Hi,
Sorry for the delay in responding, md visits take priority. Yes we did look at the window sticker, what we did not know was that the car had an upgraded package of safety features.
Since we were continually told by the General Manager down to the Salesman, including the service manager, that the car we were getting had the same features as the one we traded in, we made the mistake of believing them.
When we asked about the Birds Eye View not being on the new car we were told that feature was missing on the new car, but otherwise the cars had the same safety features.

Were we told this because we are closer to 80yo and not 70, and they felt we could be taken advantage of?

I am sure that your last sentence is the key factor here. And, thanks for being so honest. These dealers know that they have an easy market in this neighborhood.

Senior scam?
 

Knowing that many seniors are taken advantage of and various scams are pulled on seniors we attempt to do everything we can to prevent that from happening to us. Or one can say "pull a fast one".

I feel because of our age, and trusting the sales people and management, perhaps was our downfall.

Hope others will learn from what happened to us.

It really sucks that you and your wife had to go through this. I only hope that I’ll have the foresight when I get to be your age.


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Well darn! I am sorry you have gone through this mess. But we all thank you for sharing. We are on our way down for Christmas and planning on purchasing two vehicles, one new and one used. We have been shopping here and decided on Toyota's. We were pleased to have a dealership close. I dread this process as every car salesman is a pusher and it takes forever to get through the process.
Now the question, where do we go to purchase our vehicles?????

:) There is no secret place. Any place is o.k. if you do your homework.

Though this doesn't take away from your feeling victimized by this business, maybe you can count your blessings that you bought many cars over the years and never had anything like this happen. Remember that this is a reflection on them, not you.


Very true. It doesn't mean that every dealership in a senior area acts this way, but this is why we have sites like TOTV that get the word out. Over 6,400 people read this thread, and I for one would for sure avoid shopping at this place!


Ditto on the "thanks for sharing." Have no suggestions for where to shop other than to avoid this one--even though it may be the closest to TV.

Putting aside how two old people were taken advantage of, since the dealership did not buy back this car with the quirky electrical problem but instead is calling it a trade and put the car in their used car lot, then the car was not taken out of the state. Nearly 7000 locals read this thread and know about it.

What happens when the car is sold locally and the new owner has the same problem? Eventually someone who read the thread will hear about it and say something. Or worse, it doesn't sound like the OP had an accident or was in danger from the car the times the problem with the dead battery showed up.

But what if the new owner uses the car different than the OP? What if they are in an ACCIDENT, or what if they park the car in an iffy area, come back to the car, find the battery dead, and are in trouble because of the neighborhood they parked in? The dealership would be responsible, but would U.S. Toyota would be blamed too, since they knew about it? At least the OP is off the hook, he did what he needed to do.

I would guess only a few hundred people read this thread.

Phillips in Leesberg is the nearest Toyota dealer. We've purchased two new cars from them since we have been here.

I certainly don't claim to be the worlds best negotiator but I think we got good prices on both of them.

The process was very smooth in both cases, no pushiness that I detected. Then for the dealer add on stuff... which we never get.. the sales person just handed us a computer and said "Please look at this video while I go and get your paperwork processing started"

If you know what you want and have a good idea what the real pricing is you should be out in under an hour. I think it was not much over an hour from in the door to driving away with a new car when we went there earlier this year... and included a test drive.

I, and several of the neighbors, have had great experiences at Phillips Toyota.....just saying :)

I like DeLuca Toyota in Ocala.

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I was just going by TOTV's count that now says 7,249 hits. Wow! I never saw a TOTV thread with a number this high.

For those who had good experiences buying from this dealership, the OP said that he had two good experiences buying there. Like anywhere, there's no problem till there's a problem.

Not to say that this couldn't happen at another dealership. What we do know is that it happened to the OP at THIS dealership.