65vettish said:
this is VERY true!
you can't fault a dealer for trying to make a few dollars and staying in business but just be aware of that before hand but as mentioned in return you should get some peace of mind that a good dealer will work with you if you have a problem to protect hid reputation.
As an example: when I was searching for my car last winter and spring I was willing to look ar cars from anyone, whether it was a private individual or a dealer, so long as i could find the right car for me. I ended up finding the car I purchased at a dealer. If it was at a private individual instead that would have been fine also and perhaps i might have saved a few bucks buying it but it turns out it was at a dealer, it was the car i wanted and i think the price for what the car was was very fair, especially compared to others I had already looked at.
As it turns out i ended up getting VERY lucky indeed that I happened to buy from a dealer because afterwards I found what could have been a MAJOR problem with the car. If i purchased from a private person they would have said "sorry, tough luck - it's your car and your problem now". Instead, I called the dealer I purchased the car from, explained the problem and they were very concerned about making me happy and insisted I bring the car back for them to look at. After analysing the problem it was determined there were two methods available to fix the problem. One was a "quick fix" that really would have been relatively easy and fast for them and may have done the job adaquetly, or a MUCH more labor intensive fix involving pulling the motor from the car and doing it 100% right and making sure the problem was fixed so it would last as long as that car existed. I'm sure most dealers would have opted for ther fast, easy fix to keep their costs down but this dealer who I now greatly respect (NOT ProTeam), went the extra length and did the more labor intensive repair. Thier theory is that although they sold me a 40yo used car with no warranty they stand behind everything they sell and if it's not right they want to make it right and make their customer happy. If they went with the cheapo repair and it didn't hold they felt they would have felt the responsibility to redo it again a few more years down the road and it wasn't worth it - better to do it right the first time!
This dealer even sold me the car under the condition that I could drive it with unlimited milage and I had 2 weeks to return it for any reason if I felt it just wasn't the right car for me.
Sure, I paid a few dollars more from the dealer because he was a dealer but the 2 weeks "trial period" gave me the peace of mind mentioned in the previous post, and how the dealer treated the problem I ended up having gave me an even better peace of mind afterwards.
Don't misundestand me, I'm not trying to "push" you toward buying from a dealer over a private person, but IF you found the car you really want at a dealer and it's maybe a few dollars more than you expected, try nogotiating and also see how that dealer will treat you as a customer after the sale (just as you are on here asking about ProTeam now). Dealers aren't bad per se, but there are some bad ones out there to aviod and there are some very good ones that are really trying to work hard and sell people a good car at a fair price and try to treat their customers well - the trick it finding the right dealer. i'm very lucky I found one myself. I look at it this way; some dealers are "typical used car dealers" - these are the ones to avoid. Other dealers are really more true Vette enthusiasts and are very concerned about the quality of the cars they handle and sell and the happiness of their fellow Vette enthusiats customer but happen to be trying to make a living by doing it
just my longwinded $.02
