Currie Motors Ford of Valpo

A terrible experience buying a car. First off, I want to be clear that our salesperson with whom we dealt with was nice. Dave Riley was kind to us and helped us the best he could. Most o First off, I want to be clear that our salesperson with whom we dealt with was nice. Dave Riley was kind to us and helped us the best he could. Most of the reasons why I give such a poor review is not because of Dave, but rather because of how the operation was handled as an entire dealership. The business flow was awful. My wife and I had been looking at a Ford Transit at Currie Motors for a couple weeks. We live 4 hours away from the dealership, but we were really happy with the price we received from Currie. We decided to purchase the car and had an agreed-upon price before we even drove up there. We called the day before and told the people we had been talking to for about two weeks that we would come tomorrow with a check to pay for the car in cash. We told them we would arrive at 4 pm and asked them to have the car ready to go. We were bringing our 5 children and my wife is pregnant, so anything they could do to get as much done before we arrived would be greatly appreciated. We arrived at 4 pm the next day and I walked in and asked for Tim or Alexandria and told Dave (the person who greeted me that we were supposed to pick up a Ford Transit). Dave didn't seem aware of any Ford Transit being picked up, but he went to get someone who would know. I waited for 10 mins and no one came to help. Dave saw me and asked if anyone had come to help yet and I said no. He apologized and went back again to get someone. 15 more minutes passed by and still, no one greeted us. I walked over to Dave (who was working with another customer) and asked if they had a plan about who was supposed to work with me. He was shocked no one had come to help and told me they paged someone twice now. He said he was going to page someone. I would've rather someone make their responsibility to make sure we were going to be helped instead of just telling me that theye were going to page someone again (which hadn't worked for almost 30 mins now). Eventually, Dave ended up working between us and his other customer at the same time. I was appreciative that Dave took the initiative to just do it himself even though there were other people who seemed like they could've been helping us (not to mention we set up an appointment at 4 pm and expected someone to be ready to help us). Eventually, we were able to get the keys and Dave took us on a test drive to check out the car since we had only seen online. This car is a new 2018 Ford Transit. I was incredibly disappointed when Dave pulled it up and the car was not clean on the exterior and the interior was trashed. Water bottles in the back seat. Crumbs all over the floor. Old coke spilled in the cup holder. He told us it had 19 miles when we got in the car (but it had 70, not a big deal, but just disappointed that he told us something that he could've checked while he was pulling up the car). We drove the car and it drove as we hoped, but I told Dave that I was pretty disappointed that the car was not prepared for us and that was in such a messy state especially after we called the day before saying we were coming at 4 to pick it up. He apologized and told us they've been busy yesterday and today, but it seems like a poor excuse. If someone is paying me almost 40k for a van I would have someone stay late or come in early to get it ready and prepared. The paperwork process was a nightmare. Multiple hours. It shouldn't have taken that long especially considering we already had a price agreed upon. I was hoping they would've had the papers drawn up and ready to sign, instead it was like we were talking to them for the first time. They required us to run a credit check even though we were paying in cash. I've never had this happen before in buying a car, but they said they had to do it. Why they couldn't run the credit check before we arrived is beyond me. Almost 2 hours into our time there, we asked how much longer they thought it would be. We have 5 kids that were getting hungry around 6 pm and didn't want them sitting for much longer if it was going to be awhile. Dave told us it would be 1.5 hours more at most. When we asked why it was taking so long he told us that if you think about it, it takes 3 months to buy a house so when we were purchasing something that cost thousands of dollars like this it takes time. We told them that we've never had a car buying experience take this long (especially when we've agreed upon a price). I really wished they would've offered to pay for our families dinner or something. It was pretty inexcusable to have our new car trashed when they brought it up and have absolutely nothing prepared before we got there knowing we were driving 4 hours up there and still had to drive back. Anything they could've done to just say sorry for their mistakes would've been appreciated, but nothing like that was offered. The sales manager, Mike, came up to us and asked how we got the price that we got to. (The price he was getting was $500 more than what we agreed upon in email). I did appreciate that he immediately told us that he wasn't going to change the price and would honor it no matter what, but he was just curious about what incentives we talked about to arrive at the price. We were able to square it away and get the numbers to match, but that is one positive thing, that they didn't try to raise the price and that he would've honored it even if we couldn't find the missing incentive. But the fact that they were asking these questions 2.5 hours into our time being there seemed a little absurd because, again, we already agreed upon the price, told them we were coming and asked them to have stuff ready for us. When we went to sign the paperwork, Sean, the finance person, first had us sign a sheet displaying the miles on the vehicle. It said 20. I told him that was incorrect and it was more like 70. He asked if I was sure and I said, I'm pretty confident. I told him that Dave told us 19 when we got into the car, but I checked I'm pretty sure it said 70. He called back to shop (it was finally get cleaned up) and asked for a mileage check. It was 74. No problem in my mind. I just figured Dave didn't check and someone had driven it this week. Sean in finance printed out a new sheet and we signed it saying 74 miles. Before we left, the Sean called Dave into the office (we were still sitting there). He asked if this was his handwriting (showing where the milage said 20). Dave said yes. He asked Dave if he was sure about that. Dave said he was pretty sure. He asked if he personally checked. Dave told him that he check when he got in it and it said 17 and he thought it said 20 when he got out. The finance manager asked him if he wanted to bet his paycheck against his that he was correct about 20. Dave said he didn't think he was that sure. And the finance person told him 74. Dave said, well I guess I was a little off. It was just completely unprofessional. I don't know if Dave was lying or not, but it's hard for me to believe that he check the mileage twice and read it incorrectly both times, but what was far worse was the fact that this was happening in front of us. Mind you it's almost 8 pm and we just want to leave. I hope it was just one coworker poking fun at another, but for me and my wife who don't know the context of the relationships, it felt like one employee was belittling another because he made a mistake or possibly lied. It would be fine to have that conversation after we left, but it felt embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch and sit in on. The last disappointing thing about our experience was when we were taking the car out to test drive I noticed that the lock on the passenger slider door was missing the rubber trim around the lock "pole." The two front doors had trim around the lock poles. So I asked if that was missing the rubber trim or if it just came like that and Dave told us that it just came like that. I thought it looked weird but thought, 'well maybe that's just how it is because that lock looks slightly different than the front door locks.' It wasn't until 810 pm when I was loading stuff into the trunk of the new van that I noticed that lock on the back trunk door had the same style lock as the passenger sliding door and it had rubber trim around the pole. I asked Dave how confident he was that the sliding door didn't have the trim because this lock on the back looks the exact same. Dave said something along the lines of, "o maybe it does have that. Can I just order the part and have it sent down to you." I appreciated that Dave would get us the part, but I really wish that Dave would've answered my question differently during our test drive. I wish when I initially asked if it was missing the rubber trim he would've just said, "hm I'm not sure, let me check on that." Instead of confidently saying that's how it comes, only to find out it was missing the trim. Also, the car was clean, but the passenger door cup holder still had spilled coke in it, but at this point, I just wanted to get our kids home. All and all, we got the van, it was a good price, but the communication that happened from viewing the car on the website to calling the dealership to actually picking it up the vehicle was horrible. No one seemed to communicate with anyone else. We arrived at 4 pm. Didn't talk to anyone until about 430. We didn't see the van until 445 and when we did it was trashed. And no paperwork was prepared or even anticipated beforehand. No one seemed to have any idea we were coming. Our family 7 was at the dealership from 4 pm and didn't drive off the lot until 815. This seems absurd when the price and vehicle are already agreed upon prior to showing up. Dave was very kind and apologized, but we won't be buying another vehicle from Currie Motors and we certainly can't recommend anyone else do business with them. More