Elena Ford on the Ford Signature Experience

me32

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So basically dealers cost goes up then dealers pass the cost on the customer. Sounds like a crappy situation all around.
 

SID297

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I remember my buddy Jack Anderson (Laura Buick) telling me that GM came down and said he couldn't have all of the old gas pumps he owns in the service area. These were really nice refurbished gas pumps, but GM said they didn't fit their vision for a dealership.

Jack moved them, but everyone complained that they were gone. LOL, all the elderly people loved those things.

So many times a business is a character of how they go to market. You might perform the same tasks, or sell the same thing as others do, but it doesn't mean that you need to be the same as everyone else.

E

You mean the old bastard who has operated his dealership for 50 years knows his customers better than the recent MBA grads in the RenCen? Surely you jest?
 

Pribilof

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Isn't this part of the deal of being a franchise owner? You are at the mercy of the corporation you are making your money from? I feel like these demands to remain up to date in accordance with their standards comes with the territory.

+1
Talk to McDonald's franchisees ,etc.

Or Porsche dealers...

Hoehn Porsche Carlsbad breaks ground on expansive new facility

How much do you think Hohn Porsche spent on this build?

"The 71,614-square-foot showroom and service center, with rooftop parking, will double the sales and service capacity."

"The total building space adds up to 98,846 square feet when factoring in rooftop space. "

"The existing Porsche dealership that was demolished on the 1.5-acre property comprised a one-story service building and a two-story showroom building totaling 18,000 square feet."

You think they just woke up one day and decided to spend 8 figures on a new building?
 

1 Alibi 2

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Ford has been visiting other brands dealerships, that's what they want their dealerships to look like..
 

Kevins89notch

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This whole dealership experience thing is out of hand.
I don't want to spend ANY time there. I want to pick my car, sign some papers and leave.
The Dodge dealer I got my Charger from has a friggin ice cream bar inside with an old timey ice cream slinger behind the counter. Its neat and all, but why? Nobody should want to 'hang out' at a dealership...
If they want to maske me a satisfied customer, let me fill out and sign ALL the paperwork online before I even show up at the dealership, then hand me my keys when I walk in and say 'Thanks, have a nice day and enjoy your new car'.
/done.

Or the fact I had to fly 1,000 miles away to save $2,500 because no one near me would sell a Fiesta ST at what multiple people online had reported getting theirs at. It's 2019, not 1989. I can easily learn what others are paying. The "this is the best price you can get" line is BS! I emailed like 7 dealers up the east coast in airport cities that had the exact spec I wanted, and said I was looking to buy this week and wanted the OTD pricing on lot number XXXXX. I had an email 7 hours later at $27XX cheaper that my local dealership. A $150 flight, and a 15+ hour drive later, **** my local dealer.
 

Diablo Mike

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There have been countless studies over the last 5 years that suggest upwards of 85% of consumers still want face to face interaction when purchasing a vehicle. They say by 2030, the number will be less than 40% and at that time the majority of vehicles will be purchased exactly how you would like for them to be.
Just a little ahead of my time is all, lol.
 

13COBRA

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So basically dealers cost goes up then dealers pass the cost on the customer. Sounds like a crappy situation all around.

Those costs are incredibly hard to 'pass on to consumers'.

Prices of vehicles won't absorb them. A dealer can't raise his shop rates to absorb them.

Only hope is to sell/service MORE.

+1
Talk to McDonald's franchisees ,etc.

Or Porsche dealers...

Hoehn Porsche Carlsbad breaks ground on expansive new facility

How much do you think Hohn Porsche spent on this build?

"The 71,614-square-foot showroom and service center, with rooftop parking, will double the sales and service capacity."

"The total building space adds up to 98,846 square feet when factoring in rooftop space. "

"The existing Porsche dealership that was demolished on the 1.5-acre property comprised a one-story service building and a two-story showroom building totaling 18,000 square feet."

You think they just woke up one day and decided to spend 8 figures on a new building?

I'm not saying Ford is alone. I mentioned much earlier that Cadillac was worse.

They literally came in to every Cadillac store and said you need to do ____________, it's going to cost between $4-6 million. So dealers started doing it, before they were even finished, Cadillac came in and said, 'you need to change this, we decided to go another route', and it cost dealers hundreds of thousands.

Lincoln is fairly close. I believe to be a Lincoln dealer, you had to do a $1.4-1.8 milllion renovation on the showroom for specific Lincoln customers. So if you are a Ford Lincoln store, you have to have waiting lounges for each car line's customer with different requirements, etc.

Crazy.
 

Comp04svt

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Yeah GM is been doing this exact thing since like '08. I'd agree with the above, Cadillac was a bit worse than the other brands on what was mandated, but I work at a Chevy store, and it was damn near all the same stuff they made the other brand dealers do.

I remember back when GM started doing this stuff, I was Saturn tech. It was right when they announced Saturn was going away. Down the street was a Chevy store. Been there since the 60's. GM came and said you need to spend $xxxxxx and renovate to our new business model and look we want. Owner said no. Shortly after, GM revoked his franchise. Our group was awarded the franchise. Our group purchased the old dealer, tore it down, and built a really nice all new from the ground up store.

The dealer I am at now just went through all of that with the Toyota and Volkswagen store that is next door to our Chevy dealer. The Toyota and Volkswagen stores are next to each other. They just finished renovating the Volkswagen store. The Toyota store was a run down absolute dump of dealer. He didn't want to do anything with it because he had just spent so much on the other building, but Toyota came and said basically if you don't fix this dump and renovate, then your franchise will be revoked. Needless to say, he renovated the Volkswagen store again to combine both into the same building and tore the other one down.
 

13COBRA

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I cannot wait till the dealership regulations are finally killed and we can buy cars direct LIKE EVERY OTHER THING IN THE WORLD.

You have a longgggggg time to wait my friend.

Ford makes about $10,000 per F-150 they build then sell to dealers. Dealers make on average about $800-1,000 when they sell the F-150.

If manufacturers wanted to grow and/or make more money they wouldn't go from a 20% profit margin to a 2% haha
 

RedVenom48

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Coming to a dealership near you:


Welcome to Lexus Kaizen. :D

I work at a dealership. The last thing I want to do is wait for my own personal car to be serviced at a dealer if I need it. Which is why Ill never understand waiters except for oil change customers.

+1
Talk to McDonald's franchisees ,etc.

Or Porsche dealers...

Hoehn Porsche Carlsbad breaks ground on expansive new facility

How much do you think Hohn Porsche spent on this build?

"The 71,614-square-foot showroom and service center, with rooftop parking, will double the sales and service capacity."

"The total building space adds up to 98,846 square feet when factoring in rooftop space. "

"The existing Porsche dealership that was demolished on the 1.5-acre property comprised a one-story service building and a two-story showroom building totaling 18,000 square feet."

You think they just woke up one day and decided to spend 8 figures on a new building?

Whats funny is that the next closest Porsche dealer is like 25 miles away in Mira Mesa. I drove by that dealer often when I lived in CA. Shame, every car sold and every car serviced was probably pure profit out of that old building. Back to the mortgage race for them.
 

CobraBob

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I love seeing the small town dealerships that have survived in the same building since the 70s/80s. I went out of my way to buy my F-350 from what had to be one of the smallest Ford dealerships in existence at the time. Point Marion Ford, it's now closed. They only had one salesman, and he was great.

Travis, Dowling Ford (here in small-town Cheshire) started up in 1976. It's a family business. It's still in the same building, 43 years later. Rare, for sure.
 

CobraBob

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Ford should be as concerned about the product as they are about showroom/dealership image. I say this after just seeing the thread about bubbling paint on a hood and reports of bubbling/corrosion associated with poor prep and thin paint. Dealerships should fire back at Ford Corporate saying, "produce a signature product and we'll provide a signature dealership experience". :rolleyes:

I'm so glad I decided not to go Ford this time.
 

Makobra

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Ford should be as concerned about the product as they are about showroom/dealership image. I say this after just seeing the thread about bubbling paint on a hood and reports of bubbling/corrosion associated with poor prep and thin paint. Dealerships should fire back at Ford Corporate saying, "produce a signature product and we'll provide a signature dealership experience". :rolleyes:

I'm so glad I decided not to go Ford this time.

this. i LOVE my 2016 f150 but it went back to the shop twice for warranty paint/body work and i've never had a vehicle with paint that chips so easily. its ludicrous. its really the only thing that i was very disappointing in ford about.
 

13COBRA

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I did not hear one thing about dealer subsidies....


How about dropping prices. My main complaint is that Ford is so damn expensive now.

With the soon-to-be-new UAW contract, I bet they increase a tad.

Travis, Dowling Ford (here in small-town Cheshire) started up in 1976. It's a family business. It's still in the same building, 43 years later. Rare, for sure.

We purchased our location in 1974. It was a Ford store when we bought it. They had just built the building in 1969. We've added on 13 times, with the most recent addition in 2017.

Oldest picture I have (1984):

upload_2019-10-5_8-0-16.png


Right after the latest addition (2017):

upload_2019-10-5_8-0-58.png


The red box was our original footprint:

upload_2019-10-5_8-3-6.png
 

ON D BIT

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I’ve talked to numerous contractors who purchase 10+ trucks every few years, they always got Ford trucks. Until recently, they are just too expensive, now it seems everyone is getting Rams. $3k savings purchasing 100 trucks is about $300k in savings. It adds up fast.
 

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