Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Acton, Montana

Acton, MT Car Consumer Discussions

Re: nah, I'm around all the time... [tidester]

by duke23 on Fri Aug 29 20:31:58 PDT 2008

Tidester wrote: 'I do believe it was a comedian... I'm thinking it was Woody Allen but I'm not sure. " Thinking not, at least Woody, perhaps another one. Though you deleted my previous post to your question, offensive it was not. You leave me to respond only with the obscure, The parrot says, you know. Lord Acton indeed! tia.

Tips for Buying a Camry

by xle09 on Wed Aug 06 13:02:34 PDT 2008

Buying tips for a Camry: Step 1: Find a dealer who will give you the "Vehicle Inquiry Report" (VIR) with all three columns, including a colum that shows the dealer cost. It's a two page document. All of the important numbers are on page 2. If you are up front that you are an educated buyer and wish to talk numbers, I expect a good dealer will give this to you. Step 2: Bring your own calculator to the dealer. Using their VIR, calculate the dealer's cost by adding the following items from the "Dealer" column: the base cost, the options costs, TDA, Destination and Gas. Don't add the wholesale financial reserve or the dealer holdback to the costs. Those are NOT costs. Step 3: You now have the dealer cost. Step 4: Offer the dealer $100 over their cost and see what they say. Some say offer $500 over cost. That's too much. Start at $100 and remember the dealer didn't make that fine car, Toyota did. The dealer is just selling it as a middle-man. Step 5: It's now up to you and the dealer to determine what you will pay at that dealer. Some dealers are willing to give up holdback and financial reserve and some are not. Step 6: Once you get a price from one dealer, go to another dealer and repeat the process with that dealer to see if you can do better. Note that base price, TDA, Destination and Wholesale Financial Reserve can vary from one dealer to the next, even in the same model year. (Yes, even base price can differ on the same trim level. I don't know why.) Step 7: If you can do this over e-mail/phone, all the better (but good luck). Step 8: Once you get your price, make sure the doc fee, tags, etc. from one dealer to the next is the same (I found variances of $150 or more between dealerships on doc fee). Step 9: Keep in mind, if you decide to lease instead of buy, you can still use your negotiated price, but be ready to give up almost all of the financial benefits of your price negotiation due to fees you only pay if you lease (and if you don't put any money down on the lease, you'll pay interest on those fees). Step 10: When the business manager offers you extra items, I suggest you turn them down on every one. Keep your cost to the car+doc fee+taxes+tags. You don't need Simonize. Step 11: When the business manager prints the paperwork, he/she will make it seem like it's all pro-forma. Most of it is. Nevertheless, re-check the numbers against your agreement with the salesperson/sales manager. Remember: The negotiated price is one thing, but the price that goes into your purchase agreement is what you'll actually pay. The paperwork part of the deal is important. Slow down and read it...twice. Step 12: Try to be a cash buyer. Remember, all that good price negotiation can also go out the window with a bad financing deal. Most dealers accept checks from online lenders, if you let them know that's how you will pay. Step 13: Try to negotiate for a car actually on the lot. That way you can tell them you'll pay for the car and take it away as soon as they can have it ready. In the Boston area, I suggest Bernardi Toyota in Framingham and Acton Toyota in Acton. Both were willing to give me the VIR and negotiate in the way I outlined above. I found Herb Chambers of Boston was not willing to compete on price. Be respectful, methodical and remember "It's all about the money." This is not about who you "like" "the value of personal service" or anything else. If things move too fast, ask to take a break by yourself with the VIR and your calculator. You may "love" the car at the dealer, but you'll only "like it a lot" once you own it for a year and this is a lot of money you're about to spend. I'm not saying these are the "right" answers, but they have allowed me to buy a few Toyotas at a rock bottom price of about $150 above true dealer cost (plus doc fee, tags and taxes). Please feel free to correct, crititique, trash, etc. this message. It's a forum and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

My Rav deal

by bumpta on Tue Jun 24 05:44:37 PDT 2008

Hi all- First, let me thank everyone on this forum- it has been wonderful in providing me with the best information for buying my new Rav 4. I am an owner of an 06 Rav base model V-6 4x4 with 55000 miles on it. My goal was to see if I could get into a new Rav for approximately what I pay now for my 06 Rav. I believe that overall I got a good deal, but please feel free to offer your feedback. I tried to do this deal in parts. First, I secured a good rate from my local credit union for financing. Next, I emailed several dealerships in my area (central Massachusetts) with a specific car request: a 2008 V-6 4x4 Rav base model with the 3rd row seat option. All the cars in the area that have the 3rd row seat option also come with a few other options, like the towing prep package, roof rack, mud guards, and carpeted floor mats. Most dealers either would not offer a deal via email or were around $25000. Acton Toyota offered me $24350, so I decided to start there. I was able to get Acton to come down to a selling price of $24111. Now all I had to worry about was how much they would offer me for my trade, and I told them up front that I would not do the deal if I did not get a good offer. They came back with $15000 as an offer. As good as I thought this was, I asked for another $500.00, and they gave it to me. So my 06 Rav with 55000 miles on it held 62% of its original value... not too shabby! So the deal was done- $24111 for the car, $15500 for my trade. All in all, I will end up spending an extra $23 per month for a new Rav compared to what I paid for my 06, and that is simply due to how much I still owe on the 06 Rav. There actually is another twist to this story, as Acton couldn't locate the car I wanted in time for a trip I will be taking. My sales rep there, knowing that he would lose a sale, actually told me the locations of other area dealers with this specific car in stock, that would not swap cars with him, so that I could get what I needed in time for my trip. All in all, it was a very honorable thing for him to do. I ended up using the offer from Acton to get the car I needed for the same price in Savannah Metallic at Toyota of Greenfield, although they did not seem pleased at all to honor the same deal that I got offered at Acton. Although Acton Toyota lost a sale, they have not lost me as a customer. I will continue to get my car serviced through them, and when I need to buy my next car, I will make them my first stop. Let me know your thoughts...

2006 325i clockspring and Roseville BMW

by paddy159 on Mon Jun 16 15:14:15 PDT 2008

Is anyone familiar with the clockspring in the steering wheel of the 325i? Does it control the airbag operation? The rest of this post is just a description and heads up on the lousy service offered by Roseville BMW in Roseville, CA. Want to read a dealership horror story? Read on. Bought a used 325i at Roseville BMW. It had only 12,000 miles on it. Had many problems ever since. First, the dealership upgraded the prom on a recall. They must have reset the maintenance interval or something when they did it because they then ignored the first oil change due at around 15,000 miles. Actually didn't do the oil change until about 25,000 miles and only because I pushed them for the oil change. When I complained the service writer gave me a tech bulletin that showed the 325i could go 25,000 miles between oil changes. Problem was the bulletin was in kilometers not miles. 25,000k is about 15,000mi. Complained to the service manager and he responded "So?" I should've taken the hint at that point and switched service shops. Then the speedometer was off by 10%, if I was travelling at 70 the speedometer showed 77mph. I mentioned this to the service writer and he said bmw specs the speedo at 10%. I had to request acton several times before they repaired it at 30,000 miles. Speedometer is still off by 3mph. Verified with radar. Had a problem with the trim on the passenger door show up at about 47,000 miles. BMW techs at Roseville BMW changed the door panel and caused another trim problem with the window switch not meeting the trim. They replaced the door panel another three times, before finally figuring out 10,000 miles and four 70 mile roundtrips later the switch was broken. Probably broken the first time they replaced the panel. I also had an ongoing problem from about 20,000 miles where the steering wheel diag would show the wheel locked and the car would refuse to start. This was with the wheel perfectly straight. Service writer ignored repeated complaints about this because he never saw it happen as it was an intermittent problem. He also never bothered to write up the problem. Had to fight with Roseville BMW to fix this problem. they wanted to charge me $1100 for something that should have been fixed the first time I reported it while the car was still under warranty. They finally agreed to fix it under extended warranty for $100. They had to remove the steering wheel to make the repair in the steering column. A week after they removed and reinstalled the steering wheel the clockspring inside the steering wheel broke. They say it's not their problem, they didn't cause it. The clockspring is a wear item and they will repair it for $1300. I will never buy another car from Roseville BMW. Any future repair work I get done will be done somewhere else. Oh yeah, I went to BMW North America with my complaints and they sided with the dealer. Said the dealer had already done me favors by making repairs out of warranty. Yeah? like what? making me travel 70 miles four times and waste 40 hours of my time to repair a switch that should have been fixed in one hour? Another thing they were good at was telling me the "parts are in, bring in the car for repair." 35 miles and four hours later the story would change. "Uh sorry, we only got some of the parts, you'll have to come back again so we can complete the repair."

Mileage????

by iqbaldhillon2 on Sun Jun 01 00:19:55 PDT 2008

What is the gas mileage on the 2009 XF? Details please? Thanks :)

Re: 2009 [toddhm]

by iqbaldhillon2 on Wed Mar 26 15:50:11 PDT 2008

I read somewhere that in 2009 they will add like 2 exterior colors and a new interior trim, everything else I'd expect to be the same! But I think that I'll be trading my Tundra by next year!