Toyota dealerships - experiences

mortis43

please delete if not allowed....

I'm not looking to badmouth or to rant here but honestly curious for opinions.

in the past 18 months my husband and I have purchased two used Toyota cars from two different main Toyota dealerships in Leinster. We had terrible experiences on both occasions. Dishonesty, pushy upselling, non existent after-sales services, broken promises. The most recent car we bought was dirty upon pickup with the salesman there proudly saying it had just been washed. Car had a minor scratch which I was promised would be removed before collection; scratch was present upon collection. These are just two tiny examples of what we had to put up with. I won't bore you with the other examples as it would take up the entire page.

Really, both dealerships had the most stereotypical car salesmen you could ever wish for. So much dishonesty from start to finish.

We had good experiences elsewhere in independent dealerships and at Hyundai but with the market the way it is at the moment we were limited in where we could get the actual cars we wanted, so reluctantly gave the main Toyota dealers our business.

Both the dealerships have stellar google reviews so I'm curious to see if we were just appallingly unlucky or if it's commonly known that main Toyota dealerships should be avoided. I suspect its the former but it's a really strange coincidence.

Both cars we purchased were fairly desirable (one was almost new) and although we haggled on the price, I think we were pleasant, reliable courteous customers.

shane b

I dont think its a Toyota thing, i think its depends on the dealership attitude and the salespeople they employ.

We were looking to buy a 2nd hand people carrier in December 2020 and went to VW dealer in Dublin. A sales person came over asked what we were looking for and actually tutted when we mentioned a 2 nd hand people carrier. She went off to get someone else which took 10 minutes. When the time came to giving us a trade in price he was on the phone for 25 minutes to other independant dealers to see who he could off load our car to. Seemingly he could keep a 3 going on 4 year Toyota Corrolla on his forecourt and then offered us 3k less than most other garages were allowing us.

Mad_maxx

Two in Galway, much prefer the one not in the city

ba_barabus

I deal with a long term Toyota dealership and can't say anything bad about them that would make me deal elsewhere.

They never wash my car (by request from me, only said it once), no upselling, no attempts to sell me a new car, no hassle with getting repairs done, bulbs replaced for free, easy to book in for a service, put my needs and preferences first when changing the car and listened to what I use it for etc. etc. I've had to go down the warranty route with them so I've seen the service at first hand.

It's a family run dealership and if they ever close it's the first thing I'm going to look for in any garage/brand I move too. They've too much to lose by offering sh!tty service.