Bottom line up front: this 2 brother sales team is totally transparent, not pushy, easy to deal…read morewith, and conduct themselves with integrity.
So, what's the rest of the story? I guess setting the scene is important. I live in Ohio. My daughter goes to college in northern California. Recently during one of the violent wind/rain storms which rolled through Norcal, a huge oak tree fell on the car we loaned her for college. The car was totaled.
My daughter is not the person to look for a car and negotiate a purchase, and I needed to be sure that whatever she drives is reliable, but how do I do that from 2,500 miles away on a tight budget and on an extremely tight timeline? She has to have a car for school, no public transit between school and where she lives, and she just started there this semester, so she has no local support network.
I started online in Santa Rosa where she lives, and all the dealers fell into one of two categories: 1) dealers with solid reviews, good BBB reputation, but no cars in our budget range; or 2) sketchy online reviews, BBB complaints, and listing VINs associated with salvage titles (but not disclosing that), etc.
I kept expanding my search from Santa Rosa, and after about 4 hours of internet sleuthing, 707 Motors in Vacaville (about 90 minutes away) was the first dealer which checked out online and had what appeared to be decent cars in our price range. Carfax reports were posted for all cars, and the VIN for the vehicle in which I was most interested came up clean.
I called and spoke with Jay. I know this isn't orthodox, but I told Jay the situation and that I couldn't pay more than X "out the door". Jay was not in the office, but said he would go into the office and pull the paperwork, and crunch the numbers and get back to me. Which he did quite quickly. He said he could go any lower than Y, but X and Y weren't so far apart so I told my daughter to get to Vacaville and check the car out. She was comfortable with everything, so Jay and I settled on a price, we paid with a bank debit card, and my daughter said filling out the paperwork was super smooth, and she was thrilled that 707 Motors was going to take care of everything at the DMV with tags and title and have everything mailed to her.
She's gaga over her "like new" car, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the whole experience. I pray to God I don't have to buy another car in California, but if I need to, I know where I am starting to look!!!
Thanks, 707 Motors for your help in getting us out of a tight spot.