From 1/18/21: I bought a 2007 Toyota Tacoma from this... - tjfmlf
From 1/18/21: I bought a 2007 Toyota Tacoma from this dealership yesterday, and it was a bit of a mixed bag. The good is that they responded to my on-line inquiries quickly. My sales rep., Khaled Yahiaoui, was quick to respond to my multiple inquiries via both text and email, and answered all of my questions. We eventually agreed on a price, and he agreed to bring the truck to me so I wouldn't have to go to the dealership. He was a pleasure to do business with, and I recommend him without reservation.
On the downside, as I was on their website looking at this truck, a pop-up discount for $1000 came up, and said it could be applied to new or used car purchases. I don't recall seeing anything about the purchase price having to be $10K or more. The price for this truck was under that price, but not by a lot, so obviously I asked to have it applied, and they refused. That was aggravating, and perhaps I should have walked away, but I didn't want to lose the truck over it. It is disappointing that they didn't offer some amount of discount because I think the pop-up is purposely misleading. Also, the truck has some pretty worn tires on it. Not completely gone, but gone far enough that they should have been replaced by the dealership. That's also disappointing. In addition, one of the key fobs doesn't work. Likely just a dead battery and an easy fix, but again, something a dealership should handle before they put a vehicle on the market. It's all about the details. Finally, I think their $995 processing fee is ridiculously high, especially on a used vehicle. $300, sure, OK, but $995 is a cash grab, period.
In the end, I got the vehicle I was looking for at a price I can live with, but this dealership has a lot of room for improvement in the details. New tires, working key fobs, and offering some cash back based on that $1000 coupon would have made this a five star experience, and they still would have made money on this deal. Is maxing out every dollar on every deal really worth lower reviews? It apparently was in this case.
UPDATE: 3/23/21: After leaving a three star review for the reasons listed above, I am now compelled to drop it to one star, and would make it zero if I could, and this is the reason why. While driving the Tacoma I bought from them in the rain, the steering was "off", as in it just didn't feel right. Closer inspection of the tires revealed that all four of them were missing their DOM (Date Of Manufacture) codes. Now, I've never seen that before, and I've owned a lot of cars and gone through a lot of tires over the years. How does that even happen? It happens for nefarious reasons. Someone didn't want anyone to know how old those tires are, which means they're likely very old. Old tires get hard, and lose their ability to grip, which becomes a safety issue, especially in the rain.
I reached out to Dulles Motor Cars over the last two days via my sales rep., their contact form from their website, and through direct emails to their management team. I requested that they replace all four tires, because the minimum expectation when you buy a vehicle from a dealership, (even a used one), is that you're getting a safe one. That didn't happen in this case. For even if those were the tires that came with the truck on trade-in, during the inspection process, the missing tire DOM codes should have been noticed, and new tires put on the truck. I have yet to hear back from anyone at Dulles Motor Cars of Leesburg. And I doubt that I will.
After my initial review, they replied on a different site that they wanted to know what they could do to earn my business back in the future. Well, what they could have done is respond to my inquiries and put new tires on the truck that I bought from them. But they're once again dropping the ball. With this dealership, it's profit over anything else, including customer safety. My advice to anyone considering any kind of purchase from Dulles Motor Cars of Leesburg, is to not walk away, but run away as fast as you can, and never go back.
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