Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Hertz Settles Theft-Related Lawsuits
You can add legally renting a car to the all-too-long list of reasons people have been arrested in the U.S., though at least this time the arrestees have seen some small measure of justice. All this year we’ve heard reports of Hertz customers being accused of theft for seemingly no reason. Here’s one from CBS: Being arrested isn’t just the loss of an afternoon, it can weigh seriously on your future, which is why it’s good that Hertz has settled the claims brought by 364 (!!!) people who had to deal with this and similar issues. The total bill? Per a CNN report, the company has to fork over $168 million. How did this happen? From the same story: The truck had been rented for her from Hertz by an insurance company after an accident, but video obtained exclusively by CBS News shows police arresting her. They took her to jail, and she was charged with felony car theft. The case was later dismissed but Gibbs said in court papers she lost her real estate license for a year. This resolves 95% of the lawsuits against the company, according to Hertz. From the company’s press release on the matter:
About 2/3rds Of Ford Dealers Will Be Certified EV Dealers
Ford’s plan to make dealers decide if they want in on EVs or not by investing in costly upgrades seems to be going ok, at least according to Ford CEO Jim Farley, who told a crowd at the Automotive News World Congress that 1,920 dealers opted into the program. From a Detroit News story filed from the event: With around 3,000 dealers in total that’s a decent haul. There’s been grumbling from some dealers and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, asking for more time, and Ford is saying that reluctant dealers will get another chance in 2025 and 2027. Tesla doesn’t have a franchise model and, therefore, doesn’t have to deal with the dealers. This has obvious upsides, but the downside is service. GM bragged recently that it’s fixed more than 11,000 Teslas in the last couple of years.
Delta Pilots Win More Than 30% In Pay Increases Under A New Contract
The union representing Delta Air Lines pilots has been locked in a battle with the airline for so long that when the negotiations started Cardi B was still thought of as a minor reality TV star. Why? In those years we’ve gone from abundant air travel, to a pandemic-fueled drop, to a sudden rise in travel again. Things have calmed down and there seems to be an agreement in place. Here’s how CNBC summarizes the deal: There’s hope that stalled talks at American Airlines and United Airlines will now be able to use this deal as a blueprint. The agreement includes an 18% increase on the day the contract is signed, then a 5% increase one year later and two 4% raises in each of the following years. It also includes a one-time payment of 4% of 2020 and 2021 pay each, plus 14% of 2022 pay.
Strikes At A Company You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Could Impact Deliveries
Your car is a collection of parts and materials created and refined/processed by companies that are basically anonymous to most car buyers. These suppliers are an essential part of the car-making process and disruptions there often end up impacting deliveries. Today we’re going to focus on Swiss supplier Autoneum AG. If you know that company, congrats! If you don’t, don’t worry. They make sound and heat insulation used by a bunch of automakers (Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, GM). These aren’t the sexiest parts of the car but you’d certainly notice if your vehicle lacked all insulation. And now their workers at a Bloomsburg, PA plant are on strike. Who does this impact? From Automotive News: The local Fox affiliate has the story on why the strike happened: As Automotive News mentions, the supplier has had a rough go financially this year, and blamed the usual mix of geopolitical and economic maladies for their issues. Heverly said the company wants workers to pay an additional 5% of their healthcare to 30%. He said this would be on top of the provider’s annual increases which they are fine paying. The contract also has a $1 raise increase in the first year than 60 cents than 60 cents than 75 cent raise with no backpay from when the contract expired in April. Heverly and the workers said they did not want to go on strike, but he said they were backed into a corner.
The Flush
Do you want to buy your next new car from a dealer/dealer network or directly from the company?
Read more on The Autopian
These Are The 20 Most Durable Cars On The Road According To A New Study British Car Insurers Busted For Undervaluing Crashed Cars, Like Cheapskates The Rounded Ford F-150 From The Late 1990s Was The Best F-150: Prove Me Wrong Tesla Rear Side Marker Lights Are Having Problems In China And That’s A Big Deal Because We Love Side Marker Lights Corvette Is Reportedly Going To Become A Brand With A Sedan And Crossover
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Photo Credits: Hertz, Ford, Autoneum AG, Delta Air Lines
I also called a local independent Toyota shop with great reviews (ASE certified mechanics, they only use Asian/Toyota parts, etc.). I spoke with one of their service advisors within seconds of calling and they gave me a full price quote with all the details.
Guess where I’m gonna take the Tundra for service?
Good question.
Dealers. We tried to buy a car from a dealer once, only once. The misery of hours trapped waiting for the finance guy – and we were going to pay cash. My wife ended up in tears and they thought that was a negotiating tactic. Craigslist and the classified ads are full of skeevy characters but still better than a dealership.
In my experience “great” is relative. The dealers that people say are “great” are merely significantly less abusive than the typical ones.
I.see at the bottom of some new articles ‘pitch us your idea here’.
How should a pitch look? Just ‘hey, I have this idea for an article…’, or a longer sample? Or perhaps a fully fleshed out piece? Are you all in front of us shark tank style?
After all, almost all products we buy are from a “dealer”; we just don’t think of Walmart as a grocery dealer, or Menards as a lumber dealer.
As to dealers vs stores, one difference is generally that most brands are available at most stores of a type. I can go to Walmart, Fred Meyer, Costco, or Winco and get Oreos or Doritos or whatever. I don’t go to my local Oreo store, check the prices, and drive to the one a couple towns over. Some of that is the protections auto dealers get, some of it is the value difference, but it’s a pretty different situation. The other major difference is that I can order a lot of other items direct from the manufacturer OR in stores, while cars tend to be forced through a dealer. If I want an iPhone, I can buy from Apple, Best Buy, my cell service provider, or wherever. While there is limited competition between dealers of a particular brand, the option to order direct wouldn’t really hurt that and might encourage dealers to do better.
As for your comparison, it’s silly to drive around town for Oreos, I agree. But when one place is cheaper than another for an identical product, I generally go there. Just like with a car dealer though, I don’t need to physically visit each place to know who’s the cheapest. Whether from an ad they mail me or online pricing, I generally have a good idea what I’m going to pay for any product over a nominal amount before going into the store.
It’s not that I’m opposed to direct sales as a concept, I’m just not sold on its utility to me personally, and I’m skeptical of it saving money for a reasonably well-informed shopper. To follow from your example, the carriers usually have better deals on iPhones than Apple does.
Offering direct sales gives more options. For the cell phone example, I sometimes purchase direct from Samsung. They often have sales that are as good as the providers, depending on your priorities. The last one I purchased was very slightly more than I could have gotten it elsewhere, but also came with enough credit on other products to buy a good tablet, which made the overall deal pretty solid for me, since I did not have a tablet, but wanted one.
I think my ideal dealership would provide test drives and order what you want. In a perfect world, you could have dealerships offering a lot of brands, rather than just a couple. Go somewhere you can test drive a Blazer, Explorer, Sorento, CR-V, and Sequoia all at once, then order what you want. And, yeah, you could shop around, but they’d all have a smooth order process.
As it stands, knowing that I could configure exactly what I want without them pulling any crap would be of value. Including in negotiations. Well, you’re offering $500 off, but you want me to add $1000 of paint protection? No, I can order from the manufacturer.
Maybe that’s why I find other people’s utter disgust at the dealership experience so baffling. The average person is only going to be there a few times in their life, and yet so many seem to treat it like the worst experience of their lives.
I’ve walked out on more dealers than I have purchased from, often because they insist on getting contact information before I have agreed to purchase, but quite a few times it has been because they started trying to jerk me around.
With a credit score over 800, I know I qualify for the lowest interest rate, so at least I know I can stop one of their squares in negotiations. But they still try stuff. Advertised prices quickly disappear on their sheets. They try saying they have to include key replacement services or whatever else. They can get you something sooner, but it’s gonna have more options and cost more money. It’s not fun. I used to be okay trying to get a good deal, but it’s just frustration now. Especially since pretty much every manufacturer has inflated invoice price to try to minimize the damage of an informed consumer.
I bought a Civic several years ago and told the guy what price I wanted. He got close and lowballed my trade. He then offered more for my trade to get the deal there. I told him that he had now offered enough for my trade that he’d get that if he got the price I wanted. I should have probably just walked, but he got there. The Honda dealerships around me turned out to be the worst dealerships for service knowledge, which made it even worse.
A lot of people on this site (myself included) have had terrible experiences when trying to buy normal cars…because at that point you’re just a number…not to mention any enthusiast is exponentially more informed than someone with a 600 credit score who’s rolling in and needs a car today because they just totaled theirs. The dealerships know they can offer a car to that person at over asking financed at 17% APR and they’ll take it….whereas an enthusiast will walk out over $500.
So I think part of it is that we’re well informed/not pushovers compared to the average shopper, but I still know that you’ll get preferential treatment because you’re coming in to drop $100,000 in cash….or maybe you finance, it’s not really my business, not to mention I’m not one of those jabronis who just automatically resents everyone that has more money to spend than I do…but you get the point.
Ironically, attempting to order a Blackwing has been among my worst dealer experiences.
In my experience Auto Dealers offer no benefits beyond accessibility to the product and TONS of reasons to avoid dealing with them.
I think it’s just an unfortunate fact that the more money involved, the more weasels step out of the woodwork.
Firm and consistent expectation setting has proven successful for me. It probably helps that any dealership willing to work with me on pricing over email is predisposed toward easy sales and no games, so a self-selection factor is at work.
I am not arguing that the process of physically visiting a dealership adds any value to the transaction. That is a cost that I do my best to minimize.
What I am saying is if I want to buy a Ford, I would rather there be 50 dealers competing for my business than a single point of contact with the manufacturer.
I mentioned this in my first reply that is still being moderated, but even though (to use your example) the phone carriers generally have better deals on iPhones than Apple directly, it’s still nice to have another option. I’m just less sold on its utility to me personally, and I don’t think it would save a well-informed consumer much money.
I got an order in for the Sportage PHEV just under the wire for the tax credit, and the dealer assured me it would be a month or two. They insisted on adding an accessory to my order, which was fine, just as long as I could get it by the end of the year (I don’t trust trying to claim the tax credit after that, due to weird wording in places). The salesperson seems to have little grasp on their order process, which is also annoying. Well, other dealers have gotten my configuration, but my dealer has not, so I’m looking at either cancelling and getting my non-refundable deposit back (they have agreed to that for not managing to get it in time, at least) or not getting $6600 credit on my taxes.
When I was trying to order a Maverick, I did find a dealer willing to offer invoice, but that’s not really a lot of savings, and I think Ford’s new focus on orders is motivating them. When you know that orders will increase your available inventory, you try to compete for those orders.
Really, my biggest wish that all manufacturers would at least encourage ordering instead of selling from inventory. Whether they do so by offering it direct or by incentivizing it, it would be nice to have less hassle.
As for the question of whether I want to buy my next new car from a dealership or a manufacturer, I don’t care as long as I get a good value.
I’ve purchased produce both from the “manufacturer” (farmer’s market) and a “dealer” (grocery store). I’ve purchased computers both from the manufacturer directly (HP’s website) and a computer dealer (Best Buy). I’ve purchased furniture both from the manufacturer and from a dealer (furniture store). I’ve noticed no discernible difference in experience between the dealer purchases and the manufacturer-direct options. It doesn’t matter.
Sorry, no.
Hardly anything you buy is purchased through a legally protected monopoly. Almost anybody can up and decide to be the person that is going to try and sell you most of the stuff you purchase. But in most states car dealers have special permission to abuse you without fear of upstart competition.
But since you brought it up, I agree that it’s unfair to have legislation blocking manufacturers from selling their own products. If Ford wants to open their own corporate-owned sales outlets, they should be allowed to do so — just like I can buy an iPhone directly from Apple or through an “iPhone dealer” like the cell phone carriers or electronics stores. Cars shouldn’t be treated any differently.
I just don’t believe that there would be a significant difference in the buying experience as a result. You’d still have good ones and bad ones. Permitting manufacturer sales is good for competition, which is good for the customer in the long run, but it’s no silver bullet that’ll solve all the frustrations associated with buying a car. There’s already competition among dealers, and that hasn’t driven all of the bad ones out of business; I can’t expect the addition of one more competitor (even a powerful one in the manufacturer) to be a panacea.
Now we’ll see if the committees and members vote it in. There are always some excellent contract readers out there who suss out the bad stuff. Interested to read what they have to say about it, then see how the votes go.
As an aside, just ignore that Horchak guy. No point wasting your time.
As far as pilots just sitting on their ass “95%” of a flight, that (respectfully) is an uninformed take. To be honest. 🙂
I still prefer “someone’s house”.
Insurance should not cover it because it was due to deliberate criminal activity.
What dealership do you work for, anyway?
I still don’t want to buy my first new car.
It’s true my Zap! Xebra (legally a motorcycle) was only eleven years old when I got it, but considering that its steering linkage shattered while I was unloading it from my trailer upon getting it home, meaning that I never actually had the chance to drive it before cutting it into pieces for disposal, I’ll go ahead and call that a lesson learned.
I’ve long said that dealers should become service centers and showrooms, prioritizing ordering and maintaining the car you want instead of selling whatever they have.
As to the racism, I hope you find yourself in a situation to be forced to interact with an Indian person who is truly your better in every way, and you unlearn some of that while also feeling the shame of being particularly small-minded.
