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Renovation Time!

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Keith Browning

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Construction, of should I say "de-construction" began at my dealership today. A total rebuild of the entire front end of the store including service... but not the shop. It's chaos at the moment. It should be nice when complete and the renditions look good. This is all way overdue cause the place is used up and run down not to mention out dated. I hope I'm still working here when its done.

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Not sure what that is EXACTLY but Ford is deeply involved in the redesign. In fact they are paying a large chunk of the bill. I think this was part of the franchise deal when the new owner bought the place. This has already been delayed more than a year from what I see and hear.

 

Sad thing is, I remember when the old owner bought the dealership and renovated it. It wasn't done really well but for 1990 I suppose it was the typical look. Its an old building with lots of walls and rooms that are not laid out very well. Not to mention its just worn out. The good thing is that the building is a steel framed open structure that can (and will be) gutted and opened up. They are adding a new section of the building for new bathrooms and we will now have an enclosed drive in service reception area.

 

They say 6 months. Those who have been through this before in dealerships guess that we will still have crews on the property in a year. Optimism you know.

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WENT THROUGH AN ENTIRE DEALERSHIP TEARDOWN AND NEW BUILD, IT SUCKED. IT TOOK 2 YEARS AND THEY TORE

IT DOWN SECTION BY SECTION STARTING WITH THE TRUCK SHOP. THEY PUT UP A TEMPORARY WALL AND KNOCK

DOWN HALF THE SHOP, IT WAS FUN COMING TO WORK AND LISTENING TO JACK HAMMERS ALL DAY ON THE OTHER

SIDE OF A PLYWOOD WALL. AFTER THAT WE MOVED INTO ONE HALF OF THE GENERAL SERVICE SHOP, MOVING LIFTS

AND EQUIPMENT. THAT LASTED 3 DAYS UNTIL THE PARTS DEPARTMENT CAUGHT ON FIRE AND BURNED DOWN SO

WE HAD TO MOVE AGAIN INTO 1 HALF OF THE NEW SERVICE DEPARTMENT. MYSELF AND THE OTHER TRUCK GUY

GOT PUSHED INTO THE DETAIL BAY AND HAD ONLY 1 DRIVE ON RACK EACH FOR SIX MONTHS UNTIL THE REST OF SERVICE WAS BUILT. NEVER WANNA GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN.

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We were lucky I guess. They built us a whole new shop first, then took the old shop and turned it into the showroom. We weren't dealing with much of the construction hastles.

 

Also we were supposed to get a big fat check from Ford but that hasn't happened yet. It's been about a year since the whole dealership was completed.

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Yup that's the "Trustmark Facility" that Ford has designed. They want all the dealers to look the same and are reimbursing a percentage of the renovations. There's a general guideline to abide by but I've got a feeling they'll find any reason they can not to pay.

 

Way more dealers are participating than they planned on and it's costing them a ton.

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Yeah Matt, I am hearing all about what Ford wants. 4k for a specific toilet. Really? I guess you can slap a Rotunda sticker on anything and quadruple the price!

 

Awwww. Was that a shot? LOL!!!

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