Steven Hyatt

Review of Florence Toyota

After finding a car on Florence Toyota's website t...

After finding a car on Florence Toyota's website that interested me I spent a few days in email and phone conversation with the dealership to get more information about the car. I asked if there was any indication at all that the car had been smoked in and was told "it doesn't have any smell to it" and "there is nothing on or wrong with the Vehicle. It is in great condition." Florence is a 2 hour drive for me and I wanted to be sure that taking the time to get there would be met with the car being as described. Two different people, Brandy and Frankie, communicated with me and assured me that they understood and the car would be just as they said.

On Saturday, February 24, my girlfriend and I arrived at Florence Toyota ahead of our scheduled 11am appointment. We were told by Frankie that the car was out back being shampooed and cleaned. That confused me as I had been told the car was in great condition so I didn t understand why they d be shampooing it. After about a 15 minute wait Frankie told us the car was ready.

When we got outside the car was sitting with the doors open. Frankie told us the interior may still be damp from the cleaning. As soon as I put my head inside I could smell on the seats that it had been smoked in even through the smell of cleaning products. I asked my girlfriend to give me her opinion on the car and she also smelled smoke. Frankie then suggested that maybe the guy in the service department who cleaned the car had smelled like smoke and the smell had transferred from him.

I then went around to the passenger side and found that both the front and rear passenger side seats had numerous burn marks on them indicative of ashes. This would have been visible to anyone checking the car over. At this point it was clear the car had been smoked in and that our time had not been respected. I told Frankie I was no longer interested in the car and asked for the general manager's card. She said he was in the store at the time and she d go get him for us.

The manager, Terry, came out promptly. He then gave me a card which was actually the card of another employee named Terrell, whom I never dealt with throughout this experience, instead of giving me his own business card. The only thing he said to us regarding the situation was that he d give us "some gas", which was offered in lieu of even an apology. This offer and his giving me a business card that wasn't his own demonstrated that he either didn t understand what was truly wrong with the situation or didn't care. I declined his offer.

It seems to me that I was mislead about the car, they attempted to mask the smell of smoke by cleaning the inside of the car just before I arrived, and then when faced with having to answer for the situation the manager attempted to pass off responsibility by giving me the business card of someone I hadn t even spoken with rather than giving me his own. They knew I was driving a long way to look at the car, they knew I would not accept a car that had been smoked in, and yet they chose to proceed as I described. The situation rings of dishonesty and disrespect and isn t the proper way to do business.

Based off of my experience I would suggest being cautious when considering buying a car from Florence Toyota.