6 months from the same dealer, about $50K CASH for both. The 2nd one looked like yours in the shade! I ripped the general manager a new ------ & refused delivery until I negotiated some extra dealer installed options. BTW he wanted to wet sand it as a fix. I declined, fixed it myself & returned for the options to be installed. He wanted to know how I fixed it to which I responded "hire me & you'll never have this problem again". I'm still self employed! LOL They don't care & the majority of consumers don't either.

[Krazy Ken]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Guess what. The Legacy in question got hit and run today while it was parked. I haven't seen the damage yet. Go figure.

Wow...
your luck just goes from bad to worse!
That really *****!

[gorin002]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Quote:

Originally Posted by xebola Guess what. The Legacy in question got hit and run today while it was parked. I haven't seen the damage yet. Go figure.

how bad was the demage

[xebola]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Here you go:



He didn't lose much paint but it spans 2 panels.

And the plot thickens. This happened in front of a county building with security cameras all over the place.
He talked to the head guard today and he is going to check the film to see if he can tell who did it.

Is hit and run a felony?

[Blaze]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Oh wow your poor buddy. =( That's really a bummer that things had to start out that way! Hope things somehow start looking up soon!

[gorin002]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

anny luck of who did it

[xebola]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

anny luck of who did it

No luck. Apparently the camera sweeps and it wasn't in the right place at the right time. Bummer.

[Whelan]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

DEFINITELY take the survey. At the end of each month the dealer is rated on that, being in the top, they get bonus money and all kinds of perks. And the individual salesman gets bonus money too. I worked for Acura and someone getting a bad survey got scolded and used as an example. Be sure to rank low low low. The higher ups will be contacting the dealer for sure. I have seen them come to dealerships and do a walk through many times. They will see the other cars and go nuts.

Also be sure to tell them the whole story from start to finish, even what the guy on the phone taunted you with, "well we gave you the deal."

[STG]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Do not give surveys too much weight. Here are a couple of ways to score 100% on customer feedback surveys personally known to me:

(Years ago) a German car dealer in Southern California had salesmen ask buyers the survey questions as part of the delivery process. The customers were told that the salesman's commission depends on the outcome of the survey. If the customers did got give a 100% grade, the salesmen attempted to fix any problems. If the customer still didn't rate the dealership 100%, a mark was placed on the sales folder.

Back then, this German manufacturer gave dealers a $1,000 per car bonus when the dealership scored 100% on every car for the month. This dealership sold 50 -60 cars per month so $600,000 - $720,000 was on the line annually.

The owner had several phone lines in his private office. Each had a different southern California area code and numbers were changed FREQUENTLY. Back then, the dealership provided the survey company with buyer information, so the scam was really simple:

Take the deal folders of customers who answered the "pre survey" below 100% and give the survey company one of the private phone line numbers. The survey company would then call the DEALER in his private office looking for "Mr. Smith" and the DEALER would proceed to give HIMSELF a GREAT SCORE (then change the phone number in preperation for the next customer impersonation).

Gerneral sales managers routinely offer buyers a full tank of fuel if they bring back mailed survey forms marked 100% or blank. The dealership then mails the completed forms to the survey company.

Let's see, my diesel truck has a 38 gallon tank. At $3.00 a gallon, I'll take the survey back to the dealership for a fuel voucher worth $114! (Remember to arrive with an empty tank!)

Considering the bonuses at stake, free fill-ups are cheap.

The whole survey business is a mess. The manufacturers reward 100 point scores. 99 points means nothing, so a honest dealer who scores a solid 92% satisfaction rate gets nothing while a cheater gets big bonuses.

The manufacturers really do not care about cheating. Why should they? The more dealers who score 100%, the better their advertisements look.

P.S.: I guarantee NO manufacturer or distributor cares enough to send "higher ups" out to a dealership to get mad over swirls. The only time that would happen is after the manuacturer got dozens of warranty claims for damaged paint (which, they would rightfully deny). But, we all know, only a small percentage of buyers look for or care about swirls on their new cars.

And, please don't tell me Subaru of America is any different.

[xebola]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

And, please don't tell me Subaru of America is any different.

I can't say anything about The General Subaru experience. I suppose it varies from dealer to dealer. My Toyota dealership has been great though. So I know it can be done. My car looked pretty good when I got it and the service manager is a really good guy.

So with respect to situations like my friends, what is it that we really want? We want them to stop doing stuff like this. Right?

Let me give you a better evaluation of the paint. It is covered throughout with some tight uniform swirls at a very shallow depth. It is possible that these were there when the plastic came off. Maybe even probable. I don't know. I wasn't there. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that the dealer did not produce the tight uniform swirls.

I just have a light, uniform, defect to deal with. One nice round of #80 and it's golden. I only have to do one thing in equal measure all over the car.

However, the car is also riddled with linear scratches and random arcs. Many of these slightly exceed the depth of the tight swirls. There are a few deeper scratches (I pictured the two that give me the most concern.) The dealer produced these random scratches. There is no doubt. And now when I do the car I will constantly be testing because there are so many different levels of defects. I don't mind the work, but it should not be necessary. This is not just light swirls. This is stuff that a lot of people would notice. Not just people like us. This thing looks like cheerleaders have washed it no fewer than four times. It's ridiculous.

Now the ironic thing is that the salesman said that they were working on it for three hours. From the looks of it they probably were. They were trying to give him good service. They really were. He received the VIP treatment I guess. They actually had good intentions.

I guess the thing that bothers me most is what happened after the fact. These guys pretty much refused to acknowledge that there was anything wrong. I think they offered to wet sand it either to scare us off or just reach a quick resolution.

It bewilders me that people who deal with cars as their source of income do not educate themselves as much as possible about cars. These guys saw this stuff in unforgiving sunlight and acted like it was business as usual. Stuff jumped out at you from twenty feet away and they didn't have a problem with it. They tried to argue that some things were not scratches. They were proven wrong. They became very adversarial.

So what do you do? Just try to screw them as much as possible and walk away? Why? My buddy is just some jerk customer who got them in trouble, and they are just some jerk dealer. Nothing changes.

Is there a way to find someone who cares and get good information into their hands? There must be somebody at Subaru who cares.

I don't expect a new car to look like Mike Phillips just detailed it, but they should at least be able to clean it without doing any damage. It certainly seems possible to do so without changing the economy of things. I am not talking about $500-$1000. Just stop making things worse.
Ultimately, don't we just want them to learn? How do you do that? There must be a way. Can't you tactically apply the "each one teach one" principal to a car dealer? Even if you have to force it on them a little.

How my friend handles it all is completely up to him of course. How much of one's time and effort is it worth. After all, it's just a car.

[STG]

Re: Dealer Installed Scratches - Prepare to Cringe

Let me give you a better evaluation of the paint. It is covered throughout with some tight uniform swirls at a very shallow depth. It is possible that these were there when the plastic came off. Maybe even probable. I don't know. I wasn't there. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that the dealer did not produce the tight uniform swirls.

There is no way the car would have left the factory with paint like that. The semi-trained monkeys at the dealership did the damage. Wait. That's not fair to monkeys.