Global Imports "cleaning house"

[Dan_UnitedBMW]

I have been hearing rumors since last week that Global Imports has been cleaning house. Can you Global guys chime in? What the hell is going on!? The parts manager at Nalley (Gary) called the [i guess] ex-service manager over at Global and claimed he was fired! The sales manager at global is supposedly the GM at Nalley now as well? The hell is going on?!



PS: I'm feeling nosey :D

[88e28]

Ask Philip.

[BMRSEB]

Interesting.. I buy some of my parts and stuff from Nalley, sorry Dan it's a lot closer to my job (Decatur) than Gwinnett.. Although, I will be contacting you soon, better discounts..lol.. I usually deal with Cory.. I'm curious/nosey too.. :)

[Philip]

We got a new GM about 4 weeks ago, and yes, "cleaning house" is an understatement.

[4ngie]

All dealers are the same, in my experience. I worked for George Sutherlin for 4 years. Every winter, he cleaned house at all of his dealerships. It was something everyone expected between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day. If you could make it through that, you were pretty much set for the year unless you were in management. I can't tell you how many GM's, service, finance, and parts managers we went through just at my dealer. As a matter of fact, one of the finance managers who works at Global now used to work with me at Nissan several years ago.

I remember one year, he changed insurance companies. The new company required an immediate random drug screening. By the end of the week, we literally had 8 people still employed at the dealership. :eek: Good times.

[GCR]

The years I spent at dealerships in South Africa and here (Charles Evans in Duluth before it became part of the United Group)pretty much mirror your experiences. I just got tired of the politics and the corporate bull. When the ivory tower makes decisions that are dollar driven and very short-sighted, morale goes down the tubes, quality and quantity of work goes down, and people leave of their own accord.
I get to make the decisions for my business, and I do so based on 3 criteria:
1. Always do the right thing, whether someone is watching or not.
2. What is going to make my customers happy and keep my techs happy?
3. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

I've followed that philosophy since I've been in business and have enjoyed an average of 20-25% growth every year.

[Catmint]

Alan, you are a rare soul, and not just in the automobile industry. So many businesses have lost respect for the customer and even for themselves, and it shows in their work and their so-called "customer service". I was raised that, no matter what kind of job you had, no matter how menial or how important, you do the best you can. You just don't see that kind of work ethic all that often anymore.

[SOUTHERNBIMMER]

True to that.

[Dan_UnitedBMW]

Read the thread on bimmerforums about "Is BMWs reliability going down?"

I agree completely with new BMWs. All the technology makes the car fail more. However, that won't stop me. Pssh. hell no, BMW is a great car

I just won't buy them anymore. With my discount, I'll just lease for 3 or 4 years and still drive my E46.

I've had only 1 problem with my E46 (bought it with 5 miles and still going strong at 60,000) and that was the slave cylinder. It's done and I've had all window regulators and such replaced at early mileage before they had a chance to fail. I don't drive it like a moron [anymore] and haven't had anything fail *knocks on wood.*

I just had the car checked out last week and everything is still working fine. No radiator hoses, no bushings, no arms, nothing!

[GCR]

Dan,

thats great! You are, & I'm sure you see this at the dealer, the exception to the rule. Control arms and bushings, window regulators, window switches, door seals, crankcase vent valves & hoses, valve covers warping, headlights breaking internally,tail light harness connectors & pin connectors, tail light sockets, turn signal & 3rd brake light sockets, A/C compressers failing. All these items & many more have become relatively commonplace issues that we see on BMW's, even still under manufacturer's warranty, not even CPO issues.
I admit I'm a dinosaur, but I have been in the automotive repair business since 1977 and have seen huge strides made in performance and technology, most of it a good thing. I've also seen a tremendous step backwards in the design philosophy of ALL the german carmakers. Cars are no longer built to last 20 or more years. They begin to recycle themselves after just a few years now, many components are built of plastic that used to be metal, interior trim, while looking great when new, doesn't age well, etc.
Its a money thing. When Toyota & Honda hit the market with Lexus and Acura, the Europeans were forced to cut costs to stay competitive. The area that they had to cut (because labor is so much more expensive than in Japan) was in the material cost of the vehicles built.

Unfortunately it shows. I too, hope that BMW listens to us old farts who still remember how they used to build their cars..................

[mistertripps]

That's why you see so many BMWs on the road now when they used to be a car reserved for those who had become successful enough to afford them. When they decided to market the cars to the masses, they took a giant step backwards in my opinion.

Makes me wonder if makers like Bentley have the same issues. There are still so few of those on the road compared to everything else. Have they started the cost cutting yet?

[Dan_UnitedBMW]

That's why you see so many BMWs on the road now when they used to be a car reserved for those who had become successful enough to afford them. When they decided to market the cars to the masses, they took a giant step backwards in my opinion.

Makes me wonder if makers like Bentley have the same issues. There are still so few of those on the road compared to everything else. Have they started the cost cutting yet?

No man, incorrect! :) In Atlanta there are tons of BMWs... take a drive to the surrounding states and you'll be alone