Wanted to see if others are as annoyed by this as me. I'm in the DC area and a number of dealership "tattoo" the cars with the dealership name. So Some Infinitis have PAINTED!!! on the back "PASSPORT" WTF!!! This bothers me to no end and I can't see why anybody would accept the car with the PAINTED on or BUMPER STICKER (Permanaent) on their car. It was a deal breaker for me....if the car had that on it I was going to another dealership or picking another car. Am I alone in being annoyed by this? I'll see a brand new beautiful car...any car..and it will have the dealership name painted on....drive me crazy

 

No, you're not alone. That's why many dealerships have gone to placing their names on the plate frames instead.
And I also wouldn't buy a car with the name of the dealer permanently affixed to the rear.

 

Years ago I had seen a car with the dealer name RIVETED to the trunk lid. I still can't believe they would think that'd be ok to do.

 

Chantilly just put on the license frames, which came off the car once I got home.

When I bought my VW, Lindsay put a decal on the car - again, came right off once I got home.

 

Here's an idea....
A standard 30 second ad for a top 10 primetime TV show costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $300K or more. You figure that more or less 12 million people watch the shows. Thats $0.25 per person if my math is correct. On my daily drive at least 1000 people see my car. Thats $250 per day in advertising if the dealer tattooed my car. They didnt by the way....
That equates to over $5000 per month in "free" advertising for the dealership. The way I see it, I would let the dealer "tattoo" my car if they paid me a megar $1000 per month to drive it. If they were really nice I would let them give me the car and agree to drive it for 3 years.
That sounds fair to me. What do you think? Think they would go for it?
I would never drive a car with the dealers name on it any other way. I paid for it and if I like where I bought it, I will tell people.
Stuff like that really ticks me off.....
Bad dealer, BAD!!!

 

When my fiance took delivery of her Subaru, she pulled some statistic off the top of her head, something like a dealer makes an additional $850 per year for that tattoo on a person's car. Her ultimatum was, remove the decal or knock another $850 off the car's price.

They removed the sticker.

 

I wouldn't accept it under any circumstance. My dealer gives you a chrome license plate frame instead. I made sure that the salesman wrote on my order "NO FRONT PLATE". I told him that if I arrived for pickup and there was a front plate on my car I would get my deposit back and buy it somewhere else. I went in today to check on the ETA of my car and he reassured me that he was going to catch it coming off of the truck and personally escort it to the final prep guys and put a piece of tape on the front bumper that says not to drill it. No only don't I want to advertise for them for free, it just looks tacky.

 

very tacky..... but I see so many cars with it...nice cars.

 

My dealership put a chrome plate frame on with their name on it. It doesn't look half bad so I kept it on there. If it was a sticker, it would be coming right off.

 

the problem with the stickers is they damage the paint and/or are difficult to get off. the painted on ones is another story

 

As far as I can tell the dealer sticker thing is an East Coast thing. I have never seen a dealership on the west coast who does this.

 

Luckily, the dealership where I bought mine does not put dealer stickers on their cars. They have license plate frames with their name on it though. It looks pretty good, so for now I have left mine on there.

 

I can show you the used Bentley Conti GT I snapped pics of last weekend, over at a dealer in Rehoboth, DE. Dealer frame AND a large, tacky stick-on BADGE on the back of it.

To make matters worse, the previous owner / demo driver / someone CURBED all 4 wheels. Almost made me cry.

 

If I owned a Conti. GT, I'd nearly be afraid to drive it much less drive it reckless enough to curb all four wheels.

 

I was very meticulous when I was placing an order for my G35 (couple of years ago) and my sales guy who was working with me at the time told the prep. staff that the buyer (me) will come with a magnifying glass when the car finally arrives so there better be nothing funny with the car. Sure enough there was no tacky advertising, no waxing/buffing, no cheap shine, absolutely nothing funny was done to a car, just like I wanted it.

I guess the moral of the story is that no detail must be overlooked and everything must be demanded up front with them when it comes to your car.