Welcome to Bernardsville VW, your NJ Volkswagen dealer, bordering Morris and Somerset Counties. We are just minutes for Morristown and next door to Basking Ridge. Bernardsville Volkswagen has the area’s largest selection of New Volkswagens and Pre-Owned vehicles from cars and trucks to vans and SUVs. In the years we have been in business our clients have come from communities like Basking Ridge, Hackettstown, Warren, Madison, Parsippany, Morris County, Essex County, Passaic County, Sussex County, Somerset County, NJ Shore, NY, NJ, and CT to make us the Largest Volkswagen Dealer in the Tri-State Area.
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Pressure from salesperson to "Buy Now"
Low
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How did you first contact the Dealership
Phone
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Did you purchase from the Dealership
Yes
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Would you Recommend this Dealership
Yes
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Name of Your Salesperson
Peter Franzoni
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewCame in to see a car I had seen on the internet. Everyone was friendly and helpful. I really liked the car but it had a small mark on the driver door. I was told that if I purchased the car they would fix the door for me at a later date. I thought that once the sale was made they would forget about the repair and I would have to hound them to get it done but that was not so. Peter contacted me the next day to tell me that all the arrangements were made (at a date and time most convenient to me) and they would even give me a car to use until my car was ready. I was very happy to see that even after the sale was made they really kept to their word and stand behind their vehicles. I love my Rabbit and feel that I was treated fairly and got a good deal. I would definitely buy my next VW at this dealership.
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Pressure from salesperson to "Buy Now"
Normal
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How did you first contact the Dealership
Internet
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Did you purchase from the Dealership
Yes
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Would you Recommend this Dealership
Yes
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Name of Your Salesperson
Bill Gaffney
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewAfter shopping on the web and emailing lots of dealers….I settled on Bernardsville VW to get my new GTI – and I love it…….They made buying the car easy and Bill got me everything I wanted for a great price….he even took me to lunch at a great italian place down the road…the Vine…..when has your sales guy eever taken you to lunch while they cleaned the car to be delivered??? The owner personally came out to thank me and gave me his cell phone and said if he can be of any help to call him directly…..when was the last time that happened??? They cleaned up my new ride and I was on my way 15 minutes after lunch and headed back to work…..
You guys are GREAT….keep up the great work at helping people buy cars…not selling them one….my sister is coming in next month for an EOS…….
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Vehicle serviced for
Repair
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Accurate estimated wait time
Yes
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Would You Recommend this Dealership
Yes
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Vehicle year
2008
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Vehicle make
VW
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Service Technician
Lucian Dobre
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewI wanted to write and let everyone know how thankful I am to Bernardsville VW for tkaking are of not only my car but my family. Recenlty my car broke down and could not get in touch with AAA to get a tow…it was snowing and the car could not move….I called the dealership and they said no problem, stay with the car, keep your family warm and we will be right out with a loaner on a flatbed for you…..withing 15 minutes they were there, gave us the loaner, picked up my car and we were off again…..the next day they called me and told me the car was fixed and knowing I had an infant…..came by with my car on the flatbed and picked up the loaner…I couldnt thank you guys enough for all that you did for me and my family………
You guys dont get the good “atta boys” when you should….no one is perfect and I see some folks on here did not have the great experience I did….but you have our business….thanks again!
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Pressure from salesperson to "Buy Now"
Low
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How did you first contact the Dealership
Walk-In
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Did you purchase from the Dealership
Yes
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Would you Recommend this Dealership
Yes
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Name of Your Salesperson
Bill Gaffney
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewI am on my 4th VW from Bernardsville and everytime I havebeen treated with the utmost respect and they made my wife and kids comfortabel while we completed the transaction. Service has always been wonderful too…they even dropped off a loaner on a flatbed and picked up my car! What a time saver…they really do care….I read all the other reviews but my experience has been wonderful and I would and have recommeded my family and friends…all who have nothing but great hings to say as well.
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Pressure from salesperson to "Buy Now"
Low
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How did you first contact the Dealership
Phone
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Did you purchase from the Dealership
Yes
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Would you Recommend this Dealership
Yes
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Name of Your Salesperson
Bill Gaffney
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewI read all reviews before I contacted the dealership, but it is the closest VW store to my work and house….so I went anyway…I know people are much qucker to tell about the bad than the good…I like to make my own decisions…..I WAS VERY IMPRESSED…the salesperson Bill Gaffney treated me like a friend and took care of everything….Mark MaClay was very friendly and explained all the options with financing and provided us with everything we needed to make a decision…..I have been buying cars for more than 20 years…so you could say I am a bit of professional….usually every 2-3 years…and I can tell you that this was siglehandedly the BEST buying experince ever…..noone and nobody is perfect….and buying a car can be such a hassle…but at Bernardsville VW it was easy…my kids were with us and they even paid for us to have lunch next door at Friendly’s while they were getting the car ready for us to take home……so I say try it for yourself…ask for Bill or Mark and – there is not a bad thing I could say….but my wife and I would like to say THANKS for taking care of us with professional courtesy and respect!
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Pressure from salesperson to "Buy Now"
High
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How did you first contact the Dealership
Walk-In
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Did you purchase from the Dealership
No
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Would you Recommend this Dealership
No
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Name of Your Salesperson
Peter Franzoni
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewThis is absolutely the worst car dealership I have ever been to. Peter Franzoni (sales person) and John Oliver (sales manager) were both rude and condescending.
I went here to purchase 2 vehicles. Peter started off nice enough, but once he had the deal, I was treated like complete crap. There ended up being something wrong with the car at which point everything turned and all they cared about was getting me to sign the contract, getting their money and getting me out of there.
John Oliver actually turned his back on me in mid conversation and walked away…after snapping at me in an extremely unprofessional manner.
Peter, a typical sales person, washed his hands of everything and left his manager to deal with it. Not once did either of them try to resolve the issue. Their solution, take $100 off the car to resolve a $1000 issue (which would have cost them nothing to take care of in house).
Needless to say, I walked out without purchasing a car from them. Now I am trying to get my deposit back.
Stay away from this place…rude, condescending and unethical.
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Pressure from salesperson to "Buy Now"
Normal
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How did you first contact the Dealership
Walk-In
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Did you purchase from the Dealership
Yes
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Would you Recommend this Dealership
No
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Name of Your Salesperson
Ed Levinstone
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewWhere do I begin.
I visited this dealership and put a down-payment on a 2010 Jetta Sportwagen TDI in August 2009. Part of the deal was to submit for the cash for clunkers program. They submitted my claim but never followed up with it. The new car was due to come in during October and the cash for clunker program requires that the dealership provide a status update every week. Well because of the carelessness of the dealership, my eligible claim was rejected and I ended up loosing out on $4,500 for my clunker. I contacted the manager at the dealership, Ed Levinstone, and asked why his dealership failed to handle my claim correctly and he told me that I am a nobody, I am only one of 78 claims and he didn’t want to take the time to resubmit with the cash for clunkers program because he didn’t want to get audited by the government. Ed Levinstone then had the nerve to ask me to back out of my down-payment because he had other prospective buyers. The sportwagen TDI is in high demand, I bought it for MSRP and he probably wanted to sell it to someone else marked up $500 over the sticker price.
This car was our wedding present and I told the dealership that we were going away on our honeymoon for two weeks. I said please do not contact me told him the exact date I would return to complete the sale of the vehicle. Well, guess what, Ed Levinstone had the nerve again to call me because he needed my verbal confirmation that I was still buying the vehicle and asked me to back out of the deal again. I had to take the time to call him back while I was on my honeymoon to tell him to keep my deposit on the car!
The day I came to the dealership to pick up the car I was not on their list and they were not ready for me. I had to wait 30 minutes before being helped. In the final price for the vehicle, they charge a bogus amount of $200 for documentation and handling. I wanted the charge removed before finalizing the sale but they told me either I pay it or go somewhere else. I guess I should be lucky to get the car for just MSRP since other dealerships were offering the car for “only $500 over sticker”.
Before I left the dealership on the day I picked up my car, I had asked Ed Levinstone the manager if I could get mudflaps for the car (a port option for only a few dollars more). He told me that it was too late, that I should have been smart enough to think about that before and if I wanted to get them, I would have to buy them through his sales department.
Overall, this dealership does not care about people. All they want is your money and they will try to scam you anyway possible. This all starts at the top with Ed Levinstone and his greedy careless mentality.
THERE ARE OTHER VOLKSWAGEN DEALERSHIPS IN NEW JERSEY. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.
Mr. Hull thank you for the review you posted. I would have no problem with it if there was a shred of truth to it. I must admit you are a good story teller. I have no idea where you came up with some of that stuff. I’ve posted my reply and am taking it to the next level.
Mr. Hull submitted a review that is filled with lies and things that just did not happen. Mr. Hull ordered a TDI wagon from us before the Cash for Clunkers program allowed us to use it in on incoming pipe line vehicles. The sales order that we ordered Mr. Hulls car from had nothing pertaining to the cash for Clunkers Rebate. I could fax you a copy. It was not even discussed at the point of sale. The change in the program was to allow dealers who had sold out of cars, the ability of using the cash for clunkers on built cars that were in the dealer’s pipeline and were in transit to the dealer. Mr. Hull had an order for a car that had no vin number and had not been even built yet. We had VW and CARS.gov on conference call with Mr. Hull and they told him that his order was not eligible for cash for clunkers as it had not been built yet. There was no vin #. It was not in the pipeline. He threatened that if we did not get the cash for clunkers he would not take the car. This is why I asked him if he was going to take the car or not. Not that we had another customer. I offered him his deposit back. This dealership has never charged a customer over list price on a car. So for Mr. Hull to say we charge someone $500 over MSRP is a blatant lie. We tried to get the cash for clunker rebate for him. I have paperwork that shows we tried to hold his rebate in place for over a month, we tried a resubmission every week for him, and it ended up that the Government would take no more submissions on his behalf when the program ended. Why would the dealership care, this money was coming from the government to the customer. It was not our money. I even told him to bring the trade in and I would see how close to the $4500 I could get for him. He never brought it in.
As far as contacting Mr. Hull on his honeymoon, that was done at his request. He was entertaining a different trade and asked me to give it a value. I did by leaving a message on his voicemail. I never asked if he was still taking the car. He never called me back until after the honeymoon.
Our documentary fee is $198.50 it is approved by the state and is on every contract that gets sold here. It is a standard in the industry some dealers charge more. I paid it on the several cars I bought here.
I offered Mr. Hull the mud flaps at the dealerships cost not retail. I was trying to help him out and did not ask retail. I thought that this was very fair.
All during this process Mr. Hull was offered many alternatives. Such as taking a car we had on the lot or incoming that would be eligible as a pipeline car, that was eligible for the cash for clunkers. I offered a value on his trade as close to the $4500 cash for clunker rebate as I could get. His deposits back no strings. Mud flaps at our cost. He declined all of these.
I request that his fabricated review be eliminated, or my response posted along side of it. I understand Mr. Hull’s frustration. I wish we could have helped. The dealership did all they could to accommodate him. We had to play by the governments rules. Many dealers were audited and rebates taken back for putting in false claims. We were not going to risk that. The cars program ended on 08/24/2009. Please see attached copy of their wind down notice to dealers. We did not receive Mr. Hull’s title from VW until 10/13/2009. 48 days later. Other things they say are “not to submit applications with incomplete information.” I have much documentation at the dealership. I would be glad to fax you anything you need. Please let me know.
Thank you Ed Levinstone.
Sales Manager
Ed, you failed to keep my eligible submission for the cash for clunkers. You never offered me mudflaps at dealer cost otherwise I would have taken your offer to save the money.
CAN I ALSO PLEASE POINT OUT THAT WHEN I REQUESTED A COPY OF THE DOCUMENTATION THAT YOU SUBMITTED TO THE CASH FOR CLUNKERS PROGRAM, YOU REFUSED TO GIVE IT TO ME. I REQUESTED THIS INFORMATION MULTIPLE TIMES AND YOU TOLD ME I WOULD NEVER GET IT – IS THAT BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU WERE WRONG?????
The truth is your dealership just cares about sales and not about the people.
I will never visit your dealership again and I will tell everyone else my experience with you and your dealership.
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Vehicle serviced for
Repair
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Accurate estimated wait time
Yes
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Would You Recommend this Dealership
No
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Vehicle year
1999
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Vehicle make
Beetle TDI
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Service Technician
Don't know
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewBEWARE of Bernardsville VW Service Department. Drove the car in one morning and could barely drive it out in the afternoon. Took it in for “loss of power” and they diagnosed a bad catalytic converter for $1000. I said I would take the car home and think about it. Upon starting the car, it blew black smoke and had no power whatsoever. It was barely driveable. I immediately drove it to another service station at about 30 mph – as fast as it would go. And to note, the VW Service man said that he “guaranteed” that the cat would fix the problem. Haha, many fixes later my car is running well again. NEVER, EVER trust your car to VW in Bernardsville. Having spoken to the general manager there, about this, he proved to be as ignorant as his mechanics. Sad state of affairs there for sure. STAY AWAY or be prepared to give them lots and lots of your money.
My friend works as a tech at the dealership and has worked there for 6 years. He explained to me your beetle has over 130,000 miles on it and that a clogged intake manifold was causing a rich mixture of fuel which the cat conv. was working overtime to burn off. It was these 2 components/conditions which was causing your problem.
Volkswagentech: Did you read my review? Bernardsville VW said that a new catalytic converter would SOLVE the no power problem. I asked them if they checked the intake and they said yes, it was fine. Indeed, it was the dirty and blocked intake that was the problem and once cleaned, the car runs almost like new and is now getting about 47 mpg. So what if it has 130K miles on it. It’s a diesel and is expected to go much further than that. And it should go on for many more years as I have taken care of it. The only reason I brought it to B’ville VW was because my regular mechanic was not sure what the problem was and advised me to take it to VW.
Perhaps your friend the “tech” should have been the one to explain what I needed done to my car instead of the knucklehead at the desk.
Furthermore, I replaced the cat, had the intake cleaned, had some wires replaced – all for around $900. B’ville VW wanted to charge me $1100 just for the cat and when I balked the knucklehead was willing to go down on the price! I promptly left the premises.
VW OWNERS: STAY AWAY FROM B’VILLE VW
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Vehicle serviced for
Repair
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Accurate estimated wait time
Yes
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Would You Recommend this Dealership
No
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Vehicle year
2005
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Vehicle make
Jetta
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Service Technician
Manager: John Lindstrom
My Bernardsville Volkswagen reviewAVOID having your car serviced at this dealership. Over-priced parts and labor, scare tactics to get you to rush into repairs, poor customer service (requests to see “failed parts” are not always honored, then they lie about it if reported to VW “Customer Care”).
Dealership owner (Tony Altomare) claims that they are “dedicated to customer satisfaction”, which I have yet to see. In this economy, it’s really foolish for business owners to not (at the very least) meet their loyal customers half-way and resolve complaints in a fair manner. Never again. I’m switching car companies and telling everyone I know to avoid VW and Bernardsville VW.
(My experiences: Clutch failed at 20,000 miles: $2,000. Braked failed soon after: $600. Engine light came on: charged me to diagnose the problem & claimed that I needed a $800 repair ASAP…light went off & a mechanic friend told me there was nothing wrong with the car. Prices for an oil change seem to change on a whim. Bad, Bad business. I’m contacting the BBB next.)