But if the car was disappointing, the dealer was even worse. Whenever we went to drop off the car, there was nowhere to park, no special care, no apologies for the inconvenience of getting the bloody thing fixed again, nothing but busy people on the phone who make you wait for ages.
My wife hated going there. They never offered to collect or return the vehicle; she had to ask. They never volunteered a courtesy car. They never treated her as a valued customer. (I think that's the core of the problem: when you own a Mercedes, you want to be treated with respect.) They never rang, post-service, to see if we were happy. They often did not return calls. They never even sent a Christmas card. (I never thought of that, until a friend told me that his Volvo dealer did.)
We are nameless and insignificant customers, apparently no more valued than the Tesco shopper buying half a pound of bananas (I'd argue that the Tesco buying experience is actually somewhat better.)
 |
| Buying bananas is a much more pleasant experience |
The dealership clearly subscribes to all the latest Mercedes-Benz brand mantra: just-so shade of silver-grey and blue, millimetrically perfect Mercedes typeface. The staff are smartly dressed. There is free coffee and newspapers and a big TV.
All fine, but I'd rather have a dealer who knew me as a valued customer and looked after my car well, than a "retailer" that pleases some brand manager with a marketing degree but irritates its clients.
We also own a Ford Focus. It's now just over three years old and just had its first MOT. This is my knockabout business car. It spends its life in London traffic or on the motorway.
Despite Ford's vast marketing budget, the buying experience was about as special as purchasing a few tins of Dulux from the local DIY superstore. Most Ford dealers even look like DIY superstores - modernist (ie cheap) architecture, minimalist (ie cheap) building, up-and-coming (ie cheap) location, and lots of garish signs in the window advertising bargains just to complete that truly special £14,000 buying experience.
