Lexus of Fremont

It was a very pleasant experience dealing with Kathleen. She was very prompt in providing all the details, pictures etc about the vehicle. We bought a used lexus and Kathleen did her best to make sure that She was very prompt in providing all the details, pictures etc about the vehicle. We bought a used lexus and Kathleen did her best to make sure that we drive away the best car of our liking and budget. More

We purchased a new 2010 RX350 from Magnussen Lexus in early August 2010. We dealt with the internet sales department and already had a reasonable negotiated price via email & phone calls. They were th early August 2010. We dealt with the internet sales department and already had a reasonable negotiated price via email & phone calls. They were the only dealer in the bay area with the RX of the color/option that we wanted, so we went in on a Saturday afternoon for a test drive and closed the deal. The sales team seemed nice and easy to deal with. However, when we proceeded with the finance department(closing), the finance manager we worked with(John M) was so unprofessional that it made the whole experience unpleasant and disgusting. The practice of the dealership appears to be very unethical and here are the hightlights: - The sales manager tried to rip us off with an additional "hidden $1000", tried very hard to fool us with various confusing numbers/charges. He insisted that "Hey, we do this everyday and just write the check for that amount I list there!" He was trying to act like we were silly and giving us pressure to write that check/amount! Later he was making different statements and different stories about some hidden rebate going to the dealer or misc charge etc to support his out the door amount. My wife is a CPA/auditor so it's good that she double checked. We almost believed him and wrote the check, and other buyers who are less careful might be frauded by this move. At the end, the sales manager said "Let me check with the sales team to see what's going on...and after 3 minute he came back and acknowledged that he made a mistake in the paperwork." That happened only because we insisted for 5 minutes to convince him that we were not that stupid! We don't know for sure, but we feel that the dealer or the sales manager may potentially try the same trick on other car buyers. - The sales manager was very pushy and rude, and gave us lots of pressure to sell extra packages. He absolutely lied to us about pre-paid maintenance program and intentionally inflated their numbers. He quickly showed us some paper/pamphlet saying what various services include, how much each one of the scheduled service through the first 30k miles would cost, and how pre-paid package would save us 60%! He basically pushed the sales with tactics like "This pre-paid package is only available today, now, and if you don't include this pre-paid package, this will never be available for you after you take delivery today." He clearly wrote on a piece of paper saying the cost of the 30k mile tune up, which is the most expensive one, would cost $1400 at any Lexus dealers and adding up the cost of other minor services would cost over $4000. We questioned the validity of the cost and he said "That's how much Lexus service cost because we do so much work on your car during the various service". Since we aren't familiar with Lexus, we purchased the package for $1800. The next day, I called Serramonte Lexus and Putnam Lexus and they both confirmed the cost of 30k mile service is only $450, not $1400! We were however able to cancel this with them and got a full refund, but this practice of "inflating the numbers and misinforming car buyers" is so unethical...because they try to sell more products! I gave the dealership poor rating on my Lexus customer survey, and the sales manager (Kenneth?) called me to inquire about my experience, and later the owner/GM of the dealer (Bo Magnussen) left me a voice mail to apologize for their wrong doing. He claimed that they are not aware of this practice by their finance manager(John M) and he would not tolerate such behavior in the future. Well, you decide for yourself but I just want to share our experience so that future Lexus car buyers in the bay area are aware of this. I would not recommend Magnussen...as I heard good things about Lexus in general and I'm sure other dealers should be more reputable. Good luck. More