UPDATE (4 stars):
My wife insisted that we return the vehicle. We took it back two days later. It definitely was a no-hassle experience. We ended up not paying a penny for anything. I was extremely satisfied with the experience of returning the car (although I still wish I could have kept it).
Thanks Bountiful Mazda for your understanding.
The only reason I did 4-star instead of 5-star rating is because of the buying experience below. The experience of the return would definitely merit a 5-star rating.
ORIGINAL (2 stars):
We bought a used 2012 Toyota Corolla from Bountiful Mazda. This dealership contributes to the stereotype of shady, untrustworthy used car dealers. Garth was the salesperson who sold me the car. He was pleasant person to work with, but there were several trending actions that lost my trust of this dealership throughout the buying process. I admit that there were flags that probably should have warned me to discontinue to purchasing process or at least put in several hours of research into this particular car, but I mistakenly trusted the dealership as a replacement.
The first signs of shadiness that began the downward trend were little actions such as talking around questions of services on that Carfax report that were performed at the dealership prior to listing the car. Garth was unable, or unwilling, to say what services were done on multiple Carfax services recently performed at his dealership.
Another frustrating thing that I keep kicking myself for is that the key they gave me with the sale does not open the trunk. If you are familiar with Toyota keys, you'll recognize it as the Valet key. I was not familiar with Toyota keys, and when I asked him about the key, he said that it was the key that they received with the car. I would expect a trusted dealer to briefly explain that it did not have the capabilities of a typical key, like opening the trunk.
Once the sale was made, Garth filled out the paperwork at a price that was about $2,000 above the sticker price. At the time I thought it was a simple mistake. After seeing the pattern of distrust that I experience through the process, I would not be surprised to learn that attempting to hide a couple thousand dollars in the paperwork process is a common practice.
After we had finished with Garth, we then had to wait over an hour for 'financing' because they only had one person designated to do this process. Now, 'financing' is not what we expected especially because we were paying cash for the car. During the financing process, they hid an optional expense. Again, I should have been more careful to notice this. While signing all the different documents of required fees and terms of the sale he slipped in an optional shadowmark service for $189. Had I known that it would cost me $189 for this signature, I would never have signed. The design of the process was meant to hide this cost, and they got me.
As far as the quality of the vehicle goes, I am happy with the car I purchased. Only time will tell if it is a lemon, but I don't have any reason to believe that the dealership is hiding anything.
As a recommendation, if you are satisfied reading all the fine print of each document you sign and putting your confidence in the contracts instead of the sales force, then this dealership would be a satisfactory experience. If you trust the sales person to tell you what you are signing during the process, the I would recommend to keep looking for a different dealer that you can trust.
As an added note: My wife and I recently bought another car at Kentson, I will say that we experience a much more pleasant, trustworthy process. However; I should note with Kentson I was surprised to learn about an extra fee of nearly $400 for paying cash for vehicles (I may be remembering that number incorrectly). After they advertised as being transparent with all the fees, I was disappointed that a new fee would be added during the closing process. read more