Stohlman Automotive

Why should it take nearly four hours to buy a used car? I made an appointment for this and specified the car I was interested in. The person I arranged to meet was not there when I arrived after a three-hour drive. One of his staff instead "assisted" me. The salesman did not even know the car I was interested in.. I expected the car to be waiting for me out front but it took 15 minutes to locate the car. It took another 3+ hours to negotiate! Stay away!

This review is for the service department, specificity the service advisor, Jack Smith. I brought my 2018 GTI in this morning to have the drivers seat looked at because the seat bottom was creaking loudly when making turns at low speeds or when shifting in the seat. I am from Maryland and this dealership is by no means close to me, but I made the trip first thing this morning out to Tyson’s because they were the highest rated VW dealership in the DMV and I am very particular about who services my car. I made the appointment with Marcus but was told when I arrived at 7am that he was not in today and they instead put me with Jack Smith. Right off the bat he didn’t introduce himself and blatantly asked, “why are you here?”. I told him my concerns and that I made an appointment. He put me on a test drive with the shop foreman who confirmed the noise I was hearing. I was fully prepared to wait a few hours while they looked at the seat, though upon arriving back at the dealer, Jack came out, sat in my drivers seat and turned to me and said, “it’s a GTI, they make noises. That’s the kind of car you bought.” I’ve had the car 7 months and only have 3,000 miles on it. I refuse to believe that that was normal and I was shocked that a service advisor basically told me that it was a normal occurrence and that they could do little to nothing about it. I told him that I couldn’t believe his response, how dismissive he was about my concern and took my keys and left. I decided that, since I took the day off from work to get this issue addressed, to drive back to Maryland to VW of Laurel where I leased the car from originally and get a second opinion. Within 30 mins of my being there they had road tested the car, confirmed the noise, and had 3 technicians looking at the seat to get an idea as to what it was. Turns out the frame of the seat bottom was the cause and they ordered a replacement and will be covering it at no cost. I will never forget how dismissive and basically rude Jack was to me and will never be going back, for service or otherwise, to Stohlman VW.

If you want subaru this is the place you must avoid, called me for asking extra fee after a month of purchase. handling customer is not very professional

Is there a reason that people can’t buy volkswagen with cash money but have to finance? At 6% interest , hopefully they didn’t lie to me about paying off early without penalty, I really don’t want to pay over 3000 dollars for finance charges. They emailed me a survey but no follow up, oh well ....we will find out in a couples weeks after BB and T bank contact me .

I went through my Credit Union's TrueCar site to find a new Subaru. Stohlman assigned me to Bernadette through luck of the draw. And what great luck this was! Bernadette was so easy to work with. She provided just the right amount of follow-up, encouragement, and support while I test drove several vehicles and weighed my options. She helped me find the right car for my requirements. It's been a little over a month since I completed my sale, and I'm very pleased with my new car. Thanks to Stohlman and to Bernadette for an awesome car buying experience.

Just purchased a 2018 Subaru WRX STI from Stohlmans. First started working with Alex Yakovlev my sales consultant almost a year ago and couldn't think of going anywhere else! Very friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful (this is the first manual car I've ever owned but have wanted one for a long time). Definitely gave the tips to make driving and ownership that much more enticing. It was an absolute pleasure working with Alex and buying from Stohlman! Couldn't be happier with the choice of car, dealer or sales consultant!

Bought my 4th new car from Ryan and Bernadette. Service and support is tremendous. These are very knowledgeable and engaging professionals Thanks Again! Doug Mann

I went in to look for pre-owned, certified Subarus with a very strict set of prices guidelines and needs (though my needs are pretty simple). Jesse Gordon gave me a full walk through of all pre-owned cars, including the backlot where he took down inventory numbers to ensure we could get full details. Chatting with Jesse was easy and zero pressure. He’s a good salesman certainly in the sense he quickly got what I was looking for, and never tried to faux upsell or any nonsense like that. No “premium undercoating” or “deluxe floor mats” ever hit the table once he knew I was looking for a basic model with high reliability and didn’t care for anything fancy. Comparing prices, we found a 2018 Subaru Impreza to be a great match and more than comparable to like used cars on lots. We got an initial quote, I placed down my cost needs and trade-in, and Jesse quickly got managerial response and an evaluation of my trade-in. When the final deal didn’t quite beat my needs (because I was being incredibly exacting and frankly if my current car had any known issues besides age I would have signed in a second). Before I left, Jesse asked if I could stay a moment to discuss further discounting with the manager, where we discussed viable options that were frankly very good. The only reason I didn’t buy was because I may be moving in August, my awful Taurus runs, the same time my registration is up, and the price and APR was slightly (literally max 200 over the life of the loan) out of my range. I have never had a better experience in a dealership, and I would recommend Jesse over and over. I even made sure to write a note to leave this review, and when the manager offered his card for my future needs, I specified, “I appreciate it, but if I’m able to continue working with this gentlemen in August I want him to be my salesman.” We shook hands with no pressure, and he even asked for feedback on what he could do next time, not just to sell the car but to give the best experience. I didn’t have much to say since he’d already done it.

I would not work with Boris in the future although he is basically a good person. Boris is a bottom dollar fellow who is more concerned with the dollar than with client satisfaction. In the end I found his approach to negotiation to be slippery. If I didn't keep track of every little detail, the next thing I knew, it would be gone. During negotiations I asked if a hitch could be installed on the car. Boris said yes and even kindly offered that it might be less pricey to use U-haul. This idea appealed to me. But, Boris knew I was going to lease the vehicle and I later learned that if I used U-haul I would void my warranty. Boris said nothing. In fact, when I called to complain he had his manager deal with me directly. Another point involved the installation of the Fosgate sound system. When I sent the spec sheet from BuildMySubaru to Boris, I had checked off that I wanted the Fosgage. When Boris replied to my email containing the spec sheet, he stated, he found the car I identified and he gave me a serial number. I assumed he read the BuildMySubaru spec sheet, as that was my offer. After purchase of my vehicle I realized the car did not have the Fosgate installed. In fact, rather than ensuring that I was getting what I asked for, he just grabbed a vehicle of the lot that had Crosstrek Premium 2.0. Turned out the premium version is pretty stripped down so you have to make sure you are getting what you ask for if you are dealing with Boris. I don't know if he is just a used car salesman at heart or that he is just not detail oriented. Either way, I should have carefully watched him because although he seems very direct and honest, too many points seem to get mysteriously lost during negotiation for my comfort. Also, Boris does not clearly describe what you will receive for the price you are negotiating. This would be given trait for a used-car salesperson but because Boris seemed so honest and thoughtful, I trusted him much to my regret. For example, Boris told me there was a nav version and non-nav version of the Crosstrek. He did not mention that the non-nav version would be unable to receive Sirius radio. I am not a techy so I didn't realize that I would be depriving myself of a world of benefits by electing not to get the nav system. My prior vehicle having been a Lexus, I would not have knowingly purchased the vehicle without nav if I'd known that more than nav would be gone. Boris told me that the car had Apple play and described it as providing the capability to transfer all your iphone apps to the car. It was not until I purchased the car that I learned the Apple Play was almost worthless because you have to connect your phone to the car and even then, it does not recognize 98% of your apps because it does not have that function - as yet. Even after I purchased the car and directly asked him via email, whether my car could access Sirius radio, Boris never replied. On another point, Boris represented Sholman as being a great dealership that even provided loaners. Well, it turns out that loaners are only available for certain services that are apparently available on a case by case basis. So basically, you get a loaner if the service person is in a good mood. But, they then say they have a shuttle service; you don't like it but it's better than nothing. Then you get hit again - the shuttle only serves you if you live within 5 miles of the dealership. That is plain worthless. So the real service Stolman offers is the metro; REALLY?!!!! Tell me that in advance and I won't buy because it's too far for me to travel every time I need work done. I really regret purchasing my vehicle from Stolman and I am furious with myself for trusting Boris. Maybe it was miscommunication but I feel like he was trying only to make a sale and not trying to sell me something that I really wanted. Thank goodness that Boris has a good manager who was able to fix some of the problems. My take, don't purchase from Stolman if you live more than five miles from the dealership. If you work with Boris, be sure to document what you want and keep a list of everything that is agreed to or that is used to convince you to buy. I guess that's the way used-car dealers and dealers of non-luxury models work but sometimes I'd like to believe there are still some people that I can trust. Boris may be very trustworthy to the estimation of others, I don't know. I just know that I feel very jilted. Disappointed consumer.

Thank you Boris for great experience with buying my first Subaru Forrester. I so appreciate your time and effort exceeding my expectations getting me exactly what I asked for. I highly recommend you and Stohlman Subaru to anybody in the market.