Brenda Long

Review of Gateway Toyota ,Inc.

Last month, my 79 year old mother bought a new Toy...

Last month, my 79 year old mother bought a new Toyota. She had been thinking about this for many months and, when she received an email advertising the employee pricing sale, felt it was a good time. She did not take anyone into the dealership with her.

The next day she told me about her new car but said she felt like she had been taken advantage of. I looked at her sales bill and was surprised to see that
a) she had paid full MSRP for the car including every possible tax and registration fee, and
b) she had only been given 2500$ trade in for her 2010 Camry (120,000km, original owner, no accidents). Apparently they told her they would need to have the car repainted because it had scratches on it.

I returned with her the next day and advised the sales person that we would not be giving them her car in trade. We subsequently sold it privately to the first buyer for $8250.

I also asked the sales person how much of a discount she had received for the employee pricing (which, according to the bill, was obviously nothing). After much mumbling and going out to discuss, he came back and deducted about 5% from the MSRP. No apology for failing to give her the advertised discount. After all of this, I personally would have bargained for a better discount but she did not want to make a fuss.

I really believe my mom was taken advantage of because of her age and inexperience with this entire process. I am certain Gateway will reply that this is not their usual practice, but the fact is - it obviously IS their practice. I will not go anywhere near this dealership after this. It was a distasteful experience.