Quote:
Originally Posted by DkknightX
The problem is that it became fashionable for Americans to "dislike" the American car buying experience because of what these franchise dealerships had done. Not all of them, but most reports state that the consumer buying experience in general was horrific and detestable. Dealerships like Toyota took control of the impulse to insult a vulnerable America and use it as an instrument to their benefit. My wife bought two Toyotas and as I was a witness, the experience was accomodating, interesting and not nearly as highly pressurized as purchasing a Chevrolet from D&C Chevrolet that is now thankfully went defunct as early as 2006 and finally vanished.
The smaller dealership issues have the additional disadvantage of not being viable because of their size, but the other GM dealerships on high were riddled with devious, greedy people in high positions, using good people to run their dealerships into the ground. The charities, the benefits, the close "family" ties among employees are all special, but as long as GM did not utilize their human resource stratagies properly; screen new employees even at the dealership level, then what else could you expect? Do you think those employees that had self-serving motives gave a damn about those at the dealerships that cared about a co-workers' family and friends? Precautions should have been taken before things got to this point.
The changes in the front office needed to have a direct affect on the dealerships down the line. The example was clearly not set and Toyota raised not only the expectations for GM, but for all American car companies. For years I've struggled internally with buying new GM cars because I'm tired of walking around with a target on my wallet. Why does Chevrolet make me feel this way and not Toyota? If my heart were not set on this vehicle, I would probably bite the bullet and buy Eastern European cars and settle with a car manufacturer in the middle somewhere. This GM vs. Japanese car war is really old and I'm tired of it.
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I think you kinda made Scott's point for him here. People that buy Toyota's, Honda's etc. put the "me me me" instead of "we we we". They do not take into consideration the cumulative effect of the millions and billions of import purchases. Instead, it's all about what make "me" happy at this very moment.
Personally, I couldn't sleep at night if I sent my money to Tokyo from buying a foreign car. I will shop American dealerships until I find one that I am comfortable with, but sending my hard earned American money to the Tokyo Stock Exchange is not in my interest at all.
I remember my Grandfather telling me that this great country will never fall from an outside attack ..... rather it will crumble from the inside-out. Unfortunately, I think we are living in that crumble.
