This dealership is a mix bag of good and bad. I went to vancouver from the Island looking for my next car, after visiting some dealerships I ended up finding what seemed a great deal on Autotrader at Open Road Toyota Richmond.
After emailing the dealership asking for more info, the online sales manager phoned me back and even offered to pick me at a location nearby another dealership. Once at Open Road Toyota, I noticed the "certified Sienna" they had on autotrader showed a very poor body repair job done on one of the rear side which turned my interest in that vehicle off.
Next we moved to another similar car but this one had signs of of aggressive wear and tear.
My final decision was to move to a RAV4. During the visual inspection I failed to noticed a small chipping on the windshield which wasn't disclosed on their certification report and several small chipped spots on the hood and front bumper.
Once I got my financing approved, I came back to the dealership and the online sales manager picked me up from the ferry terminal. After signing documents I was so happy for having my new car that I trusted the finance manager who told me "what you really care about is your payments, right?" I guess that's how they got people like me signing in the "x" without looking carefully the small details.
Once at home, the next morning I took my kid to the school who soon after pointed to the chipping in the windshield, I emailed the dealership and after a few emails back and forth I finally got the sales manager approval to get it fixed but the condition is that I needed to comeback to the dealership to get it fixed there as I wanted an original part and not the generic offered at a Victoria Glass shop. Note that this was my third trip to Vancouver so keep in mind the cost.
On one of the emails I also reported to them that the car had several small chipped spots on the hood and front bumper that I only noticed after getting worried due to the windshield issue, I wanted to make sure that the car had no other undisclosed issues. The online sales manager told me "don't worry I'll get those chipped spots touched up at no cost" the same day you come for the windshield fix.
The third issue discovered once I did a good review on the financing agreement that the finance manager didn't disclosed to me an admin charge for $1,009. In total there were three charges: two admin fees $295 and $1,000 and a third charge called dealer fee $595. At that moment I got really upset for what I consider a dishonest and deceitful selling practice at Open Road Toyota Richmond, I was deeply disappointed that I bought a $25,000 Toyota "Certified" vehicle that after all the extra fees, taxes and interest ended up costing me $35,000, how come this people could sold me something with a chipped windshield that according to the in-house (not the online manager) said "this is a safety issue ", plus all the chipped paint (they never repaired this as promised by the online sales manager), and all those admin, dealer fees totalling almost $2,000 additional charges added before taxes?
Of course I did called, emailed them and firmly demanded a refund of the undisclosed extra admin $1,000 and had the windshield repaired, unfortunately I was so fed up with having to deal with all these issues that even though the chipped paint wasn't repaired I just wanted to go home.
In conclusion, if you're not a savvy car buyer beware of these dealership employees who will do whatever necessary to hook you up, once you sign, if something goes wrong as I guess, I'm not being the first and the last, be ready for an unpleasant back and forth exchange up until either you give up or you make them get their wrong straight. Beware!!! read more