with the current situation will/have dealer's staff take a pay cut to bring down the cost's off servicing etc ?

Can't see how that would change peoples perceptions of dealers, when so many ignorant people refer to them as 'stealers'.

Wages in the motor trade are not great, what eats into the money and hence has to paid for by the customer are the demands of the manufacturer/importer. There are building costs (image is everything), they are not given freedom of choice in that everthing (clothing, computer systems, signage, furniture etc., which are all at inflated prices), have to come from approved sources. There are also compulsory issues of service tools and initial dealer stock parts upon new model launches.

There is also the price of non compliance. The manufacturer/importer invariably have direct access to the dealers bank account. There are fines imposed for not following procedures, having non prepared cars in the used car area and in the case of an upmarket Japanese brand for not having the correct magazines in the customer waiting area.

Also to have any hope of keeping on top of these standards, you need to have to employ someone solely to do this job, or at the very least have sub contractors in to get the dealer to the standard and then delegate this responsibility to an existing member of staff. Either way it is non productive time that has to be paid for by the customer.

What sets dealers apart from non franchised garages?, essentially it's their product knowledge and access to the manufacturer/importer. This takes the form of compulsory training (which has to be paid for, along with travel/accomodation expenses and wages) and direct access to dealer sales/parts systems which are charged for by the month.

Then there are other odds and ends, motor trade insurance, liability insurance, PRS licence (as customers like to listen to the radio), heating, light, rent, inventory (parts and vehicles), fuel, VAT.

I have known my boss take a customer out the front to have a look at the sign and asking 'Where on that sign does it say charity?'

These are hard times and I don't see any employess taking a pay cut, I also don't see them getting a pay rise either. These days more than ever you have a choice as to where you get your car serviced, but you have no choice with warranty work. So if your local dealer goes under, you'll have to travel further.

If you want cheaper dealer servicing, getting the manufacturer/importer to give the dealer more freedom to run their own business would have a greater impact on the labour rate than an employee wage cut.

Well if you mean widespread redundancies and dealers closing everywhere....yes.

No bonus or overtime for the last six months at least.

My dealer gives me good prices which are actually less than some indy dealers.

Sure some places come in cheaper, but at least with a dealer I get piece of mind and they are a good bunch.

I do feel that the enforced glass palace syndrome causes them no end of problem.

I do feel that the enforced glass palace syndrome causes them no end of problem.

I'd much prefer a better deal on a new car than sitting in some glass palace.

As an example some Land Rover dealers charge a MINIMUM of £80 an hour labour, thats for cars over 3 years old. Some of their top end models attract £140+ an hour.

Out of that, their technicians will get about £10-13 an hour............

So, why would the staff reduce their pay rate?

My local Skoda dealer (Chathams in Fife) have an hourly rate of £50 which compared to the above isnt that bad really is it?

Steve

We are taking pay cuts not to attract buisness but to simply stay in business.

I'd much prefer a better deal on a new car than sitting in some glass palace.

I agree, I'd rather have good service at a better price than a glass palace.

I'm sure the dealers would too as they could probably drop the price to £60 and keep £40 to pay staff etc than just in maintaining the palace.

£50 an hour labour rate, cheap compared to the others in Bicester...Bonus what ******bonus

Phil

We are an independent garage and charge 40.00 an hour.The local dealers are min 70/80.00 per hour,but recently have been price matching. I have no problem with this as we can easily hold our own. What i do have a problem in is the attitude of some (not all) dealers have about us smaller guys.

For years the dealers have been slagging us little guys off spouting on about product knowladge and that as they had product knowladge then the car owner was wasting money by bringing cars to us as we did not have this product knowladge. Now fast forward 5 years and the dealers are now advertising "services on all makes from 59.00". MMMmmmm now where is product knowladge?

We recently had a Nissan that had been to a Vauxhall dealer for a 59.00 service. (the bill actually came to 240.00 but that is another story).They had used and lited the wrong oil for this type of engine and this caused a problem with the Lambda sensor.They did not want to know and even offererd the guy a 50.00 voucher for his next visit!!!

It cost the guy nearly 200.00 to fix so for his "cheap" dealer service in my opinion it was not the best move he had made.Product knowladge,ha.

You'll beleft with so few dealers, those that can survive will be able to charge what they like.

It's not rocket science that not every town in the land can sustain a Ford/Vauxhall/Vag dealer with others in the next town, less than 5-10 miles away. Some even have 4 different dealers for the same marque like MK and Northampton.

And it's not always the biggest that will survive. Recent events have made that clear. It's all about running costs and your credit/cash flow. If you rely heavily credit to survive/keep cash flowing, then things dont look good.

I take mine to skoda every time. lightcliffe skoda huddersfield were I got the car in 05 then they changed to DM keiths and i took her to lightcliffe in Halifax then just to keep it with lightcliffe.

my last service n cam belt was at a skoda place in cornwall as i was there and it needed doin.

I dont think you can beat the dealer unless you have a locak fella who you know and trust.

I like the peice of mind that skoda should know what a skoda car needs.

billy

I went in a local Mini and Honda dealer a couple of Saturday's back and they were so busy that there were no sales staff available to talk too. Partly because some people seem to be out taking advantage of the apparent discounts and perhaps mostly because they've made a load of sales staff redundant.