I always think of the old Lada dealerships as an association with tin sheds. Or the old Skoda places, in the days of the rear wheel drive models.
Locally, Toyota and VW have recently moved out of what seemed like the next step up from tin sheds - into new glass palaces.
But our local Fiat dealership - which is the biggest in the area, (including surrounding big cities)
recently morphed from a tin shed into a tin shed - (now in silver and seeming like a long metal coffin) the latter though seeming to fit a perhaps enforced corporate image - and seeming big enough for around four cars inside. The parts dept is a tacked on metal box - that has you feeling you are entering a shipping container. Metal door, metal walls and roof and no windows.
Before, you obtained parts from within the showroom and were able to chat and maintain a relationship - while looking at new models. Now you are segregated off - to the detriment of continuity.
I was thinking of the importance of first contact image - then maintaining relationships. Perhaps though, there are not many customers like me - who just buy parts after the first year from new - and as such, have seemingly been written off as `trade`at the parts counter.
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Most retail parts customers will be owners of cars 3+ years old and not of interest to new car sales marketing dept. Trade customers like us only pick up parts occassionally, normally we ring up and they deliver.
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I always think of the old Lada dealerships as an association with tin sheds.
I always think of the Lada cars as an association with tin sheds!
Edited by L'escargot on 22/01/2010 at 09:20
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I expect all departments to be to the same high standard. Scruffy premises indicates the likelyhood of scruffy levels of service.
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I expect all departments to be to the same high standard. Scruffy premises indicates the likelyhood of scruffy levels of service.
I agree, but I always wonder about extreme cases of high-tec super-smooth premises. How much are their labour rates and prices being bumped up to pay for the cost of the building? If I put my car in for a service how much will I be paying to subsidise their chrome and glass palace?
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If I put my car in for a service how much will I be paying to subsidise their chrome and glass palace?
Phone around. Compare their prices with those of another dealer.
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My local Vauxhall dealer now operates the spares dept. out of a tin shed, but the new car sales has moved to a nice shiny glass palace,with a big line of SAABs out the front..
Suits me as they've charged me trade price the last two times I've visited, I must look like a mechanic ;-)...or they're desperate for custom.
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Our local Toyota dealer - Pinkstones in Stoke on Trent- has frequent (but unpublicised.. how crazy is that?) offers on filters and oil: trade prices or free oil..
But as they do not publicise it - not even on their website- I have no idea how successful it is.
The same glass palace deals with sales, parts and service...
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vauxhall do the 4 for 3 oil it was the rep who told me (they have now retired him early and not replaced his position only something the british would do) if you go into the parts dept they are useless pimply youths that if it doesnt give them the correct answer on their screen they are quick to say computer say no even if you furnish them with chassis and reg number
i believe its the backdoor way to stop citizens access to trade parts as even their delivery van is now done to one delivery a day if you are lucky
ford parts never in stock
fiat parts never in stock
Chrysler parts never in stock
citroen parts never in stock
no wonder we are sent round the back to a shipping container as obviously they dont want us bad mouthing in front of potential customers the worthlessness of spare parts backup
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In the motorcycle world, some of the scruffiest, most ramshackle service and parts businesses are the ones with the best service. I can think of one in particular which was a dark, dingy shop with a scruffy parts counter and a ramshackle, dirty workshop out back. They were reasonably priced, fair, could often get parts same day if they weren't in stock, and if they ever worked on your bike, you could never fault the standard of work, the price they charged, or the way they constantly kept in touch as the job progressed.
If you looked at the place as a casual passer-by, you'd never set foot in there.
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I`ve never liked dirty workshops. The was a diesel injection specialist in town and the workshop floor was filthy and with rubbish around the edges. They went bust a while after my visit and i wondered how many none trade customers had been put off by just peering in.
Because the first thought was `If the floors like that - what about the work benches?`
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Moden diesel injectors work under such high pressure they have to be in an environment cleaner than a hospital's operating ward - I'm not surprised this dirty 'injector specialist' closed down.
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In the motorcycle world some of the scruffiest most ramshackle service and parts businesses are the ones with the best service.
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I absolutely agree, some of the best engineering goes on in some of the grubbiest backstreet workshops sometimes.
Any organisation that hides behind multi-million pound glass palaces i likely to only be marketing oriented as opposed to engineering and service oriented.
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a scruffy looking shed will probably not attract as much business rates so thay can help keep their overheads down. Also if it appears of temporary construction they may resort to removing the structure during an economic downturn.
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I have not been there recently but I bought an MZ motorcycle from a dealer local to me in the 80's who also handled Reliants and various other Chinese and Eastern European motorcyles.
This classic collection of tin sheds , grease & oil . Dexion racking for the parts behind the counter, they always seemed to find the bit you wanted. Roll up smokers to a man, clad in long brown coats with no computers or obvious stock control system . If you were waiting in the queue to be served as a bike rider then you were included in the general chat and banter about what was new in the bike world.It was more like a club than a shop or workshop.
They generally had a high level of engineering skill ,service and friendliness and good advice to their customers, quite flexible and helpful if something was a bit iffy for the MOT and they used to quite often offer second hand parts from machines they were breaking to hard up bikers.
It was a Father and Son business with Mum looking after the money ,Dad was elderly and deaf as a post and had been relegated to the shop where he while son did the mechanic with a couple of other lads.
Son was carrying out an MOT for me one Saturday morning when two lads came into the yard , one pushing a bike minus engine and another carry a washing up bowl of oily engine bits and asking ' can you fix it Mister '. the expression on his face was worth the cost of the MOT on its own. I am afraid the swear filter will not allow me to tell you his reply.
Its still there, the building looks the same motley collection of tin but I have not been in there for ages since I sold the MZ back to him.
Fond memories.
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There was a man at Herts Motors the Triumph agents in the 60s who was famous for keeping every part description and number in his head. You could ask him for any part and he would immediately go to the shelf in the tin shed. If there was a problem you would be invited backstage to have a browse.
Of course, the best scrapyards didn't even have tin sheds. All the "stock" was still on the cars in the yard, and customers armed with spanners and hacksaws clambered over tottering stacks of vehicles looking for bits they wanted.
If it was a wheel or a suspension part you wanted you wedged an old wheel under before pulling the jack out, to keep the stack upright.
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Nice post, Helicopter!
We'd be in a lot better shape if there were more dealers like this, and fewer glass palaces.
It's not just because of their skill level, or their price. They just FEEL better somehow - more "real".
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They just FEEL better somehow - more "real".
To you or me perhaps, but I suspect not to the average car user. He or she likes the idea that a car is just like a TV or washing machine, and is scared of chaps with dirty hands and a clipped style of speaking.
An ignorant twit in a suit and aftershave is much more reassuring, and makes these punters feel posh.
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Ah good rather pleasing that tin shed workshops don't instill great confidence.
That's partly why my indy who's place looks like a scrapyard isn't overrun with posh customers, they really don't know what they're missing chap with a razor sharp mind and very up to date diagnostic equipment and knows how to use it proper like sometimes reading between the lines.
First class work and very reasonable charges, you can keep the knee deep carpets and school leaver service reception.
Go into his office and fight through the cobwebs covering piles of engineering manuals and various bits of spare equipment..computer? don't make me laugh..;)
I've noticed some dealers seem to keep service/parts and sales well apart could be good reason.
Edited by gordonbennet on 24/01/2010 at 00:04
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I also wanted to mention an indie parts place I know in Oxford. It's quite a big shop, but boxes of parts everywhere, stuff piled up in a seemingly haphazard way, and plenty of dust and grime about. But if you go in there and ask for a part, the guy can find it instantly. First class knowledge as well - for example my uncle went in there for brake pads for an early BMW 7 series, which they didn't carry, but they knew that the pads from some obscure early Nissan, which they did, would fit. I've also taken old parts in before and the guy has told me which car they came off before I could tell him!
Also open 7 days a week, and very reasonably priced. The decor and appearance of premises is no indicator of the level of service and knowledge you can expect.
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