Well... are they (Tony and Ricardo) a good dealer? No. Can you have a good experience here? Yes. You just need to be deliberate and careful and watch out for landmines. If you do that, you'll do fine: they sure do seem to have some cool models and finds. But to not get screwed, you'll have to do your own legwork and homework. It's not that they mean to deceive you. It's that they're sloppy - and, apparently, cheap. If you protect yourself, you'll be fine. If not, bad stuff can happen - which did happen to me; lesson learned.
I found a rare 2013 Infiniti G37 here. I had a soft spot for the car, as I used to have one and loved it. This particular one was a truly fully loaded rare package, with all the tech in it and even the wood luxury inlays. So I didn't even negotiate: I wanted it, and that's that.
The good: Ricardo let me test drive it without any papers and by myself. They let me deposit $1k and then pay the rest ($16k more) later, when I had the cash, at pickup in a week. They were quite responsive on checking things; like I forgot to check the satellite radio, so they checked it for me, texting back and forth. Both were friendly, though Tony is a real fast-talker and kind of a BS machine but in an endearing way.
The bad: When I sent multiple messages on their site, there was no response. Phone call worked. The 2 guys seem over-extended to handle everything; e.g., I happened to know they had 2 keys for this car, but Ricardo would've let me walk out without the 2nd key. For the test drive, there was no gas in the car: turns out apparently this is some kind of weird thing for Tony; I don't get it. I thought it was funny.
The ugly: Look - I wanted this car. And I was paranoid about broken electronics and bad mechanics. But the CARFAX looked stellar; all the electronics worked; and they let me check out the car as long as I wanted. I was elated!
You see, at the lot, the car was absolutely covered with dirt and water spots. It's a black car, so it looked particularly yucky. But underneath, hey, it was black and cool-looking. It never occurred to me to make them wash the car so I could inspect the paint. Inside, it was *spotless*. Drove like a dream. And it's a luxury car anyway - you don't expect terrible problems with the paint.
...And then I drove off the lot having bought this thing. I had the car washed. Twice. Had detailing done. No matter what I did - the car, especially the hood, was utterly covered with white specks: small, medium, and LARGE. Really ugly stuff. Turns out, all of that had been there all along; it just happened to be masked by all the dirt, since the dealer neglected to keep the car clean. So I had no way of knowing about the totally damaged paint.
I've learned my lesson: demand a wash; and check the paint. And most of all, take your time and don't rush.
Had I done that, I would have found out about this disaster and insisted on a discount - or walked off. You know why? Because (despite my attempts to find another solution, such as buffing and waxing) the only way to make this car's paint look halfway decent is to repaint it. The absolute cheapest place quoted $1,000 for just the front; $1,600 if I wanted to make the back and roof look decent too. Most other shops estimated $2,300 and up. I'd say a $1k discount would have been reasonable.
Just in case you think this is some nitpicking, where I was expecting a perfect look on a 9-year-old black car - absolutely not! This wasn't a couple scratches. I have, e.g., a Subaru from 2009, and that thing looks nowhere near as messed up. This Infiniti was rock chips throughout, a look like someone had flecked the car with a ton of white paint, especially on the hood and front. Really ugly... trust me on that. I am not a nitpicker, nor do I engage in buyer's remorse.
Speaking of ugly: I texted Ricardo about this. I tried to be civil, but he got defensive very quickly; he kept texting, "You saw the car TWICE." All the CAPS repeatedly. I kept saying, "yes, and because the car was so dirty, I had no way of knowing the problem underneath the dirt." He ignored it. "TWICE," "TWICE." He kept saying it. He kept saying "CHIPS ON A 13-YEAR OLD CAR," as if that means I was being unreasonable. Plus it was a 9-year old car.... "I won't speak to you again. Talk to Tony, maybe he'll do something for you, I don't care." That kind of childish nonsense. Hey - even if you don't want to do anything, maybe don't dismiss the problem as some silliness? What happened to the customer is always right? Jerk behavior.
Anyway I did email Tony, and he was polite but refused to do anything, no cash, no nothing. "I can refer you to a body shop in Hayward." (I'm in San Jose.) Thanks for nothing, you know?
To summarize: Hey, my own fault - lesson learned. Be paranoid about everything. Take your time. Don't trust anyone, least of all a small dealer run by two over-worked people. Then it'll be fine.
Just don't expect any real help, if it turns out there is a p read more
