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Dishonest, deceitful, thieves. Would not show us the numbers for our sale until it was time to sign for the loan, and then the numbers were not what was promised or what was advertised, neither for the sales discounts or the interest rate. Finance guy either couldn’t do math or was a list, probably both. The initial sales guy was great, but had absolutely nothing to do with the deal. DO NOT GO THERE.
False Advertising with Bait and Switch. Scott Maxwell and SouthTowne VW uses cars.com, autotrader.com and their own website to advertise various prices of the same model (in this case a 2013 VW Toureg TDi Executive). They will email you with vague and “form letter” type emails simply to confuse you with the vehicle they have for sale. Their intention is to get you to come in to their dealership only to upsell you on a car they falsely advertised for what you were originally looking for. Complaints should go to VW of America (Call 1-800-822-8987), the Better Business Bureau (BBB.org) and to the Temple in Salt Lake City (Call 801-240-2640).
I attempted to give this dealership my business.
Repeated phone call only got me “he’s with
A customer ” the excuse for salesmen would only
Text not call . Guess what , I bought from
Another dealer not you !! Based on reviews I’ve
Read about VWST I made the right decision
Your crappy customer service made the decision
Easier
VW Southtowne has the WORST customer service. Buyer beware!!!! The following is my experience with them. Originally I showed up in uniform, as I am Active Duty Army and stationed a couple hours away, and everyone there was so nice. Little did I know that they were getting ready to screw me over. I leased a Jetta from them sight unseen, the car was allegedly in Oklahoma, which was a lie, but I will get to that later. The salesman Wesley said that the car was loaded and we agreed upon a price. They tried to lowball me on the BMW that I was trading in and we started to leave the dealership. The head salesman came out and helped us work out some numbers and it was looking good. I signed the paperwork and we agreed to pick up the car in a week. The next morning, about 11 or 12 hours later we were notified that the car was available for pickup. They must have flown it in to get it that quick (sarcasm). I routinely asked for a list of options or the window sticker to see exactly what this car had on it, but I kept getting turned down. I should have realized that something was wrong. When we picked the car up, we noticed that it had 190 miles on it. When we signed the odometer disclosure statement it was suppose to have 10 miles on it. So obviously it was from anohter local dealer and they drove it down. After driving the car for about a week, we started to notice less and less on the car. It basically had no options and coming from a BMW, this car was basically stripped down. After repeated call to the dealership, I never get a return response. Anyway, after realizing that we made a mistake, we went to trade the car in and found out that the buy out was for $32K, and the best part……..the car’s MSRP was only $24K. WHEN I CALLED THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT, AND ACTUALLY TALKED TO SOMEONE, THE GENTLEMAN HAD NO PROBLEM TELLING ME THAT THE GROSSLY INFLATED THEIR NUMBERS TO COVER THE COST OF OUR BMW!!!!! One example of overcharging us was charging us for a warranty on a BRAND NEW car. Why should I have to pay for a warranty on a brand new car? So now I am stuck with a garbage car because their scam tactics. Please please, BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!! Shop someplace else!!!!!
*Update*
After consulting the VW corporate office they said that they have received numerous complaints about VW Southtowne. They claimed that the dealership would be contacting me to resolve the problem It has been a week and still no phone call.
I should have read these 1st. Promise after promise. We still have things that have not been resolved. Ben our sales person sounds sincere, but he has dropped the ball so many times it is hard to believe him.
I Signed the sales docs only to be called back and told they made a mistake. I Had to resign at my expense. $15.00 more per month (Thanks Matt). I saw this listed many times on this web site. seems to be a trend!
we also needed to order a part and was told to bring car back in 3 days. Came back….No Part. After 30 days of calling service the part finally came in. we took car to shop same day only to have the install not completed.
Did I mention Brenden would not return our calls, we were told so many times he would check on the part status and call us back every time. 🙁 Once I contacted the Gen MGR at Southtowne we finally got a call from Brenden, He used the excuse he lost our numbers. Funny they were written down on the service order on his desk when I went in.
They will not return any calls, sales or service. go ahead and leave 10 messages. If they put you on hold I can almost guarantee you will be hung up on.
These people are high pressure and once make the sale you receive no response back from them (ever!) They changed a credit application to make the deal and then won’t help get it fixed! The whole experience from this dealership has been awful. Do not purchase here they lie just to get the deal done.
After we agreed on a price for the used car I was purchasing and a price for my trade-in, they determined I owed an addition $75-100 more on my trade-in – which was surprising because before we agreed on a price the salesperson and I checked with my bank to determine the amount I owed on my trade-in. But apparently the VW guys were able to get a more concise number an hour or so later (while I was waiting to meet with their financial person to finalize my purchase). They said they were going to have to charge me more due to the difference. I mentioned we’d already agreed on a price and to let their conscience be their guide. They charged me the additional amount. Why I didn’t walk away I will never know. I waited more than two hours to sign the final paper work and it wasn’t until the car was delivered they informed me there was only one key. They refused to provide an additional key due to the cost. Unfortunately, the car has been a slight disaster. $1,600 of A/C repair eleven months later, four trips to the dealer for an Enging Light issue, an exhaust pipe fell off (which they fixed for free). The service department is generally pleasant, but I can’t get past the most dishonest sales manager in existence. My forth VW – first with problems, but probably my last.
After reading the previous reviews…I am so sorry that your experiences were bad. My experience was great. I had purchased a used VW from a secondhand dealer and right from the start we had problems. Everyone I talked with said I should have it looked at by anyone who specializes in VW’s as they are tricky engines. We took to the SouthTowne service dept and I feel like they were fair. After the second time we took it in, the service deptartment told us not to waste anymore money on this car, VW had problems with this model from 1999 – 2003. So, by the way, do not purchase a Passat from these years!! Anyway, the dealer gave us a good trade-in value for the car and was able to get me into a new Jetta for the car payment I had told them right from the start was where I needed to be. I feel like Axel really listened to me and was on my side the whole time. I love the 3 year carefree maint, especially after my last experience. I would definitely go here again.
Same complaints as many others: high pressure tactics, lying when they really didn’t have car s available and said that they had them in stock. So I drove about an hour and a half To see these cars that really weren’t even there come to find out. Lies and poor business ethic. Both salesmen were nice, they couldn’t sell something they didn’t have.
First off I feel stupid not reading reviews before going to this low skum of a place. Tony who is the financial mgr or close to this title is a LIER, LIER the biggest LIER of them all. Don’t come here go to Strong VW they won’t jerk you around. Another thing about Tony besides being a LIER he does not like it when you call him out on things instead of being professional he plays his little high school games by trying to get you back talk about being real professional fricken JERK….The service dept is Awesome but they need to get rid of TONY
I feel scammed. To simplify I went into the dealership to look and got pressured into sitting down with a sales rep and negotiated a price of 16,835 for a 2012 Jetta. I signed the papers which came out to a little over 17,000. A week later I was asked to come in and resign because they found a lower interest rate that saved me $10 a month. I went in a resigned but was an IDIOT and didn’t read the new contract because I was assured it was a copy of the original. It wasn’t and I am not paying 22,000 for the car I originally signed for 16,835. I was a first time buyer and have learned my lesson. I will never buy a VW again and to everyone who would, I’d say great cars but watch out, they are snakes.
I have bought 4 cars from VW Southtowne over the last 3 years. I have never been treated poorly by any person associated with the dealership. The entire staff was courteous and knowledgeable. Pressure was never an issue and the prices I paid for each car was very fair. The dealership does not give cars away but they priced everyone I bought fairly. The service department and sales staff were outstanding and Bo went out of his way to satisfy me and my family. Over the last 48 years I have bought about 25 cars and have had some bad experiences BUT NOT WITH VW SOUTHTOWNE. Great dealership and sales person (Bo).
This place was amazing. I was so upside down in my car and they got me in a great Jetta! Ben was a great salesman, a really cool guy to talk to! Jr the finance guy was very nice he helped me get approved and really worked with us. Jr is the best Finance guy I have ever worked with. I loved this place! Great atmosphere too lots of fun!
Gimmicks Gimmicks and more Gimmicks.
Cash for clunkers promo – Bait and switch. They say they will give you 4500 for your clunker, but then they will not give you the deal unless you get gap protection and an extended warranty.
Double your down – they will do this, but then will not sell the car for blue book value or even come close to MSRP.
Sales people are willing to bend you over and get you to finance even when you have a large down payment. They will try and force you to finance through them.
They use high pressure sales tactics, Double teaming, repeated offers, and gimmick incentives to get you to spend too much.
Wanted to buy a used GTI, blue book trade in (what they got it for or less) was 20,550 they wouldn’t budge on the 24,995 (internet had it at 23,995) price. Be aware this place is horrible! Wasted 4 hours of our time. 2 hours trying to negotiate, an hour to test drive 1 car, and an hour when we ran out of gas on the test drive!!!! Really!!!
Bo was really nice, Scott seamed like he was new and didn’t know exactly how things ran, Matt was okay to deal with and was the only one that gave us somewhat reasonable options. Otherwise we sat in a glass walled cubicle and heard 3 other rooms of people arguing about how much their loan ended up being and how that wasn’t what they agreed upon or that all their advertising is gimmicks.
Moral of the story: If it sounds to good to be true….it is!
Watch out, these people are out to scam you!
This if the 4th purchase I’ve made from Southtown VW in the last 3 years. From Mike, to Rich, from Cliff, everyone there is top shelf. They go out of their way to make sure I’m happy. Sure, I may have been able to save a dollar or two from somewhere else, but the atmosphere at Southtown VW is superb. Just let them show you. They are not the average place.
I purchased a VW golf 2000 for my son on 6/17/11 for his 16th birthday. After high pressure, and my son liking the Golf we purchased it, cash. After only driving it home from the dealership it failed to start the following day, it was towed in, they replaced 2 electronic parts then made it sound like they did me a huge favor (they agreed to fix anything needed to pass emissions…a car must start to have the emissions checked.) By the time I got the car home it was smoking and the clutch was out. Having this car operate for less than 1 hour. At time of purchase, I asked how the timing belt was, the manager said “We just replaced the serpentine belt and the timing belt is right there if it had needed one they would have put it on”…guess what I talked to the mechanic it needs a new timing belt and they never looked at it. They may be legally justified by a stupid piece of paper I signed but they are morally compromised. I own three volkswagens I will never go anywhere but Strong’s again!
Looks like you did the typical cheap Utahn thing and bought the cheapest thing you could find,then blamed the dealer for your bad choices, and in a feeble attempt to save face with your son, blame it on the dealer. I’ve bought 4 vehicles from Southtown VW,and I’ve NEVER had ANY problems with their service department. Bottom line, is you’re just one of those penny pinching pinheads that is more concerned with “price” then quality then demand after your purchase that the money you should have spent initially be covered by the dealership. I’ve been to Strongs. Their service is putrid. Their attitude is pathetic, and it doesn’t surprise me that an idiot like you would praise a shady operation like Strong.
I live within my means and my home and cars are paid for. This was a car purchased for and by a 16 year old boy. If living within my means offends you, too bad for you Paul!
We brought our car in to be repaired for the same problem (oil leaking into the oil cooler) for the 3rd time in the past 24000 miles. When we asked for price reduction for getting this repaired for the 3rd time, they said NO. After a long debate we paid the $850 for the repair, 2 days later our check engine light came on again, only to be told that it was the same problem and that we would now have to pay $900 for the fix. They lied to us about the warrenty of the part and labor being covered, they lied to us about willing to price match other repair shops (when I faxed them a copy of a cheaper repair they refused to match it, saying that if this problem happens again it would be warrenty and fixed for free). THEY LIED. They also took the VW emblem off of our engine cover for some lame reason. I will NEVER buy VW again, and if you want your cars repaired correctly find a new shop. VW will screw you.
Very Predatory organization….
They low-balled (by about 10K) me on my trade before I could find out what it’s actual value parameter’s were. They wouldn’t work with anything other than MSRP. They made errors in their favor multiple times on the paperwork (which kept lowering my trade in value even then, by thousands). They (collectively) would not return phone calls inquiring about errors.
High pressure tactics, with a lot of vocal volume and the only interests mentioned are what they are doing for themselves. They tie you up for hours just leaving you sit in sales cubicles or wandering the place for each micro-descision on the sales process. I wish they could be charged for the time out of my life spent there…
They now have my trade as hostage, and I just want the whole deal to go away….
Wait a sec, they “low balled your trade by $10,000” and you STILL bought their car?
1. That makes no sense, unless you’re bragging about being the dumbest person on the planet.
2. I highly doubt anyone “held you hostage” you can always get up and walk away.
These guys were great at getting us financed, but after the sale we found several things wrong with the car right away such as the steering was making a funny noise, (we did test drive the car and no noise was found until the next day) and the car started leaking oil the next day. We moved to St. George and was told it would be ok to get it fixed down there. Luckily we bought the best warranty with a ZERO dollar detuctable for the car and brought it in. We were told that the item that needed to be fixed wasn’t covered in the warranty but it clearly stated it was on the contract. I argued about gettting it fixed and took it back up to Salt Laket to do so. Was it fixed, no, did they say it was, yes. I had to get the oil leak fixed in St. George. Is Southtowne Volkswagon now saying I have a $100 detuctable because I didn’t get it fixed at their dealership, yes. SOOO NOT HAPPY! Am I still arguing about what my contract states that I have a ZERO Dollar detuctable, with no * or ( ) by it or any thing stating other wise? YES, because I have a contract signed by me and the financial manager. I would NOT buy a car from them because they are dishonest and really don’t listen to you even if you have it signed in writing. Next step if they don’t honor my warranty contract is contacting the Better Business Bureau!
As I was driving my new car home, the headlight was out. (this is going to be short and sweet) I called the next morning and talked to my salesman, Denny, and was promised a call back after he figured out what to do….Well, nothing. Come to find out, he no longer works there. Was given the run around, until I was told to bring it up for safety and emissions, where I was told the headlight was out…no shit! They replaced it, amazingly. Since the three months that I have had the car, I have put $2500 into it for repairs. With no help from them, they offered to trade it in for $5000, when I paid $10,000 for it three months earlier. These guys are out to scam you, that is all!!! They refuse to return phone calls, answer questions reasonably, or treat anyone as a human. Their service charges outstanding amounts, and lie about the labor time. Never, never take your car there for repairs and never step foot in there for a new car!
I feel your pain BIG time, I’ve had all my orifices enlarged by Volkswagen Southtowne UT.
PLEASE verify your post so it counts!!!!
Ditto! You experience summaraizes my experience with Southtowne well!
I don’t want to go into a long drawn out story so I will keep it simple. This place is a den of thieves! They promise to do something for you and then completely go back on their word! I went in to this dealership knowing I was in a nearly impossible situation with my VW Passat. It was new, I had only had it for a year and 4 months so I knew I was going to suffer. After almost 4 hours we came to an agreement that I could handle. I then waited almost 2 more hours for them to finish tooling around and drove off. 4 days later I get a call from the finance manager telling me I needed to come in but he did not state why. I went in after work and the finance manager started telling me that VW could not make the deal! He needed more money from me, my payments had to go up and he had include a service agreement! They knew what they were doing. I should have said ok, have the car back but then how do I get to work to earn my livlihood? They had me cornered! They promise you exactly what you need and then fabricate some reason to get more from you! This is the short version of the story, this is actually a 3 month long saga with them but I need not get into that now. I have contacted VWoA and they have been great but say they cannot do anything for me other then contact the dealership. Im fed up, I want this dealership to suffer! In my industry this is called bait and switch and companies can get shut down because of it. There needs to be some serious recourse and punishment laid down upon VW of South Towne! Till then, I am going to find some people, get my permit and set a day to protest against VW of South Towne and make sure they realize that not everyone is going to quietly fade into the night after they are done with them!
FYI: correcting myself. I dont remember the salespersons name who helped me but he’s not the issue. Salepeople there dont “do the deal.” Luke the ales manager was the closer.
Do not buy a car from volkswagon southtowne. They are liars! dishonest! won’t help you after you buy the car! Give you high interest rates! My husband and I traded in our sedan with volkswagon southtowne and bought an suv with them. It was the biggest mistake of our lives. They did not meet their advertisement on the suv. The car was an all wheel drive but they advertised it a 4 wheel drive. When we asked about it, they said its the same thing. They kept us there the first night for 6 hours. We came to an agreement on the loan amount but they kept leaving and coming back with an even higher loan amount. Our fog lamp was broken and the cd player was broken with a cd stuck inside of it in which my husband managed to get out. On the “We Owe” they said they will replace the radio of up to $225 dollars. James Reid in the finance department gave us verbal consent that the fog lamp will be replaced. When we went in to replace it he claimed he never told us that. They are manipulative, dishonest and will do anything it takes to sqeeze any kind of money out of you. They called us a week later saying that they need proof of residency. I told them that I was in the ER in salt lake and my husband was at work in salt lake and we lived in orem so I couldn’t get it even if I wanted to. James reid didn’t even care and said that he would send someone down to pick it up because they need it now. How am i supposed to give proof of residency to them when i am at an ER in salt lake and I live in orem? Like im supposed to drop everything for them so they can just find something else to bother me about? Two weeks later, they called to tell me that my payoff amount was incorrect. The payoff amount in which they came up with. I owed $325 dollars. They ended up not fixing our cd player or our fog lamp and credited the money they would’ve spent on those things towards the difference of the pay off amount. They also paid my bank the trade in balance three weeks later so I had a past due fee because apparantley I still owed the car that I traded in. They are the most worste dealership in Utah. They lie and will not stop calling you for countless things that you owe. Do not buy a car from them.
Please do not buy or lease a car from them! They lied to me and tried to force me into a car deal. They had taken the key to my trade-in to “appraise” it but then would not return my keys to me. They had kept it over night!! I didn’t sign any lease or financing paperwork so they said at that point I had to buy something from them. They didn’t car what car but I had to pick something from them. I had to call the police for advice on how to get my vehicle back and they said to go down there and tell them to give it back or the police would come and get it then. They said I owed compensation for their time so they would release it to me if I paid them $350. I left a check to get my keys back and then stopped payment on the check. I thought the nightmare was over until a letter came in the mail saying they were going to send me to collections. I was threatened by the general manager they would be out to get me and ruin my credit. I had to get an attorney involved that advised that they couldn’t harm my credit over an illegitimate charge. It was an idle threat. I wound up going all the way to Vegas to get my VW and would NEVER ever refer someone to them. I have bought several vehicles over the years and would never expect to go through such a horrible experience. They were completely awful and out to rip people off. Their business ethics are inhuman. I would happily refer Larry H. Miller Subaru though. (We bought for my Father there.) They were amazing and were a breath of fresh air in comparison to the hell South Towne put me through.
I work for VW Southtowne and we don’t have a salesman named Bruno.
That was his last name that he went by… and why doesn’t it surprise me that he no longer works there?! Either high turn over rate and your place of business or he had a conscious. I would lose sleep at night too if I made a living screwing people over.