It’s A Bad Thing (?) To Allow Scout Motors’ to sell cars directly to customers !

[85_Ranger4x4]

That seems like an outdated model as well. Every major part ove replaced on my truck, the dealer had to order anyway. The in entory/ supply chain is rather on the lean side these days. It's been happening a long time but COVID really pared things down. Not sure they bothered stocking to pre COVID levels. Too expensive

Oh it is, but it will play to the screeching for it to not happen if neither the automaker or dealership wants it to happen.

We tried to tank on consumables as much as we could. Filters, belts, sparkplugs and the like.

During Covid and the subsequent strike shortages we had a habit of stocking up on stuff when we could get it too. Some things like evap canisters and recalls we would have a waiting list going.

We were pretty lean, there is so much variance anymore it is hard to stock a lot of stuff without getting stuck with mountain of obsolete parts. A lot of stuff you will have to reschedule for anyway so as long as the supply chain holds up not having it on hand isn't a big deal.

 

[2025 deleted member]

That seems like an outdated model as well. Every major part ove replaced on my truck, the dealer had to order anyway. The in entory/ supply chain is rather on the lean side these days. It's been happening a long time but COVID really pared things down. Not sure they bothered stocking to pre COVID levels. Too expensive

A large part of that is the back orders cause parts are failing at an alarming rate

 

[sbrown77]

We only have the recent experience of last week in buying a New Vehicle to draw on. So my recollection may be a little fuzzy. It is a free country and the builder should be able to sell directly to the consumer. There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways of doing this.

If the buyer has questions they cannot hide behind the statement "I need to check with the manufacture!" You are the manufacture!

You have the manufacture to see what may have broke, when a problem arrives. They can not get out of blaming the middle man, they have no one besides themselves to blame but themselves.

Then the mentioned earlier statement you cut out the middleman, OR DO WE?

Either way you will want a person to take your order or explain to you about what they have for options. Maybe with AI they can cut out the job of the middle man (person, I do not want to riffle any feathers). Well may I do!or do not really care!

The selling person we had was a dip *******! They had a vehicle we wanted, with what we wanted on it. We test drove it and the wife said she wanted it, as it had what she wanted. It is a 2025 model and we did not want a 2026. when we tell the sales person. He starts the run around; that one is already sold;
We have a different on of a different color and most of the equipment she wanted;
I said search and see what the holding company has near by; he found one in Colorado. read the list of options,
other then mud flaps which the dealer could put on. We say OK pending our physical inspection.
As we are waiting for a opening in the Finance Office. The sales person came back and said it was another $650.oo for shipping.
I pointed to the price we were quoted for the vehicle the same as the one we agreed to that was sold already. It had about $1,500.oo for shipping included. I said Deal Breaker. OK the sale person says he will pay the shipping. We get the licensing and paperwork finished.
We get through with the paper work as this is a cash deal give them a $500.oo deposit. We are told 3 days and the vehicle will be in.
We will have a check waiting upon the vehicle arrival and inspection.
We get a call a day later with everything we wanted but wrong interior. It was closer and we could get it the next day. NO not what we want!
We get a call and the vehicle will be in a day later. then we were promised.
One more day and one more call! This time the sales person wants us to come in on that day and pay for it in full. He will get a bonus, for sales in a time frame. We say no we will check out the vehicle first. Salesman not so happy. Not my problem!

Now see why we need to have sales people. If we bought it from a manufacture we could avoid the holding company and we should get the vehicle with hopefully less B. S.. Then again maybe not!

At this time we should get it on Monday the 5th. I am not holding my breath.

Because of this middle man we Wife and myself) had a number of laughs at the dealership and at home. The important thing is as long as we have the money in our hand we have the power, not them.

Is their any person that does not know what the holding company is? Check it out! In short, they are a second middle man. Manufacture $$$$$, Shipper $, Holding Company $, Dealer$$, then you the consumer $$$$$$$.

All of this fun someone has to pay for it. $

I've owned a lot of vehicles and have always purchased from a private party. Last year, I was searching for a hard to find used vehicle and it showed up at my local dealer. Your experience mirrors mine.

Never, ever again will I buy from a dealer and frankly I'm not sure why anyone would. I'm grateful i do my own maintenance. The $75 air filters, $35 light bulb changes, $100 wiper blades...I get it, they make money on maintenance, but it's a joke at this point. Dealerships did this to themselves.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

A large part of that is the back orders cause parts are failing at an alarming rate

Nope. A large part of that is that it's expensive to purchase and store large amounts of inventory that is less likely to be needed.

There are parts for an 11 year old truck that I cant even get brand new from the dealer anymore

 

[ThundahBeagle]

I've owned a lot of vehicles and have always purchased from a private party. Last year, I was searching for a hard to find used vehicle and it showed up at my local dealer. Your experience mirrors mine.

Never, ever again will I buy from a dealer and frankly I'm not sure why anyone would. I'm grateful i do my own maintenance. The $75 air filters, $35 light bulb changes, $100 wiper blades...I get it, they make money on maintenance, but it's a joke at this point. Dealerships did this to themselves.

My experience with buying my 2006 Honda Civic Si brand new from the dealer was actually very good. October 2006. Went very well, great dang car, and I took advantage of every dealer freebie old change and maintenance I could. There was a little bit of "let me talk to my manager" but I knew by October they were trying to eliminate same year on favor of next year models.

Meanwhile, my experience at a Chevy dealer when the Trail Boss came out, was abysmal. I had added up all the possible incentives and give backs and came to a number. Told the guy I didn't have time to argue and wait for him to talk to his manager, I knew they could hit that number. The second time he went back to talk to his manager, I left. The next week i was driving a slightly older, much nicer appointed but much less expensive, used GMC from another dealer who didnt F v ki with me when we talked numbers. I'm STILL driving it. God willing it will continue to do well by me, though at a buck 40 it need some maintenance again.

You know you are right about the $75 air filters and $100 wiper blades. I buy parts wherever I can find good parts inexpensively - the auto parts store and sometimes it's even at the dealer ! - and install as much as I can myself. If the repair is beyond me I'm always trying to keep a bevy of honest local mechanics in mind.

 

[2025 deleted member]

Nope. A large part of that is that it's expensive to purchase and store large amounts of inventory that is less likely to be needed.

There are parts for an 11 year old truck that I cant even get brand new from the dealer anymore

Try and get valvetrain for a 5.3 or 6.2 or cams for a pentastar. There ain’t none because they fail faster than they can make them

 

[FrenchieXJ]

A update on the RAV4 wife's vehicle some day!

Today we got a call. the RAV4 it may be on a auto haulers truck some where. They do not think they will know when it will make it to Albuquerque, NM. from the Denver, CO.. When the salesman called we put the phone on speaker, so we could both hear it. We thanked them, they think, that they will find out where it is on Monday. We laughed after they hung up it is nice to see them squirm, because we still hold the power the cash in our hand! Most people or at least my wife and myself have always been excited about when we get a new car. This time we are just relaxed about the whole thing. I probably should get excited about this for the boss, but neither of us are worried.

 

[cricketwagon]

Dealerships are usually coupled with service centers. It is obvious that people don't buy cars every day, so an independent business isn't sustainable if it's only selling cars. The issue is EVs require significantly less maintenance, which makes it impossible for a service center part of the business to be sustainable either. Tesla, Rivian, Lucid all sell their vehicles direct.

 

[FrenchieXJ]

Well a update on the Rav4 we were waiting for! They called and said it was in so we got it last night. A very good thing is the wife is happy! The bad thing is the wife is ticked off as it turns out to big a very big computer with wheels. She already has a 6 month old computer.

I am so glad that she is the one who wanted this and not me! That means she has to figure out the Damn laptop computer herself. This car has about as many wires as the space shuttle has in it. When the sales person team helper took her out to go over some of the major components. (I offered her support, as I stood outside of the drivers door listening.) The mid 20 years old was talking at about 160 MPH. As I listened I thought she was talking fast enough, for a airplane to take off and the car did not have wings.

When we got home she asked me some questions about stuff in the Owners Manual. In a polite way I told her "I taught you how to rock over boulders, cross rivers, plow through mud, float over sand dunes climb and descend mountains. You are a fantastic driver, but on this you are on your own! In a recent posting of mine I posted "See I can sometimes be a nice guy, just do not count on it again soon. I am limited to only once a quarter. Any more then that might become habit forming." So I have used up the first quarter nice guy of this year already.

Karen is very smart person! She has researched all of her vehicles and knows what she has bought. This one they got one over on her.

This is the curse of not having kids, in today,s world!

A lot has changed since we bought our last cars. What we have are 2016 the Tacoma, 4runner and 2009 JKU we had until this one.

I now love my Jeep more the ever now!

 

[Dougnuts]

I purchased a Tesla Model Y last year and the buying experience was phenomenal. Zero pressure, mostly done on my phone, and signing and paperwork took 15 minutes. It would have been 5-10 minutes had it not been our first time.

10/10, would recommend.

 

[Charles R]

The manufacturer could easily compensate independent mechanics in areas to work on these. Have key shops that go thru some training and have some specific tools- this would be much cheaper than dedicated dealers and their associated costs

It sounds good at first. But independents would, and should, never work for the labor rates the manufacturers want to pay. Remember, there's a reason there's currently a huge shortage of qualified mechanics in the dealership world.

A big part of it is because the manufacturers will only pay about half the labor time for "warranty work" than a "customer pay" customer would pay. (often times even less, and they're always cutting the times further, with little recourse) Some may think that's somewhat fair... but in reality it means mechanics HAVE to become a generic parts swapper just to make a reasonable paycheck. And any respectable tech wants to avoid that as much as possible. But that always punishes the techs in the end.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

It sounds good at first. But independents would, and should, never work for the labor rates the manufacturers want to pay. Remember, there's a reason there's currently a huge shortage of qualified mechanics in the dealership world.

A big part of it is because the manufacturers will only pay about half the labor time for "warranty work" than a "customer pay" customer would pay. (often times even less, and they're always cutting the times further, with little recourse) Some may think that's somewhat fair... but in reality it means mechanics HAVE to become a generic parts swapper just to make a reasonable paycheck. And any respectable tech wants to avoid that as much as possible. But that always punishes the techs in the end.

This!

Add in dealership drama and that is why people are walking. Techs don't actually work for Ford, each dealer is its own business. No idea where you would have to go to get 6 figures...

My brother was a Sr Master Ford tech at a dealer for 16 years, was at a previous dealer for a few years so he has almost 20 years of experience. Small dealer and he was actually their only fully certified tech. Dealer got bought out (still a small dealer, nothing really changed but the management and name) and poof, he was a new employee and lost his PTO (no PTO until after a year). That was the year he got married so he couldn't go on a honeymoon, something better came along so he bounced...

 

[douglastic]

Dealerships are usually coupled with service centers. It is obvious that people don't buy cars every day, so an independent business isn't sustainable if it's only selling cars. The issue is EVs require significantly less maintenance, which makes it impossible for a service center part of the business to be sustainable either. Tesla, Rivian, Lucid all sell their vehicles direct.

You should see what Audi charges for the $10 cabin filter and $3 coolant drip canister every 20k miles on their e-trons.
Justified by "all the EV computer diagnostic tests" only they can do.

The problem is people actually PAY it.

 

[Todd780]

Well a update on the Rav4 we were waiting for! They called and said it was in so we got it last night. A very good thing is the wife is happy! The bad thing is the wife is ticked off as it turns out to big a very big computer with wheels. She already has a 6 month old computer.

I am so glad that she is the one who wanted this and not me! That means she has to figure out the Damn laptop computer herself. This car has about as many wires as the space shuttle has in it. When the sales person team helper took her out to go over some of the major components. (I offered her support, as I stood outside of the drivers door listening.) The mid 20 years old was talking at about 160 MPH. As I listened I thought she was talking fast enough, for a airplane to take off and the car did not have wings.

When we got home she asked me some questions about stuff in the Owners Manual. In a polite way I told her "I taught you how to rock over boulders, cross rivers, plow through mud, float over sand dunes climb and descend mountains. You are a fantastic driver, but on this you are on your own! In a recent posting of mine I posted "See I can sometimes be a nice guy, just do not count on it again soon. I am limited to only once a quarter. Any more then that might become habit forming." So I have used up the first quarter nice guy of this year already.

Karen is very smart person! She has researched all of her vehicles and knows what she has bought. This one they got one over on her.

This is the curse of not having kids, in today,s world!

A lot has changed since we bought our last cars. What we have are 2016 the Tacoma, 4runner and 2009 JKU we had until this one.

I now love my Jeep more the ever now!

Frenchie,

Did she get one of the newly redesigned 2026's? Not sure if 2025's were still being delivered to dealers...

 

[2025 deleted member]

It sounds good at first. But independents would, and should, never work for the labor rates the manufacturers want to pay. Remember, there's a reason there's currently a huge shortage of qualified mechanics in the dealership world.

A big part of it is because the manufacturers will only pay about half the labor time for "warranty work" than a "customer pay" customer would pay. (often times even less, and they're always cutting the times further, with little recourse) Some may think that's somewhat fair... but in reality it means mechanics HAVE to become a generic parts swapper just to make a reasonable paycheck. And any respectable tech wants to avoid that as much as possible. But that always punishes the techs in the end.

The market would easily set the labor number. Currently the manufacturers do that. Making excuses for the manufacturers and dealers does no favor for the consumer