I purchased a used car from Evans Toyota on April 30 and it was a terrible experience. The vehicle I purchased was never properly inspected and should never have been certified as a Toyota Preowned Certified vehicle in its current condition, despite being sold to me as such. I willingly paid a premium to Evans for a dealer-certified vehicle, which is not what I received. I quickly uncovered all these items soon after taking possession of the car. Potential buyers should beware of this before paying the same premium to Evans who markets its used vehicles as certified.
The only person who paid a price for Evans' mistakes was me. The negligence by Evans cost me over $2,200 in non-refundable state sales tax and doc fees, which I will never get back. Thankfully I was able to find another vehicle that suits my needs at another reputable dealer, despite this frustration and unrecoverable costs.
I'm leaving a 2-star rating rather than 1-star because the customer service manager, Kathy Waters, was responsive and helpful in remedying this nightmare. Evans did eventually allow me to return the vehicle, but only after numerous trips back-and-forth to the dealer, hours of haggling over items that were reluctantly or never addressed, and losing more than $2,200 in this transaction.
Full story: During the purchasing discussion, I noted the splash shield underneath the car was hanging down. I also noticed the car's inspection sheet was incorrect for this particular vehicle. Both of these items led me to question whether the car had been through an inspection, despite it being labeled a "Toyota Certified Vehicle". I asked Evans to complete another inspection as a condition of the sale, to which the Sales Manager agreed was appropriate. Also, there was a strong chemical smell in the car, which my salesman was confident could be removed.
I picked up the car two days later. Upon returning home, I noticed the same splash shield was still hanging down, suggesting Evans never inspected the vehicle as promised. The smell was also still there.
I took the car to my mechanic the next day. He found several minor mechanical issues which were part of the Toyota 160-Point Certification Inspection. It was obvious to my mechanic and me this car was never inspected by Evans, despite being advertised and sold as such.
During my third week of ownership, the car threw a check engine light for one of the reasons uncovered by mechanic but not uncovered during the non-existent Evans inspection. I returned the car to Evans at their request. After a week of service, Evans identified the car did indeed need a replacement item, which was then back-ordered from Toyota at the time. During the time it was in service, it also underwent two treatments to remove the smell. All of the service workers noticed the smell, with one even commenting the smell stuck to his clothes. Ultimately, the smell was not able to be removed.
Throughout this entire 2-month process, the car was at Evans for 27 days of the first 36 days I owned it. I made 7 trips to Evans during the month of May 2019 to remedy Evans' consistent negligence and oversight.
The Sales Manager, Wade Brown, never accepted nor returned any of my calls after my payment was made. The only two people who were helpful were the shuttle driver and the Customer Service Manager, Kathy Waters. Ms. Waters met with me twice to present my options for dealing with the car. Ultimately, the Sales team were unable to find a substitute car that was similar to what I purchased, so unfortunately my only option at that point was to return the car back to Evans at a loss. read more