Toyota Universe

Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: Yes

My Review of Toyota Universe:
We did a web search last year, looking for a Toyota Matrix with certain features. Toyota Universe's website said they had several. I telephoned Toyota Universe; they confirmed they had what we were looking for. I said we'd be over within the hour. When we arrived, they told us they did not have, on the lot, what we were looking for. They alleged that the car we called about may have been sold and delivered within the past hour. We should have walked away then. Talk about "bait and switch!" Unfortunately for us, we stayed, accepted their low ball price for our used car- less than two years old- and waited almost a week for delivery. They exert very high pressure on their customers. The entire sales process at Toyota Universe left us feeling unclean. Sometimes, the first impression one forms is the accurate one; we should have walked away. If Toyota Universe were the only Toyota dealer in the world, we wouldn't be buying another Toyota. Our Toyota Matrix is great, but we still have a bad taste in our mouths when we think of Toyota Universe.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
This was the worst car-buying experience I've ever had. The sales rep was nice enough and did try to be helpful, but he appeared to be new and it turned out that he communicated a number of things incorrectly. The old game of "let me check with my manager" was played repeatedly as we tried to come to agreement on a price. When we did come to that agreement, it kept turning out that things that were supposed to be included weren't and that would add 'just' several hundred or a thousand more dollars - even though we had explicitly stated several times that we only wanted to deal with one person and that we wanted to see complete final prices for everything including taxes, warranties, etc. At the end, because of the many miscommunications, I felt I had to actually read and understand the terms of the financing contract carefully. When I asked to have an authorized signature on the contract, they insisted that this could only be done by their accounting department, but that the contract is valid. How can I write a contract with myself, even if it is on Toyota's boiler plate template? At that point, the finance guy left, and the general manager came over and literally berated me for my obvious dissatisfaction, for the look on my face(yes, really!), for reading the contract too slowly and asking too many questions, and finally threatened to tear up the contract. We were pretty far along at that point, and didn't feel we wanted to start the process of looking all over again (at that point, WE had signed all the needed contracts, the downpayment was made, I had the keys in hand, etc. - I was literally only asking for an executed copy of the contract, and this seemed to outrage the General Manager). He and the three other staff members we had talked to insisted repeatedly that they were "losing money" on this deal, a ludicrous and baldfaced lie.

Toyota's are fine cars, and I am sure I will be happy enough with the one I bought, though other manufacturers like Honda certainly produce vehicles with equivalent quality and pricing. If you have a choice, do not ever go to this dealership. Buy a Toyota elsewhere, if that's the car you want.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
Horrible customer service. Came back from a 5 hour drive from a business trip, decide to continue searching for a car, and filled out an online form for a toyota camary hybrid. As soon as I hit the submit button, I got a call from the dealer stating they had the cars in and I could test drive. drove 45 minutes to see the car and they had none. Of course the person who called me pawned me off on somebody else, who got stuck hearing my anger and how much of a waste of my time this was. They seemed to expect me to still buy something sight unseen. Very irritating. Then of course they got the manager who was useless.

I do not recommend this dealer at all.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
We were ROBBED by Toyota Universe! We paid 14,500 for a 2006 Honda Accord that had more than $2,000 worth of repairs needed that we were not aware of. The car had not even been cleaned. They pushed it off on us as if it were a great deal - LIKE NEW!!!!!! Now, not only going for a week at a time between SERIOUS repairs - we are out FAR more than the car is worth. We took the car, being a Honda, to Trend Motors in Rockaway/ Dover where we were told the car should have been about $7,000 - even without needing so much work. It had such terrible conditions as "egg shaped" tires which meant we could not align it when it seemed to be driving funny - we bought all new tires just MONTHS after purchasing the car and if they also go bad it means a very expensive "wheel" replacement. There were numerou repairs done - just as safety-critical. When approached, the manager at Toyota Universe had absolutely no remorse, practically laughed at the thought of us expecting some kind of help with the repairs - and tried to sell us ANOTHER car instead! They lied about the condition of the car. They lied about the value of the car. They lied about being helpful, or caring about their customers at all. Bottom line: they took this car in, sold it a day or two later without even looking at it, for double it's retail value. This may seem like smart salesmanship to them - but it is outright thievery and they do not deserve the trust of any car buyer.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
I guess to continue the loooong line of bad reviews of this dealer, we have had one of the most unpleasant experiences ever with them. We are from Toronto, looking at purchasing an '07 used Prius. We put a deposit down and signed the agreement for a Package 5. We flew one-way there to pick up the car. Salesperson Rodriguez picked us up from the Penn Station, which was nice, however, when we got to the dealership, the Package 5 Prius was only a Package 1, a substantial departure from the actual vehicle. We argued a bit, especially since they wasted our time and airplane tickets. Had to spend 5 hours or so at the dealership wheeling and dealing. In the end, they did give us a substantially lower price, lower, I thought, than the actual vehicle's market value, but the experience was horendous. I only agreed to purchasing this vehicle because I knew I would turn around and sell it for a considerable profit in Toronto, otherwise I wouldn't have. I would not recommend this dealer even to my worst enemy, nevermind any reader in here. They are very heinous and you have to have a very strong mentality to deal with them. Definitely wouldn't go there again.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
It seems the only postings are from an employee. So please avoid this dealer at all costs.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
Most terrible experience. Sorry, will never go here again.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: Yes

My Review of Toyota Universe:
I had a wonderful experince, Is my first time bying a new vehicle, I was always afraid to buy a new car because of all the different options you have but my salesperson Armand made it very easy. He was very helpful.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
I was wrongly informed that there was a zero % interest financing offer on Toyota Corolla 2007 offered in November 2006. Two persons were involved in this false offer: (1) Mr. Antonio, a sales representative at that time, and (2) Mr. Angelo, the Sales Manager.
Actually there was never such an offer on this model, as informed by a finance manager later.
Because of their false and non-existant offer, I was tempted to buy the car, though I had another car. When I got the detailed documents, there was no mention at all of the zero % financing offer, and I was charged at 9.7 % interest rate.
I had no other go except to refinance the car that I bought from the Toyota Universe. I would NEVER RECOMMEND this dealer to any of my friends for buying a new car.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Toyota Universe:
This dealership epitimizes everything that is unpleasant about buying a car. They try every trick in the book to take advantage of you. It's offensive and insulting. They offered me $5000 for my trade-in which is a 3 year old car that is still under warranty and has a blue book value of $13k. Just to see if I was an idiot and would take it. I wouldn't set foot in this dealership if they were the last place on earth I could buy a car.

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