Mazda Dealers AND Mazda RX-8 Dealers
 

After being a part of this forum for awhile and having 2 friends with 8's, it has occured to me that the world would be a better place if RX-8's where sold at standalone "RX-8 only" dealers.. like across the street from the main Mazda dealer. Where people there actually know a thing or two about them. Seems like it would be somewhat helpful. Im writing this because I recently spent alot of time at a dealer where a friend of mine was buying his 8 (ndtechie09). Other friend is PoLaK. What do you think?

well 2 mazda dealers actually. and 3 diff sales people who knew little to none about the car. does mazda not train these people to know rotarys? given most people who buy rotarys know a thing or 2 about them and will know more about the salesperson but for your average joe who wants to buy a sports car, they should know enough information to inform \them about the differences in the engine and procedures (eg not shutting off cold) ugh...dealers

Bad. Most obviously, that would probably make the RX-8 more expensive - the price of the real estate has to come from somewhere.

Ignorant salesman are in every industry. If you researched your next purchase as thoroughly as (I am guessing) you've researched the RX-8, you'd be bound to hit on a number of salespeople that could be considered ignorant. Do they simply not know the product? Or have you researched it so extensively that you know more than a trained professional? Admittedly, the latter should never be the case, but in reality may very well be so. In a lot of <insert product here> where other models sell more (and are more profitable to the salesman, perhaps?) it would be easy to see how and why a salesman wouldn't focus on a special, esoteric product.

If that worked, you'd see it. You don't see Best Buy opening a seperate store just for DVD players. In the end, do your research and don't rely on salespeople.

The way cars in general are sold and serviced in America needs to be overhauled. It seems that the only way to get respect and good service is to pay full sticker on a $50,000 plus car.

Well if you want to look at that closely then yea, its not feasible. My question was leaning more towards: wouldnt it make it easier for people to buy the car if they where informed a little better. Im not seriously thinking this is going to happen though, for reasons that you stated.

I think Mazda should pay their sales people to visit this forum 20 minutes a day until they learned enough to actually be worth anything. Most of the sales people are facilitators -- they have NO useful information other than superficial information that's no even as in depth as a 2-page article in Car & Driver.

Nice idea, but with the RX-8 sales being what they are, any such dealership would be declaring bankruptcy.

Yeah, cool. Two things come to mind though.

Separate dealers = extra cost = higher MSRP.

The other thing is that knowing the RX-8 and the rotary is really still knowledge gained thru desire of wanting to know. Salesppl just want to sell the car, want to know the minimum required to do that alone. Any further time to gain further knowledge would be cutting into happyhour too much. That goes with separate dealerships as well.

What you want is a GOOD dealership, with someone there who specializes. That's all. Your typical rotary guru has ties to dealerships but in no way works for them. Search those types out, you'll find you won't be needing the dealerships beyond warranty work. good luck!

Wow, when I was typing post #8, there was just post 1 & 2! :) This one's exploding!

Well then, to tone it back a bit...

Of course it would be great to have some specialists on each product. In this specific case, Mazda could offer an "RX-8 Specialist" certification that would require the salesperson to complete some sort of training.

In theory this works well, but in reality commission can be a messy game. Is the non-certified guy going to give up the sale or half of the sale to call in the specialist? You'd have to either have some sort of requirements or guidelines from Mazda, or require everyone at the dealership to get the certification.

Another option, of course, would be to eliminate commission and run a different pay structure - at least for the certified guys. Then the salesman wouldn't have to worry about losing part of their sale to call in the experts. But the paradox arises that the best salespeople aren't going to want to get the certification - why would they want to lose the money?

So, sure, it would be great to have certifications available on each vehicle. It would be even better if the dealership required that a prospective customer deal with a salesman certified on the vehicle they were interested in - that would give the salespeople incentive to get certified on the respective cars. Oh, and we'd have to have a test here to get the certification - we don't want salespeople blowing through the trainings in a half-conscious state while we hope some information trickles into their head.

This would seem to work as the best salespeople would be the ones most motivated to get the best certifications. But then we have that whole issue that if a salesperson is only certified in certain vehicles, then how effectively could they move a consumer into a different vehicle...perhaps one that better suits their needs? Or if a consumer wants to cross shop two cars and the salesman is certified in one but not...

You get the idea. My head hurts.

Maybe THAT'S what I sensed was gonna explode!

Lil sucker DOES look like it's gonna pop at any moment... :D:

Luckily the manager of my Mazda dealer is somewhat of a rotary enthusiast. He has owned two RX-7's, and an 8. He was pretty helpful.

Talk about VERY helpful, you really lucked out.

Mazda just needs better dealerships in general.

I know that nearly all sales people use underhanded tactics and what not, but there's a difference between paying quite a bit more and getting service you appreciate and paying the correct price but feeling like you got ripped off.

I feel ripped off the few times I went to a Mazda dealership. Sigh.

Spork;

Agree fully. I actually had contacted Mazda about one of their dealerships. They basically said that each dealership is independent.

Well, that's nice and that's good for competition, but it can present a negative image on Mazda as a corporation if their dealers provide poor service (and I include sales here - sales is, or should be, simply a service to the customer). Mazda needs to have certain guidelines for their dealerships and those dealerships should be accountable for meeting those standards.

This could only raise the perception of Mazda and their dealerships in a positive manner.

Oh, there is MNAO and their district reps who can and do come by to handle any local problems. That happens all the time.

Good but wildly unprofitable idea.

So far i would say the idea of having some type of "Rx-8 specialist" at each dealer actually seems feasible, and most likely to happen. I wonder if the rotary ever really takes off with say another rotary engined car in the mazda fleet, that this might actually happen. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

wOOt 50 posts... yea i know, big deal