Dealership experiences database?
Obviously a distinction needs to be made between company and dealership. While VW itself and the product it manufactures has problems which have been documented here and in other sites, such problems are either alleviated or exacerbated by the direct contact consumers have concerning their car: the dealership.
I know I used to throw out the link to a site where dealerships were rated, but many have correctly pointed out that a rating is subjective, and doesn’t help much if any Tom, Dick, or Jane can go to that site and put down whatever rating they felt like, especially if Tom is a VW rep for that dealership.
Instead, perhaps we should develop our own little database of dealerships across America (and why not, the world), where you can list a dealership and relate your experience with them in a clear and concise way. Others who have visited said dealership can also weigh in with their comments. Dealerships would be divided into the three basic departments: sales, service, and parts, as I know from experience that a dealership may have excellent sales but horrible service.
The comments will be the only subjective aspect of the listing, no ratings will be made, so a listing cannot be ranked, a person visiting the site can only search for a particular dealership and read up on the experiences of others.
For now I would keep the experiences locked to those who have registered on this site, though if anyone feels I should open it up to visitors, feel free to say so.
On the flip-side, I am working on expanding user profiles to list the cars they own and their experiences with them, broken down as pros and cons. 
Edit: my misspelling of exacerbated was bugging me.
Post edited 03/31/05 2:36 AM by paultakeda
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mpetro Said,
March 30, 2005 @ 10:57 am
Dealership experiences database? – Sounds good. Whats you background in dealing with VW or cars in general.
hunkajunkvw Said,
March 30, 2005 @ 11:38 am
Dealership experiences database? – What a joke.
297 Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 1:18 am
Dealership experiences database? – It has nothing to do with my background, it has everything to do with the experiences users of this forum have had with dealerships.
The forum is already a good place to discuss grievances and issues concerning a specific model and year of car, but for dealerships it’s not as effective. Establishing a listing of dealerships that users of this forum have personally encountered would provide a better way for visitors to gain information on a dealership near them.
hunkajunkvw — what’s the joke? you would rather keep your thoughts on the dealerships you’ve experienced to yourself?
297 Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 1:30 am
Dealership experiences database? – I’ve set up the zipcode, city, and state table, so dealerships are searchable based on proximity to a user-selected location. This will probably be online by the end of this week, though it won’t be of much use until users start entering in the dealerships they love to hate and their experiences with them.
Dealership experiences will be limited to basically three input fields from the user: the date of the experience, the department (sales, service, or parts), and a brief comment (or long diatribe).
Again, no rating system will be made — a visitor will have to find a dealership by location and read the comments to get an idea of how that dealership treats its customers.
I’ll probably enforce some sort of rule on repeated identical postings and a minimum number of words so as to fully prevent “”spamming”" a dealership with good or bad news (naturally, I expect 90% of the comments to be bad news as for most, no news is good news).
Whether or not this section of the site will grow and become useful will be completely up to you folks.
hunkajunkvw Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 1:46 am
Dealership experiences database? – Paul..you like to hear yourself talk
297 Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 2:21 am
Dealership experiences database? – Yep, and you’ve yet to explain your negativity towards this feature.
Post edited 03/31/05 2:23 AM by paultakeda
hunkajunkvw Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 2:39 am
Dealership experiences database? – Anyone that loggs into this site- you have the IP address. What is the problem? You really should alert dealers now.
297 Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 2:51 am
Dealership experiences database? – Ah. This goes back to the whole “I’m here to screw the users of this forum now that it is in my evil clutches” theory. Good. I can disregard it, then.
hunkajunkvw Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 3:20 am
Dealership experiences database? – No not really Paul. I find you jump to faulty assumptions and conclusions. Really, you have such an inability to see anything that is already programmed into your brain. So, did you say you dont have IP addresses from this site? Just checking
297 Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 9:22 am
Other sites with similar databases – 1.8T.org VW/Audi Dealership Ratings
CarDealerReports
297 Said,
March 31, 2005 @ 10:05 am
Dealership experiences database? – That’s funny. I found that you jumped to faulty assumptions and conclusions when, assuming that VW enthusiasts are brand-loyal to the point of being blind to its faults, you concluded you were getting screwed because Rick left this site to a VW enthusiast.
I have proposed a feature that I think will enhance this site. You have yet to explain why you think this is a bad idea. You’ve scoffed and danced, but you’ve decided to be enigmatic instead of helpful.
Here, I’ll play one more time: do you think that once a database of dealerships is on this site, and since this site, like all forums out there, stores user IPs, VW will have something actionable as to litigate their way into the user IP table in the database?
Now I’m done playing your game. Sitting here playing “”guess what hunkajunkvw is thkinking”" and getting insulted for not getting it right is not the best way to provide your input on this proposal. If you have something to say, then say it. Otherwise, why bother?
peterd1965 Said,
April 2, 2005 @ 1:51 am
Sounds Great!
Sounds Great! – Paul,
I think you have a great idea here. I ACTUALLY DO have many years in the car business and am quite aware of how a bad dealerhsip can defame a manufacturer. So are the manufacturers… but sell enough units and slack will be granted.
Would it be feasible to seperate a dealer sales experiece vs. a service experience. These could be vastly different. Some dealerships (I said some and I am including all manufacturers) are keenly aware that selling the car is nice, but the real money is in either selling a lot of cars or service itself. A shopper will find that they can get an identical car for within a couple of hundred bucks at almost any dealer. Today service is the issue and I have never seen a manufacturer with such vast differences in service costs as I have with VW dealers.
297 Said,
April 2, 2005 @ 6:00 am
Dealership experiences database? – The database will allow reviews in three different categories for a dealership: sales, service, and parts.
I separated parts and service as they are two different departments (the two dealerships I personally experienced differ in that one has excellent service but a lackluster and uninformed parts department while the other has a stellar parts counter with decent prices but a service department that is curt, impersonal, and condescending to the customer.
297 Said,
April 12, 2005 @ 12:14 pm
Dealership database and reviews are now open. – A catch-all category of “General” has been added in addition to the three mentioned above.