[Marco Falcone]

I special-ordered my 2018 2SS vert from Novato Chevrolet. Delivered 2 days shy of 8 weeks. I was a little impatient, but every time I called or emailed they answered my questions and kept me up to date on the process.

Arrived on a Friday, but I was out of town. Sunday afternoon my salesman called me to say that if I wanted to stop by on my way home, he could have the car ready for an initial drive. I did. The car was awesome. (They had a guy stay late on a Sunday to give it a little prep in anticipation of my drive.)

Car was exactly as I wanted. They had all the dealer-installed options (6-piston performance brakes, OEM Ground Effects kits, and Kalahari kneepads) on hand and ready for installation on delivery. They even installed the matching GM red rear calipers and the Dimple magnetic oil plug I had previously purchased as part of the dealer prep.

Car was mine 2 days later, complete, detailed, and perfect.

Was very happy with my deal and the service. A couple days later, I got a call from the sales manager to make sure all was well. Got a handwritten thank-you card in the mail a few days after that.

I sent an email to the dealership’s owner and General Manager expressing my happiness and gratitude. Also sent the same to the Sales Manager, Finance Manager, and my salesman.

Today, I took the car in for my first free oil-change at 500-miles. (509 miles to be exact.) I was treated like a rock star! People I hadn’t met yet were greeting me by name, getting me coffee, etc. The service manager was totally on-board with the 500-mile oil-change , and told me it’s a great bit of insurance on the LT1’s and LT4’s. Told him keeping the car as well-maintained as realistically possible saves both of us time and money. He laughed and said he wished more customers understood that. I told him I would likely bring it in somewhere between 1500 and 2000 for a transmission and differential flush for the same reasons. He said that would be great, and he would try and “take care of me” when I did.

Car was done in about an hour. More handshakes and “Call anytime if you need anything.”


I’ve read a lot of horror-stories on the forum about bad dealerships. I’m sure a lot of them are totally true. But I wonder how many started with a bad customer? I can be a huge, incredibly destructive, biblically-terrible arse-hole pretty much on command. (Ask my old SWAT teammates. There are still buildings and even a few people with permanent damage in my old jurisdiction.).

But like Patrick Swayze tried to get across in “Roadhouse,” always be nice. Stay nice. Be understanding. Until you just can’t be any more. THEN go ahead an nuke the site from orbit if you have to.

So I try to be nice, gracious, appreciative, etc. I take a few minuted to give them a great review on YELP and Google IF they earn it. I send the Big Bosses emails expressing my happiness with their service and naming the people who took care of me. If it goes south, so do I. With a halligan and a ‘Bang.

But if you’ve made the investment in the relationships up front, it usually doesn’t.


Anyway, so far, for me, Novato Chevrolet has been just great. Hopefully it stays that way. I think it will.

[protovack]

great to hear you had a good experience. Unfortunately, not every dealership is the same no matter how nice you are. But you are right, being a good customer can go a long way.