I spent the entire day on Labor Day test driving SUVs with third row seats at multiple dealerships. By late afternoon I had decided I wanted a Honda Pilot, but I was at Honda in Lancaster (NOT this dealership) and the salesmen was so unpleasant to deal with that I didn't even get to sitting down and talking numbers, if I had to buy the car with him I wasn't going to buy a car. He was incredibly rude, and disrespectful (again that was NOT at this location!). I knew there was another Honda dealer in Valencia, so I started driving there. Thankfully my husband did a quick Google search and saw that there's a Honda dealer in Palmdale. I honestly wasn't too keen on the idea of giving the Palmdale/lancaster area another shot, but it was getting late, so we decided to give the Palmdale dealership a chance.
I am so glad we went to Trust Honda in Palmdale! A salesman named Adrian Gonzales greeted me as I walked on the lot. Keep in mind, I was still in an exceptionally a bad mood from the dealer we had just left, so I wasn't as polite as I should have been. I kinda rudely made a list of my demands (I really should have been nicer) and he politely listened to me, gave me a cold bottle of water and offered me a seat in the lobby with air conditioning while he went and got a car that met my requirements.
He was gone for a few minutes getting the car. While I was waiting I called my husband, who was waiting in our car in the parking lot, and jokingly told him I thought I was so mean to poor Adrian that I scared him off. I actually felt bad. I was so rude and frankly an absolute nightmare customer and he hadn't done anything wrong. While I was telling this to my husband I saw Adrian walking back towards me with a smile on his face. How was he smiling? I was so rude to him! Anyway, I decided to leave my attitude behind and I went on a test drive with Adrian, I wasn't going to tell him I had already test drove a Pilot with that other salesman an hour prior.
The test drive with Adrian was by far the best test drive of the day and keep in mind, this was my 6th test drive of the day. He didn't spend the whole test drive talking nonstop and not letting me concentrate like other salesman had, he didn't try to annoy me with every random fact he had memorized about the car, he was helpful, he answered my questions, and tailored his sales pitch to focus on the things I cared about. He was a great salesman.
So we got back to the dealership and I was ready to talk numbers, but I was NOT willing to let them put a hit on my credit until I knew the exact numbers. I take great pride in keeping my credit over 800 and I wasn't going to get a hard injury unless I was 100% buying a car. I knew that was a bit unconventional, and made me a bit of a hassle to deal with, but he was super polite and respectful. He was willing to do what I asked. I did a few more things that were likely quite annoying to have to deal with, but he handled every hurdle I threw at him like a champ and kept a smile on his face and stayed incredibly polite the entire time.
By this time it was getting pretty late and I wasn't comfortable driving a car I had never driven (other than on the test drive); through a city I don't know, in the dark, then make the additional almost hour and a half drive home. Nope, not happening. So before we signed our contract I asked if we bought the car that night if we could come back the next day to pickup the car. It would have been almost three hours of driving for us the next day to pick it up, but I really didn't want to drive it for the first time at night. Adrian said we could, but then said he would be willing to drive it to our house for us. Wait, what, that's a really long drive! I thought there was no way he was serious, but he was.
We went and signed our contract and charged our Tesla so it would have enough battery to get home and we drove home. Adrian called his wife and had her follow him in their car all the way to our house. And remember I said we stopped and charged our Tesla, that meant he had to sit and wait at our house for a half an hour for us to get there in addition to making the crazy long drive. We had told him that in advance and he was shockingly okay with it. Talk about going way above and beyond for your customers!
I'm not typically fond of most car salesman and I'm an exceptionally challenging customer because I owned a used car dealership myself for many years and I have to say, Adrian was amazing! I wish I had him as an employee back in the day. He's exactly what every salesman should be, but very few actually are. He's amazing! So it turns out buying a car in Palmdale, of all places, actually can be a great experience and I thank Adrian for that 100%!
Here's a pic of our retired law enforcement k9 posing for a pic in our new Honda Pilot. read more