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For USED Car Shopping Only
Background: We recently bought a used 2008 Kia Sadona Minivan, fully equipped, 42,000 miles for $10,000 at Bowen Scarff Ford. KBB had suggested retail at around $9,250 and NADA had the price at $10,750. We found the van on our banks car buying service site.
Rating: 2 Stars
I gave them 1 star because the car itself was well prepared to be resold, it seems they did everything short of certifying it (as they are not a Kia dealership) to prepare the car for resell. I gave them the second star because the store itself was quite nice, it had good sitting areas to spend time at while waiting and the low level support staff were all very friendly. However, the sales desks did feel kind of in the open and I didn’t really appreciate that.
Now for why they didn’t get the other three stars. First, I docked them 1.5 stars for their gimmicky “No Dicker Sticker” policy. They don’t bug on their prices AT ALL. They claim they, “try to give you the lowest price possible, have done it for 20+ years, true no hassle car buying experience.” Well, that is fine if your customer holds a certain perspective that car sales people can be truly trying to help their customers and are actually capable of cutting their margins so far that the customer will get the best price period. I don’t hold that view. I feel that all car dealerships are truly in it for the money, they care very little for the customer (why would they?!), and they are always trying to turn as big a profit as possible. Thus, I go into car buying assuming negotiation is on the table, despite any guarantee the dealership is making because I assume their profit margins are set higher then they need to be to turn a decent profit. Don’t get me wrong, do I feel I got a good price on this vehicle? Yes. Do I feel I got a fair price? Maybe, I am not actually sure yet. Do I feel I got the BEST price possible? Absolutely not. And by the way, all I was trying to negotiate for was $500 off the sticker price.
I docked them another star for the sales person. We worked with two people, first I won’t name because I didn’t like him, and the second was Rick Cuddie, he was quite likable. Now, the first guy got them docked because I felt he was the epitome of an annoying sales person, constantly being amazed at all the cool features of the van and commenting on them, trying to act like we were old friends and he was doing me a solid, and generally not giving me enough room. Most disturbing part, he tried to assume he knew my own personal situation and why I make the decisions I make, that made me feel quite uncomfortable. I like to make my own opinions and discover the vehicle for myself. If I have questions I will ask them. Also, he tried to give us information on a vehicle he was not familiar with (because we bought a used Kia at a Ford dealership) and some of that information was false (like about the transferability of the warranty).
Finally, I docked them another star for their financing. We financed a significant amount of this vehicle and had a good loan from our bank. Bowen Scarff wanted to run our credit (which is excellent mind you) and get us a better deal (you know, since they couldn’t bug on the sticker price and all). What was the deal they got us? A whole 0.01% less than the loan from our bank. So what did we do with that? We turned around and got our bank to drop their rate and went with our bank because we know, love and trust our bank. I couldn’t say any of those things about this dealership so why would I finance with them?!
In the end, would I buy another vehicle from them? Yes, but only if I found it online, loved everything about it, was ABSOLUTELY okay with the price shown, test drove it and it was exactly as I expected it to be, and did no financial dealing with them. Would I recommend them to a family member or friend? Absolutely not. Mind you, this is only for used cars, I suspect buying a new car from them would be different, and likely better.