Recommended Toyota Dealership (San Antonio, Alamo, Anton: sales, how much, buying)

[majormadmax]

I am in the early stages of buying a new car. I am in no rush and have a few models I would like to check out and maybe even test drive. When we were looking at Jeeps, I noticed a distinct difference between dealerships...some would toss us the keys once they had all my info, and others would barely let us take a drive around the block with a salesman having to sit in the passenger seat. What was particularly odd was that both were owned by Ancira. Needless to say I prefer the former, and since I am not likely to buy right away, can anyone recommend a local Toyota dealership that is "user friendly" in a sense that they don't try to hogtie you as soon as you walk in the door?

Cheers! M2

[Cookiemeister]

Originally Posted by majormadmax

I am in the early stages of buying a new car. I am in no rush and have a few models I would like to check out and maybe even test drive. When we were looking at Jeeps, I noticed a distinct difference between dealerships...some would toss us the keys once they had all my info, and others would barely let us take a drive around the block with a salesman having to sit in the passenger seat. What was particularly odd was that both were owned by Ancira. Needless to say I prefer the former, and since I am not likely to buy right away, can anyone recommend a local Toyota dealership that is "user friendly" in a sense that they don't try to hogtie you as soon as you walk in the door?

Cheers! M2

I just bought a Toyota Tacoma from Red McCombs because it was so low pressure and easy. They were very friendly and laid back... didn't pressure me at all probably because they knew it wouldn't work but I ended up buying a truck and wasn't even planning on buying one that eve. They were smart... low pressure, patient, friendly, eased me in the door at my own pace and gave me what I wanted. I was firm about how much money I could spend. Go to Richard Garza.

[Paka]

We buy our Toyotas thru Alamo Toyota. Liked their attention, customer service, low pressure attitude. HATED Cavender Toyota and a shame since it is the closest to our home...but found the drive up past the airport to Alamo good.

We walked into Cavender telling them what we wanted to spend...and ended up after hours of working it out moving boundries...for me it was the "I'm up front with you and then you try to mess me over" that got us to walk out.

Why do they figure they are the only ones that can add???? We started with "we want to spend no more than" and they kept telling us how low they could get the monthly payments but it was way OVER our bottom line.

Bought our last one from them in 04, will be back there soon for the next one (replacing the 95). We are drive the wheels off types.

[Mister]

Most/all dealers these days have websites and Internet departments that take most of the discomfort out of shopping if you already know exactly what you want. A few months ago I was thinking about buying a new Civic (I later decided to wait) and this was the approach I took:

I contacted 3 local dealers via e-mail and told them I wanted a black, 2-door Civic with automatic transmission with accessories x, y and z. I told them that was ALL I wanted and asked for their bottom line out-the-door price with no trade-in or other monkey business and made it very clear that I'd walk out the door if they tried to deviate from the price.

All 3 dealers came back with a price very quickly. I took the lowest price, forwarded it to the other 2 dealers and asked if they could beat it. They both did, so I continued playing them off each other until they couldn't drop it any lower. The final price wound up being about $900 less than the original quote and was within about $300 of the dealer's actual cost after kickbacks, etc.

I read an expose of the car sales business written by a veteran salesman and he said that the Internet is the worst thing to ever happen to new car sales. Their longstanding tradition of "if you can get them in the seat they'll buy it if you pressure them enough" is threatened by buyers who have been empowered by the Internet.

[majormadmax]

Thanks for all the helpful info, I am also a "drive the wheels off type" and my 96 VW is still running but for how long I don't know. I have done a little Internet research but there comes a point where you have to put your hands on an actual car to determine if you want one or not...

Cheers! M2

[TXRose]

we shopped at cavender a few months back. We had 3 cars we wanted to drive. We were able to take all of them out w/o a salesman. He was really helpful in answering our questions, but gave us freedom to just look at the cars on our own and get a good feel for them. It might have helped that we had an appointment, but when we got there he was still working with someone from earlier and we would have had to wait to have him in the car anyway.

[mlaleman]

i also "second" cavender. i went to red mccombs and was very unhappy with their service. i think since i was simply asking them for a price on one of their 4runners and a specific color....they didn't really seem interested in me. i originally went to cavender and am glad to have bought from them.

[jules07]

Interesting responses! We've bought from both Cavender and Red. Although both purchases went smoothly, we've noticed a big difference in their service departments. McCombs' service department has been FAR better than Cavender for us. Cavender has down right pissed us off a few times!

Sure does seem to vary between folks, no?

[RecovringKrspyKremeAddict]

Originally Posted by jules07

Interesting responses! We've bought from both Cavender and Red. Although both purchases went smoothly, we've noticed a big difference in their service departments. McCombs' service department has been FAR better than Cavender for us. Cavender has down right pissed us off a few times!

Sure does seem to vary between folks, no?

Well, Jules...I would have to strongly agree with you on the Cavendar front. We've also purchased two vehicles from them! ('06 RAV4 and '08 Scion Xb) We were never allowed to test drive any of the vehicles without a dealer in the vehicle with us. Our purchases went smoothly as well, however, when having to go to the service dept. Cavendar has done nothing to win us over!

Not long after buying the RAV4, we drove over a nail and developed a slow leak in one of the tires. When I went to the service dept. to either A/ have it fixed or B/ replace the tire I lost on both counts. They said yes, there was a nail in my tire causing me to lose air and constantly replace air in my tire, but the location of the nail made it impossible to fix! The whole tire would need replacing. Not the best news, but then I say...Ok, go ahead and replace the tire. And this is when I started seeing the light......They said, "We don't stock the tires here for the '06 RAV4. You'll have to go elsewhere to buy and get your tire mounted."
(Apparently, Toyota changed the tire on the '06 models and of course, it's a tire that practically NO ONE in town carries...AND it's not a cheap tire either!) So, I'm at the Cavendar service dept. with a nail in one of my tires...it's UNfixable....and I can't buy a replacement to drive away on. As a courtesy they left the nail IN my tire so that my tire wouldn't go completely flat right away, but advised me to drive to a tire store to get a new one asap. I think I had to try about 5 different places in town before I found the tire I needed, and even then, Firestone had to order it! Needless to say I was pretty upset by the Cavendar folks!

Wanna hear about my current problem with Cavendar??? A few months after we bought the RAV4 I'm driving around town on errands and I reach over to adjust the volume on the radio. Nothing happens! The volume button was simply not working....at all! This is one of those things that only happens randomly! A couple of minutes go by and then the thing works just fine! It has continued like this over the past several months...one time it works, the next time it doesn't. When summer came around I made up my mind that I was going to get to the bottom of it and I started calling Cavendar Service Dept. every time it happened. Several days (and I'm NOT proud of this) I actually spent driving around and around and around the block where they are located, just waiting for that darn volume knob to stop working, because every time I called or just pulled IN...I was told that I would have to be able to re-produce the problem for them in order for them to give the okay to replace it! This story is still pending...and I am moving at the end of this week, so I guess it goes unresolved and Cavendar wins.

I thought buying two vehicles at the same dealership would warrant some kind of customer appreciation, but I guess not. At the very least, I would like them to take my complaint about the volume knob seriously. The RAV is actually still under warranty for a few more miles and I really wanted to get it fixed, of course before warranty runs out, but also before I had to leave town! Presently, CAVENDAR is at the top of my you-know-what list!!!

Okay...gettin' off soap box now....thanks for letting me rant everyone!

[jules07]

Originally Posted by RecovringKrspyKremeAddict

Well, Jules...I would have to strongly agree with you on the Cavendar front. We've also purchased two vehicles from them! ('06 RAV4 and '08 Scion Xb) We were never allowed to test drive any of the vehicles without a dealer in the vehicle with us. Our purchases went smoothly as well, however, when having to go to the service dept. Cavendar has done nothing to win us over!

:

But I bet you love your xB, tho, huh?!!! The car we bought from Cavender was my hubby's tC ~ the 3rd one in San Antonio!!! We are big Scion fans, and I actually wanted an xB when we bought my Sienna. Sure do love the new body style xBoxes!!!!!