Dealer Evaluation

Here's an excellent web site www.dealerrater.com Allows dealer evaluations by customer experience.

Not sure how much that site can be trusted. If I was a suspicious person I would think that some of these sales people rate themselves despite all the "precautions" dealerrater claims to have. When I was researching buying my x5 last year dealerrater stuff would pop up. There were several salespeople who had wonderful reviews while working at one BMW dealership; a few months later they were at other dealers with very similar sounding reviews. The wording was always very similar - "best salesperson ever"..."walked me through the process"..."knew everything about the car"...."painless" etc. Oddly enough a signifacnt number of these salespeople were women. Just look at some of the ratings - 5 stars for sales, 1 for service - I guess the service guys don't log on.

Originally Posted by BenF12400

Not sure how much that site can be trusted. If I was a suspicious person I would think that some of these sales people rate themselves despite all the "precautions" dealerrater claims to have. When I was researching buying my x5 last year dealerrater stuff would pop up. There were several salespeople who had wonderful reviews while working at one BMW dealership; a few months later they were at other dealers with very similar sounding reviews. The wording was always very similar - "best salesperson ever"..."walked me through the process"..."knew everything about the car"...."painless" etc. Oddly enough a signifacnt number of these salespeople were women. Just look at some of the ratings - 5 stars for sales, 1 for service - I guess the service guys don't log on.

I agree. The web site is just another tool. I'm sure many ratings were salespeople just glossing themselves. However I've dealt with several dealerships in the Tampa Bay area and find these dealerships tend to match their evaluations.

Conversations and note comparison with other bimmerheads at cars shows etc. tend to match the evaluations.

I think the best tool is a finely tuned BS detector. Most discouraging is dealing with a sales person or service adviser who, very apparently, knows much less than the customer. My favorite was a young salesman at a dealership in Sarasota who, when I inquired about ordering a 3 series Sportwagon, advised me there was no need to special order one as they had "a lot full." He then showed me all their X3's and X5's.

Originally Posted by BenF12400

Not sure how much that site can be trusted. If I was a suspicious person I would think that some of these sales people rate themselves despite all the "precautions" dealerrater claims to have. When I was researching buying my x5 last year dealerrater stuff would pop up. There were several salespeople who had wonderful reviews while working at one BMW dealership; a few months later they were at other dealers with very similar sounding reviews. The wording was always very similar - "best salesperson ever"..."walked me through the process"..."knew everything about the car"...."painless" etc. Oddly enough a signifacnt number of these salespeople were women. Just look at some of the ratings - 5 stars for sales, 1 for service - I guess the service guys don't log on.

If you feel that strong about dealerrator.com get in touch with Bill the originator of the site and give him a chance to explain IMO. Good luck
cheers
vern

Wasn't that I had a strong feeling - just my paranoia leaking out. Would note that at a given dealership a particular salesperson would have a long string of very similar positive comments all sounding the same. Maybe that salesperson really is/was a gem. Finance people were often added to the comment.