Open discussion: Car dealer industry

[Brian Lutz]

Pricing on parts can vary a lot from dealer to dealer. One thing I've noticed in particular is that a lot of dealers seem to sell parts 10% cheaper online than they would if you walked into the parts department and bought it there. In those cases, the best approach seems to be to order the parts online and chose the in store pickup option. I have seen this at both Subaru and VW dealers here that I've bought parts from (which seem to use the same back end and web interface for their parts inventories), although those are the only brands I've looked at recently.

[SamSpade]

I have a car so old and have only been to used dealerships most of my life so I don't have a lot to add here other than:
a) Yes, my experience at a Subaru dealer when I had to have my 10ish year old car hauled to them for repair in 2000-2001 was excellent
b) My partner receives excellent service from the dealer on a 2007 model year vehicle. Although, they are now having to source "refurbished" Honda parts for major issues. I find it a bit more expensive, but they do seem to work to provide the customer the best value they can. (family owned smaller regional dealership chain)
c) Amazing how many tiny Ford dealerships exist in the northwest (I would assume other parts of the USA too).

[Super S]

I have a car so old and have only been to used dealerships most of my life so I don't have a lot to add here other than:
a) Yes, my experience at a Subaru dealer when I had to have my 10ish year old car hauled to them for repair in 2000-2001 was excellent
b) My partner receives excellent service from the dealer on a 2007 model year vehicle. Although, they are now having to source "refurbished" Honda parts for major issues. I find it a bit more expensive, but they do seem to work to provide the customer the best value they can. (family owned smaller regional dealership chain)
c) Amazing how many tiny Ford dealerships exist in the northwest (I would assume other parts of the USA too).

There are a lot of small towns where I am surprised a dealership can exist, and often as the only new car dealership in those given towns. Morton, WA has a Ford dealership, as does Elma, WA. Woodland, WA had a Chevy dealership until one of the big waves of dealership closings a while back. Washougal, WA also has a Ford dealership, although they did have a Chevy dealership into the 1990s. I have been to other areas of the country where I have seen this, and it's mainly domestic dealerships. I am not sure if this situation exists with import dealerships, they usually are located near other dealerships.

[buckguy]

I recently did a long road trip that included Vermont, upstate and Western NY and parts of northern Ohio. There were quite a few very small towns that had a Chevy or Ford dealer (never both). They often were places that might have had a Dollar General or small indie supermarket but no chain super, so they were very small places. There are some towns in West Virginia like this. Chrysler eliminated these kinds of dealerships with their micromanagement in the 60s.

Imports used to have small single line dealerships---SAAB comes to mind because I've worked near several of their dealerships. There also were some oddly located Mercedes dealers (often smaller satellite towns not too far from outer suburbs) that started out as Studebaker dealers a million years ago (Studebaker had a distribution contract with Mercedes in its later years). Other than the Mercedes oddities, I don't think the imports ever encouraged these small dealerships outside of metro areas and many older import car places were multi-line operations, combining lower volume lines like MG, Triumph, Jaguar and its pre-yuppie scum days, BMW. High volume imports like Honda and Toyota probably never considered rural areas and probably only had small dealerships in metro areas for a relatively short time, as when they began to sell cars in the US in the 70s.

[cjd]

Many of the older dealerships were often located around the main street of the town of course. My town used to have a Studebaker dealership which signage was uncovered a few years ago when work was done on the building.

Around here most towns big enough for a Walmart will have Ford, GM and Chrysler dealerships, but nothing else. Toyota Kia/Hyundai and Nissan prefer the larger towns. Honda and Mazda only seems to be in pretty metro areas.

One dealer here owns all of the new dealerships in town. I remember their original dealership with a Chrysler-Plymouth-Jeep-Eagle, but for some reason NO Dodges there. In later years it got a bit more odd as Kia was added to that location. So it became Chrysler-Jeep-Kia.

[rwsandiego]

I bought my last two cars from independently-owned Carl Burger Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge in La Mesa, CA (suburb of San Diego) and will likely go back there for my next car despite living in Phoenix. Carl Burger's widow, Alice, owns it. The service and selection are unparalleled. I hope it remains in the family, as they are the finest car dealer I've dealt with in 36 years of buying cars.

[Alpha8472]

I have seen many car dealerships with inventory problems recently. The local Cadillac dealership has only a few cars left in the display lot outside. At first, I thought the dealership was closing, but it turns out that they are just out of cars.

The Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep dealership next door has all sorts of old used cars from other brands in the display lot. It looked really sad. They cannot seem to get enough new cars for some reason.

There is a Toyota Dealership in Oakland, California next to the 880 freeway that has a tall round glass building with wrap around windows. It displays cars on multiple floors so you can see a tower of cars from the freeway. For the past few months the tower has been noticeably empty.

[babs]

I have seen many car dealerships with inventory problems recently. The local Cadillac dealership has only a few cars left in the display lot outside. At first, I thought the dealership was closing, but it turns out that they are just out of cars.

The Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep dealership next door has all sorts of old used cars from other brands in the display lot. It looked really sad. They cannot seem to get enough new cars for some reason.

There is a Toyota Dealership in Oakland, California next to the 880 freeway that has a tall round glass building with wrap around windows. It displays cars on multiple floors so you can see a tower of cars from the freeway. For the past few months the tower has been noticeably empty.

If you want a new car these days,. you have to order it. Due to the chip shortage, they can't make enough cars for the dealers to have inventory in the lot. Toyota has figured how how to acquire chips and thus is now outselling GM in the US.

[rwsandiego]

I have seen many car dealerships with inventory problems recently. The local Cadillac dealership has only a few cars left in the display lot outside. At first, I thought the dealership was closing, but it turns out that they are just out of cars.

The Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep dealership next door has all sorts of old used cars from other brands in the display lot. It looked really sad. They cannot seem to get enough new cars for some reason.

There is a Toyota Dealership in Oakland, California next to the 880 freeway that has a tall round glass building with wrap around windows. It displays cars on multiple floors so you can see a tower of cars from the freeway. For the past few months the tower has been noticeably empty.

If you want a new car these days,. you have to order it. Due to the chip shortage, they can't make enough cars for the dealers to have inventory in the lot. Toyota has figured how how to acquire chips and thus is now outselling GM in the US.

According to this New York Times article, Toyota cut output by 40% due to the chip shortage.

From the article:

"...Toyota Motor, the world’s largest automaker, plans to cut production worldwide 40 percent in September because of a shortage of computer chips that the company had avoided being hurt by until now.

The move will affect 14 plants in Japan and reduce output by about 140,000 cars and trucks next month, the company said. In the United States, Toyota expects to produce about 80,000 fewer vehicles next month than it had previously planned. The company is also cutting production in Europe, China and other countries..."

[jamcool]

Many of the older dealerships were often located around the main street of the town of course. My town used to have a Studebaker dealership which signage was uncovered a few years ago when work was done on the building.

Around here most towns big enough for a Walmart will have Ford, GM and Chrysler dealerships, but nothing else. Toyota Kia/Hyundai and Nissan prefer the larger towns. Honda and Mazda only seems to be in pretty metro areas.

One dealer here owns all of the new dealerships in town. I remember their original dealership with a Chrysler-Plymouth-Jeep-Eagle, but for some reason NO Dodges there. In later years it got a bit more odd as Kia was added to that location. So it became Chrysler-Jeep-Kia.

Datsun had dealerships in smaller Arizona towns…more than likely on the strength of their truck line… even in the 60s and 70s (Show Low had a Datsun dealer before picking up any of the big 3 franchises) So did Toyota and VW, to a less extent.