Dealer dealer profits

Anonymous Poster · May 10, 2002

Ask yourself this question....Is it better to buy a tractor from a dealer who can be sucessful (via holding his profit margins) ..so he can have a Service, Parts and Sales Dept. that can address your needs promptly and professionally or a dealer who gives it away (profit margins) so you can feel the frustrations of having to deal with his lack of service,due to lack of profits??...as for me..Quality in the dealership is as important as the quality of the product......

JoeR · May 11, 2002

As a consumer I am unable to identify a dealer's profit margins. Yet, a resonable price and a strong reputation will persuade my decision making. I look for integrity, and a well informed dealer.

It is not my concern how much money a dealer makes. If he wants to sell, then he will be competitive. If he wants to stay in business, then he/she will put the customer first. If a dealer chooses lower profits and compensates with poor quality service, then he will not stay in business long.

Ask yourself this: How much is a dealer's reputation worth?

Joe R

banjobj · May 12, 2002

Profit is not a dirty word!!!!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

skipperbrown · May 12, 2002

As I told my local dealer when negotiating my bx2200: "I want you to make a living, but I don't want you to get rich, off of me anyway!"

mark

steveky · May 21, 2002

I know they make a profit or they wouldn't be in business for long. I was talking with 4 different dealers before I purchased my tractor. One was only 6 miles from my home and is the only dealer for Stihl equipment. I've been to that dealer several times and left mad due to their arrogance and indifferent approach to helping their customers. At the dealership I purchased from the salesman offered to meet me after hours so I could drive any tractor they had and called to keep in touch. I'm not sure how good the service dept. is but the salesman did a great job of helping me decide on which tractor was right for my needs.

Anonymous Poster · May 22, 2002

Go for the price. Any dealer worth his salt is going to do warrenty work, they get paid directly from the maker and get paid at the book rate!! If you can get a good price and the people give you a warm and fuzzy jump on it. Be aware that their are alot of dealers that quote one price over the phone then forget that the rebate/shipping ect was incorrect. I recently dealt on line and got a price then made some changes two weeks later when I realized it really was a good price. The price jumped $900.00. Asked about the jump and dog gonned if the price didn't jump another $1000.00. 16 days and the price jumped $1900.00 and I am going to buy on line? Not any more with tractors, I am going to see exactly what I am buying.

kyoders · May 23, 2002

My Kubota dealer claims that the rate paid for warranty work isn't enough to be worthwhile. I overheard a conversation he was having with somebody on the phone (I was already in his office, so he knew I couldn't help but overhear), and the gist of it was, if you bought it from him, he would do your warranty work. If you didn't, he wouldn't. You would have to pay for the service, whether it was under warranty or not. He also claimed that the other dealers around us had the same policy. Since I bought it from him, I don't know how rigid the policy is. He could have been trying to get rid of a troublesome person, too. I don't know.

The "book" rate for servicing things is usually pretty close, on average. But there can always be things that make the actual time more or less. If you were consistently taking longer than the "book" time, I might be reluctant to do the work, too.

Kevin

Mark_in_NH · May 23, 2002

<font color=blue>"You would have to pay for the service, whether it was under warranty or not."</font color=blue>

In my opinion, that was a statement made by the dealer to invoke a reaction. Which it did !! You bought from him.
He can not Make you pay for warrenty work, irrelevent of where you bought the tractor. However, he can shift your repairs etc. to the back burner while he takes care of those that Did purchase from him. I find this to be a common and acceptable practice whether it is a tractor dealer or any other type vehicle dealer.

skipperbrown · May 23, 2002

In the auto industry, warranty work is considered lucative. I would imagine it is so in the tractor industry. Otherwise, it would be difficult to get dealers to do the work. Any authorized dealer will do your warranty work for you. However, you will probably have to wait in line behind the guy that bought from the shop (unless your warranty work pays more than the guy in front of you-see below).

In the auto industry, all labor work is based on standard times. Generally the guys w/ seniority get to chose from the work available for that day first. They pick the jobs w/ the standard times that they can beat. So a worker may work 8 hours but get paid for 10 std hours. I bet it is the same for tractors.

mark

kyoders · May 23, 2002

Mark,

No, he can't make you pay for the work, but is he obligated to work on it at all? I don't know what kind of agreements the dealers have with Kubota. My experience with warranties on other items suggests that an authorized warranty service provider can't refuse to do legitimate warranty work. I know I've had warranty work done on my car by dealers other than the one I bought from. But then, those were American car companies, and I've heard the "book" times are generous enough that the provider is not likely to ever lose money on the warranty work (actually, they should make at least a reasonable profit). I just don't know if Japanese tractor companies are as generous. My dealer suggests otherwise. In either event, the dealer ended up doing a pretty good deal for me, so I saw no reason to try to go anywhere else. They are only 5 miles from my house.

Kevin