A fair arguement. I think people find it acceptable because the ratio of being screwed by a dealer, to screwing a dealer, falls heavily in favor of the dealers doing hte screwing.

I've bought 4 cars from dealers in my life. I asked if there were any concerns or issues with the car, but didn't expect to get everything out of them. I personally inspected it as well, and whatever I didn't catch was on me. 2 times the cars I got had serious issues that would have been extremely difficult to diagnose on the lot or during a test drive, and at the same time, extremely improbable that the dealer didn't know about them. Still, shit happens sometimes. The dealer that took my trade needing the frame rails had every opportunity to inspect it, and they did, pulled it into their garage and everything, and had guys crawling all over it. Somehow they missed it.

I wouldn't consider it vengeful, more so a game of cat and mouse. for me it's Dealer: 2 Me: 1 Neutral: 1.

Dunno if 3 bikes from the same dealer qualifies me as a good customer but I hoped that I'd be treated honestly. Gonna talk to the owner next week and see how it goes from there.

GP

I'm one of your so-called slimeballs at a Yamaha dealership.

Had a guy in with his ATV on trade yesterday, wanted to get a bike. I ran the numbers and told him exactly what he'd have to come up with.
He was OK with it but I told him the deal was contingent on his ATV passing inspection with one of our mechanics. His ride looked very clean, just washed up nice & pretty. Started, ran & sounded great. Then one of our mechanics took it for a short spin.

Long story short, he was trying to unload a clean ATV on us that needed an ECU ($650 + labor), a DiffLock Servo motor ($300 + labor), a front CV boot ($45 + labor) and possibly the CV joint itself since he admitted (after he was ready to sign the papers of course) that he rides mostly in sand. Torn CV boots & sand are not a cheap combination.

I told him I would take $1000 off (basically less than the cost of just the parts & we'd eat the labor) what we could give him for the ATV but he apologized saying he didn't know any of that stuff was bad and he'd rather sell it himself. I said no biggie, when you sell the unit let me know, the bike will probably still be here.

Today I see his post on CL for his ATV claiming it was "fully serviced, just inspected and cleared by the dealer". He also mentioned that we tried to "screw him over" on a trade and he was asking a fair price for a "Super clean Grizzly ready to go".

So you'll have to excuse me while I smirk a little bit when I hear about another POS salesman - like me - screwing everyone over. Are they out there? Yeah - on both sides of the desk & I see more of them on the customer end than I can count.

Ride safe,
Jeff "JJ" Gross,
Sales, Rock River Power Sports
Jefferson, WI

PhatRJ wrote:
I'm not looking to ruffle any feathers, but honestly I don't see what the big deal is. A dealer's job (or any retailer for that matter) is to make as much money as possible while retaining business. Dealers have had a bad reputation probably since Romans sold chariots, whether they deserve it or not.

I was in the dealer business for about a decade for an honest man and tried everyday to conduct myself ethically, honestly, and fairly. That doesn't mean I didn't go out and try to make as much money as I could off every customer that walked through the door. (Within reason. Again, repeat business is the lifeblood of a dealer.) But that was my job. The customer's job was to buy the product for as little money as they could. Hopefully we meet in the middle, sometimes one side wins. That's life to me.

Some customers didn't understand their job, which was good for me. Some customers didn't understand my job, which was just confusing. The times that everybody understood were fun and led to some great negotiations. I would even be open enough to tell them what I just said above. These were the people who didn't get offended when I offered $2k less than their trade was worth, just like I never took offense when they asked $4k more than it was worth, and $5k less on my car than I could sell it for. Why get offended? Those numbers have nothing to do with me as a person. If someone offers me $1000 for my Roadie, I'll say no and move on. If someone offers me $15,000, I'm shaking that guys hand before he's done talking. What am I gonna do, talk him down to be fair to him?

Well said I agree with all you stated above.He offered you the 3 grand trade and you took it.No one forced you to do that.Maybe the dealer changed his mind and is going to put it out there and see what happens to make a buck.You could of tried to sell it yourself if you felt 3 grand was too little.Hard to see where the dealer is the bad guy here?

Regardless of the opinions stated the end result (new ride) is all that matters. It is what it is.

GP

greyphart wrote:
It is what it is.

I believe that about sums up most of life.

Happy riding on the new scoot, GP.

On the bright side I got some 1600 parts to sell. Have to categorize and post soon. IE, rack that mounts to the license plate $85 + shipping.

GP