Hi Robert, I saw this letter to the editor in December 15th Automotive news and thought it might be of interest. – Glenn
To the Editor:
Hey, Chrysler, remember me? I’m the dealer who sold your K cars, your Omni Misers (that got in excess of 35 mpg – where are they now?). I stocked and sold your minivans with air and transmission problems. I sold your 2.7-liter sludged engines and then had to tell my customers it was their lack of maintenance that caused the $6,000 problem. I sat on your dealer councils and advertising boards for years.
I attended your new-car shows at my expense because my district manager said he needed all his dealers to be there, then listened to the same speech about how things will get better next year but please order more cars this year to help the company. I played your unfair Volume Performance Allowance game. I did it all.
And when I finally had a chance to transfer my franchise, four days before closing, you folks decided you didn’t like the new owner’s location and facility.
So after my bankruptcy, loss of my home and loss of my IRA, where’s my bailout?
MARK SUNDBERG
Ishpeming, Mich.
Just in case you needed one more reason to hate Chrysler…here it is!
Anyone see Bill Ford on Larry King Live last night? Someone called in and asked why Ford allowed a bunch of dealers to go bankrupt. I forget where, but Bill said they would look into it. And Bill was blinking his eyes excessively everytime he talked, not so much when we wasn’t.
Anyone else see the show?
Actually, crocodile tears aside, perhaps it is fate for selling vehicles with engine problems and sticking customers with 6K bill. BTW, those customers are not the wealthiest segment of society.
Business bankruptcy protects owners from personal losses. Somehow it is very hard to feel sorry for dealers. I recall capitalization requirement for Hyundai franchise in’80s @ 2 mills. What is it 10 mills today? Yeah, I feel sorry for you folks.
jolo,
I saw Bill Ford on Larry King too, and I couldn’t quite figure out the situation the caller was describing. Her main complaint had something to do with Ford Credit.. Maybe through the Credit arm, Ford was eliminating excess dealers by denying them credit? I could quite figure it out… Any insight you have would be good.
As for Bill’s reaction, what I saw was a man who wanted to state the obvious, but for PR reasons didn’t: “We have too many dealers, and we need to get of some. Sorry it was you.”
That was a surprisingly critical letter for AN — and they ran it prominently in the letters section. I suppose that illustrates how AN views dealers as the core of its subscriber base, and so needs to throw them some red meat every once in a while (without offending its corporate masters too much).
No need to worry about Chrysler, because it won’t be long before Cerberus pulls the plug.
When corporations succeed their only responsibility, other than to follow the law, is to look out for the best interests of their shareholders (although the big-3 management, in violation of their fiduciary duty, has always put themselves first).
This works because, in the long run, looking out for customers is what is best for shareholders, although some companies are too myopic to realize that (see Toyota and Honda market cap vs. GM and Ford).
When companies fail: “The Congress shall have power To. . . establish. . . uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;” Article I, Section 8, The US Constitution.
And ditto autonut on this guy whining that Chrysler wasn’t loyal to him after he ripped off customers on $6K engine repairs for Chrysler.
I sold your 2.7-liter sludged engines and then had to tell my customers it was their lack of maintenance that caused the $6,000 problem.
So he admits to lying to his customers and sticking them for $6,000 repair bills for what he knew was a manufacturing defect? And we’re supposed to feel sorry for him? No wonder automobile retail is called the slum of American capitalism.
I sold your 2.7-liter sludged engines and then had to tell my customers it was their lack of maintenance that caused the $6,000 problem.
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I sold your 2.7-liter sludged engines and then had to tell my customers it was their lack of maintenance that caused the $6,000 problem.
There has to be a lawyer some where drooling at the prospect of a lawsuit with an admission like that. IF anything it’s not goingot help them sell new cars when people hear they don’t give 2 sh*ts about their customers. Hard to feel sorry for the dealer also when he doesn’t care about his customers either, what goes around comes around.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Just didn’t expect it to come from the disease.
Well played, Mark.
So he admits to lying to his customers and sticking them for $6,000 repair bills for what he knew was a manufacturing defect?
Not that it excuses it, but Chrysler was going to deny his claim for warranty compensation. It’s somewhat difficult to blame a dealer for failing to go to bat for you when they’d be screwed out of a hundreds (thousands?) of dollars of parts and labour.
If you want to know how a company really thinks of it’s customers and it’s product quality, check out warranty claim statistics. Toyota is one of the best here, and Ford has improved greatly as of late; both companies make a point of honouring warranty work more often than not. On the other end is Volkswagen, which has been screwing its dealers since the get-go. The other European marques are about as bad, and Goodwrench isn’t a whole lot better.
You can blame the dealer, but if they’re not getting fairly compensated by the manufacturer, they have to get the money somewhere.
@psarhjinian:
Even more reasons to avoid Chrysler altogether. The company screws it’s dealers who turn around and screw their customers. And people wonder why the Chrysler is dying (actually nobody on TTAC is wondering).
I get the impression that this and other Bankrupt Chrysler dealers are not going to like it when the time comes for Nardelli to disappear into the sunset with a briefcase stuffed with $100 million.
Even more reasons to avoid Chrysler altogether. The company screws it’s dealers who turn around and screw their customers.
Oh, I agree. Screwing your dealers is a very, very good way to commit public-relations suicide. These are the people who deal directly with your customers, and you want them to be happy and compliant. When the customer goes to “Bob Smith’s Chrysler”, they see the Chrysler part first.
GM, to it’s credit, understood this when it launched Saturn. That it utterly failed to learn a goddamn thing from the Saturn experiment is telling, too.
Somehow, Volkswagen and Benz haven’t been called on the carpet for this, or at least not to the same degree. I think it’s because European car customers have been, shall we say, violated so often for such a long time that it’s become standard operating procedure.
ouch. shows that if you act like someone’s bitch they’ll treat you like one.
man up, do the right thing – you may not get that big fancy house but you won’t be hurting yourself or others.
psarhjinian-“GM, to it’s credit, understood this when it launched Saturn. That it utterly failed to learn a goddamn thing from the Saturn experiment is telling, too.”
I remember reading on how GM tried to learn quality from Toyota at the birth of NUMMI.
Sent guys in to learn the stuff-didn’t believe it was process rather than automation-and went out and bought robots that painted each other.
GM often identifies a problem and starts on the solution and…
Now RIR says they have learned the recent lessons. So give us the #@$%%#$ money!
Right.
Bunter
Just to point it out, I doubt this is limited to Chrysler dealers.
As far as my current Jeep dealer, they have recommend service that wasn’t needed (as I have had a Honda dealer do as well), but they’ve always taken care of warranty work.
Speaking of warranty work, what happens when Chrysler goes bankrupt? I assume dealers will just say, “Sorry, we can’t bill them so you’ll have to pay us and bill them yourself!” But in all fairness, both of my current two Jeeps have been rather problem free to this point.
psarhjinian: “Somehow, Volkswagen and Benz haven’t been called on the carpet for this,”
I think the Europeans still offer something else that compensates for the mediocre reliability.
I won’t buy another VW but I must admit that even our EuroVan offered a driving experience you don’t get in a lot of sedans.
I’ve also driven Audis and BMWs and they both seemed to offer handling and road feel that I’ve not encountered driving anything from Japan or the US.
It could be that the US and/or Japan has caught up in this regard with some vehicles but it will take a while for the market to recognize it.
Ahh, the K-Car. One of the most over-priced POSs available at the time.
Honda Civic 1500S for $7500, or 2 door K-Car with a sticker of $11,500? I know which one my parents bought. (Especially after the Dodge dealer had told my mother that it was ‘perfectly normal’ to need a new engine in a 70K, over-maintained, highway miles, V8 Dodge van.)
Sad to hear those dealers get theirs. Or not.
FWIW- The Omni GLHS was a blast. Fell apart almost as fast as it ran, but it was fun. One of my friends had one for almost 18 months before he got tired of fixing it.
I agree with those feeling sorry for dealers…not.
I wonder if Markie Sundberg ever filed a warranty or transportation claim that was just a little “shady” shall we say.
psarhjinian :
December 17th, 2008 at 11:42 am
If you want to know how a company really thinks of it’s customers and it’s product quality, check out warranty claim statistics. Toyota is one of the best here, and Ford has improved greatly as of late; both companies make a point of honouring warranty work more often than not. On the other end is Volkswagen, which has been screwing its dealers since the get-go. The other European marques are about as bad, and Goodwrench isn’t a whole lot better.
That strikes me as less of a customer service statistic, and more of a sheer reliability one. That is, what you just described (Toyota has low warranty repairs, Ford is improving, but GM, Chrysler, and all the Germans suck) matches exactly with Consumer Reports’ reliability surveys.
psarhjinian On the other end is Volkswagen, which has been screwing its dealers since the get-go.
This is not true regarding warranty claim payment. I process warranty claims for a large Nissan/VW/Hyundai dealership and VW is by far the most lenient and trusting of the three. VW will even allow a dealer’s ACPVS (average cost per VIN serviced) to be higher than national or regional average as long as shop comebacks are low and CSI stays good.
VW tries very hard to maintain excellent dealer relationships. At least on the service side where I’m at.
I don’t feel the least bit sorry for him or Chrysler. People are losing the shirts off their backs and this jackass writes us an exposee on the operation of sleaze he ran back in the day.
Have fun feeding and clothing your family this year, Mark Sundberg, whoever the hell you are, you piece of shite.