Lithia Volkswagen of Des Moines

My husband and I found a pre-owned VW Jetta TDI on the Lithium website. We arrived at the dealership and before we had time to really look it over our salesman, Alex, came over to introduce himself. He wa Lithium website. We arrived at the dealership and before we had time to really look it over our salesman, Alex, came over to introduce himself. He was pleasant, knowledgeable and genuine. No pressure whatsoever, let us take the car overnight to make sure it was a good fit for our family. We went in and made our negotiations, we paid under what we had budgeted for the car. Alex called both my husband and I the next day to make are things were going fine with the car. We highly recommend the dealership and our salesman. The manger,Brent, is great to deal with also. We will definitely purchase from Lithia again! More

Robert Brewer was very friendly and knowledgeable. He had an honest demeanor and was helpful with all the questions we had. We were impressed by Robert and also Lithia. We are pleased with our new Jetta wago an honest demeanor and was helpful with all the questions we had. We were impressed by Robert and also Lithia. We are pleased with our new Jetta wagon! Thank you for your help! More

I would like everyone to know about my recent experience with this dealership. It's a very good story. I stopped in last week because a vehicle I was looking for arrived at your dealership. Excited, I quic with this dealership. It's a very good story. I stopped in last week because a vehicle I was looking for arrived at your dealership. Excited, I quickly went to go research it. This was where the issues started. Everyone I told about the car obviously asked where is it. I mentioned it's at the local Lithia dealer. Everyone, and I mean everyone I spoke with told me to stay away. That the dealership won't work with you on price, the sales people are not easy to work with, and that it's a typical big chain dealership. Turns out everyone was right. The car was not what I expected - in the pictures it looked pristine. Up close the hood emblem was torn off, the front bumper needed repainted due to some serious road rash, and a few other things were needing some work. Still, I was super interested in the car! Especially since I am renting a car right now. I go to the dealership on Monday to go for a test drive and try to purchase the vehicle. I arrive and head right to the vehicle. I was greeted by Harold, the sales person in the used area. I told him I am interested in this vehicle. He looked at me and immediately was not ready to work with me. I graduated college a year ago. Lucky for me a found a good job and I am ready to upgrade from my college car. He immediately became unfriendly and not helpful at all. Granite my father were standing 5 feet away from me; I brought my family because this was supposed to be a big day for me - my first post college car, if you will. So Harold goes to grab the keys for me, by now I can already tell he looks annoyed by me. He hands me the keys and says "Take her around the block." No dealer plate for the car, and the salesman didn't come with. I found this odd. Also when I mentioned I would like to see the maintenance they performed when they received the vehicle, the salesman stated, and this is a direct quote, "I would have to ask my manager he is not here." We went inside and I can't say the gentleman was pleasant, he seemed annoyed he was working me. Funny, a car salesman who didn't seem like they wanted to sell a car. We got to negotiations, and I listed my low ball offer for the car. The first offer will always be low. Isn't that the point of negotiations? He promptly comes back and states that "My manager said we are not budging on the price. We feel this car is in excellent condition." Heres where it went wrong. Excellent condition? The front bumper needs repainted, the darn emblem isn't even on the hood, and the fog lights have water in them. Excellent condition? No way! And if you remember correctly, when I asked for the service report this "manager," if you can even call him that, wasn't in today. But he magically appeared when the company didn't even want to budge in price. This is where I became upset. When I mentioned these issues with the car, Harold stared at me and ignored everything I said. These are all things that were said to my face: "We feel the car is in excellent condition. You can get a new hood emblem for close to nothing. You can get the paint fixed for a few hundred bucks. So we aren't going to move in price. If you offered _______ amount I would think about working with you." First of all, I don't know where you get paint work done for that cheap but you should let the public know. That's a heck of a deal there sir. We looked at the NADA and Kelly Blue Book prices. Even in excellent condition, which this car is not, the price is ridiculous. And it really isn't even that fact that is upsetting. It's the fact that I had the worst customer service in the world. And I caught the salesman lying to me! I am needing a vehicle, I am ready to buy, and that is how you treat your customers??!?? A young professional, who is passionate about cars, walks in to a dealership to buy a gas guzzler and you treat him like an idiot and send him on his way? And the worst part; I still need a vehicle. I had better customer service at the rental car kiosk today! Customer service is obviously not your priority. It's upsetting and you can guarantee this message will be passed along. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, A turned away customer. More

Please do not waste your time and money, they are not honest and do crappy work. Each time me or my husband take our cars for a service, we find additional issues the next day after visit. That cannot be honest and do crappy work. Each time me or my husband take our cars for a service, we find additional issues the next day after visit. That cannot be a simple coincidence! We are deffinitely not comming back! More

It was more the other service managers that helped him were very rude. We had a service recall 4-5 months ago on heated seats and brake lights that did not work. When we got it back the covers to the seat were very rude. We had a service recall 4-5 months ago on heated seats and brake lights that did not work. When we got it back the covers to the seat rails were on the floor in back seat. We ended up just putting them on.(only 1 screw each). We use seat covers so when it got cold we noticed the seat heter on the passenger side was not working. Took seat cover off and a 1-2 inch hole was there. We originally thought is was a cig burn due to people walking by and bought a used seat. Once we figured it out we took it in. They told us that they had not taken out the passenger seat only the switch to that seat. Even though the rails were off and they were very addiment about it. They sent pic to VW and VW would not warranty work and niether would Litha. Since it is a '04 I could deal with it and we had purchased the used seat for $100. But when asked Litha to install it they said 1.5 hours and over $180. I can remove seat in 10 minutes and am not a mechanic. The only issue I have is I do not have the large star tool to take off seat belt holder so I will have to buy one. We were considering a new Audi but since Litha is only Audi dealer in area we will look at Cadillac and BMW. More