A lot of people refer to car dealers purely by the name of the manufacturer, e.g. Renault instead of Fred Bloggs (Mayfair) Ltd. When the topic of conversation is a complaint (or slur) against either a particular dealer or dealers in general for that make of car I just wonder whether in some listeners'/readers' mind the mud subconsciously sticks to the manufacturer.
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L\'escargot.
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I don't think it is as clear cut as that though.
The manufacturer is responsible for selecting and maintaining standards within their dealer chain. So, the manufacturer can't escape some of the "mud".
Number_Cruncher
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In reply to Number_Cruncher:
I agree that the Manufacturer is responsible for maintaining standards within the dealer network I believe that Block Exemption Regulation (BER) no longer allows a Manufacturer to dictate who can or cannot own a franchise.
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Remember a lot of the dealers are now directly owned by the manufacturer/importer. For instance, Polar Ford in the NorthWest is owned by Ford Retail UK, as are Dagenham Motors in the South. Our local Peugeot franchise has also recently been bought by Peugeot UK. The call it vertical integration, I beleive. The large Renault dealers in many towns (eg: Renault Manchester) are also owned directly by Renault UK.
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One of the manufacturers' biggest problems is the lack of control over the dealers.they can only make recommendations and give advice.
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In my case on the VW thread lower down, my problem is with VW, not the dealer who has as usual gone out of their way to try and help. I think it depends on the problem.
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>>they can only make recommendations and give advice
As long as the manufacturer's pay the dealers for doing warranty work, they have an excellent mechanism to obtain compliance with their wishes.
Number_Cruncher
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Our local Peugeot franchise has also recently been bought by Peugeot UK. The call it vertical integration I beleive.
Correction:
There are over 20 Peugeot dealers in the country that used to have separate names but have always owned by the Robins & Day Group who in turn are owned by Peugeot Motor Company UK. A decision was taken this year to rebrand all of them as Robins & Day as part of a revamp.
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>>I believe that Block Exemption Regulation (BER) no longer allows a Manufacturer to dictate who can or cannot own a franchise.
It's quite a complicated situation isn't it? I suppose the manufacturers must think there's a benefit to all of this obfuscation and confusion.
Number_Cruncher
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There's Skoda dealer I know of who have been around for the last 30 years at least. He's lived through the lean times and now making a pretty packet I would expect. Its a family run firm who have I know avoided being taken over by the big boys now that there's a decent product.
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The number of 'family' franchised dealerships (or 'owner drivers', as they're know in motor business) has shrunk a lot a continues to do so. The reasons for this are the investment requirements and 'dealer standards' imposed by the manufacturers. Only the big groups can afford the often multi-million investments that are needed for very small margin on sales.
It tends to be the less attractive franchises which bring in the smaller organisations.
One of the reasons for 'vertical integration' (manufacturers selling cars through dealership they own) is that it gets around some of the thorny bits of Block Exemption and gives them more control over the market.
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Its a family run firm who have I know avoided being taken over by the big boys now that there's a decent product.
Its not a case of avoiding being taken over. Its whether Skoda pull the franchise off him. Lots of smaller dealers have had this happen to them over the past few years - Merc and VW spring instantly to mind.
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Perhaps what I should have said is that some people, for example, slag off "Peugeot" when really they mean an unspecified Peugeot dealer or Peugeot dealers in general. There's usually no intention of casting aspersions on the manufacture but I'm sure that using the manufacturer's name (instead of the dealer's) doesn't do the manufacturer's reputation any good. The thing which sticks in your mind is "Peugeot". It's often done in the manner of "I took my car to Peugeot to be serviced and they ripped me off by charging £14.50 (or whatever!) for an oil change" or "I don't take my car to Peugeot to be serviced because they employ crap fitters".
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L\'escargot.
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Surely its more often reversed though. With the dealer taking the flack for cars with multiple and continuing well known faults and build issues that only the manufacturer is responsible for?
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