[KD7SMX]

I've been working with Toyota of Bellevue for about a week now. My sales person, Michael Burrow, is excellent. He took my quotes from off road equipment resellers to have a variety of things installed on a new FJ and included in my finance for a minimal markup. He did a lot of work for me.

I was given an overnight demo after much haggling with the finance guy, John Murphy, on numbers for the FJ itself. I brought the car back and declared to the finance guy that I had decided to wait and pay down my trade in some more. He pushed back; "why wait, what difference will it make?" I again declared "this is my decision, I am going to wait". Instead of saying I'm sorry we couldn't help but please see us again he blurts out "why would you take my car home with you if you were just gonna say no!?" After having a HORRIBLE experience with a Subaru dealer using these high pressure/guilt tactics I wasn't going to tolerate this crap again and I responded with "If you want to push this I can just walk out". To my amazement he said "well go ahead!". So I did.

This wasn't behind closed doors either. It was on the show floor next to a crowded reception desk.

I felt really bad for my sales person. I noticed his head just hanging down as I blew by. I will be sending him a thank you card for his work. Pity his boss had to blow the whole thing for him. I would have come back in a couple months. Now I have to start all over with a new dealer.

 

[sealevel]

These number crunchers know nothing about customer service and how to treat people. Too bad for the sales person. I would have walked also!

 

[Bostonian1976]

I was given an overnight demo after much haggling with the finance guy, James Taylor, on numbers for the FJ itself.

is this guy's motto on his card: "winter spring summer or fall.........all you have to do is call........" ?

 

[DoWork]

you did the right thing. Getting a new car is a big deal and you shouldnt feel pressured.

 

[MrsChewey]

We had a very bad experience with Michael's as well when we bought my Camry :flame:. When we decided to buy the FJ in June of 06' you could not have paid us to go there. And trust, me I think Jed drug me to every Toyota dealership between Olyimpia and Bellingham. :lol:

We ended up going to Magic Toyota in Lynnwood, and had a very NO PRESSURE salseperson help us. He actually said that if we decided not to get the FJ that day, that there was someone right around the corner that would. So consequently Jed drove it home that night. :cheers:

I know a couple of other members here get some of their mods done at Magic as well.

Check em out,

Jenifer

 

[SoonerFJ]

IMO the biggest hassle of buying a car isnt dealing with the salesman, but putting up with the finance people. We recently bought a Honda Civic and were told not to show up with the check made out for the price that we had agreed on. As it turns out, we were bombarded with all sorts of "add-ons" from the Finance crew. Three sales pitches later, I basically told the guy, "Either you sell me the car without the gimmicks that pad your pockets, or I walk out now."

It was a slam dunk sale, since were paying cash for the car, but they were trying to explain to us how beneficial it would be to finance through Honda Motors, so that we could purchase gap insurance, door ding protection, a 200% mark-up warranty, and insurance on the loan should something happen to us.... and the list went on. After the 3rd firm NO and an hour of wasted time, we ended up leaving and purchased the car from elsewhere. Our salesman at the first dealer was great, but the finance people were terrible to deal with.

 

[Joeg180]

Sales must be really good that they can have that attitude.

The guy I dealt with didn't want to lose to another dealer, so he discounted heavily

 

[Sparks Toyota-TRD]

aw man, that is not cool, don't blame you at all on that!! hehe, if that had happened here, as soon as Mr. Sparks would have seen it, that guy would be on the carpet!!(in his office closed door) man..........

Mark

 

[enricosonic]

is this guy's motto on his card: "winter spring summer or fall.........all you have to do is call........" ?

Wow - James Taylor's really fallen on some hard times.

I had a similar experience with Toyota of Bellevue. They tried to take an intimidating stance over our purchase since FJs were scarce at the time. They also lied about what was even available options-wise as if I'd never heard of the internet or visited Toyota's site.

Using this new thing called the internet I was able to search local dealers' inventories for exactly what I wanted (Doxon Toyota in Auburn - dealt with Leon Waters - the internet sales mgr. and a great guy I'd feel good about recommending).

I received many calls from Toyota of Bellevue who had found 'new possibilities' for us and a better price. I never told them I bought somewhere else because I kind of enjoyed their pathetic attempts at gaining my business.

 

[BamBam]

Read my post about Brent Brown Toyota. Similar experience. Our economy is crashing, gas prices are at record highs, SUV sales are flat, and yet these finance guys still can't stop being condescending jerks. Unbelievable.

 

[shfd739]

Wow. It sucks you had those problems. Finishing up my purchase took all of 15 mins with the finance guy. I had the check ready , declined the extended warranties for now and signed the papers. Second easiest car buying experience ever. Oh and I got to shoot the bull with the dealership owner and namesake for about 20 mins while the papers were being drawn up.

 

[Thermal_Scorpion]

I always avoid the Eastside dealers. I had an experience with the Bellevue Dodge dealership where I stormed out after they tried to increase the price on me after they already said they would lower it. On top of that they kept pushing all the extra plans, warranty plans, this and that, after I said no.

I got my FJ from Lake City and they were nice and everyone but the sales guy at the time had good attention to detail. I said no to a few things and they only tried to convince me one time instead of 5 or 6. One of our own is the internet salesperson now and he's a great guy.

I also deal with Magic Toyota in Edmonds on a regular basis for odds and ends type parts and they're good to deal with as well. I know several people who have bought vehicles from them and they all report straight up dealing and low pressure sales.

Rodland in Everett is OK. The reason I say ok is because when I bought my Taco from them I got jacked around by the sales manager because he didn't like what the salseman had put on paper. They also were the slowest freaking people I have ever seen when it came to actually picking the vehicle up and getting the paperwork done. I was prefinanced too so it should have been pretty simple. The sales people I've interacted with seem to know the vehicles really well. They also don't use high pressure tactics. The salesmanager I would avoid like he was giving away free diseases though.

 

[Sapper]

I got mine from Lake City Toyota as well. They were very patient with me. Great service department as well!

 

[350DGRZ]

Got mine at Lake City Toyota as well. If you go there see "V" Tell him Nilo sent you. Good luck!

 

[noworries]

I got mine at Titus-Will. Pretty good experience.

 

[calijetfxr]

this thread is the best reason in the world to use the Costco
Auto buy program. I've used it twice and it proved to be seemless each time. Everything is prenegotiated and was a price I felt to be fair. No stress, no BS, just a new FJ:clap:

 

[1983FJ60]

i'm still the only person in my family to have toyotas.

they lost buisness to my mother who wanted to buy a land cruiser and wound up getting a denali and later a merc.

dad drives chevies because toyota had an attitude about discounting their 'world class tundra.'

and my sister has a nissan truck because toyota also didn't want to be reasonable with the tundra.

i really wanted a fj cruiser, so that's the only reason i'm still putting up with toyota sales.

 

[KD7SMX]

So a little update...

I decided to try the internet sales route with several dealerships and to my dismay Toyota of Bellevue offered me the best price, invoice. SUVs are selling like RVs around here right now, no one wants them due to the $4.00p/gal gas prices in Seattle. Despite my encounters with the finance guy, my sales person was fantastic so I decided to try this dealerhsip again. I made it clear I never wanted to see that finance guy again though. I worked with Scott this time as my finance guy and it was a good, mostly low pressure experience. I still paid invoice and I got close to what I wanted for my trade.

The funny thing is... I bought a 4Runner. I decided the FJ was a little too off-road for a daily commuter. The 4Runner will still do 70% of what the FJ will and more so after some mods.

I felt I should follow up with everyone here so if anyone was considering Bellevue of Toyota they would have my full story.

Also, I corrected the name of the finance guy in my first post. I had it totally wrong which isn't surprising since I was starting to see so much red by the time I looked at the guy's name tag.

 

[coloradoraider]

The best part of gas prices going up is that dealers are going to have to start realizing less and less people are going to be buying new cars that are not ultra-gas efficient.

Remember all of the angst and emotion car dealership employees are showing to you is part of their game. They want YOU to feel pressure at every point and they want you to feel like YOU cannot live without this car. All the dealer wants is to maximize his profit.

 

[Ramjet]

I would have walked also. I had a bad experience here in Fort Worth, TX at Freeman Toyota. I will never recommend or go back to that dealership again. They wouldn't let me test drive an FJ because they were too busy. Who the hell is too busy to sell a car?