used car sales at Toyota Marin

used car sales at Toyota Marin

June 29, 2006

Toyota Marin

Used and New Car Sales

Toyota Marin 445 Francisco Blvd E, San Rafael, CA 94901

Mark McCollum General Manager

Jon Frank Pre-owned Sales Director

There are two issues: 1) Maintenance that was agreed to be done after I bought the car and then was refused to be done, and 2) The negotiation process for buying the car. 1) When I bought the car Michael Gebers and Nathan (the manager at the time) agreed to:

a) Replace the rear windshield wiper

b) Fix the lump in the front seat

c) Fix the alignment

d) Fix the reception on the radio

e) Tighten the speaker in the left front One week after purchasing the used Lexus RX300 I left it for the whole day to be repaired. To my dismay they only tightened the speaker in the left front. My paperwork said that the manager had denied to fix anything else. I came in the next week and talked to John Frank about the situation. He was totally apologetic saying that he found the "Do Bill" and that he would have everything fixed that was on it. He that the problem was that the maintenance people didn't have the Do Bill. He also apologized saying that he couldn't imagine why they hadn't fixed the alignment because that was something that they normally always approve. I left the car for the whole day. To my dismay, when I returned to pickup my car that evening, they had not even looked at the seat. They had done the alignment and ordered a new antennae for the radio reception. I had arranged to do a lockout where I would pickup the keys with sales around 7PM. To my dismay, when I arrived they couldn't find my keys. After waiting around about 45 minutes they finally found them and I was on my way.

The next week I brought the car in for the third time to get the seat fixed. Around 4PM, Roman in maintenance called to say they had replaced the antennae, but they didn't have time to start ripping the seat apart, and could I leave it there another day. I told him that I couldn't leave it another day because I work in San Francisco and Tuesdays are the only day I have a ride. We agreed that I would bring the car back once again the following week. We arranged to do another lockout so I could pickup the keys at 7PM. To my dismay, when I arrived, again they could not find my keys. After another 45 minutes they gave up and said they would have to give me a rental car. After having lost the keys the previous week, you can imagine that I was not happy. At the end of the next day, I called to check on the car and to my dismay again, Chris in maintenance told me that they couldn't get in touch with a manager the entire day to figure out how they were going to fix the seat (send it out to another place or not). This was now the fourth day that I had left my car at maintenance. On the morning of the fifth day, I was dumbfounded to have Chris tell me that management had decided to not fix it. My car had been in repair for 3 days straight now. This is after just the one week before John Frank had said they would absolutely take care of it because it was in writing. I was now, understandably getting quite upset.

I drove to the Toyota Marin showroom and was then told for the first time that the reason they weren't going to fix it was because they couldn't feel the problem in the seat. John Frank said that he couldn't feel the problem and he said Mark McCollum couldn't feel it. We then got Chris to come out and sit in the seat because he was about my size. Chris said he did feel the dip in the right side of the back of the seat. Immediately, John Frank said that they wouldn't fix it anyway.

I have a very sensitive back and my back gets thrown out easily if tweaked in any way. Therefore, I am very sensitive to any mis-alignment. When I first drove the car I noticed this problem. There would be no reason for me to make this up if there was no problem. They committed to fixing the problem if I were to buy the car. I bought the car and they are now refusing to fix the problem. I filed a suit in small claims court this week.

2) When I bought the car Nathan used a sales technique that we totally sneaky and underhanded. Let me explain. I came in with the Teal 01 Mercedez to trade in. I told Michael Gebers that I wanted payments under $400. Nathan came back with an offer that if I were to put down $5000 I could get payments of $410 per month. I then told him that I wanted to put down nothing. He then came back and said that because they were trying to clear the lot because of the demolition of the building they would give me the car for $15,000 and the payments would be $450 per month. I agreed and waited about an hour for him to write up the deal. He then came back to me and said that they couldn't get any finance company to fund the deal for 72 months because the car was older than a 2001. I then went home. They then called me back saying they had found someone to fund the deal. I came in excited to sign the sales contract. To my dismay, when I looked at the total amount of the contract it was not for $15,000, it was for $18,000. Nathan had conveniently neglected to tell me that I was having to pay the $3000 difference between what they were giving me on my trade in and my payoff amount. When Nathan had given me the first offer of $5000 down, there was not mention at that there would be an additional $3000 to pay off my car. Therefore, when he gave me the offer of $15,000 there was no way for me to know that he was actually making me pay for the payoff difference. This technique is wrong! And, obviously it seems to be a technique that is commonly used around this Toyota dealership, because when I brought up the issue, both Nathan and the woman helping with the Sales Contract tried to distract me from the issue by saying, "Which would you rather have, $15,000 or $18,000 on the contract." Saying that I saved taxes by having it be $15,000. That was not the point. The point was that I had not been told about the extra $3000. Remember, I had now just driven back in an hour from home to get the deal that I was originally promised so I was now jazzed about getting the car. Having been a salesperson myself, I know how you can use the excitement of the customer at wanting to drive the car away to get them to agree to terms that they otherwise might not agree to.

It also became obvious that this technique of not mentioning the payoff amount until the end is common, when I brought it up with John Frank yesterday. He pulled up the invoice and happily says that I did get the car for $15,000. Regardless, of how it is broken down, I now have a loan for $19,000 that I am paying off - not $15,000. These tactics and the fact that my car was at Toyota Marin for 5 days before they told me that they denied to fix something that was on the contract (even after John Frank swore that it would be taken care of on the 2nd day), along with the fact that twice I was not able to get my car because they couldn't find the keys at the sales desk - all makes me not only not want to go back to Toyota Marin, but to tell everyone I know to stay away from them.

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