Jones Family of Dealerships

I recently test-drove a 2003 manual-6 Ford Focus at Jones. The car seemed to be in excellent condition, it handled well and, most importantly to me, the clutch and transmission worked wonderfully. Dave Jones. The car seemed to be in excellent condition, it handled well and, most importantly to me, the clutch and transmission worked wonderfully. Dave was very friendly and he was honest with me about factors affecting the car's fuel economy. He was also quite gracious and enthusiastic as he walked around the lot with me to take stock of manual-transmission vehicles. Unfortunately, he became pushier later during our discussion of a potential purchase. He tried to convince me to allow him to bring paperwork to my house that night so that my parents could approve a tag transfer as quickly as possible. (I declined.) He told me that if I put a refundable $100 deposit on the vehicle, I could hold it for up to three days; then, when I gave him the deposit, I had to insist on being allowed until the next evening to make a decision, which he wanted that night or the next morning. The worst part was the offer that Dave and his manager gave me. The manager undervalued my trade-in by about 30% on the sole basis that necessary paintwork would raise suspicions of prior accidents. (This car, a 2001 Civic, has had no engine trouble at all in the 30k + miles that I've driven it; it has required only tire replacements, a headlight replacement and repair of a cracked front fender undersurface.) The asking price for the Focus ($13k) was 37% higher than the Blue Book trade-in value for that model in excellent condition. These offers were particularly unreasonable in light of what Dave told me about recent sales: that the used car division was well under its monthly goal and that the Focus had been on the lot for 41 days and was to go to auction in another 19. Nonetheless, he was adamant that a deposit was the only way to expect that the car wouldn't be bought by someone else that night. (In retrospect, the slow market seems just as effective a means of holding it.) My parents and I have had a satisfactory experience with Jones Honda in the past. My current Civic is from Jones and, as I noted before, it has performed wonderfully. The Focus that I test drove, too, seemed like a wonderful car, and I was generally treated with great courtesy. It's just a shame that staff there tried to clean me out with a gross undervaluation of my current car and an even more excessive sticker price on a slow-moving piece of inventory. More