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Old 09-18-2018, 06:11 PM   #1
ericr
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Default Ever Notice How Pro-owner This Company Was?

Reading the Service Bulletins and Letters, it seems amazing today how pro-owner the Company was, chastising dealers for poor service, unnecessary service, sloppy premises, on and on. The public never saw those exhortations, I am sure, and likely never realized how much weight any complaint to the Company carried.


Obviously the dealers preferred car sales to repair jobs for profits....the reverse of today's economics.


I am sure all of this emanated form the Old Man himself. Things have sure changed in society since then, haven't they.
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Old 09-18-2018, 07:43 PM   #2
Jeff/Illinois
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Default Re: Ever Notice How Pro-owner This Company Was?

Mr. Ford used to really stress a clean dealership. He said that 'A woman will see dirt where a man never will' and the dealerships were supposed to have a man on the payroll who cleaned and swept all day long.

I have to give my Ford dealer credit, the place is always spotless when ever I'm there.
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Old 09-19-2018, 07:32 AM   #3
BRENT in 10-uh-C
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Default Re: Ever Notice How Pro-owner This Company Was?

Adding to Eric's thoughts, ...every Agency's Service dept charged the same amount for each procedure. That way the owner knew he was not going to be price gouged.
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Old 09-19-2018, 11:41 AM   #4
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Default Re: Ever Notice How Pro-owner This Company Was?

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In the Model T days, a Ford dealership was a license to print money, so it was a valuable franchise.

I think James Couzens was one of those responsible for the dealer network. He was the general manager of Ford and one of the many who were responsible for the company's success. Not that Henry didn't have input into those matters, but I think that Couzens was really most responsible for that side of the business.

Here is a quote from an article I found about this:

"From the beginning of the great expansion of the company following the introduction of the Model T, Ford monitored very closely the activities of its dealers. James Couzens is generally given credit for the system that was set up. The dealers were supervised by branch offices. The branch managers were responsible for recruiting dealers, signing them to contracts, and supervising them. Dealerships were continually visited by company "roadmen" who would enforce strict rules regarding the appearance of showrooms and repair shops, the demeanor of salesmen, the availability of replacement parts and so forth. In addition these roadmen were able to offer instruction on how to carry out repairs, which helped to give Ford dealers a good reputation for servicing and repairing cars."

Here is the source of that quote: http://cliometrics.org/conferences/A...0/OBrien.shtml
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