Lithia has an awful reputation and it's not a spotty thing, it's by design
from the top down and afflicts every facet of the operation.  Shortsighted,
penny wise and pound foolish seem to be the rule at Lithia.  We had a Lithia
dealer here in the DFW area for a while, fortunately they didn't last long
and that dealer is under other ownership now.

Last month I drove a truck like you're looking at and was somewhat tempted.
The new six speed auto is awesome!  IMHO, every bit as good as the Allison.
But my '01 just passed 90,000 miles, it's a great truck that does everything
I need it to do and has no payments.  Maybe later.

The wife drove the dually, a half ton Hemi truck and a Jeep Grand Cherokee
then decided she'd just keep her '93 Ramcharger for now, but I have to get
it painted again.  The Saturday I should be getting my HEMI Ramcharger back
from the shop, should be awesome, I can hardly wait.

Suddenly, without warning, Nathan W. Collier exclaimed (4/22/2008 4:21 AM):

There's no other Dodge dealers in the area?  You're so upset at one
dealer you'd consider buying a *FORD*?? You must really be mad!

My "stupid dealer" story:  I was just starting to look at small pickup
trucks (circa 1991 I think).  I went to the Nissan dealer first because
that's what I really wanted, but said I was Only Looking.  The
hard-selling kid kept at me, asking me what it'd take to sell me the
truck we were talking about today.  His truck on paper was already about
$3k over my budget.  In frustration, I pointed out the window to my old
1976 yellow Chevette, and said, "you'd have to give me a trade-in value
of $7,000."

So he puts that as the trade-in value of my vehicle.  IN PENCIL.  Then
handed me a pen to sign.  What did he think I was, stupid?  (apparently).

When we asked to see a manager, they brought out some kid who was no
more the manager than I.  We made more noise, and finally got a real
manager, who supported Idiot Number One.

We ended up making a big scene out on the sales floor, intentionally
making sure everyone currently trying to buy understood the tactics
being used.

I ended up buying a Mitsubishi Mighty Max.

Been there, done that... I find that you can always find another
dealer who'll meet the deal! The fact that one dealer is *stupid* is
not surprising, since most are.

Remember, car salesmen are rated just above lawyers for ethics, IIRC!

I dumped my local Dodge/Jeep dealer a year ago. Why? They putzed up a
warranty repair that required they order parts. Then they forgot to
order parts, and when I reminded them, it was "Oh, your warranty has
expired, too bad..."

My response was to agree with that, it was "too bad". Then I left,
have not been back since.

One day a month or so ago, some *IDIOT* from the dealership was stupid
enough to call me! Did I ever tell him why I wasn't back to look at
new trucks! Then I suggested that he'd best take my name off their
phone-spam list, as I'd probably not be nearly as nice <g> as I was
with him...

Aren't you in Idaho?  Isn't Dave Smith in Idaho?  Give him a call and ask
for his Internet Price.

http://www.davesmithmotor.com/newrigs/Dodge/

FMB
(North Mexico)

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Nat,
If you don't mind driving a tad, try the guys at Ronan Dodge. I recently
brought a 3500 from them and actually enjoyed the process. Salesguy was
knowledgeable, listened to what I wanted, no farting around on the
price. Brought the truck and had them install a Jake Brake at the same
time. Truck was ready the next day and they even threw in a Cummins cap!.
 I think that they feel the heat from Kellog and will meet and beat
Dave  Smith.
 "Drive a little, save a lot" 8^)

-Bob from Kalispell (who has no affiliation with Ronana Dodge, just a
happy customer).

I had a similar situation.  I wanted an '06 Dodge, 4x4, Cummins, manual
transmission and found 4 at 3 different dealerships within a reasonable
range from my house. I showed up at the dealer which had 2 on Saturday with
the VIN's (both were still in stock) and we started to talk about the one I
prefered, with the understanding that I wasn't going to buy that day because
I wanted to check out the other 2 dealers, but I would decide before noon
Sunday. I also told them I didn't expect them to hold it for me, but if we
reached an agreement Saturday and it was still available Sunday, I expected
them to honor that agreement.  When the sales manager realized I meant what
I said, he treated me so rudely that I got up, shook the hand of the
salesman I had been talking to and I walked out without even looking at the
sales manager.

A week later I started to get e-mails from sales22@dealershipname.com
telling me about all the great deals they had.  I replied to the first 2
e-mails, asking to be removed from their e-mail list.  When I received the
3rd e-mail, I forwarded it to sales@..., sale1@... through sales30@... with
the date and time I had visited the dealership, who I had talked to, which
truck I was looking at (according to their website they still had that truck
in their inventory), and that because of the sales manager's attitude, I
would never do business with them.  None of the e-mails were returned as
undeliverable.

The funny thing is, that the trucks at the other 2 dealers were sold before
I got there; the first dealer could have had an easy sale.