Whenever you see funny ads on TV about car dealerships from hell, this is one of the places they are talking about!
Several years ago, my husband and I located a certified used Avalon online that we decided to purchase subject to a satisfactory test drive. We live in southern Maryland. We called Holman on a Friday evening, and they agreed to hold the car until we could drive there the following day, a Saturday, around noon. We test drove the car and agreed to buy it. We drove up in my older Avalon, which had been badly damaged by a deer colliding into the side, but which was in excellent mechanical condition with 4 new Michelin tires. They gave us a measley $500 trade-in, but we were anxious to just replace the car and go home, so we agreed.
We had previously arranged preapproved financing at a great rate through Toyota Finance, and brought a print-out of the approval with us. After the test drive and a couple of hours of filling out paperwork and waiting around, they informed us that they could not verify the Toyota Financing, and we could either come back Monday, or go through new paperwork for a loan through them, which we grudgingly did. We were getting exhausted and wanted to get home, so we agreed.
Finally we thought we were done, but when we met with the Finance Manager to "sign the final papers," he was determined to sell us an extended warranty. We never buy warranties and had agreed between us that the Toyota pre-owned certification would suffice. He printed out the paperwork with a charge for the extended waranty and proceeded to go through a long, long sales pitch for the coverage, but we refused to sign. He tried and tried to persuade us, and finally agreed to reprint the paperwork. When we looked at it, the extended warranty was still there, at a reduced price! When we still refused to sign, he offered us a price of $800 for extended coverage that had originally cost over $2000. Once more we agreed, thinking it was a very good price and we were too exhausted to keep arguing. We got out of there after dark, just as they were closing, with a 3 hour drive ahead of us.
But that's not all. When I took the car for Maryland inspection, it would not pass the emissions test! A local dealer ended up replacing the catalytic converters, along with a drive shaft that was cracked and part of a factory recall. After the car passed inspection, the fancy sound system stopped working--less than 30 days after purchase--and had to be replaced. I also noticed there was no owners manual. After weeks of calling, they finally mailed a very used manual with missing pages.
Several years later I took the car to a local body shop to have minor work done from a fender bender, and when I went to pick up the car, there was an area of paint missing over the right front wheel well. When I pointed this out, they told me that some previous touch-up paint had come loose when they washed the car. They showed me how, if you pushed slightly on the front bumper, that area bent slightly and the paint just popped right off. There had been a previous accident that had caused that damage, which had been touched up (poorly) by the dealer.
Stay away from this place! They are crooks and manipulators, from end to end. read more