thank you bill page toyota for proving that used salesmen are not all sleazy.
about a year ago, when i was car shopping, i was getting increasing frustrated (i’m looking at you, KOONS TYSONS TOYOTA) because it seemed like used car salesmen were exactly as they are stereotyped – sleazy, willing to do anything to get you into the store so they could rip you off. koons tyson reneged on a price on me TWICE. the very last time, i had already ignored them for the past week after i told them i no longer wanted to deal with them. then they came calling, telling me to come in and i asked them to promise on the price and i’d come in. so they said yes. and i started making calls/plans to get to the dealership during lunch. when they called back to say no again.
another dealership tried to convince me that 1. ABS was standard on 2004 (no…. i know my 2004 camry!) 2. the car they were trying to sell me came with it because it was standard. i had them open up the hood and we went looking for ABS (i actually don’t know what ABS looks like… so i wanted them to show me something with ABS written on it =P but i learned later that it’s a much bigger unit, like a box or something? anyways i just knew the car had no ABS so i wasn’t afraid to ask them to open up the hood… )
so last year, when i went to bill page toyota after all these fiascos…. i was pleasantly surprised. jonathan took me in 2 different cars to test drive. they were willing to negotiate on both vehicles… in the end, i went with the cheaper, but newer car.
even with such a good buying experience, i was worried that i’d get ripped off. they were nice at bill page, but who knows… maybe they were still sleazy!!!!
which is why this year, i was even more pleased!! so part of the reason why the newer car was cheaper was because it was riced up. so i started having problems with my taillights (policeman gave me a warning because he accused me of switching lanes without signaling… i actually argued back with the cop because i know i usually signal? i think he saw how tinted the lights were so he switched to “just” a warning), friends following me complained they couldn’t see me signal either. when i tried to get my light bulbs switched, i found that the lights had been modded. they were soldered directly into the socket and were dim LEDs!!
so i went back to the dealership a year after i purchased the car. i was afraid they’d be like “sorry, you’re out of luck!” because it’d been a year since i purchased the car… it’s not like i could return it!
but the people at bill page were awesome! Mike (the manager) remembered me! And told me he’d take car of it. He got their shop to replace the lights for me AND do my safety inspection. All free of charge!!
I really appreciated that they were willing to take care of my problem. Made me feel like they weren’t trying to rip me off when I bought the car.
