Pros
The people I work with, at Mercedes-Benz of Marin, have done their best to keep serving our guests properly and to keep a workplace where we can respect eachother and make it work though very trying time, in spite of what can only be described as purposeful sabotage by the Swickard group since buying us. Local management has the skills but is not allowed to make necessary managerial decisions for a functioning operation. They do their best and are good to work with, but also if they wont tell their higher ups the truth, or try and manage properly, just because they will be made to leave, then they're not really managing are they? We're perfectly capable of making the company a lot of money, if they'd just let us.
Cons
The Swickard group seems to know that dealerships are one of the investments that guarantee a 30% return.. and their business model seems to be buy a bunch of dealerships, then immediately cut $100-$200,000 from monthly budget or overhead and there's your profit right there, leave everyone to scramble to make that work, while cutting employees as well, then implement changes without any actual knowledge of the industry, just money managers, cut 401k matching away, offer the worst benefits of any dealer, don't even offer sick days, just use your accrued PTO? They do not pay overtime at the technicians Normal Rate, their Flat Rate, per California Department of Labor Law, which you are breaking, regardless what your handbook says. They allow no raises, and dont let local management fix any of these issues...and if people don't like it, they can just keep not liking until they inevitably leave. What a scam of an owner and a poor excuse for an American company. The previous owner Gregg Penske knows all of our names and would regularly visit and shake our hands and give us something to show appreciation. Swickard never shows his face around employees, he'd not want to look us in the eye, how could he?...well he doesn't anyway. What a sad and hurtful thing this previous investment banker has done to many places that used to be good companies and good places to work. I'm sorry that I'll have to leave this place soon, Mercedes-Benz of Marin, where I've been for ten years. Don't work here unless you are a bit of a sadist.