I still respect Stihl as mostly good equipment, particularly anything that starts with 0. But Stihl screwed over the best long time servicing dealer in a 200 mile region in 1995 or so. All the loggers in the area bought from him, and took their equipment to him for service, and bought chains, bars,, and parts there. Ditto for the farmers. He sold lots of Stihl, and kept a good stock. He also was a logger in his spare time, and raised Christmas trees.
The machine shop across the highway convinced ($$,$$$) Stihl to yank his franchise and give it to them. Result: A fancy stihl dliplay, poor service, and an opportunity for other brands. The former dealer was forced to sell out, but kept the building, and went to logging. He came back a few years later, because all his customers wanted him to fix their saws. He picked up Echo, but most of his work is fixing creamsickles. He still does not have a fancy wall display with white slat-rack, but the Echoes are displayed on the same shelves that used to display stihl. I lost a lot of respect for stihl as a company after that.
Same thing happened 10 yrs earlier to the best BMW M/C dealer. No fancy displays, just a great stock of parts, great service and enough new machines to set up anyone. Just a walk in door and a garage door that was open whenever the weather was decent. The family made their money trucking, so didn't depend on gouging the BMW customer to keep the lights on. The new stores in Iowa City had lots of windows and expensive displays, but they went out of business every 3-5 years. I have no respect for BMW. I still have respect for BMW M/C made before the 90s.
