Fred's Executive Auto

btonic1 on 02/01/2017

On 1/21 I reviewed this dealership after a very disappointing first impression. I was contacted by the ownership following that review with an apology for what occurred. They offered to correct the situation and assigned a salesperson. The ownership did make arrangements to bring the vehicle to where I was in Pentagon City on Weds 1/25. The salesperson Louis who brought the car was very professional, engaged in my needs, detailed and apologetic. He was also very committed to making the deal happen. Unfortunately Louis informed me he was leaving the country the next day and I would be dealing with a new salesperson. Following that I went to the dealership again on Friday 1/27. I was directed to a female salesperson who was seemed nice and polite, but not as engaged as Louis. We spoke about my approach to purchasing and other logistical information about what I was looking for. She asked that I fill out the credit app a few times, which I told her I did not want to do without driving the car again. We went and drove the car on a short drive. When we returned we had more discussion and I informed her I was concerned about having several inquiries generated from the app. She assured me that, "No, you will only have one inquiry." After some thought, I completed the application. Sometime passed and I was taken and introduced to the Finance Manager who provided me with two options for the purchase. One which required that I keep my current car I intended on trading and one trading the car. Here is my final take on this dealership. Once I did speak to someone ok, however I don't believe the focus felt driven towards customer satisfaction. They corrected the mistake brought to their attention but had I not made the review or emailed the dealership, I would still have the same initial impression I had. As for the deal, the Finance Manager was also a nice guy and polite, however I don't think he worked very hard to make the deal happen. The first option where I would need to put somewhere between $7K-$10K down to make the deal happen was honestly ridiculous. I accept the fact that I have negative equity and a current loan with a high interest rate. But I just feel that adding value to my trade (instead of valuing it to make money off the my car) and making adjustment to the new vehicle price, coupled with a reasonable down payment amount we could have made something happen. After informing them I would need to think about the options, I've heard nothing as of 1/29. Such is life. Being objective I can say that an good effort was made to correct the disappointing impression that I had. However, following that and going forward, I don't know that I felt any stronger sense of customer value at this dealership than I have at any other. Also, your salespersons should know what they are informing customers. Upon leaving the dealership I my credit alerts starting coming through rapidly saying that I had multiple inquiries from several auto loan banks. I accept that because I know how this works, but don't tell customers they are only going to have one inquiry because that's not true. While I wish we could have got a deal done, I am not going to put myself in a worse position to get the car. There has to be some compromise on both sides. As of today 1/31 I have received no follow up since visiting the dealership on 1/27. The only follow up contact I've received was from the receptionist in regards to editing this review.