Absolutely spot on mate! ..
I have been looking around for a new car to replace the XR4 for the past month, visiting dealerships of various makes.
The salespeople in general are upbeat, helpful and willing to do what is required to do the deal ... apart from Ford Dealerships that is!
I went out to Denmac at Darra up here in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago to look at a White Focus Titanium, which I was assured over the phone was there to be viewed, ( I particularly wanted to see a White one), ... on our arrival the salesman who was nice enough young bloke didn't know if they had a White one?
So we went for a walk down the into the back paddock where they store all their stock ... well, there must have been at least an acre of land out the back full of brand new cars bumper to bumper wth the grass growing up between them! .. obviously they we going to have to shift all this stock somehow? ... indidently after walking around between these cars for about half an hour is was evident that indeed, ... they didn't have a White Titanium in stock!
And yet ... in the whole time we were there at the dealership, maybe a couple of hours we only saw 2 other people wander onto the lot .. and this was around 11.00am on a Saturday morning! .. presumably one of the busiest times of any dealerships week!
After the Sales Manager, (who incidently couldn't be bothered to surface from the slumbar in his office to even meet an actual, genuine, real life, breathing customer) insulted me with a ridiculous trade-in figure on my mint condition XR4 by relaying this insult through the poor young salesman he had running around like a trained monkey! ... we proceeded to leave.
It was at this point the Sales Manager "finally" surfaced from his office (he must have been beaten by Microsoft Solitaire again?) ... that he then sprayed his parting smart-*** comment to me whilst illustrating his displeasure at me not signing up to his ridiculous offer ... "So we can't do business today hey .. Oh well .. GOOD LUCK!" .. insinuating that we wouldn't get a better deal than his offer.
My reply? ... I simply paused for a moment as I looked around this completely empty dealership and said, ... "Good Luck? .. Yea, Good Luck to you mate! .. I'll look forward to the closing down sale!"
In contrast we then left there and went down to Keema Hyundai at Springwood to look at the Elantra Premium .. the whole place was buzzing .. there were people everywhere, all the salespeople were flat out, we had to wait for about half and hour before a salesperson was finally available to speak with us! ... we went for a test drive, no issues, very professional, no smart-*** attitude, no hard sell, they simply printed us off a quote with a $2500 discount straight off the bat without any negotiating at all, ... and we were on our way.
If Ford do not address the issue they have at their dealership networks ... and quickly! .. in my opinion the dealerships will systematically drop off the radar one by one over the next few years ... wake up Ford Australia!, you simply cannot continue to trade in this manner any longer! .. it is completely un-sustainable in this modern competitive world we live in today .. sort out your dealerships before it's too late.