It was really awesome to drive 40 minutes to see, and had every intention of buying, only to be treated like crap by Berkeley Ford. Upon arrival it seemed no one wanted to actually help us. My son gave them the stock number and said he had called earlier to make sure the care was there, they searched to see who he spoke to but nothing popped up in the system, so the two salesmen at the desk argued over who's turn it was, with it seeming neither wanted to actually help us.
The salesman did pull the car around, and my son was looking it over and asking questions and then asked about test driving it... the salesman seemed oddly shocked that someone might actually want to drive a car before they buy it. He condescendingly asked if my son would even drive a manual, to which he replied yes, I learned how to drive on a manual Subaru STI. The guy goes in and comes back and says sorry, we can't let you drive it because you aren't 21. I was shocked, he test drove cars before, like when we got his first car. Now mind you, the salesman had asked us no questions about why he was looking at this car, if we planned to finance, none of the questions a salesman would be asking. Again, my son being 18, with his own money, I tried to let him navigate this but the way we were both treated was shocking. I asked the salesperson if he needed a copy of our insurance, and that I'd be going along too. It didn't matter, so we left. I called back to try and speak with a manager to get clarification but only got treated worse. He was rude and argumentative from the start. After him stating it's not us l, it's the law, I said I don't think so, we've test driven cars before and he demanded to know where. I had enough and said ok, your rules are your rules, you don't want to sell us a car, have a great day, and I hung up. He calls back and goes in to say I'm setting a bad example for my son by hanging up on him, I told him there's nothing else to discuss, we will shop elsewhere. He goes off about not just letting random teenagers come drive cars and I'm like he's 18, not 15 or 16, he could die for our country but not test drive a car, he has a 4.0 gpa and this is when I literally thought I was being punked because he turns to whoever else is around and says "hey guys he has a 4.0 gpa" ... making fun of us. Honestly, I didn't want my kid to buy that ragged out car anyway, so thanks for that, but that the end of the day he had spent weeks looking for a certain car and was excited to find it only to be treated like garbage by Michael and Berkeley Ford. Rules are rules and if that's their policy, it could have been stated when we first walked in and saved everyone time and headache. There was zero reason to be rude. read more