"Mike Jones" <mikenotachance@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:XLwed.1093$2d5.765@newsfe6-

Leeds, Guiselely actually.

.4x4cymru.co.uk

To wreck the show vehicles when trying to park the motor for a service  ???

My ex brother in law used to work selling new Nissans in Bexley, one day an
elderly scruffy couple came in about 4:30 pm and started to look at cars. No
one wanted to help so they tootled along the goods; after a while they
collared a junior and asked what they wanted. "We'll take it"; brother in
law and mates laughed until they were roped into counting out ?9000 in 5's,
10's, and 20's from an old carrier bag the couple carried.

My experience with LR dealers is somewhat variable, but has a common theme.

Salesmen are your best friend if they think you'll buy something and treat
you like a bad smell if they think you won't - got interesting when I went
to buy a Disco at the end of a week off wearing my scruffs - imagine
something dishevelled with 3 days beard growth, greasy hair and torn
jeans/t-shirt coming in and asking about £25k cars. They didn't believe I
was interested until I handed them the card for the deposit at which point
they became my best friend. Same story (without the buying of a car) at a
couple of other dealers - dressed like scruff, get treated like sh.t.
Wearing a suit, have the salesmen drooling over you.

Service tends to be poor. Poor at calling you, poor at explaining the
pricing, poor at almost everything including knowing what they need to
charge you. Granted a 60k service on an 8 month old car may be unexpected,
but even so. I find that most service departments have one cheerful type
who has been there for ever and several foetuses who hate the job, hate the
customers and don't mind letting you know it.

Parts departments, IME, tend to be good if it's an established franchise and
sh.t if it's a new one.

With the established franchises I tend to run into professional parts
managers who have been in the industry for 20+ years and are immensely
competent and have a professional pride and are not above pointing you at
3rd parties for items that they know the OEM kit is as good as the original
and that they don't carry in stock - they seem to believe in keeping the
customer happy as they are more likely to see the customer than anybody
else in the franchise. The kids who end up working alongside these guys
tend either to pick up the attitude very quickly, and are good to deal
with, albeit less clued than the manager, or they get fired by the manager
who doesn't need the grief of a pissed off customer who's just blown
several hundred quid on the wrong bit.

With new franchises the parts managers tend to be recently graduated
business studies students and don't know the job, don't know the parts and
don't know the work-rounds. This attitude carries through the department.

Mechanics at dealerships are decidedly variable - some are 30 year time
served guys who know *all* of the trick and what size of hammer to use
where; increasingly they are kids who get lost if the computer doesn't tell
them what the fault is and what modular unit to swap in for it. Lord help
them on the pre-electronic landies (Almost everything before 1995 that
isn't a Rangie).

Maybe I'm just sick, but I make extremely sure to park my own cars right at
the end of their sales line.

Muddy, scratched, totally non standard. Makes the shiny things sit there and
go "I'm not worthy. Please teach me oh Guru"

P.