Brianna Lamke

Review of Gale Toyota

I don't typically write reviews, but after a 4 mon...

I don't typically write reviews, but after a 4 month long search for a new-to-us car, I feel like these reviews serve as a great starting point for someone in the market...

We had been looking for a van for the past 4-5 months and had two experiences with Gale Toyota during this search. We live about 1.5 hours away, so we were genuinely interested in seeing what they had to offer and making a purchase when we drove there.

During our first trip, we were paired with Craig. He was nice, but a tad pushy and we are not huge fans of the used-car-salesman pitch. In short, we saw a van, made an offer and we were pretty blatantly given numbers no where near our comfort level. We were told there was nothing they could do. We left and never heard from them again.

Our search resumed and 4 months later we were brought back to Gale Toyota to look at another van. We were paired with Ted, but this is semi-irrelevant as we had minimal interaction with him beyond Day 1.

On the day we showed, it was pouring out and a close, accurate inspection on the van's exterior was nearly impossible. The interior was pretty rough and for $21,000, it made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I asked about fixing up all of the tears in the interior and was told that a shoddy patch job was the best they could offer. Nevertheless, I expressed an interest in the van and we did work to try to get the numbers right. A lot of things were promised about the van--marks would be touched up, the interior would be heavily detailed, the tears on the inside would be fixed to the best of their ability, without actually replacing them, etc.

I will say that during the week ahead, I shared about 5 dozen emails with Samantha, who was WONDERFUL. She was incredibly patient, thoughtful and efficient. She responded to all of my emails and questions immediately and took pictures of the "repairs" throughout the week, to keep me in the loop. She was VERY helpful!

Sadly, when we showed up the following weekend, thinking we'd be getting the van, despite my expectations not being where I'd hoped, the van had not been touched. It was covered in deep scratches, dents, dings and junky interior repairs. Trim was falling off, bumper stickers hadn't been removed and nasty stains still tainted the interior of the vehicle. We literally said that if we bought it, we'd be taking it home to clean it. We drove 1.5 hours to look at this vehicle again, with good intentions of purchasing it and they couldn't even bother to pretend to care about its appearance. The rips in the interior looked like my toddler had tried to fix them. I was floored. Someone in the repair shop actually told us he'd never pay so much for said car.

I had my heart set on getting the car that day. I was told that $10,300 was the absolute highest they could give me for my vehicle and $21,000 was the absolute lowest they could go on the dingy van. They showed little interest in working with us or acknowledging just how bad the van was...

We mostly worked with Justin (manager) and by the end, we truly felt like our sale didn't matter. The dealership did very little, including cleaning up the car and removing stickers, to capture our interest. I was entirely unsatisfied and we decided to walk.

The next weekend, we went to a dealership in Albany, NY and learned how a car buying experience is SUPPOSED to feel. No one was pushy or pitchy and the car we drove over to see was meticulous. They stopped at nothing to meet our budget and meet our other expectations. This weekend, we purchased a Toyota Sienna from them--it was a year newer, a better model, with comparable mileage and it is FLAWLESS. The best part? They gave us way more for our trade in and charged us LESS for the van than the one at Gale! I'm so grateful that we decided to pass after getting a bad vibe at Gale Toyota. Ironically, the beat up van we almost bought is still on their website (magically $500 cheaper than the "best" they could offer us) and I am in a vehicle that looks and feels brand new!