Used car manager problems

[ToyotaTech]

I work a smaller dealership and I don't know if these kinds of problems are just part of your day to. Our used car manager seems to be buying a lot of junk. The problem is he either wants to find ways to cover it under warranty or some cheap cobbled up fix
that i don't want to do. Sometimes the way the vehicles sit befoer I see them I wonder if he's taking them somewhere to rollback the odometer. I am new to the dealership but it would seem we could verify something about the history of the car. Do you all have managers like this?

[Doug]

Hmmmm. The forum may end up with two replies from me. The first one is lost in cyberspace, I guess. Anyhow....

Bogus warranty claims? My dealer would have a coming-apart-party. Just puts the dealership at risk. Besides, in the scenario you've described, the UC dept gets all the benifit while Service dept takes the hit for a chargeback. Don't let the UC manager twist your arm.

Cobbled repairs? It's the UC managers perogative to decide what gets fixed but NOT his job to dictate how the repairs are made. Cobbled repairs are a bad reflection on the service department.

Clunky old cars are sometimes part of the business. A sucessful used car operation needs a wide variety of cars....from $2599 specials all the way up to the creampuffs. If you suspect fraud, though, (odometer rollbacks, etc) that's a different matter. Often times a dealer doesn't know that these things are happening and would be furious if he did....the liability is just too great. If you are serious about this suspicion you may want to make it known. But, as a new employee....well, nobody can make that decision for you.

Many used car manager are convinced that saving money on reconditioing is the road to higher gross profits. In nearly all cases we've found the opposite to be true. Properly reconditioned cars almost always yield a higher profit. We show prospective buyers the wrok orders describing all the repairs we've done. This definately gives them more confidence in the car and justifies the higher prices we ask for.

The used cars business is perceived to be dishonest and often is. However, a dealer concerned about his reputation in the community will want decent merchandise out on the lot. Nevertheless, all you an do is fix 'em up the best you can.

Our Service Dept recons about 70-100 used cars a month....it's a great profit point. I could go on forever about this subject. I'd be happy to discuss the subject on or off-list with anyone who is interested. It's one of my (too few !) sucess stories

Doug

[warr_wiz]

ToyotaTech, I'm sure we have all run into the same situations. I do believe that used cars that are patched together do make the service department look bad. But in the end, the UCD manager is the one that makes the final decision on what to fix and how to do it. By that I mean using aftermarket parts, junkyard parts, etc. Being a new employee I would suggest a little more investigation and give it some time. You don't want to be rolling your tool box out because you made some waves.

[another tech]

I have seen plenty of uc managers come and go. They all seem to have the same point of view buy cheap repair as little as possible and then sell for big profits. How do these guys get paid? I mean why are the such tight wads when it comes repairs or services needed but are the first to storm out of their office to scream about a car that a customer didint buy because we did not fix a problem. When th uc manager comes out of his cave and into our shop we seem to want to avoid him. I dont send any of my friends or family to the dealership for a used car I woud rather send them to another so i wont know how badly they got screwed. I dont mean to offend any uc's out there but I hope there is some that are not rip offs.

[Matt Parsons]

If you are concerned with odometer rollbacks, why not get your dealership to agree to a policy of providing a CARFAX used vehicle history report with each used vehicle sold/offered? This would be a benefit to your customers and may provide you and the dealership staff piece of mind.

I am not sure what a CARFAX report costs to run on a car, but it is a service offering that I have heard positive comments about from both consumers and dealers.

P.S., we at EDS do not offer nor sell this product, so this is not a pitch for something we are associated with.