Manufacturers in ANY business have a responsibility to their customers
to ensure that dealers are chosen carefully and held to high
standards. For most customers the dealer is the only part of the
corporation they ever see.

I agree completely. I have been a (new car) dealer. So, how do we judge a
dealer and his business? By the first high profile incident where some rude
salesperson or incompetant manager makes a critical mistake? Be assured that's
the incident the public *will* hear about. Or, do we take into account the
numbers of folks who go away quietly satisfied and happily return in a few
years to buy a newer or nicer model?

Think of the dumbest or most embarrassing thing you ever did. Would it be fair
to take that incident and use to characterize you, as an individual, for all
time? Or would it be more accurate to note that it was a tragic exception to an
otherwise fairly OK situation?

The builders do have a pretty good handle on who the truly rotten dealers are.
Their info may vary from an unsubstantiated, one-sided horror story flushed
down the Internet by a PO'd buyer with an obvious agenda.