Seeking a Dealership Home

Sparky87k5 wrote:

monkey44 wrote:

So, in a down economy, this dealership has so much work it can't do it all, and it blames a lack of service on not enough mechanics. Well that way I'd fix that is to hire another mechanic...

In a down economy? That makes no sense -- so busy you can't take in work does not sound like a 'down economy' issue ...

The RV industry has taken a terrible economical hit the past 4-5 years. The economy had been in a downward spiral and only recently showed any sign of turning. Many employers have been very hesitant to hire additional employees for many reasons, including the high cost of healthcare insurance and future issues with Obamacare costs. Might not seem that way on the farcoast but its that way around here. RV mechanics in the PNW are like marine mechanics, very difficult to keep them busy 12 months a year due to short season so few "extras" are hired for busy season.

My point here is nothing has changed regards the repair issues in the RV industry - it has always "been too busy" to take a repair, and when you finally get one, it's not up to quality, usually. Look all over this website, in years past ... same complaint, so to blame it on a down economy is just looking for an excuse - IMHO ...

One of the major hassles with the RV repairs - most times, it's on the road. So, when you're stuck, and someone says "three weeks", that's a pretty tough answer. Especially if it's something minor but keeps you off the road.

We had what turned out to be a very minor issue with our fridge at the beginning of a six-week trip, and 500 miles from home. We tried to get a RV repair facility to just look, tell us what was wrong so (not even fix it, just tell us) we could adjust our time if we knew "minor or major fix" - could not get one repair tech after about ten calls.

SO, we bought a cooler and iced up for our entire trip, enjoyed the time anyway. When we returned home and took it in, it took the RV guy seven minutes (And $68) to fix it. So, sometimes, it could make or break a trip when on the road.

And, how many breakdowns occur at home - of course, virtually NONE ... but the RV industry is geared to high maintenance fees, not to repairs. And, it should be geared, at least minimally, to those of us on the road - that's what RV is all about, not sitting in a yard waiting for annual maintenance.

Makes no sense to miss out on the service and those repair fees, as the extra tech will certainly be kept busy if the service bays are too busy now for three or four weeks at a time.

RV dealers went belly-up because they are only interested in 'big sale ticket' and miss out on one really important niche -- the repairs.

If you believe car/truck dealers make their living on sales, that's a mistake - car/truck dealers make more money on repairs and service than sales, I'd bet. I don't know that for sure, but when ten service bays are full for $120 an hour, ($1200 an hour, ten hours a day) you can bet that's a big portion of a dealer revenue. even at half full, that's $6,000 a day - up to $12,000 a day - for repairs and maintenance. That's a pretty healthy revenue steam to ignore.

SO, to match that, how many cars/trucks does a dealer have to sell in a week to match $72,000. Well, based on what the salesman says, he has to sell 7200 trucks a week because he only makes ten bucks on the sale - ask him, he tells you, ten bucks over invoice ... :) :)