Jax Car Dealers (Orlando: purchase, movie theater, school)

[Thundarr457]

After spending a year here I have noticed a big difference in the car dealers I have had experience with, specifically Arlington Toyota and Coggin Toyota. The waiting rooms are not very nice compared to what I was used to in Buffalo NY. The quality of the service was sub-par as well. The dealerships were not that inviting. In Buffalo I used Northtown Toyoya and they had a movie theater, fresh bagels, computer work stations and an awesome shuttle service.
I just purchased a new car and had to go to Orlando because the Lexus dealer here had no cars except ones that were fully loaded. I have also read less than complementary reviews of both Lexus dealers here, which are owned by the same company Fields Motor Group.

[Gromicide]

There are a few nice dealerships but yeah, for the most part I might rather go have a root canal than spend much time around a car salesman or haggling with a service mgr telling me it's normal for whatever problem I have with my car that is under warranty. Many times these people can't tell you much more than the sticker price of the car. I read a lot of auto related news and it's funny when I visit a dealership and ask about X model with X trim. They call me later on my cell and say 'yeah I asked my mgr about that and he said there's no such thing'. Then 2 weeks later they call me and say 'hey great news! One of those x models with x trim just showed up. We can hold it for you for X dollars!'

Years ago, Keith P himself called me to tell me the only way I could get the Tacoma 4X4 I wanted was to put 10K down payment. I walked into Arlington Toyota and put 0 down, got a bedliner and tow hitch thrown in.

[JBtwinz]

Funny you should bring this up..........I have been visiting a few local new car dealerships with a buddy who is looking to purchase new and it has amazed me at the lack of knowledge some of these salesmen have.

My buddy who has researched the heck out of several various models he is interested in seems to know more about the models at the dealerships than the salesmen. I am not talking about intricate details but common questions. These guys (some of them) have little to no knowledge of the navigation systems, trim levels and availability. It also seems these guys move around quite a bit so that could explain a lot. One guy had been at the dealership three days.

Aren't these guys required to study the trim levels or have a cheat book they can refer to?

I had a few friends who worked for new car dealerships in the past and they were well versed in the vehicles they sold. It was part of their jobs to school themselves on the models, trim levels, etc.

As far as service goes I have been recently introduced to the cursory review of my vehicle when I brought it in for an express oil change and now the dealership is marking items red as needing attention. On further questioning I was told that they were red due to estimated service intervals not that the fluids could be showing breakdown. Now I told a friend who visited the service department as I did and they pulled the same thing on hhis 2016 model.

We later discussed about those who might not be that maintenance savvy and when showed items marked in red they thought it was a must have service were pulled into getting that in-needed service.