New Car Problem? Your Dealer Wants the Call, No Matter Whose Frustration

A New Car Problem

It is an odd conundrum. Car dealers desperately wish that all drivers understood everything about their cars. And yet, given the alternative, the same dealers wants drivers to call them for answers whenever questions come up.

Any call is an opportunity to sell service, even warranty service, and the associated relationship and even dependency this builds between driver and dealer. However, there is an unrecognized danger here that has been experienced in the industry before. Customer fatigue.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Toyota correctly read into the frustrations of high-line automobile customers, principally those of Mercedes and BMW. Their vehicles, test beds for the latest and greatest features, tended to spend an inordinate amount in service bays. The end result was an entirely new line of vehicles that snared a lion’s share of the luxury car market by naming reliability, and thus customer convenience, as its mantra.

Unfortunately, that line, Lexus, while having raised service standards, now subscribes to those old mantras.

What is developing today, while different in scope, draws a close parallel to the events that resulted in the creation of the Lexus brand, not to mention Infiniti and Acura. The latest advanced features, while generally quite reliable, are not immune to requiring service. And many of these feature require a new level of driver participation. Navigation systems and Bluetooth connection requirements for example.

The problems experienced by drivers with the MyFord Touch system, while extreme, will hopefully serve to open some eyes in the industry. Turning the car into a rolling computer requires a level of knowledge that many, if not most, drivers do not have the time or patience to attain, and that may be simply out of reach for some.

So manufacturers struggle with wanting their customers dependent upon them, and simultaneously with educating those same drivers on the latest features. All too many drivers are frustrated, angry and at times even afraid of their vehicles. The landscape is ripe for a manufacturer who can find a new path to building cars that manage to include the latest and greatest while making their drivers a seamlessly connected part of the system.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the  use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.