Krista Benson

Review of Billion Automotive of Iowa Cit...

For Iowa City's Billion. We've had a fair experien...

For Iowa City's Billion. We've had a fair experience in Sioux Falls for a different car we bought.

The salesperson we dealt with was nice enough. We asked for a specific car we saw online. It took a while to hunt the car down. The car was in line to be detailed. I'm not exactly sure how the car looked so clean and ready to sell online and was a complete mess in person. There was food stuck on things (including all the buttons), and trash in the trunk. Maybe another dealer was using it? I'm not sure.

So, we come to find out that when they said online the car was certified for X price, it was actually only "available to be certified", and the online price didn't include certification. That was a significant additional charge. Speaks of dishonestly.

We tried to negotiate the price with the salesperson. We spoke with one manager up. He didn't want to lower the price either. We decided to leave at that point. The manager came after us on the lot and asked us what we could do on a 2012 (we were looking at a 2010). We told him our bottom dollar price. However, now the manager knew how much we had to spend, and we had lost any "advantage" we may have had. When had come out he said he would be willing to go down a couple hundred. Once we said how much we had to spend on a 2012, he changed his tune. He sent out his manager. (So, three people up from the salesperson) So, this is was the "bad cop" guy. The first two people I dealt with were pleasant. They were at least polite if they didn't want to negotiate. This last guy was a complete and total ***. Honestly, if the second guy I dealt with came out and said, we really can't do anything else, I would have accepted it and probably gotten the car without negotiating anymore. I pulled my husband aside and flat out told him that I wanted to leave because this guy was a complete ****. I was just waiting for him to call me "Hun" or "Cupcake"...he spoke in a demeaning manner. He tried to tell me that a tank of gas was going to cost him $70.00. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Really? I wasn't aware a sedan had a 25 gallon tank.

He did go down by $100.00 (which I still feel cheating since I had to fork over an additional $400.00 to certify a car they are claiming as certified online and by a huge "GM Certified" sticker on the car). We go to buy the car, and it was an alright experience. They did the typical sell you crazy stuff you don't need (Diamond, guaranteed for life paint cover, etc.) . They also pull the old trick where they try to sell you things by showing you that your monthly payment only goes up by XXX. Once we eventually got in to talk to the financial person, I was pleasantly surprised. He was nice and actually matched an awesome rate we had found by shopping around with different lenders. He also found a mistake in the paper work that saved us a $150.00. That's nice that he didn't wait for us to catch it (which I would hope as a contract writer by trade, I would have). When they brought the car around after it had been detailed, I was a bit disappointed. There was still pieces of food stuck on the steering wheel. I had to wash the car down myself. Not really the "new" car experience I was hoping for.

So, over-all, after using the car for a few days, I'm happy with the car itself. (I will update after I've had the car for a while). The financial guy was nice, and the salesperson was okay. The head manager was not a pleasant person and for the fact alone, I won't shop Billion again. Too bad for them too, because we're going to be in the market for a fully loaded truck in a year.

Edit: The certification process was a complete and total disaster. I took the car to a family reunion a few weeks after purchasing it, and my uncle who certifies vehicles for a different dealership says right away, "I can tell this isn't certified" I asked why, and he responded that not all the tires match. That's one of the simple requirements. Long story short 8 months of talking to everyone including the owner and I finally got my car certified. DO NOT GO HERE!!!