Cliff notes: We had a very tall order to fill and Adrienne Kane and the staff at AutoNation succeeded and we are happy and love our new truck.
Details:
Just bought a brand new F-150 from Adrienne Kane at AutoNation. Overall it was a good experience. My 2003 F-150 had just needed two separate coils replaced (at another dealership, which I am happy to not be going to any more at this point - I knew it wasn't perfect after the last time they fixed it - and they told me it was fine. Sorry, but I know my truck people) and then the check engine light came on again for the third coil in a row and we were done.
We came in on an early Wednesday afternoon, Adrienne greeted us and we explained our situation: we needed a truck ASAP (we were leaving for a camping trip Friday), we were totally honest with Adrienne about my truck and would be trading it in, we discussed the special pricing we get through the company my husband works for, our budget, and what the new truck had to have (a sunroof - it's something I've always had and loved in my vehicles and when you're making payments you want it to be on something you LOVE, running boards - it's much easier for me to get in and out of the truck but essential for our 6 year old, and a folding, lockable Tonneau cover). Well, our budget is not a Lariat, so finding a truck fitting our requirements was not easy. AutoNation has access to inventory all over Florida, and right away Adrienne was able to locate one that fit our requirements. She came out with a straightforward piece of paper with all the important numbers on it, including our trade-in offer. I was impressed with this, because they hadn't even seen the truck (we drove my husband's car in since we had an important appointment earlier way across town). It was a very honest and straight-forward transaction. The dealership the new truck was at was not close (South Florida I believe) and unfortunately wouldn't answer their phone. This baffled me, but apparently it was a pretty small dealership. With our time constraint (needing to leave Friday with a tow vehicle), this was pretty nerve racking. Adrienne widened the search to all of Florida, and by the end of the day there were only THREE trucks in all of Florida matching our requirements. Adrienne and her GM worked hard on reaching out to the three separate dealerships to see if we could get one of these trucks in time for our trip, and none of them were close. At times we didn't feel they were doing all they could to keep on top of these dealerships, Of course, it was our emergency, they had customers other than us to take care of, and you cannot will someone to respond. That being said, Adrienne always texted or answered her phone immediately and pleasantly, and that (Thursday) was her day off. I didn't understand why the truck couldn't just be picked up and she explained to me that it was an inventory trade, so the other dealership had to look at AutoNation's inventory and decide what they wanted, which of course takes time, and if they had customers of their own they would be dealing with them first naturally. Her explanation really helped me understand the process much better. Also, one of the first things she said to us after we explained our situation on Wednesday was the normal delivery time for a vehicle that is not on their lot is 72 hours - which obviously was too long for us, but they took our emergency upon themselves and in the end we were there until 11:30pm on Thursday signing paperwork while the truck got detailed. When we saw the truck for the first time Thursday night we were surprised it didn't have a bed liner in it (the ones on the lot did and Adrienne explained the dealership had installed those). Well, it has to have a bed liner for all the stuff we throw back there for camping. So that was added to the work required.
In the end, the bed liner and cover were on, we picked it up around noon on Friday and WE MADE IT TO OUR VACATION! It was a very much needed one, and the truck was a dream to drive. The towing mode was awesome.
We were very impressed with the dedication of the staff at AutoNation. Everyone (Adrienne, her GM, the driver, the detailer (who removed the 3 or so stains that were on the driver's seat and center console), Lee the finance director (super friendly even though he had been there for an insane amount of hours and helped us figure out the exact package we wanted), the service guys and anyone else that we don't even realized were a part of it) - were friendly, honest, and helpful.
Since the purchase, we have had almost constant communication from Adrienne, which is a totally new experience for me. After we bought our camper we certainly never hear from them again. Adrienne emailed for days making sure we were happy and didn't have any questions and then called since I hadn't had a chance to reply to the emails. I'm starting to believe she really will be around to help if we need anything :) read more