Dealers to avoid / Bad experience

There's a thread about bad dealers in the dealers and pricing section of the forum.

I had to deal with the same as #2.

There are some really nice and helpful dealers on this message board. It's too bad that they all aren't like them.

 

In my experience, you should avoid almost all Toyota dealers, I love my Prius, but my 6 dealership experiences, in three cities, has caused me to think 5 times about ever buying another Toyota, worst buying experiences ever.

 

Ymmv

FWIW, of the 4 Toyotas bought be me or my immediate family, I'd say that we've bought, I'd say that dealership experiences ranged from ok to excellent.

Here's the rundown:
- parents bought a 91 Camry from Capitol Toyota of San Jose - Decent experience. No complaints.
- parents bought a 96 Camry from Piercey Toyota formerly of San Jose (now Milpitas) - Was ok. I recall waiting a long time for the paperwork along w/other customers.
- dad bought an 02 RAV4 from Piercey - I wasn't present but I guess the previous experience must've been ok to him.
- me: 06 Toyota Prius from Toyota Sunnyvale - excellent experience.

Re: Toyota Sunnyvale: Went back w/a friend when she was shopping for a Camry or Prius: ok experience, but she ended up not buying any car. My parents and I went back shopping for a HyCam: good experience but they bought a NAH instead.

 

I agree Toyota has some of the worst dealers. Together with Honda, those guys just act like they own you and you have to do everything they want. I honestly can't recommend any Toyota in the Hartford area, but I can definitely tell you to stay away from Hartford Toyota and Wallingford Toyota. Both places are shady and they treat their customers like dogs. If you want me to write more, I would love to. I just don't want to bore you guys as it is more local than national issue.

 

I'm dealing with a stealership off Mercury BLVD in Hampton, VA...The biggest mistake I made was placing $5K down as a deposit on 6-27-09...

However they did give me a loaner car on 6-30-09, as of 7-25-09 I turned the loaner car back in due to having doubt's about their ability to function as a strong unit.

On 7-24-09 I went to check in as I always did every 5 days as I was informed...Wouldn't you know they finally had the paperwork for me to sign on the loaner car after I made it clear about their error a while back in an E-mail.

I wish they would drop the ball on my order so I can ask for my deposit and run like HELL...:frusty:


I think it's pretty SAD when I know more about the Prius and what they have to offer in reference to the varying packages ETC... The purchase experience from Toyota has not been pleasant at all, when I purchase my 2007 Ridgeline from Honda the experience was pleasant.:rockon:

 

From my experience one of Honda's big advantages over Toyota (at least in Denver) is its dealers. Toyota lost a sale to Honda when we bought our CRV 12 years ago, because we couldn't find an honest Toyota dealer in Denver for a Rav4. At that time we talked with several Honda dealers and they were all great. When we bought our Prius last month I again talked with all the dealers in Denver and south, and it seemed nothing had changed. Fortunately we finally found a dealer we liked in Colorado Springs, who delivered on a good price and reasonably good sales experience.

 

My only issue with the dealer I bought from (Koon Arlington Toyota, Arlington VA) was in the F & I. He was trying to get me to buy the extended warranty, gap insurance, etc. I would have bought the warrenty if he could have gotten me the 7/70 warrenty for the price I can get through here, but he was quoting me 50% more.

Gap ins pissed me off -- I was putting down 4K. I do not think I will be upside down, and if so, not much more than the $600 cost of GAP.

Well, he comes back offering me everything thing without an increase in payment. Only thing is he extended the loan from 60 to 64 months, which adds $1600 to the price. I almost walked.

I just said no, and if you play games like this, I will walk.

Oh, I got $400 UNDER MSRP, and +500 on my trade. Deal was: 2005 Subaru Forester (which needs about $1000-1500 in rehab, inside and out, and I owed $6800 on) for the Prius III plus 21,200...all fees (tax,tags, etc) included.

 

I am looking for the same car, the IV in blizzard white with grey.
What should I be paying? What is the Costco program?
thank you.

 

Orlando Area

From my latest experience.

Best to worse:
1) David Maus Toyota - Where I purchased mine (Adam Rutheford-Sales)
2) Courtesy Toyota
3) Central Florida Toyota
4) Lakeland Toyota
5) Daytona Toyota - Wanted a $1500 over MSRP for PRius II
6) Orlando Toyota - Avoid at all costs. If you want to know why, I'll tell you. Message me.

 

I understand that car dealerships are independent businesses, but they really can be the weakest link. Given all that goes into designing, manufacturing, and marketing a vehicle (not necessarily in that order, depending on the company) it's really a shame that a poor dealer has such a big influence on people's perceptions.

 

I have spoke to 7 different Toyota dealerships here in CT.

Wallingford Toyota (VERY BAD)
Hartford Toyota (BAD)
Enfield Toyota (BAD)
Manchester Toyota (BAD)
Torrington Toyota (CLOSE TO BAD)
Watertown Toyota (CLOSE TO BAD)
Stephens Toyota (ACCEPTABLE)

 

I suggest maybe seeing if the dealership you go to has a hybrid specialist and just deal with them. Do not just talk to any random salesman.

 

It's still a car, there is no specialist! This isn't a Ferrari!

 

A Ferrari is more 'just a car' than a hybrid is.

No, I'm not going to burn in hell for that blasphemous statement - I mean there's more 'new and different' about hybrids that require some educational effort on the part of sales people and journalists.

 

A Ferrari is a piece of Italian art and price as such.

 

In San Diego, Mossy Toyota touts itself as the #1 Prius dealer in Southern California, not just San Diego. I challenged that statement last weekend since one of the largest Toyota dealers (on the west coast ?) is Longo Toyota in Long Beach and the salesman backed off a bit. I actually think they are the # 1 Prius dealer in SoCal (at least recently) but then the sales manager came and repeated the same boast as he dismissed the offer we just proposed and offered no counter deal.

So, given this and other prior experiences with the same dealer, as far as I'm concerned Mossy Toyota's position as the # 1 Prius dealer in SoCal appears to allow them to bully and bash customers hoping to negotiate a decent deal and snub who ever they don't want to deal with at all. Though the salesman was cooperative, he did not answer one question we asked about and constantly provided excuses as part of his routine to distract or deflect from responding to my pointed questions. Thought this was strange till we met the sales manager.

One of the last things the sales manager said as he essentially dismissed our offer was that he wanted us to "know he Mossy did everything to work a deal for us." What a line ! Guess Sunday afternoon's are simply a poor time to give customers a benefit of a doubt and work patiently with a customer till the deal is truly dead...

 

Hey, cossie1600,

There are indeed hybrid/Prius specialists at certain Toyota dealerships and they DO know their product. I had an excellent one at Balise Toyota in W. Springfield where I eventually bought my Prius 4 years ago. I would send you to him for you to see what I mean, but he's retired now.

Where exactly in Ct are you from because if Manchester isn't too far for you, I would tell you to go back to Lynch's & speak to only Gene Stack or "Skip" Guilmette. They both have been specifically trained on Toyota hybrids. The hybrid knowledge of any other sales people there is only what they overheard from Gene & Skip's deals.

By the way, they are all idiots who like to play games at Gale Toyota in Enfield even though they are an MSRP dealer. But the Hartford Toyota Superstore sales people are greedy bastards who do the MSRP plus $5,000 markup thing. I don't have any experience with any other Ct Toyota dealers.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

Hi Ken, do they have good service department? I already bought a car, so now I am just driving it. Perhaps in the future, I would need good techs to work on the car.

Going back to the specialist, I am not sure how a Prius specialist would change anything since the Prius is pretty much an ordinary car with an interesting powertrain. I mean 10 minutes with the car is pretty much all you need to know. There is really nothing special about it. It's still a car at the end of the day, with a few neat features here and there.

 

Hi again, cossie1600,

Both Balise in W. Springfield & Lynch's in Manchester have great service depts. Each of them have 4 or 5 Prius techs, but you don't necessarily get a Prius tech for your oil chg & tire rotation. If you have a special service like transmission drain & refill or coolant or spark plug replacement, I would certainly request when making the appointment that only a Prius tech work on your car for those things.

I split my time between both dealerships & actually prefer to do the 100 mile round trip to Balise because of how well I've been taken care of there in both sales & service. When time restraints prevent that trip I'm fine with Lynch's especially since the service manager & one one his service writers originally came down from Balise.

A word of caution however about both dealership service depts. : Balise uses a call center for all their dealership brands to schedule service & the call center people don't really know the Prius & tend to push services that aren't necessary for the Prius or that can't be done, so ask to be connected to a service writer at the Toyota dealership (& get a couple of their extensions). Lynch's does NOT use a call center (you call the service # & get a service writer) & they use a Prius-specific chart for the different service intervals. Even so, when I was ready for my 60,000 mile service (NEVER ask for a ??,000 mile service, but only for any dealer to do ONLY what is required in your "Passport" maintenance guide), Lynch's did want me to get more done than was necessary (costing about 3 times more than what Balise was going to charge), so naturally I went up to Balise for that service. Both will stick to just whatever you want if you insist & won't fight you on it.

You never did say what town you were from or how far away from Manchester you are.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)