Have spent some time around them, and this is from what I've seen.
It's most of the time huge. There will be cars lined up for a 1/4 of a mile for several stories. Hell even the showroom has like 50 cars. Very big business feeling, cold. Feels like an office building. Go somewhere else to compare, go to say, a Volvo, or an Audi dealership. Smaller companies, sure, but not small. Has more of a personal touch. Doesn't have that "boxed up and sold" feel to it. I think the big dealership is an impersonal feeling. Discuss.

 

I agree. Personally I've only been in GM and Ford dealers. But at many different locations. And they all feel the same. Big concrete walls like a high school gym.

 

I havent been to a large dealership. The one where I leased my Cobalt and my mom bought her Blazer and Trailblazer from is moderate in size and very nice looking. The inside is impressive. I tend to like that about the place plus the fact that the sales staff are non-commision. In both my mom's Trailblazer purchase (Blazer was '94 and I was 9 so I cant remember) and my Cobalt lease, the salesman was great and so was the experience.

 

I guess it depends what dealership you go to. I have been to both big and small GM dealers. The place I bought my GTO from was fairly small but nice. Mostly glass walls, no concrete or anything. The guy I bought my car from also does not receive commission.

 

The local Audi dealer's showroom is 4x the size of the Chevy dealership 100 yards away...there blows your theory

There's big dealers, small dealers and intermediate dealers.

 

both of the GM dealers i work with just finished major renovations within the last year... both are very nice inside and out

 

While not exactly the same thing you are talking about here, it does pertain to the image of a dealership/brand.

There is a local Cadillac dealership, that, if I were a Corporate Cadillac person, I'd be pulling my hair out watching their TV ads.

There's an older guy, presumably the general manager or owner or something. He looks like he should have a used up cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth, though he doesn't.... anyway... it's a bunch of yelling and scream at you, then they have this image:

A VERY bad superimposing of this same guy standing on top of his dealership's Cadillac sign... you know, the standard tall GM type by the road. Anyway, he's standing up there and just YELLS "AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!! " with his arms up in the air, then falls off the sign.


W. T. F. is this all about?!?!?!

I can never, EVER imagine seeing a stupid, childish, classless TV ad like this from a BMW or M-B dealership!



It makes me so angry every time I see this...

 

Maybe he meant to say something like "Buy a Cadillac" but slipped and fell off the sign and the director liked it so much he kept it and aired it.

Seriously that is weird. Our local Caddy dealership, Massey Cadillac I believe, seems to give off an impression of high class with its ads and dealership look.

 

what about Honda's and Toyota's new dealer image?

around here they've bulldozed all of the old honda / toyota dealers and built very nice looking, very cookie cutter setups. all honda dealers look like honda dealers and all toyota dealers look like toyota dealers just by looking at the architecture and layout.

does GM have the ability to nudge their dealerships into doing something like this?

 

Unfortunately, no I don't know how or why there are so many new Honda dealers around here, other than the fact that Honda dealers make a crapload more money, probably?!?!?!?!?

Maybe Honda helps subsidize new buildings? God knows GM doesn't!

 

We have an idiot dealership out here "Fuccillo Chevy/Toyota" and the fat bastard just yells "Its HUGGGGGGGG-GGGGGGGGGE-GE_GAAAAAA" in the biggest old meathead voice you could ever make. He even has city buses painted with his oversized face yelling it and its on every radio station all day long.

 

I picture some dude who's about 20-30 pounds overweight with pinky rings and a bad toupee who is telling me why the trunk/hatch/tailgate doesn't shut and why the auto trans. won't shift. Which is great, but I didn't even tell you which one I was interested in!

This applies to just about any dealership I have ever been in (not just GM.) And there have been several. Most places are clean and well lit (including GM.) The cleanest one I've seen thus far is a Subaru/Chevy dealership in, I believe, Franklin, PA (near Oil City.)

Oh, and no matter where it is, service departments and the attitudes of their employees suck.

 

Our local dealership has quite a few cars, but from the front of the lot you'd think it wasn't that large. It's a fairly small building but the lot extends waaaaay back where they have rows and rows of Silverados and...well...that's about it. There is a Chevy dealer in Nashville that is said to be one of the larger ones, but it doesn't look that big to me. The worst dealership around here IMO is the Pontiac/GMC dealer. Every time I've been there I've been treated poorly in some form or fashion. Of course, as a result I never go there anymore.