Opinions about Toyota of Durham

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Anybody have any experience with Toyota of Durham, good or bad? Would appreciate opinions about both the sales and service depts.

Art

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Sun Sep 07, 2003 10:01 pm

Stupid ads, and pretty high prices as compared to it's Raleigh counterparts. Yeah, they'll give you $5000 if they don't meet any advertised price... big deal. When was the last time anyone went to a dealership and said, 'I'll take that Spyder you have advertised for $25,500, let's start working out the financing.' I have no idea on their service, but Fred Anderson has the best warranty service of any of the Raleigh based dealerships.

If you're looking to buy a Toyota, why not go across the border and get a deal with Rod at McGeorge Toyota? www.mcgeorgetoyota.com

Yes, that was a shameless plug, but Rod will give you a deal. - AB

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Sep 08, 2003 2:59 pm

Due to the TV ads, I doubt I will ever step through their doors. Same goes for Crossroads Ford. :evil:

Steven Bremer · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2003 8:44 pm

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Anybody have any experience with Toyota of Durham, good or bad? Would appreciate opinions about both the sales and service depts.

Art

Art,
My brother-in-law bought his 4runner from them. He said if he had to do it over again he would have gone with Fred Anderson. He now gets all service done at FA.

Dan Ecclestone · **Posted:** Thu Oct 02, 2003 8:17 am

Stay away from Toyota of Durham, that's where I bought my '00 Spyder and the sales staff are complete slime balls. They have no concept of what professionalism or courtesy is. The deal wasn't very good either. The Spyder they sold as "like new" with ~4-5k miles had actually been wrecked :evil:

Of course I was not aware of this at the time of purchase nor did it show up on car fax. I had taken it to another dealer for repair of a bad wheel bearing when I was made aware of the fact that the front end had some paint work done. There was also a small puncture in the sheetmetal from the inside out over right rear wheelwell.

I made several attempts to have Toyota of Durham either fix the problems or buy the car back, but no luck

You've been warned .... STAY AWAY FROM TOYOTA OF DURHAM!!!!!!!!

Brad Mackey · **Posted:** Mon Oct 06, 2003 10:37 pm

I have no experience with Toyota of Durham, but I agree with Rich Casto about the ads. If the ads are any indication of service capability, I'd steer clear. Especially Crossroads Ford. What a jerk that guy is.

Phil Wehman · **Posted:** Tue Oct 07, 2003 7:39 am

Quote:

If the ads are any indication of service capability, I'd steer clear. Especially Crossroads Ford. What a jerk that guy is.

I don't think the guy in the ad turns many wrenches, so I wouldn't base their service capabilities on whether you like him.

My experience, both sales and service, with Crossroads has been fine to date. My opinion on some aspects of Ford's product is not as good, but that has nothing to do with Crossroads.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Oct 07, 2003 11:55 am

Have you noticed how the Toyota of Durham TV commercials have been toned down some recently? I don't see much in the way of "pie in the face" any more. I assume they are finding out that the ads are not doing them many favors.

I have my own parody of the Crossroad Ford ads. It goes something like this....

"Tom Smith here the disputed price leader at Crossroad Ford. Someone really screwed up over and over again and ordered way too many cars. So we have to blow these out of here ASAP so we can order way too many again. Please help with all of these cars!!"

It just makes them sounds incompetent they way they do it. As if they screwed up and they need our help to reduce their inventory. Am I going to fall for that??? NOT!!!

I have seen at least one other local dealership (can't remember who) do a commercial just like Crossroads Ford. It included the zoom out with the wide view of cars, remote microphone, single talking sales manager type and the phrase "undisputed price leader". If you can't beat them, join them.

Or that the least confuse them. "Uh honey, who is the 'undisputed price leader'?? Well dear, I think it was Joe Schmo Chevy right?"

I will say that I think that Crossroads indoor sales area is a great idea for shoppers.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Tue Oct 07, 2003 5:19 pm

Rebecca and I went on the Triangle Toyota Tour to find the dealership that we wanted to deal with when we buy a new minivan. I had done my research on the new Sienna and wanted to see what salesmen had. Here's what we found:

Leith Toyota: Sales staff is friendly but not very knowledgable of their product. When asking simple questions about the van, he seemed to make up answers as he went along. Dealership Rating: Not good.

Toyota of Henderson: Made the trip up there because they say they will beat any advertise price. They had no vans on the lot and at no time did a salesman even make the effort to help us. We left. DR: Really not good

Toyota of Durham: Salesman that smelled like a horse stall greets us in the lot and answered all of the questions about the van correctly. He then asked if we wanted to go for a test drive. I asked more questions during the drive and he got those correct also. When we got back to the lot I asked him what the out the door price on a no options LE model was. He went to the sales manager and asked him. The SM then proceded to make the salesman look like an idiot because he didn't know the price off hand. VERY unprofessional. I told the sales manager not to worry about it since I was NOT going to be buying the van there now anyway. We left. DR: REALLY very not good.

Fred Anderson Toyota: Greeted by a salesman in the lot as soon as we got out of the car. Told him what we were looking for and he said, "You know, I'm not the one to talk to about the Sienna, but I can get someone who knows this thing inside and out." A saleswoman came out and she was sharp as a tack. She was friendly and VERY knowledgeable about the van. We have since gone back and inquired about ordering the car. The salesman we talked to was also very good and the impression we got on our first visit was the same on our second. DR: VERY GOOD

After Aaron's suggestion, I am going to email McGeorge and get a quote from them. Hey Aaron, if I mention your name will they add on to the price or reduce it?

Also, do you know of a salesman that I should talk to?

Art, Sorry this is SO long.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Guess I'll close this thread out. After a couple of false starts, one at Toyota of Durham, another at Fred Anderson, my Mom bought a new car yesterday at Toyota of Durham. My take from the experience was that there all kinds of salesmen out there. We ran into the old-school high-pressure types both dealerships. However, there was a salesman at T.O.D. who was pleasant and courteous and that's who got the sale.

Thanks to those who posted their opinions and suggestions.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Tue Oct 21, 2003 3:33 pm

So Art, what did she get? An MR2 Spyder so she can come and play with us?

Dale Schendel · **Posted:** Wed Jan 21, 2004 12:19 am

I work for Leith Toyota so maybe I'm a little biased but I agree with whoever said the sales staff isn't very knowlagable at Leith but most of The Technitions have been with Toyota longer than my 83 Corolla has been on the road. Dale

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