I’ve bought three Toyotas from three different - Djt008
I’ve bought three Toyotas from three different dealerships(Crestmont in Pompton Plains and Paul Miller in West Caldwell), and this was by far the wierdest experience of the three. Compared to the other two dealerships, so many things could have gone better. If you don’t feel like reading this, tl;dr avoid this dealership if you can. The lack of attention to detail forces the consumer to be extra attentive, and if something is missed, it might end up costing you.
Let’s start at the beginning. When I walked into the dealership to buy a car, I couldn’t tell you who the person who sold my car to me was. I didn’t get a card, and when asked later when I went to pick up the car that I wanted, they asked me how the salesperson was. I had no idea there was nothing to identify them to me. Additionally, the Carfax on the car indicated that there were 45,000 miles on the car that I wanted. I asked them via email to confirm that they did. So I was a bit surprised when there were 47,000 miles on the car when I went to test drive it, and no one knew. Chalking that up to a clerical error, I agreed to consider purchasing the car the same day of the test drive. That’s when the salesperson told me that the price was $1000 higher than the advertised price because, according to the fine print, “I didn’t buy a car within the last six months from that dealership.” I was going to consider other cars at other places until he lowered the price. It’s just something to watch out for.
When the paperwork was being filled out by the finance people, the original odometer printout said 45,000 miles and change. If I hadn’t caught that and had them re-print the paperwork, it would have looked like somebody took over a 1000-mile trip on the car after I signed the paperwork as I took delivery of the car on March 7. Again something to look out for.
I wish I could say that it was just my experience, but since they didn’t call to ask what time I was thinking to pick up the car like it had been done at other dealerships. It wasn’t ready and needed to be detailed, so I waited for two hours. During that time, a woman called, and the desk answered it on speaker. Because I could hear the conversation, I heard that the caller was upset that she got a bill for a car that two weeks ago she had agreed to trade into the dealership with the dealership paying off the loan. She was very upset that she got a bill and didn’t know what to do. While the call shouldnt have been ansewred on speaker it does seem to indicate that my experience may not be unique with the dealership. If you buy a car here make sure that everything is explained to you.
When I finally got the car released to me, I noticed that there were a couple of scratches on it that I didn’t notice during the test drive because they were on the passanger side and on the hood. When I asked about the scratches, the salesperson said, “Well, you had looked at them, and I had said no, I didn’t because of where the car was parked.” He said that they were old. The car is a certified preowned vehicle. It’s surprising that a dealership would let old scratches, especially minor ones, remain on a vehicle because it’s an easy fix, and that’s never happened at the other two dealerships. Route 22 Toyota said they would fix it, but I’m not hopeful about that. And happy to post an update if they do. But at every turn, it seemed like I was being misled. At the other two dealerships, they gave me the car with a full tank of gas, which I didn’t get here, but maybe the policy changed.
Like I said, I bought the car because it’s a CPO with the features that I wanted, but given how many details were missed, I wouldn’t be surprised if everything went wrong as soon as the CPO warranty ran out. So while I would buy another Toyota, I would definitely not buy it here. I suggest you look elsewhere if you can.
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