GM Programs Changes

[dcharette]

Be VERY CAREFUL if you are buying the same parts from your Dealer friend down the street and turning that in for warranty. Gm can pull an audit if you do not start stocking it. when you buy a part from a dealer for warrany, You will get back only the difference from cost to what you paid for it from the other dealer. Gm will still mark up from dealer 40%. I just checked on this with my consultant.

[Richard]

Yes, it's true GM DOES monitor this forum, in fact, I KNOW my parts rep himself does, which is why I am ALWAYS very careful what I say on here. I agree we should band together, but my question is, will it do any good? GM builds the cars, GM holds your franchise agreement and GM writes the P&P manual (and rewrites it everyday). GM holds all the cards, and since the Dealer Council did NOT stop this from happening, do you REALLY believe that there will be a reversal NOW?
Yes, I AM upset. And Yes, I am mad. Mad about my lost income (personally), my departments lost income, the loss of approx $15,000 in profit this year alone. I am mad I am going to have to charge my customers more money on already very pricey parts. My largest customers; my service dept and my used car department already ask for alternatives to GM parts on most job over $500. I spend HOURS every day working on finding used parts, and aftermarket parts to be able to keep from losing any more of those large jobs. I plan to do several things, use some of the ideas I have seen on this forum, and try to meet with other local parts managers on an INFORMAL basis so we can brainstorm and find solutions. This business is very competitive, and GM has singlehandedly taken MOST of the reasons for me to support any of their major programs away. There is NO reason for me to sell their tires, their bedliners, their accessories when you consider that you are charged $1000-2000 a year for the priviledge to sell an accessory with "GM" Hotstamped on it (at approx 50% OVER going market price for the same item Without the General's signature). I am sorry this post got a bit wordy, but I wanted to make sure you know and GM's knows that I feel like a statue and Gm must feel like a bird. And as long as the owners of GM dealership LET GM tell them what is going to be done, and the dealers lay down for it, ain't nothing gonna change.....
Oh, and once someone asked why some people used odd or fake names on here.....I now wish I had set up a fake name sometimes, because knowing I am monitored I AM careful what I say.

[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 04-18-2002).]

[slilly]

If GM would close every WD and we were the only game in town to buy all Genuine GM Parts, and they provided us with uninterrupted service, without damage, and any packaging problems, then I believe we wouldn't mind so much about the discounts.
Some of you have noted that GM wants to force us to do business with them and make us completely loyal to them and them only.
What has GM done in the past to prove that they were apart of the parts business world,when they "discovered" that we (and they like to include themselves in the we) were making less money or losing sales on our sheet metal because the aftermarket was too competitive? They didn't lower their price to us, they lowered the suggested list and trade prices!!! Who gained then? If you sold it for less you might have something you didn't have previously, but GMSPO gained all the more, at your cost and hard work.
GMSPO expects to profit more and forcibly gain more loyalty. What would happen if we skipped the "Durasqueek" brand and purchased our brakes from Raybestos directly, except those R.S.G. numbers for their "impeccable" warranty usage?
I believe we would come out alot better over time if find other sources for parts other than GM. They have never done enough and probably never will to earn our respect, trust, and most of all our business. Their employees have nothing to gain or lose when mess us up by providing lousy service and uncaring employees who are not interested in resolving problems. They need to learn how to ask for business and earn it by provide us with perfect service and exceptional pricing, so that in the eyes of our customers we are the best in quality, price, and service. And we make money handfulls over handfulls!

[homeless1]

The General strikes again. Now raise your hand if you have lost profit to GM's policies in the last 10 years. Does anyone remember 688. I used to book almost $5,000.00 dollars a month in that account for smart purchasing. It made the dealer happy got a little extra in my check and since most of it came from Delco WD's it made GM more money. They tightened that up by raising prices to WD's and killed the discounts. They came out with the RSG, said if you stock it, it will sell. Anyone seeing an increase in RSG obsolesence? Me too! Seems the list is a little biased toward items needed to do warranty repairs, hmmm I wonder who edits it before it gets sent to us. I wish they would act a little quicker as cold weather parts don't make the list until it is hot out. Saw my parts rep today, certainly a beaten and battered man right now. Funny, he didn't ask me to sign up on any new programs today. Got a little testy when I mentioned that we should bail on GSP just to spite GM. My guess is the pressure on these guys is awesome. We have got to find another way to make some money. Larger amounts of aftermarket parts seem to be the answer. Would probably salvage more of the high priced jobs we are currently losing to shade tree shops. It is something to seriously look at. It has worked for the insurance industry and Body Shops. Don't blink cause you will miss another load of LKQ parts being delivered to the Body Shop.

[Cliff]

Well we've been GM'd again. What can we say or do. I'm surely not worried about being monitored here. Why should we? When was the last time your Area Parts Manager did you a favor and what are they going to do about it anyway? In figuring my losses, I came to realize, it's like a domino effect. 1% here, 1% there. Then I thought, loss of business, less purchases from GM = even more loss to my 687 account.
I've been buying Delco from WD's for over 15 years now and will continue to do so even more adamantly. They have better service and better prices. In my opinion, it's a no-brainer. I don't want to be the one with the attitude, but I need to worry about my store, my customer and myself. We, as Parts Managers need to stick together and do what is right for us and our stores. I don't recommend violence, at least at this time. Just do the best you can do. Listen to others and their ideas and don't be afraid to voice your opinion. Talk with your dealer. He certainly has more clout than you. My dealer hit the roof when I told him. After $1500 for a tire program, that he has never seen advertised, and the GSP fees, he's a little fed up with GM. I'm sure there is more to come, so stay tuned.

[Michael White]

thos of you who have been in GM dealerships a while, think back what they did the last major change..... they changed parts transfer to 50/50. It is known how GMSPO wants to make all part go to parts. Is this next and sooner than later?? If /when this happens, I would estiamte more than 50% of the GM service departments accross the country will be in the red. With GM's desire to keep warranty labor rates as low as possible, there may unfortunately be some significant long term bad feelings about our partners. Our dealership, per our parts rep, says it will affect us by $15,000 a year. That is a junk of bucks. GMSPO's give away merchandising in our area is not affective at all. We are a 20 man shop, and had the first person come in for their free kleenex box. As I understand it, this GSP/On A Role national program was suppose to start othe 1st of the month. At this rate, I will have all the kleenex boxes given away on December 13, 2013.

[worldparts]

I have to agree with homeless1 and slilly. It's time to get parts from the aftermarket. I hate the fact that it has come to that because I have preached "genuine parts" for more then 20 years. GM will only appreciate the dealer parts business when its gone.

[RCLARK]

We are in the same boat in with you guys up
here in Canada.GM is starting to squeeze the discounts out of us.We still seem to have it a little better than you so far.With our Canadian dollar so low against the U.S.dollar mabey we could do some business.
rclark@royfoss.com We are all in this together.

[Gerry Laughlin]

Gee, this forum may be monitored? What the heck, the only DM I have ever really gotten along well with was just voluntarily retired by GM.
Just for general info though I have never advocated picking up something that you already have in stock, or not stocking a part that you should just so you can buy it from someone else. My suggestion was to give the General what they want, if you dont stock an item that you normally would buy from a WD in a warranty situation, buy it from the dealer down the street, put the Markup on the RO, and if he does the same when he needs a similar part, neither of the dealers nor the customer loses. Whatever I have advocated plays within the rules GM laid out.
I would love to say that I am going to boycott GM programs as a result of this, but regretfully I have always pretty much ran the other way when GM brought out another program.
My assistant and I met with a local distributor on Monday to work out an agreement on Aftermarket brake pads. We plan on using a better, best program on them. We are setting up pricing so it is actually more advantageous to sell the better (aftermarket). Considering the price of GM brakes this wasnt too hard to set up. I am running into a bit of a problem trying to get notification on the RO that they are not Genuine GM but I will figure something out.

Thanks,
Gerry

ps: RClark, another Red Green Fan?

[montecarlo_983]

what was said in the first 5 min of telecast
we had sat problems i agree with all of your comments in this matter. i am going to continue to buy from my local ac delco wd an dmaybe seek other ave. we are a small dealer and can't afford to lose much profit.

[This message has been edited by montecarlo_983 (edited 04-19-2002).]