Pretty terrible car buying experience I had here and I'm happy to say, I left this dealership without making a deal. I felt like I was being ripped off and sold a car at a grossly inflated price.
When I first walked in I was greeted by Dennis, one of the certified sales consultants. He asked what brought me in and I told him I was interested in a new Mazda 3 sedan with the premium package. Rather than looking to see what he had in stock, he decided to walk the entire lot with me and a saleswoman he was training. Ordinarily I'd be ok with this but it took a lot of time and it was windy and cold that day. We walked the entire lot and we had to walk through the service area, trekking through dirt and oil only for him to tell me that they didn't have one in stock.
He then brought me over to two 2019 Mazda 3's they were selling that were old service vehicles. Each had about 4,000 miles on them and man, both looked pretty rough. Now, I'm not in the business of selling cars but if I was I'd make sure my cars were at least clean and in proper working order before I tried to sell them. We test drove one of them and I could tell the alignment was off and the interior looked like it had been through hell. I wasn't really that interested in purchasing that car so I had him work up the numbers on a new 2020 model.
This is where they lost me. The car's sticker was $27,000 and some change, which they had marked down about $1,000. They then add this ridiculous $2,700 package that includes window tint, door edge guards, an armor all protection...all of it seems GROSSLY inflated. $800 for window tint?! Please... So I tried to work a deal but the vehicle I was interested in wasn't at the dealership yet so they couldn't really do anything. Because of this, Dennis decided to sell me on one of the 2019 models. They again, added the $2,600 package in, which I thought was ridiculous since it was a service vehicle, over a year old, with 4,000 miles on it. As far as I'm concerned, the dealership absorbed those costs already and shouldn't be charging someone full price for all of that. I hate when dealers do this because it's a huge scam and a way for them to make money.
Anyway, I decided to look at the second 2019 vehicle they had, which had less miles on it but again, the interior was dirty, there were scratches all over the center console, the battery was dead, and the cover over the cupholders was broken. Like C'mon...you're going to show me a dirty vehicle with a dead battery? It just shows how they don't care for their vehicles, at least that's how it came across to me. He tried to tell me the vehicle was certified pre-owned but I don't believe that because in order for a car to gain pre-owned certification they usually have to do an inspection. I feel if an inspection was done, they would have caught all these issues: the alignment on the other vehicle, the dead battery, the broken cupholder cover, etc.
Also, Dennis didn't really seem too knowledgable about some of the vehicle features. He went to show me the voice commands and couldn't get them to work and then there were some things he would show me but couldn't find where they were. Also, when I pointed out the scratches on the center console, Dennis proceeded to minimize my claim and appear that he did not want to deal with it, stating that windex would probably get the scratches out. When plastic scratches, it scratches. There's little you can do to get the scratches out and it usually needs to be replaced. I don't know why Mazda would put materials that scratch easily in a high traffic area. Doesn't make sense. What also turned me off toward Dennis is when I was trying to negioatate the deal, I was comparing the Mazda to my current vehicle, which is a fully loaded Hyundai Elantra. Dennis proceeded to put down the Hyundai brand and my vehicle, which came off as quite offensive and I'm a hard person to offend.
I wound up putting a $500 deposit down to hold the 2020 Mazda 3 when it came in and then I asked Dennis if he would let me know how much it would be to replace the plastic panels on the center console that were all scratched up on the 2019 model. He said he would contact me on the following Monday with all the figures and would also let me know the eta on the 2020. Dennis did contact me but it wasn't with the figures or the eta on the 2020, but it was to try more sales tactics. I sent him an email the night before with what I was wanting to do, but the email address on his business card was wrong. He sent me a different email address, which didn't work either. I took this as a sign to walk away. Plus they were asking WAY too much for the car. With $3,000 down on an 84 month loan, my payment was going to be well over $400/month. That was before any sort of extended warranty, GAP insurance, etc. The car was nice but not worth what they were charging. I wound up telling Dennis I wasn't interested and had to dispute the $500 deposit with my bank. read more