I worked for Academy Cars in 2019 as the Inventor and Purchasing Manager. I worked in the tower directly with Lonnie and BJ (bj for a short while) and let me tell you how much of a crook Lonnie Blackburn is. oh my GOD people it is a blessing that they sold the dealership. I'd be booking out cars to purchase for our lot and I'd flag the ones with frame damage or other major issues, and Lonnie would tell me "it's fine" "who cares what they drive as long as I get paid". I quit one time and Lonnie told me to sit my ass down, shut the fuck up, and book out cars. There are about 100 other stories I could tell of the HORRORS of Academy Cars. I quit on a dime as soon as the dealership sale went south in December of 2019. lord help the folks that purchased here. I tired to make it better, but it was a swamp that even I couldn't fix. I am sorry yall. read more

They sold my husband a lemon car and when we came back to trade in the car for a newer one , they tried to get me to buy a car I didn't want , wouldn't let my husband trade in his car he was sold by them , they stalled on us being able to trade in the car continued to tell us that we needed to fix the car before they would even consider taking it back , academy cars stalled so long until they were bought out by the new company , now the new company doesn't even honor any previously made agreements with the old company because they knew that academy cars sold lemon cars to customers. read more

My boyfriend visited this dealer yesterday and had the single worst car shopping experience, bar none. Here is his review: "When you step foot onto Academy's lot, the first thing you notice is that none of the cars are priced. In fact, they won't even tell you the price. Every salesman will give you a different reason as to why. Ron will tell you there's been an error in the computers, and they don't know what car is what price. Gary will tell you they have to look the price up from somewhere else. This is your first clue you are walking into a sleazy dealership. The first thing Academy will have you do is to complete all of your finance paperwork. From there, you are merely a number and a dollar amount to them. It is impossible to weasel out of the dealers what, exactly, is the price of the cars, until you're ready to sign on the dotted line. Therefore, if you're wanting to comp shop and look around for cars, you will spend hours at this place getting the runaround and won't even know the price of your car until they know they have you hooked. They will talk over you, interrupt you, and take smoke breaks in the middle of showing cars. It's comical to hear someone brag about the cleanliness of their cars when he is in the process of making himself smell like a human ashtray. They advertise great specials - huge trade-in values, sales, etc etc etc. But the obvious scam is that the price of each vehicle is arbitrary and ultimately will cost you whatever the dealer feels like that day. I pity anyone who trades in to this nightmare, as there's no telling what your actual trade-in value is without knowing the full price of the vehicle to which you wish to apply your trade-in value. It is exemplary of a "disappearing trade-in value" scam. They are either incompetent and can't keep their records, like Ron says, or they just can't show you the price upfront, like Gary says. In either case, neither makes for a dealership worth doing business with. Avoid this place at all costs, unless you have no budget limits, no time constraints, cost is no object, dishonesty is no problem, and you have no other options. Academy demonstrated to us over and over that they would repeatedly lie and play the shell game on prices, so we walked out after two hours without even learning the price of a single vehicle we looked at." read more

Well, I can't complain that much about Academy Cars like the (currently) other two. That sounds like a terrible experience. Mine was much better... It was almost 5 years ago. I stopped by on a cold Sunday night in December and was looking at vans after they closed, or so I thought. One of the salesmen was still there and came out to talk to me. I had found a nice Sienna I was eyeballing. Now, back then the prices were on the vehicles, so I knew how much it cost. The salesman let me take it for a ride, then, he tossed me the keys again and said, "why don't you just take it back to KC tonight and see what you think. Bring it back tomorrow and we'll talk." So I did just that. Now, this is a place that specializes in bad credit financing, which I certainly had (have?). That means you can't be too choosey on interest rates, etc. I got hit with a high rate, but I was over a barrel needing a car now and with no money down. They worked out a monthly payment that I could live with and let me post date a check for the $500 down-payment. It's been almost 5 years and the van has been great with very little money put into it so far (knock, knock). Also, for what it's worth, I called them recently asking about certain cars I'd seen on the website and I got pricing over the phone. read more

It's too bad that Yelp doesn't offer a zero star option. This place is really shady. First of all when I got there I was not greeted by anyone and had to find someone for assistance. The guy I found was surly and could not have been less helpful. It took about twenty minutes before a sales person helped me. Now here is were the shady part come in to play. My salesman (Guy) sat me down at his desk and immediately started doing credit checks. I asked to test drive the car I had my eye on but he said they needed to do "the necessary paper work" before we did that. He would not tell me the price of the car either he would only tell me the "price range." Steer clear of this place. read more

Look at the one star reviews. Yeah ditto. You think you guys were treated badly? Try being someone they can't finance. Yeah, I'm sure you can imagine. Thing is, Jessica still spams me anyway. WTF? Seriously she won't even listen no matter how many times I tell her I couldn't buy from them if I wanted to. This place just reeked of shiftiness from the get go. The only reason I chanced it at all was because they were rated highly by the BBB. Well maybe we should file complaints with them. read more

My roommate went there and traded in his old vehicle. The financing was expensive (he doesn't have great credit), but he accepted the terms and went on his way. Almost a month later, they call him in claiming that they might be able to get him better financing. When he got there, they claimed that they couldn't finance him under the original terms and threated him with repossessing the car unless he agreed to a higher rate, higher payment, and less time to pay it off. Unfortunately, he signed for the new worse terms on the spot out of panic that his (now) only car was going to be taken away. At best, they are shady. At worst, they are manipulative and fraudulent. read more

I'm looking at you Lonnie Blackburn. I'm looking at you salesperson James. We went out to buy a car as newlyweds here at academy cars. Sat in their office for four hours went through their finance approval process and was told that we need $1500.00 down to get a car. As newlyweds we didn't have that money so we asked our initial salesman Lynn can we come back later with that money. We were told we could come back within two weeks with that money. We called in the mean time and asked to make another appointment and we did. So we came back within two weeks with the money and the inlaws. My wife was applying for this car on her own because my credit is awful and hers is better. Salesman James pulled my wife and her mom to the side and asked if my wife was trying to get an "escape" car insinuating I was beating my wife. They said they ask these kind of questions all the time. I talked to Lonnie Blackburn because I was just shocked. First off why would a call dealership ask these kind of questions. I said if you didn't want my business you could've said so. Very inappropriate. Very unprofessional. Don't go to academy cars unless you want to be disrespected and discriminated against. I hope this review doesn't get deleted. The "dealer for the people" -- more like the dealer that needs to be closed down. people need to know this. I just cant say enough. I am so appalled. I am so shocked. I can't believe they run a business like this. read more

I sent Academy cars an email on what I was looking for. A guy named Brigs called me back and told me they had what I was looking for, so he set up an appointment for me the next day. I get in there and was greeted by a friendly staff. Lenn was the guy that helped me out, He introduced me to everyone that was working. Then we sat down and got right to business. He never tried to force me into a car I didn't want. If I said I didn't like it we moved on. So anyways we get to the car that Brigs said I would like. Three hours later I'm driving home in a new car I wanted. I don't have the best credit but they all helped me get the best rates and monthly payments I was looking for. Even Lonnie Blackburn came out to talk with me! Thanks again for the all the help Academy Cars! read more

Academy Cars - One good looking car! - Auto Repair Near Me - Lawrence, Kansas

It's pretty rare that I give up my lunch break to write a review on Yelp. But, here I am chowing on my pesto pasta primavera and typing away, so that means this business either really impressed me or really disappointed me. I'm sorry to say that today it's the latter. I bought a car from Academy in February this year. When we went out to test drive the vehicle I wanted (I only got one option that was within my price range, and now I kind of wonder if they didn't just railroad me into it because it was one they wanted off the lot), the car was out of gas. Probably not the best sign, but we proceeded with the test drive after Bill, the salesman, drove down the street to get a can of gas and came back. I drove the car to the gas station, and while Bill filled the tank the rest of the way, Boyfriend and I started looking around the car. Imagine our surprise when we opened the compartment above the glove box and found six or seven ketchup packets that had been hiding in there for who knows how long. Whatever, though. The detailers missed something. People make mistakes, right? No big deal. I also kindly overlooked the pack of Camels that got left next to the driver's seat, which I found on my way back into the building. The idea of someone filling my car with cancer fumes doesn't really appeal to me, but I liked the car, so I let it go. I still DO like the car. The vehicle in question, a 2009 Yaris, has so far not been the problem. The problem is Academy's lack of integrity and piss-poor customer service. A few days ago, after a heavy rain or twelve (thank you, Kansas spring), I started to notice a strange sloshing noise whenever my fan was on. Then, I started to have water leaking onto my passenger side carpet. Whatever was going on, I wanted to get it fixed fast, before my interior started to mildew and rot away. After rigging up a bowl to catch the deluge from my dash, Boyfriend did a little internet research, popped the glove box out, and figured out the likely culprit: no air filter had been put in before we bought the car. This had most likely allowed debris to clog the outflow pipe on the fan housing, which caused water to collect in there. I called Academy on Saturday morning to see what they could do about it. Ron, one of the managers, was kind of a jerk on the phone. If you want to piss me off really quickly, try talking over me just once. Ron did it at least five times in the span of about a minute. Not pleased. He informed me that the service department was closed on the weekends and I'd have to call back Monday. No apology about my inconvenience, no sympathy for my plight. Just, "Hey, not my problem. Call back later when someone who cares is here." (Not his exact words, but definitely the impression I got.) I called yesterday as soon as they were open and was told by Randy, the service manager, that I could bring the car in to be looked at. I made sure to mention on the phone our suspicions about the air filter being missing and asked if I would be charged, since the filter hadn't been put in when we bought the car. I was told over the phone that the filter was just meant to trap things like pollen and dust, and wouldn't affect the outflow pipe getting clogged. I was, however, assured that they wouldn't fix anything until talking to me about the charges. They called me a little while ago to tell me that they'd fixed the problem. You know, without first talking to me about the charges like they said they'd do. When I asked what had been wrong, would you like to take a stab at what they said? The outflow pipe to the fan casing had been clogged with debris. When I asked what would have caused that to happen, I was told once again that the air filter had nothing to do with it, and that those pipes sometimes just "get clogged up on their own," logic be damned. Apparently the mystical Fan-Casing-Outflow-Pipe-Clog Fairy decided to wave her wand over my little car and bless me with a shitload of leaves and other crap to clog up my car and ruin my carpet! Maaaaaaaaagic! I spoke with another mechanic who said that the air filter being in place would absolutely have fixed the problem, and he basically confirmed my suspicions that Academy was trying to weasel out of having to eat the cost of a problem they created. My bill is, thankfully, very low, and I'm not going to put up a huge fight about paying it. However, I will gladly pay full price elsewhere for my car to be fixed if and when it needs it next time, and I sure as hell won't be recommending anyone go there for a car. And, of course, now they have the honor of getting one of my fairly uncommon one-star ratings. Sidenote: If you're going to slap an ichthys on every sign and piece of literature you put out, maybe try to act like your chosen religion's values mean anything at all to you. I'm just saying. read more

I would not recommend this place to anyone! My experience with them has been nothing but a big mess. I bought my car from them they wanted $500 down and was going to take it out on a Friday said if I needed to change anything to call them, Well I called several times that week To see if they could splint the payment $250 that week then $250 the next no one ever called me back they took the $500 out of my account ok it was done and over with. I went and got my title and There was no spare key which I was a little mad about . Getting down to the wire of getting my tag I had to go get it inspected because it was out of state. I don't think that is the costumers responsibility to have to get that done. I called and they said with my title I was supposed to get a $20 check to get that done I never received that. I got a call from Devon Stating that they had found my spare key so I told them to mail the check and the key a couple weeks nothing. Called they said they mailed $20 cash but didn't know about a key Who the heck mails cash for starters I also got a call from the finance lady stating I owe them $250 because they refunded me $250 I called my bank and they seen nothing from them just the $500 they took out this lady accuses my bank of loosing the money and I owe them Talked to another Lady and she said it was never taken back out of their bank I feel like this is a scam I still have not received my $20 and key and no one will return my calls all they want to do is text I want to talk to an actual person. And when they say all their cars have new tires that's not true my tires are dry rotted. There are better places to get a car without having to deal with this mess. read more

Gotta say it was not the best experience for one it took too long and as soon as the sales person knew we did not qaulify she seemed to have lost interest so much for goin to wonderful lawrence kansas and you should really change your commercial tag line thanks for the help read more

Lonnie is a scam artist. Everyone from Lawrence knows to avoid him but it's the people from out of town he cons. He pays his customers with gift cards to write good reviews. I guarantee you your check engine light will be on within the first 6 months and something catastrophic will be wrong with your car within the first year. Avoid at all cost. He is not helping you in any way Him and his wife hide behind their good Christian faith BS. read more

Horrible experience and huge waste of time. My old car broke down in Topeka so my sister and her husband took me over to Academy Cars. I understand that with my credit situation it is very difficult to get financing. Ron promised that "we can get you financed" I told him when he asked what I was looking for I specifically said "no Dodge or Chrysler" products. When I arrived at the dealership we filled out paperwork and they came back with a 2008 PT Cruiser. RED FLAG:: They did not listen to my needs and were upset when I flat refused it. Sales lady kept pushing and told me that the car is originally $14,500 but they were giving it to me at "wholesale" and that is what would make the loan "work" with the bank. RED FLAG: My Brother-In-law was blue booking it and it was still over Retail Value.... Basically they thought I was so desperate that I would just take whatever they gave me so I could get home to Western Kansas. I asked them if there were any other cars that would work, she said no that was my only option. Uh... no it isn't!!! My option was to walk out and I would suggest that any one else wanting to get a car is to do the same. Ended up fixing my car... it is now paid off. I will rebuild my credit and have a nice size down payment so I don't have to ever deal with sleaze balls like this again... Don't let Ron fool you... sounds like a great, caring, helpful guy on the phone... but once you step foot in the dealership he passes you on to some flunky salesperson. read more

I'm glad I didn't read some of these reviews before going to Academy Cars! The radio ads play constantly and after a HORRID experience at Car Hop (feel free to check that review out!) I decided to take the 20+ mile trek on a Saturday in the later afternoon. I'm glad I did, and I really do plan to purchase from them (waiting on a discharge from a chapter 13). We've even been to a couple big name dealers and overall, Academy Cars treated us better. Anywho, we showed up around 4 pm and were promptly greeted by a salesman. Now, they have most prices listed online, but they also have tags on the cars, so I'm not sure if they've read these reviews and changed their practices, but they were up front with us. I already calculated the prices with what we have to put down and a high interest rate (I know our credit is BAD, so I anticipate not getting a GREAT deal) so I had an idea of what we'd be looking at. The kids and I wandered around the lot a bit (sans salesman, the way I like it) while the hubby went in to begin paperwork. When we came in, the salesman turned cartoons on and offered popcorn and drinks to occupy the older kids while we "talked dollars". They weren't shady, in my humble opinion, and the prices on the cars aren't over blue book. We were told once we receive a discharge they will be more than happy to work with us. Due to the treatment we received, I'll be more than happy to work with them! By the way, most of the cars are only a few years old. I think the oldest car on the lot was an '07. I didn't see (I looked on the internet) anything with over 80,000 miles (in most cases that means their cars still have a factory warranty... in MOST cases) so they're not selling old, raggedy clunkers for high dollar like some places... Of course, in all cases, if the deal's not right, run away! However, I don't feel like you're going to need to at Academy Cars. Unless you really can't afford it, but I'm betting that falls more on an individual's poor credit and/or low income than Academy's business practices. read more

Thanks Academy Cars, found another great car from you guy's. Thanks Lonie Blackburn Sales Agent: Matt Jamison for helping me. I Love my car I hope it will last me for quite sometimes. read more

Let me first start out with my trip into Academy to look at cars. I am getting ready to start up my own car business in Topeka and thought that I would look at the one place with the nastiest reviews and then go in and see what all I DO NOT want to happen in my company. I guess you could say that I was just "silent shopping" for tips. I mean if this business has been in business for so long, surely the dude must have some sort of smarts about him. Well, let me just say, the owner (I could tell because he looks exactly like the cartoon) was yelling at an employee, whom I found out later to be his WIFE! Yep, yelling. Not discussing....flat out yelling. Then there was chaos all over the place. Or so it seemed. I asked about a car. They wanted to run my credit report. I told them I would be paying cash and they said that they needed to fill out my information on what I could afford before giving me a quote on a car. Well that was all I needed to see. I might add that I was not impressed with seeing the owner smoking in a car that you intend to sell. Putz. read more

I have been trying to get a car due to my car finally breaking down for good! I needed a vehicle to get back and forth to work. I have tried working with several dealerships and decided to try academy cars due to a person working there that I went to school with. Over a course of several days I was consistently told that I was going to be able to get approved for a car and auto loan! I was told which cars I was approved for. It was very limited. I was told the best car would be a Scion, basically a tuna can on wheels. I was not happy with that. I would not feel safe driving the Scion, let alone let my dogs ride in it. I wanted a medium size car which was a Sonata. I don't have the best credit history. I wanted to get s vehicle and repair my credit in the process. I finally went to CarMax and after spending 1 entire day there I was approved for a loan and was able to get my vehicle!!!! Within the next few days after I emailed Steve the salesman I was going through posted on Facebook a very vulgar comment! I feel it was because I decided not to purchase a car through Academy. This was a horrible, horrible experience as well as being humiliated and offended, as well as the sexual innuendo was vulgar and uncalled for and unprofessional on his part! I would not recommend this dealership to my worst enemy!!! You be the judge! Here's a picture of the post on Facebook!! I also want to mention that the comment that his FB account had been hacked only showed up after I commented on the vulgar post! Yeah, right! I know you posted it, you only did that because you knew you were in the wrong and decided to try and cover your butt for the original comment you posted! read more

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Stay Away.... My wife and I went on Saturday to try and by a truck. We drove over an hour to get there. Once we finally agreed on truck under the condition that the tires be changed which both our sale person and Shane the finance person agree "was not to their standards" we started the actual process of buying the truck. When we arrived we told them we had a trade on and a $1000 to put towards the truck. As they were doing the truck they let us tack the truck to the store. As we were driving there and back we notice a strange sound and feeling in the front end. When let them know about it and they said it was probably to the "bald tire", their words. We said that was fine since they were going to replace the tires. They came back with the paperwork to show us our monthly payment and our down payment. The down payment stated we were giving them $2000 which we told them no we couldn't do. We then said at most we could do was $1500. The reworked the paperwork but told us they could not replace the tires. I explained that they both agreed to this as a condition of purchase. Their reasoning was that they were not going to make enough money. I realize they are in the business to make money but it is something they should have thought of before saying they would replace the tires. We left without the truck. The next day, Easter Sunday, thru facebook I contacted who I believe was Mr. Blackburn since he referred to himself as Lonnie. I let him know that I felt their willingness to hold up their end of the deal showed a lack of integrity. He then stated that putting the tires on the truck would not make them enough money. He also referred to my issue with the front end of the truck. He let if be know that there was a tire, front end and transmission problem that would cost $4000 to fix. How would you know the cost of a repair on a vehicle when your dealership was closed unless you knew about it before trying to sell it. To me that shows a complete lack of integrity and honesty. This dealership is a great example of a dealership that gives other dealers a bad name. Stay away from these people unless you want to get totally screwed. Lonnie Blackburn the dealer that screws people for the benefit of his on people and bank account.... read more

first of all, i want to let you know that yelp reviews really do help. i appreciate this site and the service it does for regular folks, like us. i read all 3 reviews and i would have to say that i agree moreso with sarah's and matt's than w/ rock's. i think that they must've changed the no prices in the car windows deal because i did find prices in each car. they have a nice selection of cars-- all look fabulous and are late models. i didn't see anything older than a 2004 (at the time i write this it is february 2012). all LOOKED to be in great shape-- nothing raggedy-looking on the lot. that's what was GOOD about the experience... if you can call that good. they didn't have any crappy looking cars on their lot. you decide if that's a good quality or just part of an overall bait and switch tactic... read on... when i initially went in it was with my boyfriend (who i had asked to come along w/ me just because i know that single women aren't always taken seriously at car dealerships). we were walking around the car lot, looking at cars and talking amongst ourselves when rick --a salesman-- came out of the building and met us, introduced himself and shook our hands. he then started asking me about what i was looking for, what i was wanting to spend, and so on. we went into the building and sat down at a table (very uncomfortable chairs i might add!) and he started asking me more questions, like where i work, what kind if credit do i think i have, etc etc. i told him that i have a good job (with the government) but that before i got this job i had a series of layoffs and my credit suffered as a result. he said that Academy Cars is here for people like me, who are honest, hard-working people who have just had a few set-backs but need a newer, reliable car. i had told him that i also had visited the Kia dealership (which i had-- will be writing a review on them after i'm done w/ this one) and that i was looking over my options. i asked him if i could test drive one of the cars on the lot and he said that if we set the ball in motion, by me filling out a credit application and him and his finance boss going thru the time and trouble of eaking out a deal for me, that he would expect for me to go ahead and buy from them. that they don't do test drives unless said ball had been set into motion. *RED FLAG # 1* i did give him my name and cell phone number and told him i would be in touch if i wanted to discuss things further. a little less than a week went by. rick had tried calling me 2 or 3 times and left messages. finally, yesterday (saturday), i decided to go by academy cars and follow through. i wasn't hell-bent on buying a car from there... i was just allowing the process to go a little further and see how it went. so i went in, filled out a credit app and that's when the other red flags started popping up. first of all, i mentioned that i liked a dodge that i saw out on the lot. he seemed reluctant to talk about the car-- this was a few minutes prior to me putting in my credit app. he would just say dismissive things like "well, first we need to see what we can get you approved for..." *RED FLAG #2* so we went inside, i filled out paperwork. and he mentioned a small compact car. i told him that i'm not interested in a compact car. he acted disappointed-- like that was what he wanted me to go for. this was all the while i was filling out that credit app. "If we can meet all of your parameters, would you buy that car today? " he asked me. i replied "no". he asked why. i said "because i don't make snap decisions about something as large as purchasing a new car." he just looked at me all befuddled-like. like he was trying to figure out another line. and then he said "well what would get in the way of your buying a car today?" and i said "because i like to weigh my options thoroughly." same befuddled stare. then he took my credit app upstairs to the "finance manager" (or receptionist, or janitor, or yorkshire terrier) to see what kind of deal they could come up w/. i went to set in their waiting area, which was nice and comfy. KU game was on the flat screen so i watched. he came downstairs and asked me, "how about a minivan?" and i said "no." he looked at me w/ the same half-flustered look. and i said "i don't want a minivan." he said, "well what if we could get you in that car TODAY. would you want it then?" and i said "no." so he went back upstairs. stayed up there for a while. came back down and was talking to me about my freelance writing that i do and then he left for a few minutes again. and that's where we run into RED FLAG #3. he told me that his finance manager is still TRYING TO FIND WHICH CAR ON THE LOT I WOULD BE APPROVED FOR. and that he would have an answer on monday, he'd call me and let me know. okay.... so out of the 100 cars he has on the lot, i am only "approved" for **ONE** of them?! hahhahaha! cough cough cough. RIIIIIIGHT. you bullsh*tting sumb*tch you. read more

We really enjoyed buying our car at Academy Cars. They took the time and went to great effort to help us get a new vehicle. Everyone was friendly and helpful. We will definitely be going back when it is time to buy a car for our son. read more

I was not impressed with the service that was provided. My husband and I went to there to LOOK at vehicles. We were in the process of wanting to obtain another vehicle and was weighing options. When we got there the salesperson was good and kind. We explained we were shopping around and what our needs were and that we had no intention of making any decisions while we were there so we had time to think. We saw a car that we really liked, sat in it and asked the salesperson if we could take it for a test drive. He said "Sure, we gotta fill out some paperwork first so you can test it out." We were like okay thats not a problem. Thats when things got hairy. When my husband was filling out the paperwork(Name, address, Dl number), I had to stop him from signing because there was a box with small writing that said "By signing and checking this box, you are agreeing to purchase a car today." When i pointed that out, he immediately quit filling it out. The salesperson came over and we explained to him that as stated before we had no intention of buying a car that day...we were shopping around for best fits for us as a family. I also told the sales person that I wanted to get information about the vehicle we liked so i could call my insurance company to figure out what the month to month insurance would be so we could budget properly as well. When my husband had questions about the procedures and why we had to promise to buy same day just to test drive a vehicle, the salesperson got snarky and was actually yelling at my husband. He stated "it doesn't matter now I have your information and I can run a credit check if I want to." All in all, we were not impressed with the salesperson and left quite upset because of how the attitude changed when the paperwork would not be signed. We were really considering going through them for a vehicle, but after that experience we said no way. We went to another car dealership to get our second car and the service was so much better. read more

Bill was great.....really went all out to help us with financing. I went in with a 2000 Dodge and left test driving a 2010 Dodge fully loaded. Now I just have to get my hubby to fall in love with it to and sign on the dotted line. read more

Saturday 9/14/13, I went to Acad. Cars to look for a new/used vehicle in my price range. First problem, I was not greeted at the door nor did any sales person attempt to approach me. Bill was sitting at his desk, (still siting down) and said "hello young lady"... (rude), and asked how could he help me. I went up to his desk and told him what I was there for and then he said "oh you can sit down" and gave out his hand to shake. He didn't ask what type of vehicle or anything, he just straight for the paperwork regarding my credit. I signed some papers, then he requested a pay stub from my bank. He pointed (still not getting up) to the computer and left me alone to help another customer. I provided the info he needed, and he said it was the wrong info (sternly and rude) and told me what he was requesting again. I was confused at this point and responded a simple "okay" and he left the desk. Another sales lady offered me something cold to drink and I said "thank you very much for your hospitality I appreciate you being nice to me... by the way, can I switch to you, at least you are nice to me." And of course she didn't want to be rude to Bill, and just tried to talk him up for me to give him another chance. Anyway, I went back to the computer and was conflicted on what he was requesting, so I just gave up. I met Bill back at his desk and explained to him that was all I could provide for him. He informed me how much money was needed for me to put down for a vehicle (which by the way, I am still not sure what vehicle he is talking about, because we NEVER discussed what I wanted). He attempted to advertise a 2003 Empala to me, which apparently they were trying to rid, because I heard him talk about this same vehicle to the other customer! Due to the atmosphere and experience, I WILL NEVER GO BACK THERE AGAIN! Also, I noticed none of the cars had prices on them! BAD SIGN... So basically they choose the car and price for you, you do not get to decide or negotiate! RIP OFF!!! and if you choose to go there, I recommend any other sales person besides Bill, because Billy tends to think he runs the show... NOT YOU... read more

BEWARE OF SERVICE DEPARTMENT! I had a rack and pinion put on my vehicle a couple of months ago, and upon getting it back, my vehicle has had a knocking noise when braking. I took it back to the the service department repeatedly (atleast 5 times), they even ordered what they called a "special tool", and they still were not able to find the cause of the knocking noise. Finally I gave up and eventually took my vehicle to Briggs auto, and they diagnosed the problem immediately: Academy Cars had loosened the cradle to install the rack and pinion and failed to tighten it back up, therefore it was moving back and forth upon moving and braking. I called Academy Cars multiple times to tell them about their mistake, and everytime I called they told me they would speak with their people and get back to me. Well guess what, they never got back to me. I spoke with Lizz, very rude, no call back. Vanessa, very friendly, but still no call back and finally Debbie, whom is in management....and still no call back. Obviously they DO NOT care about their customers, and their service department is incompetent. DO NOT go here unless you would like to get a vehicle back that may possibly be loose and fall apart. Sorry but I'm telling it the way it is, I had to pay over $100 bucks to diagnose and fix a problem that this shop caused...and all I wanted was someone to atleast get back with me about the issue but that was too much to ask. This service department should not be in business. read more

This dealership doesn't even deserve a star. We went there today and were approached by some guy that reaked of ciggarettes and shorts with a golf shirt (very professional...not). We told him what vehicle we were interested in and then without checking our credit or anything were told that we needed 3000 dollars down. Well my fiance was a bit irritated. We then told him that we had gotten approved at Kia Lawrence and instead of checking our credit he told us that banks don't like to give people loans and said we should go with Kia Lawrence. Wow, what car salesman says "Go with them" without even checking our credit. Well after that we left and called the dealership to complain about the salesman. The receptionist then told us that Lonnie Blackburn would personally call us back today. We still haven't heard from him. My fiance was so mad he couldn't believe they actually sell cars there. Its a shame because we were looking more at that dealership than any other. I don't know any salesman that would point blank say no to filling out a credit app. read more