The Covert shop experience was late '97 or early '98 (records went when I sold the Mustang). Between overcharging for the problem it was in for, and then charging me for a suspension check after I asked for an estimate on parts and labor to replace shocks while it was in for the fuel pump, I am not inclined to let them work on any vehicle I own ever again.
New car sales experience was in 2000 when I was looking to purchase an F-350 PSD (wound up ordering through Lone Star in Houston since they had massive allocation, were willing to deal and had a point of contact that really knew diesels)- between being talked down to like I had no idea what I was trying to buy and having a salesweasel extol the virtues of the extended change intervals on the spark plugs (it's a DIESEL dumba$$- it doesn't have spark plugs), I was not impressed...didn't help that they wanted MSRP even on an ordered vehicle and wouldn't budge even though they knew that I had an opportunity to buy at invoice elsewhere. Oh, and even after I told them I was not trading, they still ran my VIN on the vehicle I drove up in to speak with my lender about payoff
Used car sales experience was on more than one occasion between 1998 and 2000, and in large part I was simply appalled by the lack of basic knowledge by salespeople as to what they had on their lot. It was even more interesting when they didn't understand why I was crawling under a truck to look at a rear axle tag. I can understand used vehicle sales staff not necessarily being proficient in other makes, but you would think that Ford used staff would take the time to learn FoMoCo products.
/rant mode off
I'm still undecided on the '98 I drove, and I didn't have a chance to go by and arrange times to get the vehicle to a shop. On the one hand, I could just use it as a bargaining chip, but I don't want to do that and then find something is bent under there.
