LaFontaine Chevrolet

I would never recommend LaFontaine Chevrolet after my awful and insulting trade-in experience. We live over an hour away from the dealer, so we were able to handle almost everything about the purchase of the used vehicle we would be buying via email and text. When I asked about my trade-in, the salesperson, Lakya Cook, sent me the link for the dealer's KBB instant cash offer site (the same site that is linked to from their homepage and every vehicle detail page on their site). I entered the information for our vehicle and received what seemed like a fair offer of $12,700, which was emailed to me. When we got to the dealership, we test drove the used vehicle we were buying and decided to purchase. We were handed off to the business manager, who told us that our trade was worth $8,000. While we knew there might be a couple minor things that would lower its value, this was 37% less than their instant cash offer! I told the business manager that I had the KBB instant cash offer email that showed the $12,700, and he asked me to forward to him. He then went and got the sales manager. The sales manager acted like he had never heard of the instant cash offer, and was curious where we got it. I told him one of your salespeople directed me to it and it was specific for this dealer. He then said "nobody uses KBB and even after cleaning our vehicle he would probably only be able to get $11,000 for it", which isn't even close to dealer retail. He then said he would give us $9,000 for the confusion. My wife and I contemplated it for a while and probably should have kept the vehicle and sold it to another dealer or by ourselves, but we took the $9,000 offer. After getting home, I researched the KBB instant cash offer and found the following in their FAQs: "What if the Participating Dealer I go to won't match the amount on my Instant Cash Offer? Participating Dealers are required to honor your Instant Cash Offer, provided the information and condition you provided when creating your Offer are confirmed to be accurate by the Participating Dealer. If the information is not correct, the Participating Dealer can update the information using the same online tool you used to generate the Instant Cash Offer for your car, and the update may result in a modified Offer amount. So, the more details you enter about the condition of your car, the more accurate your Offer will be." and this: "Participating Dealers pay a monthly subscription to participate in and receive leads through the Instant Cash Offer Program. Offers provided through the Instant Cash Offer Program are calculated and generated by a proprietary appraisal tool intended to generate a price reflecting a liquid cash offer to be honored by a Participating Dealer irrespective of whether you are purchasing another vehicle from that Participating Dealer. Instant Cash Offer Program guarantees to Participating Dealers that your vehicle will be worth at least the amount of the Offer. Participating Dealers are not owned or operated by, nor are they acting on behalf of, Kelley Blue Book, and, except as described herein, are not otherwise affiliated with Kelley Blue Book. If you redeem your Instant Cash Offer at a Participating Dealer, you will have the option of either using your Instant Cash Offer to trade in your vehicle or to sell your car for a check. If your Instant Cash Offer does not identify a Participating Dealer near you, please call our customer service department at 1-866-559-5268 or send us an email to request this information." Not only did the dealer not meet the requirements of participating in the KBB instant cash offer program, they never even provided me with a valuation of the trade-in vehicle which would detail how they came to their valuation. I filed a complaint with KBB and they said it would be escalated to their dealer relations team. I also tried to contact both the General Manager, Shadrick Bennet, and our salesperson Jason Nabrozny, and neither have returned my calls or emails. The whole experience was just shady. I would avoid Lafontaine Chevrolet if you can. There are plenty of other reputable dealers in the metro Detroit area that wouldn't play these games and give you a fair offer.