NasaMan

The Vette, the best bang for the buck and the best sport looking car on the market.....now, I could get that out the way. I have a Q which will regard ONLY to those of you have or had owned Mercedes or BMW, Porsche, Lexus, Infiniti etc,
Q: What do you guys think that people who are currently owning 1 of those car listed above will be expecting from Chevy if they plan to purchase the Vette. This is regarding of Chevy's organiziations, their sales manner, customer service, and Chevy's facilities. Thanks in millions.

kenw

Many post with problems and almost outright hatred of GM. It must depend on the individual dealers. My dealer has been great, very proffessional and helpful. Also they have a first class Corvette mechanic.

EuroRod

As I've posted before, I think GM should pull the Corvette brand from all but one dealership in a given area. Make the dealership earn the honor of selling the Corvette with technical and customer service and expertise over and above their competing dealers. Yes, I know that would hurt competition on pricing, but I think it would be worth the additional few dollars we would have to pay for the car. Some dealers should just not have the brand. Period! Their sales and service staffs are all idiots that would have trouble selling ice in Key West. Zero product knowledge on the Corvette. When I bought my car, the service manager did not know that MN6 cars had to be put in reverse to shut down the electronics. Put two new batteries in my car in one day. Idiots, just uneducated idiots. I wouldn't let them change the air filter on my car.

shopdog

Chevy has a very well deserved negative reputation with regard to sales and especially service. Any informed buyer should be aware of this. OTOH, it is a Chevy, which means a huge aftermarket, and a very large dealer and independent service network across the country, which isn't the case for most of the import exotics. So if you're a driver rather than a waxer, you can venture out unafraid that breakdowns along the road will leave you many hundreds of miles from the nearest source of parts and service.

arcticblast

I think that customer service plays a large role in how we view brands.
I owned a Lexus SC400. Great car, super smooth, and I loved the looks of the car. One thing that pushed me over the edge was a Lexus policy. Let me explain...
The lighted fuel gage needle on my dash was going out, with the needle only illuminating intermittently. This made the gage useless at night and hard to read during the day.
I order a new fuel gage (only $278 plus installation-not inexpensive). After the gage came in, when I was scheduling an appt. with the dealer, I was informed that sometimes changing this part could cause the whole dash to go out (a $1000 piece plus more installation). I said "why would I be responsible if they broke one piece while changing another?" they replied "Lexus policy". I called another Lexus dealer and they said they had the same policy. I called Lexus and they confirmed it was company policy.
Then the C6's came out. Sex on wheels. What a great car.
Since then I've found that some dealers really suck, but a few Chevy dealers have even more respect and concern for their customers. These are the dealers that I'll continue to do business with.
While the smoothness of my C6 has been less than the Sc400, the performance is so much greater, I feel I've made the right choice. Plus there's a great Corvette community of really great people, like the guys on this forum.

TCW

As a current BMW owner I find that the Chevy service depts are a joke compared to the BMW service depts.

This wasn't a real shock to me though because I've owned Vette's all my life. I guess my shock was how good non GM service depts are.

In my opinion, the build quality of the Vette is a bit better than the BMW. The materials the C6 is made of are better too.

Tom

VET4LES

I've bought new Mercedes and Infiniti's and the dealer experience is nothing like buying a Chevrolet. There is a big difference. Chevrolet has a long way to go and I don't think they are interested in going there.

johnodrake

By in large the service I have received from Sterling Chevrolet has been on par with the BMW dealership and the Lexus dealership and the Acura dealership that I have frequented over the last several years (2Vetts, 2 BMWs 3 Lexus)

alpief

I unloaded a 2001 BMW 540i/6m/sport package/Dinan and got a Victory Red 2006 C6/6M/LT3. As far as the buying experience, the Chevy dealers I visited don't hold a candle to BMW (or Acura and Lexus which we've also owned). The dealer we bought from was your typical linoleum-floored "I'm gonna make you a great deal" place. About what we expected.

However, in terms of service, we've been using Pohanka Chevy in Fairfax, Virginia (NOT the dealer we bought from). Their service department puts our BMW dealer to shame. My 540 was terrible in terms of reliability (two recalls in the first year, the kind where if you had the problem, the car caught fire, clutch replaced at 23,000 miles, lots of little electrical/electronic stuff). If you needed service, it took at least a week to get an appointment with the dealer. My car came out of the shop covered from front to back with bird droppings once (very representative of the general level of service). This was the kind of "service" we got on a luxury sport car that cost $60K 5 years ago. No more German cars for me.

The Pohanka Chevy service department is completely the opposite. If you have a problem, the response from the guy who is their Corvette service writer is "when do you want to come in? Tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, right now? Whenever. Just come in and we'll fix the car". Our experience there has been excellent (the same with Pohanka's Acura and Lexus dealers who are next door to the Chevy dealership).

So to answer the question what does somebody expect who's owned a BMW, Lexus, etc, I got exactly what I expected when I bought the 'vette, kind of a down and dirty blue collar sales pitch. As far as service goes, MUCH better than we expected.

BuckyThreadkiller

If you like to be pampered at the service department, consider another make of vehicle. Chevy is utilitarian at best.

Larry B.

I have no complaints what so ever with my dealer here in Orlando. Excellent service, Yes sir treatment all the way. High quality work done one time. The Corvette service writer drives a C5. They sell lots of Corvettes. I know there are other dealers I wouldn't buy a lawn mower from.

NasaMan

THank you all.

saplumr

I've had a bunch of Mercedes and loved them all. While you are pampered with good service, to think that Merz is high quality with no quality issues is rediculous. I would grade my Vette well above any Merz quality issues I ever had.

FunDriver

If you go into the purchase with your eyes open, it will be ok. You just have to understand that you get the enjoyment of a Corvette from the driving, not the dealer. With the Lexus, I can expect considerably more pampering in both the car and dealership, but it doesn't give me the big smile that I get from driving the Corvette. .

gordonboss

Larry B. You have a P.M.

Robin Blue

What you get is a hot looking car that is fast, well made and afforadable. Forget about the organiziation.

EuroRod

That gal's butt just scratched your door

sly1

Q: What do you guys think that people who are currently owning 1 of those car listed above will be expecting from Chevy if they plan to purchase the Vette. This is regarding of Chevy's organiziations, their sales manner, customer service, and Chevy's facilities. Thanks in millions.

Unfortunatey there's only one Chevy Dealer that's convenient to me, and it's because of their sales and service department that I wouldn't consider buying a C6.

When I went into their showroon it was like going into a time warp since nothing had changed since the last time I bought a Vette in 1970. After the salesman showed me the C6, the sales manager came out and immediately began to pressure me to buy the car. I hadn't even taken the car on a test drive, and the guy was immediately trying to close the deal. I had to really restrain myself from laughing since they were so inept.

The service area was really the pits. It was dirty and disorganized. They had a waiting area for people having their car serviced (of course loaners aren't an option), and it was literally the pits - dirty floor and walls and furniture with holes in it. Interestingly enough there's a Cadillac/Jaguar Dealer about two miles from this Chevy Dealer that appears to be top notch - beautiful service area and luxurios waiting area.

Over the last 25 years my wife and I have owned BMWs, Audis, Porsches, and Infinitis. The service at the Dealers selling the German cars was good but the service at the Infiniti Dealer near me is extraordinary. First off you are treated like royalty when you visit the showroom which by the way is immaculate. There's zero pressue, friendly sales people, and of course refreshments are always being offered. The service area is state of the art and extremely clean and well organized. The service waiting area is luxurious and gratis internet access is available. Despite this there's generally no one in the waiting area since a complimentary loaner is always offered. The loaner BTW is a low mileage Infiniti and not some clunker that some other Dealers may offer.

I could offer many examples of this Dealer's extraordinary service, but here's just one that typifies the way they treat their customers. The leather driver's seat of my wife's Q45 was slightly discolored. It wasn't anything that was really bad, but I thought that it wouldn't hurt to mention it to the SA. The car was four years old and had around 45K miles on the odometer. The SA looked at the seat and said that it shouldn't be discolored like that and set up an appointment to replace the leather seat. When I went to pick up the car after the repair, I was astounded to find out that the leather on both front seats was replaced. Apparently the leather of the replaced seat didn't exactly match the leather of the existing seat, so the SA deided to replace both seats.

Needless to say that we are very loyal to this Dealer.

mforman42

I've owned Lexus, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, etc. over the years.

Porsche service is fine if you just do whatever they say and spend the big bucks. They'll treat you like a king. Even in the '70s, $300 routine service visits were the norm. OTOH, if you have a problem, it is never the fault of the car (according to Porsche); it is driver error. I had a 911 with an A/C unit that would only work when it was cool. Never did get it fixed right. And you can't just go to the dealer down the street.

Lexus dealers are hit and miss. I owned high end cars (an LS400 and an SC400), and had as many bad experiences as good in service. I finally got tired of replacing the same part over and over on my SC and dumped Lexus for good.

I could go on, but suffice it to say that expectations are more important than reality. When people rank Southwest Airlines above say American, it just shows that for a low fare they have low expectations. The same applies to cars. When I take my Jag XJR in for service, I expect better than when I take my Vette in. My Jag dealer hasn't disappointed me, even though I hold them to a higher standard.

I also have been able to find a Chevy dealer that does a good job with Vettes. In addition, of course, I can always 'walk' if they don't treat me right. The Jag dealer is the only one within several hundred miles.

Duke/Earl

I had four BMW's before going over to Corvette. I dealt with two different BMW dealers. One was the worst dealership of any make I have ever seen (sales dept & service dept), the other was adequate. With a BMW you always have a list of 4 to 5 warranty items everytime you take it in. The adequate dealer would be able to fix most but not all on the first visit. I would rate my Chevy dealer adequate. My Ford dealer (truck) is better than either. One thing to keep in mind is that BMW is now using Enterprise Car Rental for their loaners just like most of the others. Chevy dealers are not that impressive, but neither are the upscale dealers.