El Karacho1647545492

You are very accurate in your assessment. FIAT's largest hurdle early on was establishing the dealer network. We didn't see any advertising dollars spent until over 150 dealers were open, and we were among the first 20 dealers open. It was not fun trying to sell cars with little to no corporate support. Now we've got an extremely saturated Ohio market and it's one of the best to buy a FIAT in.

When they call you and tell you it's salvageable, tell them you want it to look like this http://monterey.craigslist.org/cto/4224953128.html when it's done.

This is one of the best assessments I've yet read. As an employee at a traditional dealership that prides itself on not being a shady dealer, allow me to try to present the other side of the story with as little emotional influence as I can muster. I, for one, would LOVE a dealership environment in which I'm compensated in the $60k-$80k range annually. For the amount of hours I put in and the level of expertise that I'm expected to have, I think that's fair. I could easily earn more as a commissioned employee, but I could also easily earn less in a bad year. Part of what I love about commissioned sales is the opportunity to out-perform my competitors, but I'll get to that in a minute. Let's imagine that I am now a comfortably paid salaried employee at Al's Ford. As an employee, I'm expected to be knowledgeable, I'm expected to provide top notch service and support for my clients, and I'm expected to be a professional ambassador for both the brand and my dealership. All of these things are easy to do and currently the norm at a good dealership. They're a bit harder to come by at a shady dealer. Now, as a good employee at a good dealer, I will try my utmost to meet customer needs, as I currently do. However, as a commissioned salesperson, I'm always looking for that next "up". I am hungry for anyone to come on the lot because that's an opportunity for me to make or not make money. When someone comes on the lot 15 minutes before close, I may be reluctant but I will always treat them the same as someone who comes in 15 minutes after we open because if I don't, I won't earn their business and that is above all the most important thing to me. As a salaried employee, I'm less likely to want to stay here til 10pm writing a deal. I'm less paranoid about losing a deal, because I know no one else in town is going to stay open late for one customer. Why? Because we're not insanely hungry for that one extra deal. So your work schedule only allows for you to come super late during the week, and no one will stay open. That sucks, but oh well. You'll go in on Saturday. But wait, Al's Ford has cut their hours on weekends! You see, while a majority of customers come out to see cars on Saturday, there's little incentive to be open if you know no one will be around. So during the winter when it's dark at 4, we close at 4! "Rubbish!" you say, knowing that Tesla Easton is open until 10pm on Saturday. Well they're a mall location. They have traffic all day every day. Try buying a car on Saturday in Michigan. The closer a dealership is to an auto plant in MI, the more likely they're only open 4-5 hours on Saturday. And good luck getting service! "Well," you think "surely the manufacturer will think of this and, as a result of these being factory stores, they will implement policies to ensure the customer has convenient hours in which to shop. We'll make sure the stores abide by high standards." And you're right, this very may well be the case. But nothing in this world comes free, and do you think that now that the factory has a vested interest in the costs associated with running a retail store that they'll be more concerned with the bottom line? The days of the service dept paying for the losses of the sales dept will disappear. Both must be profitable! No more $7k rebates off a new truck. No more "invoice less rebates" for everyone! Hell, I'd be surprised if MSRP doesn't turn into just RP, because the mfr will no longer be suggesting the retail pricing, they'll be setting it! And then, from the fog of high-priced new cars with less-than-gung-ho salespeople, comes one dealership. That's all it takes. One dealership willing to whore all their cars out. They pay their salespeople commission because they want HUNGRY employees who want to work 6-7 days a week for the prospect of making 6 figures a year selling cars. They want salespeople who will stay all night writing up a deal that pays them a minimum commission just to get the one extra car to beat the factory store. At the end of the day, the number 1 reason people do business with a particular dealer, brand, or car salesperson has nothing to do with the experience. I know this because people will spend hours, even multiple days, to try to save a few hundred dollars. The dealership model of business did not appear overnight. Yes, it has been supported by painfully shady lobbying, but that is more to support the painfully shady dealers. The ONLY reason shady dealers still operate is because people usually go with the lowest price, and the shady dealers will often offer that at the expense of a superior buying experience. I'm not suggesting that factory to door sales are bad, but after spending several years watching the average person's method of buying cars, it's simply not feasible for high-volume production cars. I welcome the change and will gladly be at the forefront of it, but I just want to present potential outcomes to those who think it a flawless system. TL;DR Factory-to-buyer sales may not be all it's cracked up to be.

LMFAO http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-crashes-to-576-2013-12

FUCKING SNOW TIRES guys. Saw a guy facing the wrong way in I70W downtown last night. Black 350/370Z. Glad you're ok.

Glad I'm not the only one

Day 1 of redneck driving school: YOU CAN POWER THROUGH ANY SLIDE OR SPIN. That's all for today folks, tomorrow we cover proper display of Truck Nutz.

EDIT: misread

Seriously? I can't even give this thing away? Someone's gotta know a classic truck guy who'd use this.

I like weathertech but I ended up getting Husky for the Focus for 2 reasons. 1, they were about 1/2 the price and 70% of the quality. Also, for some reason Ford didn't see a reason to put a dead pedal on the ST, and the weathertech mats only go about halfway up the carpeting where they should have put a dead pedal. Husky mats go all the way up and act as a ghetto dead pedal.

Good thing she's alright, hopefully she learned that ABS and AWD are not magical traction acronyms. Another vote for Derek.

I'm in. Working Saturdays sucks but my buddy and I were just discussing cutting out early one day to hit up Mad River. Also in your reply, specify ski/board/both? I snowboard in Ohio. I ski too, but my gear is in VT.

My dad and I were talking recently about the recommended investments for my 401k. I won't name the company but someone's not doing their jobs because a certain fund, their 2nd most aggressive, only grew about 4% in that time frame. My dad's most conservative grew 25%. Its a good thing I do my own allocations for 401k instead of listening to them :dumb: also Littleguy, where do you work? My dad's at HCM.

That was pretty weak, but I still saw a spun out 350/370Z on I70W downtown last night. Anyone on here? I woulda pulled off and tried to push but crossing 2 lanes of traffic in that slush was inadvisable.

ITT: CR market masters all see gains of ~ 50% on all their investments, never lose money on anything ever.

:lolguy::dumb:

Just like learning to sell cars I learned more about psychology than I did cars.

Damn. I've got a '95 Triumph 1200 that's in rougher shape that I'd trade but I don't think I have cash to make the difference. GLWS

TTT with pics http://imgur.com/ATmN9kG edit: linked due to lack of resize

yeah, i said completely though. also, I'm meteorology retarded

Aviationweather.gov is my favorite site but holy fuck you need at least 3 masters degrees to understand it completely.

This is awful to hear, I don't know anyone who has not been affected by cancer in some way. The one thing that everyone has said was the most important thing they had during treatment was the community help they got. With that in mind, and with the holidays rapidly approaching, is there ANYTHING that we can do to make things more pleasant for you and your family, especially your kids? I know how hard it was to hear my mom had breast cancer. If it's just money to help out with the holidays, don't be afraid to say so. CR pulled together for a guy whose stuff got stolen, we can come together to help you through this. Big or small, please let us know whatever could put a smile on someone's face.

I think the slushy stuff is going to hit this afternoon.

In OH or VT? Somewhere in between? My gf was asking me why I was doing 5 under the speed limit on all the side roads in VT at night. I just gave her the :dumb: look.

Nothing like seeing an STi on a flatbed with both passenger side wheels flat on the ground.