Prestige Honda of Thomasville

Reason for Visit: Sales (New)

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Prestige Honda of Thomasville:
Purchased a Honda Fit on August 14 from Billy Strickland. I was very happy with the car, but as it had been sitting on the lot for a while there was some dust and general dirtiness in the car and the tires looked a little low. I agreed to purchase the car on the condition that it was detail cleaned and the tires aired up. My car was delivered to me still dirty, and 4 hours after I got the car my tire pressure light came on....all 4 tires were at 25psi. Billy offered me a free first service as an apology and I requested a cleaning as well which he agreed to have done in my town Tallahassee so I did not have to drive to Thomasville.

I traded in my Hyundai at purchase and was told that my license plate would be returned to me so I could complete my transfer. A month went by, and I called repeatedly to ask where my plate was only to be told that it was "being taken care of" and that "it was in the mail". Finally on the day my dealer plate expired I got a hold of the general manager only to be told that my plate was in his hand. Billy Strickland had lied to me repeatedly about mailing me my license plate. They will not clean my car as they promised, and I did not get my license plate returned to me as promised. This car dealership and Billy Strickland lie and do every customer a disservice when you buy from them.
I will never shop here again, and I want everyone to know what sort of awful customer service Billy Strickland and Prestige Honda offer to potential clients.

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Reason for Visit: Sales (New)

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Prestige Honda of Thomasville:
This is probably a day late and a dollar short, since the dealership has changed owners since I made my horrible purchase, but I still feel the need to post my experience. While I love the Honda brand (I'm on my 4th one now), I am still shocked at the way my deal went at Prestige Honda in Thomasville, GA. I've purchased many new cars, and expect a certain amount of funny business from every single dealer...that's just the nature of the beast, but Prestige took that to new levels.

To start with, we'd secured our own loan through our bank, but they still pulled our full credit report (telling us that Honda needed us to fill out a credit application for some random reason - don't ask me why we fell for that). After we took possession of the car, I was told the next day that the Tires for Life and the Lifetime Warranty (which covers the transmission) programs they so heavily advertised, weren't included in our deal...never mind the salesman had told us very clearly that it was. I was told the deal we got was just too good for that to also be thrown in. There was no way in the world our deal was anything close to being that great, since towards the end of our car hunt, we did as many tired car buyers do and just threw our hands up, probably leaving quite a bit on the table, but thrilled to have the deal done. In the end, they did make good on both of those programs and included them but I will believe it the first time they have to make good on either one. I have a funny feeling they will get out of it some how.

Since being purchased by another group (summer of '09?), they have stopped the loaner car program (they used to offer loaner cars for any service work - even work taking less than a day). That was a nice program, especially for out of towners.

If you do end up buying at Prestige, just make certain to get EVERYTHING in writing. There are two separate forms that you sign for the Tires for Life and the Lifetime Warranty. Make absolutely certain you walk out with both of those. If they are still using the loaner car program as a sales point, find a way to get that in writing (if it's important to you) too. If you have secured your own loan, and don't wish to have your credit pulled needlessly, don't sign the Honda credit application (obvious I know...but they have a knack for making it seem necessary - saying it's just a formality, that your credit won't be pulled).

I could kick myself for not going with the Proctor guys (Tallahassee). I purchased from them years ago, and was very happy. At the time of this purchase though, the deal was just a bit better from Prestige, and they also offered the tire/transmission warranty, so it made a little more sense to go through them. I have since gone to Proctor to purchase my extended warranty, and would do all my service through them as well, except I'm tied to Prestige in order to keep the tire/transmission warranty valid.

As a little side note, I had also contacted the Ocala Honda dealership (Honda of Ocala) and the Jacksonville folks (Honda of the Avenues), getting excellent, very attentive service from both...so those are two others to keep in mind. In my opinion, a short drive is far worth the peace of mind of not having to deal with people who are so underhanded. You have to watch your back at every car dealer, but with Prestige you really need to know what you're walking into.

Since being bought out, our salesman is no longer there (neither is the sales manager) and we've been told things were horrible before, but that the new group intends to change that. I wish them well, but I'll probably be sticking with Proctor, or maybe some other nearby Honda dealers from now on.

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