QOTD: What Do You Want From The Dealer Experience?

by Tim Healey

Published: July 23rd, 2025

qotd what do you want from the dealer experience

General Motors is looking to spiff up its stores.

This is something we see every so often -- an OEM directs its dealers to have a certain look and feel, inside and out, and to perhaps offer certain amenities and creature comforts to shoppers and service customers.

So, that in mind, what would YOU want to see in a dealership? What would be nice and relaxing?

For me, I think a fairly open floorplan is nice, though some cubicles for a modicum of employee and customer privacy, perhaps off to the side, would be fine. Make it look comforting and modern, and make the chairs comfy. And yes, give me some coffee and snack options.

That's my take. Now it's your turn. What say you?

Sound off below.

[Image: Reshetnikov_art/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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4 of 61 comments

Stellantis Guy on Jul 25, 2025

ORO Ford: No Sissy Coffee™

1 Reply
- See 1 previous
- Jeff on Jul 25, 2025
  
  You need more than a cup of coffee.
  
  Like
- Stellantis Guy on Jul 25, 2025
  
  Hi Jeff. What do I need? This should be good.
  
  1
DungBeetle62 on Jul 25, 2025

I'll have to concede the last couple times have been "Better".

Milady's on her 3rd CPO Lexus and we already know the drill. Minimal song-and-dance. The last was best as we were referred by a friend to a "Forever at this dealership" guy who understood the plan. No constant trips back to the sales manager, etc.

When I started looking at a new Miata while supplies were still tight early 2022, I again got a "Forever at this dealership" guy who I reluctantly gave my contact info to when he said he'd give me a holler when inventory started coming in; and I'll be damned the guy DID NOT CALL until weeks later when there were cars on the lot, available to check out.

But I gotta admit it's the combination of a Dealership Veteran who's not trying to reinvent the wheel and confident enough if he treats the customer right it'll pay off (in our local Miata forum I passed my sales guy's name off without hesitation to several other prospective buyers), along with having done a deal with the prior ride and completely taking the trade-in issue off the table.
For a good how-not-to-do-it example we were checking out a hundreds-of-miles away used Lexus (not at a Lexus dealer) and the only thing I wanted was to confirm the color. I still get e-mails from those so-and-so's. Then there was the non-Lexus Dealer where my folks had found an RX they liked (they live in Vegas and RX's are less plentiful there so prices are higher) and just asked me to go by and eyeball it. Salesguy was still calling US for weeks after they'd bought the car asking if there was anything else they could do for us.

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