Hijacked at Jenkins, your experiences
 

I brought my Honda in for a recall to Jenkins. This is the only reason I set foot there. While waiting as a captive audience we got the pitch how nice our vehicle is and how they would love to buy it. Clearly this is part of having work done there.

This got me thinking, for those of you who go there for service, does this happen routinely?

Yes.

The preferred floor plan arrangement of new Dealership facilities, is to have the "Service Customer Waiting Area", open to the showroom or in a location that requires customers to traverse the showroom to ge there.

It's no different than the way marketing people setup department stores and force you to walk past as much merchandise as possible, on your way to your destination.

After all, "service customers" are already customers of the business (in most cases), what better prospects to buy a new car than an existing customer?

It has little or nothing to do with Jenkins, it has to do with manufacturers' standards and good marketing. (Honda facility standards are a touch stricter than most others.)

Seems like there is a shortage of late model used cars so dealerships are trying to push people into selling them and presumably sell them new one at same time.

Courtesy Toyota whom I bought our newest car from two years ago sent me a wonderful offer to sell my car which I carefully files in my circular file

Jenkins VW sent me a message where they would buy my VW Golf for several thousand over Market Value but, in fine print the set forth a schedule of reductions which would be applied to mileage and car condition. Got to love your local car salesman. Wonder how many get Christmas Cards from satisfied customers.

At least, they have figured how to make you pay them tips. Dealer markups.

No.

After we tell the service manager what we want done, we put on ear protectors so we cannot hear anything a salesman says to us.

We own a 2017 Honda, and thanks to others' reports of Jenkins' tactics, we refuse to set foot in that place, and won't unless absolutely necessary.
When that day comes, thanks to you and others' reports, we will be well prepared for the hard sell.

Thank you for the warning.

If they want to buy my car the price is $1,000,000. Not a penny less!

Maybe it’s just FL, had our oil changed at our dealership in MI. Sat down in the guest lounge next to the mini restaurant, nail salon, gift shop, and accessory department. The sales floor is 10 feet away.

2 different sales people, stopping asked how we were, and can I get you something, coffee, breakfast sandwich?

In 15 years, We have always approached sales department, not other way around. We do get occasional email asking if they could buy our car, and new models available.

With all the negativity about Jenkins here, if they don't change, it will bite them bad over time.
Keeping with the subject of bad business practices, this Frank Gay Plumbing outfit will not be getting much of the Villagers dollars either.

Seems like a way to pass the time while waiting for the car to be ready.

Do you do that at a restaurant, when you're asked if you'd "like another drink" or "would you like to see our Dessert Menu"?

Or when you buy a home and the Broker asks if you'd "like a Home Warranty or Title Insurance"?

Or maybe when you buy a pair of shoes and the clerk asks if you need Shoe Trees?

Jenkins probably has $10,000,000 invested in a facility, so you can actually look at automobiles before buying one, unlike someone like Tesla, who wants to sell you one, sight unseen. Everyone bemoans the "lack of personal service at retail establishments", but when you get it, you don't like it?

There are plenty of things to complain about when buying a car, someone trying to sell you one when you're in an auto dealership, is taking complaining to a new level.

Sending an offer and paying two totally different things.

They really don't want to buy your car, they want you to buy a NEW car, so they can really rob you !

We have no complaints about our car buying experiences. We learned how to properly buy a car in 1994 and it has been a true pleasure ever since.

This is why almost Noone likes dealing with auto dealership.

Can you share how to properly buy a car?

In contrast, the l.ocal Buick-GMC dealer has the oil-change service in a building separate from the sales area...never been approached by salesperson.

Good question!

Based on my experience with Jenkins, they will try to upsell you
while your waiting for your car being serviced.

My first new car was in 1962. The dealership was what I call a mom and pop honest shop. Those days are gone. Today car dealerships are multi-million dollar businesses with millions of dollars of cost to just open the doors everyday. Yes, I bought one car from Jenkins Honda and was “turned off” by their up-charging and marketing strategy. I once purchased, over the years, five new vehicles from the same salesman and small dealership in Central Illinois. Always a honest and good buying experience. My next vehicle that was purchased in Central Florida was purchased from Bill Bryan Subaru and overall a nice buying experience. Guess what? They have been bought by a bigger bunch of dealerships and you can expect similar strategies from the new owners. Yep, the ol’ days are gone forever.

They always do that want to buy your car thing, my answer is "it's going to be a great car for our granddaughters 18th birthday present next year." They generally change the subject and walk away thinking that I won't be needing a new car for at least a year.

We did get a lot of solicitations from their Acura store in Ocala when used cars were in demand, but not while at the shop. IF you had any inclination to sell, ask them for their best cash offer and if acceptable take the cash and buy your next car elsewhere.

Just tell them you will be happy to sell it to them when the Cullinan you recently ordered is delivered.

Sure.

1) Decide what car you want to buy.

2) Decide how much you want to pay.

3) Go to a dealer who has the car you want to buy and offer them what you want to
pay.

4) If they accept you offer, give them the money and drive home in your new car.

5) If they do not accept your offer, then go back home.

6) Have a cup of coffee and realize the dealer would not accept your previous
offer. Then go back to step 2).

That works for my wife and me.

Calculate the fair value using KBB.com and Edmunds.com. Add sales tax, title, and tag fee. Then present that as a take it or leave price to the dealer. Do not negotiate, do not pay anything for dealer installed options, and do not pay anything for a dealer fee or a doc fee, or any other fees.

Do not trade in your old vehicle. Sell it to Carvana or Carmax. A dealer will never give as much as they will.

It's a game. On a service visit while playing this game I'm very attentive to the sales person taking up as much of his time possible. When service department pages me I politely leave and retrieve our vehicle.

Many years ago when my young adult daughter wanted to buy her first car I gave her a book. I think but am not sure it was 'The Car Buyer's Art' by Darrell Parrish, a former car salesman. My daughter is a reader and learns well that way. She has now bought many cars, some used, but mostly new, and seems to do OK.

I have many car buying war stories and can report each situation was different. It very much depends on the vehicle you want and when you want it. If it is the latest Corvette in September expect to pay more. If it is late February on a drizzly day and aging inventory of an unpopular model has been sitting on the lot four months expect to pay less. A couple of times the deal I made was apparently so good the salesman angrily stormed out of the room and refused to speak to me again, but I got the car at the price I wanted. lol. I have had them and sales managers get up and walk away without a word. I have left an offer and walked out and been stopped as I was opening my car door or received a call a day or three later telling me they would take my deal. I believe the more time a salesperson invests with a buyer the better deal a buyer can negotiate. If one starts out with a lowball offer with no salesperson time invested they just walk away. It is a rough and tumble no holds barred business.

The saddest event I ever witnessed at a car dealership was in the Virginia DC suburbs back in 1970. A recently widowed woman came in with her husband's highly collectible and valuable Mercedes SL in pristine condition. A salesman offered her peanuts for it on a trade-in. I was around the corner and several of the salesman were laughing it up big time at her being taken. It disgusted me.

Most of the dealerships where I have had my vehicles serviced in the last 30 years were modern facilities and have had their service manager offices adjacent or very near, as down a hall from, their sales floors. I usually wander onto to the sales floor if I am in for a short service and get approached by a salesperson. I just tell them my vehicle is being serviced and I am just biding my time. I have never been pushed to buy or get off the showroom floor. My ex-wife has been pushed to buy at the Mercedes dealership she uses, and not in a good way. It was on a used model Consumers Report reported was a lemon.

That's interesting.

Ever since we bought our 1994 Nissan Altima, every car buying experience has been the same.

The percentage of villagers who read this board is very small. They don't come here until they get taken by Tire Choice, Jenkins, Frank Gay...

Note that all three companies have fantastic online reviews from so-called customers. Most online reviews are a joke.

Wonder what the going rate is to be A rated?

Since 1990 I have bought four Toyotas (a Supra, two Tacomas and one Tundra), seven Mercedes Benz ( One SL, two S Class, three E class and one C class), a Porsche Cayenne S, three BMWs (a 323i, an X5 50i and an X5 M50i) and two GMC Acadias. Every negotiation experience was different.

After VaPeople’s response to how to buy a car, i suspect they have been taken by car salesmen many times and never realized it.

If you negotiate with a car salesman you will get taken. Make a firm offer, but do not negotiate. Period.

I agree about having a firm price in mind before even entering a dealership showroom. Yet a few times I have done even better than the firm price I had in mind so I normally offer less. There can be both publicized and unpublicized factory incentives, hold backs, a dealer needing to meet a sales quota, a sales person needing to sell one more unit to win l a trip to Hawaii, any number of factors.

Better yet only deal with the internet manager. Know the vehicle you want to purchase. Research what dealer cost is then make your call to the internet manager. He/she will have all your paperwork complete before you walk in the door. Pay and drive home. It is stress free.

Yes. I have done that when ordering an SUV. Even better the dealer made a pricing mistake in my favor which they honored and I got a 2017 X5 50i for $350 over dealer cost. The Newport Beach dealer was selling BMWs hand over fist over the internet and telephone to rich Chinese who at that time were buying up property in Orange County, CA. When I was in the dealership ordering my SUV a Chinese speaking salesman was in the next booth selling away. I could not believe they would sell me an expensive high demand SUV in a high demand area at a high demand time at such a low markup.

:a20: You just broke the glass on my Bee Ess meter.:jester:

My wife took our Passport there for the recall - nothing like that happened to her. Of course, she’s a retired Federal Agent and all she has to do is put a hand up and with “the look”, that will back people off. 😉

Oh, I forgot, also a VW V-8 Touareg.