David Varela

Review of AutoNation Ford Jacksonville

The purpose for me to visit your dealership in the...

The purpose for me to visit your dealership in the first place was to perform a service to my old vehicle, I will say that the service provided by the service department was excellent, downside was that it was going to take a while, due to parts and only having two tecs for the day, no shuttle to take you anywhere meanwhile, so I decided to check the dealership for new or used vehicles, it was still earlier than 9am, then I went to the COGGIN Chevrolet dealership next to it and the Hodges Mazda dealer to the front to also see what they had in store, I was not looking to buy, but was open to the idea, I talked to Mr. Scott Messmore from Chevy and he was very courteous and very helpful, I told him I will think about it, I went back to Autonation Ford and ask the front desk for someone to help me see some vehicles at the used car lot, the manager showed up and he was very professional and helpful, he found a sales representative in the back that I noticed earlier when I was in the waiting area after I dropped my car for service, this person was not engaged in anything, didn't even looked like he was a sales person, no professional attire, commitment, etc, he asked me what I was looking for and explained I would like to see the numbers for the two Tacomas and the 4Runner they had in the used car lot, since the other building was closed, no ones was around, and I was interesting to check it out and see numbers, I wanted to be in the $500 a month, so the sales person just took me to his cubicle and ran some numbers on his head and wrote them down, I had to put more than $10K as down payment to be able to pay around $600 a month, for 60 months, no haggle, didn't make sense to me, with my score, etc the numbers didn't seem right, never offered to walk over and show me the vehicles, no even a test run, etc. I was shock, it was like he didn't want to be bothered, didn't want to do anything and just brush me off like I was not a legit buyer, and I was not worth the time, I was respectful, polite and just told him I will think about it and walked away, the service department person talked to me to give me an update on the vehicle, one of the things that I was inquiring was a 15hrs job and would have been more expensive than the value of the vehicle, so I told the person just to fix the other stuff and will try to fix that another time since it was not an emergency, could have lasted couple more years, I went back to the COGGIN Chevy dealer and approached Mr. Messmore again, as always very polite, professional and helpful, he offered right away to bring the keys for two vehicles I was interested, we drove both vehilces and returned to his office, he ran the numbers for me between an Infinity Q60, and a WRX STI, I was also interested in a 4Runner, but wanted something with warranty, newer, less milage, it was done in the computer very detailed with everything I needed to know, I decided for the '19 WRX STI with less than 6k miles, manufacture warranty still valid, great vehicle, went with my bank to finance, paying around $500 a month, with extended warranty, they took my old car as trade-in for a reasonable price with even all the issues it had that would cost more than the vehicle to fix, and I put $4k down, I would not even go back to any Autonation dealership, if this is the way to threat costumers, I was a Ford (Mercury) branded vehicle owner for the last 10+ years, it was not great the feel to have to change the transmision at 80k miles, having to change inside door handles, and projecting to have to reseal the whole engine at less than 110k miles, but everything else was fine, now I am verry happy with my WRX/STI, thanks to Mr. Messmore, hope this will help to make better decisions in the future for sales department, dont judge costumers for just how they look or act or comunicate, you never know that person would end up buying a vehicle and not just looking around, and might be worth the time, time that would potetialy be a recurring costumer for the dealer and service department. "Profitable"