AG V

Review of Westminster Toyota

In my opinion this dealer is a typical place that ...

In my opinion this dealer is a typical place that bolsters about its reputation but underdelivers. My situation was as follows; I got a call from a sales rep regarding a newly traded in 4runner. Being in the market for one, i decided to give it a try. I came in and saw the car, a 2006 4runner. I am very well familiar with these cars as I have seen about a dozen of them so I had a pretty good idea what to look for. First thing the undercarriage has surface rust more than usual despite it being a local Vancouver car. Second when I drove it had a strange clunk in the suspension - I mentioned that to the sales rep and he said that the mechanics would look at it. We haggled with the price a bit and I left a $500 deposit with the condition that they would inspect the car and if the price of repairs would be over 5k they would not sell it to me for the agreed price. In my mind I am thinking what kind of dealer would take a car on a trade in with a potential to require a 5k repair job - perhaps a dealer that is completely new in the car sales business or one that is dishonest and just wants to take you for a spin. In this case it was the later. Fast forward 1 week and I get a call to come and check out the car. They had it cleaned and put new brakes in it - looked very nice. I drove it for 200m and the cluck was still there. One important aspect is that the sales rep showed me briefly the work done on it. They did a bunch of work totaling about 3k. I mean really, 3k repairs on a car you take on a trade in??? After the second test drive I let the rep know that the clunk was still there. He tried to vehemently convince me that it was not the same thing - "sir we are a reputable dealer bla, bla, bla" I disagreed and stated it was the same noise. In the end he told me he would bring it up to the service manager next morning. How could they have repaired a bunch of stuff without doing a proper check on the suspension??? Anyhow, next morning I get a call from the Kartik sales rep saying that the repair is costly and they can't sell the car to me for the agreed price. At this point I understand that it was a bite and switch tactic to suck more money out of me. At that point I have asked for my deposit to be refunded. What a waste of time!!! I wonder how do they perform in other areas of their business if they can't properly inspect and estimate repair cost on cars that are traded in prior to offering them for sale. Shame on you!