My husband and I decided to purchase a larger vehicle for me sometime in the future since we are expecting a new addition. I was driving Honda Accord at the time and we were leaning towards purchasing an SUV. Since I had absolutely no idea what manufacturer or model I actually would like, I decided to stop in at a couple of dealerships to try out different vehicles. I knew that I wanted to stick with something used, Japanese and low miles. The first place I went to was Courtesy Chrysler Jeep Dodge of Brandon, on the corner of Lakewood drive and highway 60. The sales manager met me outside, we talked and like a good salesman he offered me a car, that he thought was just right for me. He showed me this blue Lexus RX300 and I absolutely fell in love with it, once I sat in it. I admit, Lexus knows how to make you feel special. I told him right away that I am not ready to purchase yet, it would have to go through my husband, so he was happy to put together a cost sheet for me. I then stopped by a couple of other dealerships, got to drive couple of Honda CRV’s, which were a little newer, more expensive and with higher mileage. And I wasn’t in love with them!
That night I went online, checked out the blue book values for the Lexus and for my Honda and looked at the comparisons. I tell you right away, it was a little tricky to get what I want for the budget I had, so I really had to be fishing for a deal. And Lexus deal was pretty good, below blue book, he was offering $1000 more for my trade-in than the other two places I went to and I loved the car!
The next day I drove back to the dealership, talked to the sales manager, got the car down by another $500 (even though he wasn’t very happy about it, but agreed), and we made a deal. For financing we decided to go through our credit union, and we were happy to hear that the dealership deals with them directly. Since my husband is self-employed, and I am a home maker, the bank requested last two years of business’ and personal income tax paperwork with all of the spreadsheets and forms attached. All of our paperwork added up to about 100 pages. We brought it all to the lady who deals with the loans, which she supposedly faxed to the bank.
Three weeks later, we get a call from the sales manager saying that the bank didn’t approve us, and that he pre-qualified us for a loan through Wachovia bank. The attempt of finding the reason for loan disapproval from him was unsuccessful. We were a little surprised, being that the loan amount wasn’t that much and the car was worth at least one and a half times the loan amount. And beside the fact, isn’t it illegal to pre-qualify someone for a new loan without their consent?
Since the interest rate through Wachovia is quite a bit higher, I decided not to give up on our bank, so went there myself. Come to find out, the bank only got first few pages of our 2007 income tax paperwork. They were waiting for the rest of the paperwork that never arrived from the dealership. So I had to gather all of the paperwork again, bring it to the bank and god bless the sweet associate at the Suncoast Schools Credit Union in Riverview, who spent 45 minutes faxing all of this paperwork to their corporate office, I got the task accomplished. In the meantime the dealership kept getting on my case about going with the new loan through Wachovia. Thank goodness our loan got approved in a few days after they received all of the paperwork.
In the meantime, I decided to do a vehicle inspection at the Lexus dealership, while it was still under 60-day/2000 mile warranty. And I’m glad I did! They found an oil leak in the rear main seal. It is a big job, since the transmission needs to be pulled out in order to get to the seal itself. Lexus quoted me $1250 for the job. I called Brandon’s Chrysler Jeep Dodge maintenance department, explained my situation and was told to bring the vehicle in for inspection. It took couple of hours the next morning for the mechanic to confirm that in fact, the car did have an oil leak in the main rear seal. He said that he has to get with the dealership, where I bought the car (apparently they are not the same), and get an approval. It would take couple of days. After two days I called them back and dealt the the maintenance manager. He told me that we didn’t have the financing approved yet (you know the story already), and he doesn’t have the approval to fix the car till then. Once I found out that the loan is approved, I called him again, for which he replied, he still didn’t get the permission from the dealership to fix the car. I felt like in order for this job to happen, I have to step in again, so I decided to swing by the dealership in person the next morning. One guy got on the phone with the maintenance shop, and I got an appointment scheduled for a week in advance. Scott explained that they needed this time to order the part. So comes my appointment time, and the maintenance manager estimated that the repair job would take all day. I called later that afternoon to check up on things, to only find out that the wrong part came in, the right part is on its way, and the vehicle will have to be kept overnight. When I asked him if I could have a loaner car (my salesman mentioned that they do offer a loaner car in case the repair takes more than a day), he said that he is not responsible for getting me a loaner car, and that I have to deal directly with the dealership on that matter. By that time I was already fed up with the dealership on the matter of financing, so I decided to patiently wait. I called the following afternoon to find out when I can pick up my car and was told, that the part just came in, and the car won’t be ready until the morning after. So finally, the next morning I did receive a voice mail from the maintenance manager that the car was ready to be picked up.
Once I drove it off the lot, I noticed that my steering wheel was about 30 degrees off the center point. I didn’t have time that afternoon to go back to the shop, so I called them. The maintenance manager’s exact words were “We never touched the steering wheel, I don’t know why it’s doing it, we just fixed what you told us…” Even though I know for a fact that they had to mess with the steering system, because changing main rear oil seal is a big job involving taking out transmission, disconnecting electrical and realigning the steering system after the seal is changed. I asked him whether I could bring the car back in the morning and wait for them to inspect it. He told me that I have to leave it for a day again, because it will take them a couple of hours just to check it out.
Do these people realize what kind of effort it takes for me and my family to sit there without a car for three days only to find out that it wasn’t properly fixed and having to leave it there again for at least a day? Dragging my husband and child to the maintenance shop and back, not being able to leave the house and accomplish my errands? I At this point I was fed up with this piece of crap customer service and decided to head straight to my local mechanic, Riverview Tire and Auto, awesome guys, very trustworthy. They got my car realigned and ready to go within 40 minutes. I was glad to pay them 50 bucks and be on my way!
So here is a lesson I learned, there is no “too good to be true” deal, it always comes with strings attached. I happened to get cought exactly by these strings. So what would I have done differently? First, I would have gotten the car inspected before I purchased it, warranty or not. Once they get your money, they don’t care anymore. They do a slow, sloppy job and no one is responsible for anything. Like the maintenance manager told me, “it’s not my problem that the wrong part came in”, “I’m not responsible for giving you a loaner vehicle”, “it’s not my problem that the dealership didn’t approve the repair”, “I don’t know what happened with steering wheel”, etc, etc, etc. Second, I would have gone directly to my bank for a loan, versus getting it through the dealership. The smaller the number of parties involved, the less chance for a mistake to be made!
I now see one of the reasons why this company is in trouble. In order for a group or a company to survive, there has to be a certain responsibility level between its members or coworkers. If one slipped, another should be able to pick up the slack and vice versa. When every one is trying to haphazardly cover his own ass, business fails.
On that note, good luck to you, Brandon Courtesy Chrysler Jeep Dodge, you won’t be seeing me anymore!
Sounds pretty rough. In their defense, though, I think morale is very low in the auto industry right now. Its a dog eat dog business. Chrysler is losing money, they just closed a slew of dealerships, people getting laid off, etc.
With the car economy as bad as it is, people are trying to take advantage to get bargains, negotiating down prices (its business, not personal) and chopping out nearly all profit margins, etc. In the end, they probably made little to no money on the vehicle and were probably not too thrilled about having to utilize their resources to change out your seal when there is no money coming in the door. A paying customer likely would have received better treatment.
The fact is you guys wouldn’t have dealt with Chrysler anyway and they lost money off the deal – if not through the sale, then certainly through having to reimburse Lexus for the seal job.
However, I’d check that the seal isn’t leaking still. That is the kind of thing that is a hit or miss job. Lots of guys have changed seals only to have them still leak. If you aren’t looking under there (it will only leak when the engine is running) or checking the dipstick level periodically you won’t know. Plus, the steering system oversight might indicate another subpar component of the repair.
Finish getting all the other fluids checked, transmission level, radiator flush, brake system fluid change, etc as money permits. Once you’ve got the basic maintenance items done, you’re going to have a great vehicle capable of many miles of good service.
Thanks Bryan, I think Lexus checked all of this stuff already, I have to look at their print out once again. As far as the oil seal, I have to keep my fingers crossed I guess. Just probably do what you say, check the dipstick.
Actually, it’s not the Lexus that did the job, it’s the dealership maintenance shop. So technically the only thing they really paid for is the part itself. I paid Lexus $100 to check all of the main systems, that’s how they found the problem.
Reasons like this are exactly why US car industry has failed. No responsibility for their poor products (for the most part). I’m 42 years old and EVERY American car i’ve owned has had problems before 100,000 miles (major problems too and i do preventive maintenance). I had a Toyota Corolla and sold it after 254,000 miles (still ran great), a Nissan Sentra (150,000+ and still great). And on financing, many times finance managers and/or dealers get a cut of the interest rate – higher you will take the rate, the more they will get. They do this alot with folks with poor credit and believe it or not, many of them pay 20% + all the time. So i’ve been told by reliable sources anyway.
I was checking the internet for reviews of this horrible dealership and it looks like everyone has the same opinion on how awful is the service department.
I had an issue with this company as well. Frankly I am rather disgusted at their business practices. The salesperson I worked with had assured me that my $500 deposit would not allow the car to be sold, and I had an appt to finish the sale this Friday, but on Wednesday I was told, “bad news, someone came and bought with cash so we sold it” I will have to refund your $500. How unethical is that? My suggestion, never put down a deposit it doesnt mean squat. Their commission is more important than having a satisfied, possibly customer for life. Not anymore. I know 5 people looking for cars and I am going to post to BBB. I hope you never go back. Im not.