Kcar, again, if you’re looking out on your sales floor seeing black wife beater, 2 inch thick gold chain wearing sales people, you might have concern and be worried!
My $0.02: You can go to any town in the US, ask 10 people on the street about X dealership on Main St; you will get some positive and some negative comments. That is for any business, we have some people that don’t like our store, I am sure everyone reading this is shaking their head thinking about one or two people they have tried to please but just couldn’t. That’s reality.
There was that time in the past and it still exists to some small point today that people don’t like dealerships, do you like the dentist, the tax man, or the Dr when you hear the snap of a rubber glove? It all goes back years, and I think it all goes back to Americas love for cars, some hatred in the buying process, and the negotiation tactics that became synonymous with “did I get bent over”. Those days are gone, in our store they are long gone if they ever existed at all. I don’t think you can associate todays selling with the days of “did you hear the one about the lawyer and the car dealer”, I can say that, I am married to a lawyer, she has an outstanding reputation by the way and even does franchise and dealership law, no plug intended.
I think we are thinking too much about this shows impact on dealerships as a whole, people will see it for what we said it is, crap TV. I don’t see that people in communities served by dealerships with good reputations will look at those dealerships and see any correlation.