[OAC_Sparky]

oldeguy,Apr 14 2007, 01:21 PM Wrote:Noticed a common thread throughout your post...crummy service from Ford.
It must be very frustrating to the people who build a Ford to have someone on the "team" screw it up for them.[right][snapback]234707[/snapback][/right]

Unfortunately, dealers and their employees are not Ford employees; any more than Walmart employees work for Nintendo -- yet Walmart sells Nintendo Wii's. Walmart buys Nintendo products form Nintendo, and sells them to the public; just like the dealer buys vehicles from Ford and sells them to the public.

You might ask, "What's the difference?" and to the customer, there isn't one. They unfortunately see the dealer as "the Face of Ford", rightly or wrongly. But the difference is that unlike a Ford employee; as a salesman or service rep, today you could be selling or servcing Fords, tomorrow you could be selling Nissans across the street ( or like in the USA, off the same lot ). There is an arm's length relationship, and in the end Ford has little real recourse against dealers that treat customers poorly.

Generally, my dealership experience has been ok; I 've dealt with more good dealers than bad; the only really bad one went out of business. Unfortunately for Ford, it only takes one bad dealer to sour the brand.