[chassis]

Dealers in the U.S. are third parity mercenaries. They have allegiance to neither consumer nor manufacturer. It is a textbook agency problem example.

I have had consistently “better than OK” experience at VW and Honda dealers in several states. Wildly varying experience at MB and Toyota dealers. Quite good experience at a Porsche dealer two weeks ago who got me in to replace a punctured tire. I will withhold a broader statement on Porsche dealers until after I have had a couple of warranty-related experiences with them.

There is no logic to car dealer experience, compared to the difference in experience between a Holiday Inn Express and a Peninsula or Kempinski 5-star hotel. People will be quick to trot out stories of the “service advisor who cares”. Service and sales advisors, and finance managers are paid by commission (agency problem) and service techs are paid flat rate, so the incentive is to bang out the job and move to the next one. Hopefully getting it right.

Every employee in a dealership is financially incentivized to fleece you. The straightest shooters in a car dealer in my view are the guys (they are usually men) at the parts counter.

Car dealers have local mom-and-pop shop mentalities whose main business interest is to collect rent on an expansive real estate holding (the car lot), which eventually will be sold to a gas station developer, and where the real money is made. I have seen in several places where a car brand will close down and demolish the showroom/service facility, and build a shiny new site one or two miles away on a previously empty piece of land. The former establishment gets redeveloped which is the true profit stream for dealers.

The large dealer groups that are emerging should change things in the next 10-20 years, not sure if it will be for the better. I have read multiple comments on several sites that Penske Group dealers, for example, force ceramic coatings and other unwanted products and service on the consumer. Garbage business practices.