Dealership + Experience

[Lazar1389]

I purchased my 2007 IS350 in late July and I bought it from TriCounty Lexus in Northern New Jersey. In my area, I had three dealerships to choose from and didn't "shop around" because I was really pressed for time to get my car (long story - but it had to be done quick).

I chose TriCounty because it was in the least afluent area and past experience has taught me this actually has an effect on price. The other dealerships (Prestige and Lexus of Englewood) are both in much better parts of town. I had read some "less than stellar" reviews about the dealership, but really didn't pay them much attention.

I also come from a family of Lexus owners so I've seen the "Lexus experience" for my family members and expected the same. My Dad has an ES330, my mother an RX350, my sister and GX470, all of us bought from different dealerships (except my parents), because we live 500 miles apart.

So, go to the dealership, get salesperson "x" and I tell them I'm interested in a IS350. Sorry, we have none to test drive, I'm told. Huh???

Would you like to try a 250? No, not really, because I don't think it will have the power I'm looking for, I say. Nope, salesperson insists it is plenty powerful. It wasn't. She makes arrangements for me to come back two days later. An hour before I'm supposed to go, she says, sorry, can you come tomorrow, I have a delivery now? I say yes. Test drive it the next day, love it and start negotiating.

We make a deal two days later (I left that night on account of not getting my price). Two days later... "we can't get the color you wanted". Huh???

Okay, fine, color is not that important, get me the silver one (I love silver anyway) and I'm not all that picky. Done!

Car is ready two days later. Oooops, no Levinson as I ordered. Again, I don't care except that I paid for Levinson. Now we renegotiate the price. No big deal. I get money back and Levinson wasn't all that important to me.

She also told me during the negotiation, "all of our cars are flat bedded in and have 0 miles".

Mine came with 45 miles. :chairshot:

Driving home, back window looks like some finger painted with olive oil. Cleaned it when I got home. Car was not all that clean to begin with, but wouldn't have time to wash it until the weekend.

Weekend comes... wash car for the first time and realize my rim (passenger side front is damaged). Immediately call dealership and advise them of it (car had 52 miles - original 45 + 7 I needed to drive home). It wasn't major but I didn't inspect closely at time of purchase to catch it. After a month of complaining they repair it (they did a nice job) at no cost to me.

So, I'm driving my car around for about 3 weeks (with the temp plates) and they are going to expire in about 3 days, so I call the dealership. "We do not know what the delay is".

Temp plate expires and nothing. Call them and they say "well get back to you". Three days later, they say "come in and get a loaner car". I get an RX, but I say what is taking so long. Here is there response (and this is NO joke).

"There is only one person at Lexus (in all of New Jersey) that does plates and she is on vacation, so your plates won't be ready until she comes back from vacation". :cries:

10 days after the expiration of my temp plates, I get my real plates.

There are MANY other things which transpired as well, which I won't even go into, but suffice it to say, I think this is the exception, rather than the rule, but it was really an awful experience.

Having said that... I LOVE my IS. Test drove about 5 competitors (or pseudo competitors) and to me this was the best by long shot.

Howzat for an experience?