vinnie vee

Review of Gateway Toyota ,Inc.

I did not have the greatest experience here. I had...

I did not have the greatest experience here. I had a very limited amount of time to buy a vehicle after an accident I had in January. I came to this dealership looking for a used SUV. Here were my issues: when I was shown the vehicle it was not pointed out or disclosed to me that there was damage to the bumper. If this had been shown to me I may have not purchased the vehicle. However that being said, it is a used vehicle and only cosmetic so not the hugest deal. However, hours after I drove this RAV4 off the lot after purchasing it, it began to make an awful high pitched squealing noise. From my experience I thought it was the belt so I called my salesman the next morning and he told me to bring it in. After a few hours of sitting there the girl in service came back and told me it was not in fact my belt, it was my alternator and they had quoted it at over $1000 to fix. She stated to me that she had asked the used car manager if they could fix it for free for me and he said NO . SERIOUSLY??!! I had not even been in possession of the vehicle for 24 hours yet not to mention I had paid them in cash for this vehicle the day previously so you can imagine how angry I was. Needless to say I demanded to speak with him. They led me to the sales floor where I relayed what had just occured to my salesman who assured me things would be taken care of. I talked to the used car manager and he flat out denied saying he wouldnt fix it and pretended not to know what I was talking about or that he had ever talked to service. This angered me more because if there is anything I find disrespectful it is being lied to. I basically told him BS and you are going to fix my car for free because i didnt think it was fair to sell someone a vehicle one day and then tell them they need to pay you for $1000 worth of repairs less than 24 hrs later, especially when you have allegedly done an inspection on the vehicle. So he went off to talk to the girl in service ( likely to chew her ass out) Rohan ( my salesman) assured me everything would be fixed. I have to say he really did try to smooth things over and make me feel better about things which I did appreciate because at this point I was so angry and stressed out it was ridiculous. Anyway they did end up fixing the alternator for free however since I drive for work and I couldnt drop my car off to be fixed during the day I had to drive around for a week with an embarassingly loud alternator, praying that it wouldnt crap out on me and leave me stranded in the cold weather. When I did show up for my appointment the next saturday service hadnt even booked me in or ordered the part either which was frankly ridiculous. Also according to their inspection my brakes were at 80 %...nope. They are almost gone now and I have to replace them myself. Oh and one more kicker- I broke down with a flat tire a month ago. Went to use the jack they said would be in my car. Well, there was half a jack there... they didnt even put a whole jack in the vehicle!!! I dont know how they expected me to jack my car up or remove my tire without the bar part of the jack. Not to mention the jack is much too small for the type of vehicle I have, this is the same jack I had in my yaris. Unacceptable.
This experience really ruined the experience and excitement for me of purchasing a new vehicle which is really unfortunate because aside from the brakes now I really do like the vehicle and it is a great car. I would never go here to service my vehicle in a million years so I will be going elsewhere to change my brakes. The positives I can mention are Rohan my salesman- he was knowledgable and really did do his best to help me and make things right when I was unhappy as well as Amanda in finance who I did deal with briefly when I considered financing a more expensive vehicle. I found her very honest and pleasant.