Well, I stopped by Price Leblanc yesterday and took a look at a 2012 SR5 and 2014 Trail Edition. They were asking $27k for the 2012 with 70k miles on it and as I inspected it I found some immediately noticeable issues. I saw that the front left tire had some pretty severe cupping as well as a differential fluid leak from the front driver axle. The passenger side tire also had some cupping but not as bad. I brought this to the attention of the sales person and he said he'd go speak to the service manager because they had this truck listed as a certified pre-owned. Im not even sure they brought the truck to the back to check it out, but the service manager quickly stated that the tires only needed rotation and that the fluid was actually a sloppy oil change job. Both of these statements were patently false, and it really put a bad taste in my mouth. Cupping occurs from some sort of suspension malfunction (in this case, front struts that had never been replaced) and so I crawled under the truck again to make sure I was correct, and sure enough there was no oil on the top side of the axle and it was definitely differential fluid coming out. I told the sales guy, Craig, who had only been there for 6 weeks, that what the service manager told him was complete bull and that I wasnt interested in that car unless they knocked some more off the price. He said he preferred to just leave that car alone and to focus on the 2014. The 2014 is very nice and after a test drive we started diving into some numbers. They of course offered me peanuts on my AMG, which is when I spoke directly with Johnny. Johnny was very nice and super helpful, but I just wasnt ready to jump into a brand new 2014 and take the depreciation hit on it, when I was just going to tear the bumpers off of it.
THey gave me the LLK price of invoice on the 2014 which was $35,500ish, but heres where it got fishy again. They stated that my AMG appraised for nearly $9k less than what I owe, yet the total we were going to finance was only $37,500. Im no math-magician, but those numbers dont add up. So all in all, I dont know what to think. They were also pretty disappointed only 15-20 rigs showed up for the last meeting. I apologized for the group and stated that our turnout is usually much larger, but that Cassie and I were in Arizona and couldnt attend. They did love her truck though, and had never seen something like that.
So that was my experience, for better or worse, I'm not saying I wouldnt deal with them but the two glaringly obvious fibs certainly didnt sit well with me. I dont mean to ruffle feathers....just sharing my experience.
Who should I talk to at Price Le Blanc Toyota or other dealerships in the BR/NO area?
