Jim Ellis Volkswagen Marietta

Home away from Home

People write their reviews for different reasons and with different agendas.
I can attest to our second purchase in two and a half years from Jim Ellis Volkswagen.
When we came to purchase my wifes first Volkswagen, it was back in 06 and we were treated to the upmost respect and our deal was closed in approximately 2 hours. We got what we wanted, a beautiful Beetle Convertible, with an option package, all bells and whistles.
Back then all that interested us was to get wanted car for best possible price and to get most for our somewhat junky 4-year old Honda Passport with minor blemishes and medium miles. You know, when you write these kinds of reviews its important to be honest and to honor received respect. In that regard, Thom Holmes worked with us and helped us along the way with understanding of our concerns and educating us along the way about everything we should be aware of. He devoted a lot of time and energy addressing every concern we brought up to the table - regarding the vehicle, trade-in value and everything else that regular (suspicious) buyers might have. At the end of a process, he made our first time purchasing from Jim Ellis VW very pleasant and we felt being treated with upmost respect. Price was right, but most importantly; we felt that weve chosen a good place for our cars home away from home.
This kind of relationship became more important after-sale, when you need to bring your vehicle for regular, and sometimes not-so-regular service. Again, lets be honest: things do happen, and, cars do break.
Whenever we brought our car in for the service, dealership offered a loaner. How many non-luxury new car dealerships that you know do that. I can attest, being a long-time Honda owner, not so many.
Our car was purchased new, so the regular service was covered through additional service plan we purchased with a vehicle. Aside from regular service, we had very positive experience when we discovered that the cloth convertible top was pierced and by simple observation it was clear that damage was caused by the mechanism long story short, yes, they had to report this claim to the main office, but to our pleasant surprise, we were granted a top replacement to no cost to us. Now you understand a bit better what matters. It is not only about the price of a car, not even simply about the quality of service, which in out case was simply the best.
More importantly, we always felt that our car, and all of us are in safe hands, and thats something money cant buy.
So, after 2 and a half years, we decided that convertible simply isnt big and convenient enough for changing life style and having a vibrant 4-and a half year old daughter on board (I think I am using half way to much, just trying to be precise)
At first we thought that maybe we should try our luck with economic Honda, and give some other dealership a chance which turned out to be a very unpleasant experience, but I dont want to go to much into details. All I will say that the offered trade-in value came as a literate insult, while they wouldnt work on a price at all.
When I mentioned to Honda guy how well we are treated at JE VW with a loaner his response was: Thats because they have to. They dont sell that many cars. Unfortunately, that salesperson who in his own words have 20+ years of experience can not grasp what I was talking about, and his comment was yet just another insult
Naturally, at that point, after learning all that, we decided to go back to the place we are always treated like a members of the Family to Jim Ellis!
Needless to say, Thom welcomed us yet again, with same forthcoming and friendly attitude, and again gave us new information about leasing program. Yes, our scores are almost perfect (although we are in credits up to our eyeballs) but we were offered very good terms. Still, we decided to finance our new Jetta SE and not to lease. We are still old school European immigrants
At the end, our trade-in was valued appropriately and we purchased Jetta SE in red fulfilling our daughters wish as well, and ours when it comes to price, but more importantly, we stayed with our home-away-from-home, Thom Holmes and Jim Ellis Volkswagen. Also, very important fact that speaks lot about the dealership consistency: we worked with a same Loan Officer as we did almost three years ago, and weve seen all other familiar faces that we saw back then. That speaks volume about their consistency and continuity.
Thank you Thom and see you next year for my next purchase.

Posted 04/04/09 | Report Abuse

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I brought my Jetta at Jim Ellis VW, and I take it there to have most of its service work done as well. The car I got was a great value, but it is costly to have it serviced there. They are good about finding all potential problems with the car, and have been able to nearly accurately guess issues based on my descriptions of problems. They are great to take car of warranty work, and they take great care of my car when I bring it in. It is a good dealership to do business with. I plan on sticking with them when I decide to purchase my next car.

Posted 03/17/09 | Report Abuse

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Worst service I've ever had. If you go for problems with your car that are under warranty, they make sure to find things that are not covered under warranty or make problems that are not under warranty. Their technicians are clueless or maybe they act like they are. My motor mount was partially broken, they broke the whole thing, and said it won't be covered under warranty when I questioned it, because I saw the new broken piece, they said they would fix it under warranty. When I went to pick up the car, they said we didn't do it under warranty, we did it in goodwill...like dealers know what goodwill is!!! Plus they never gave me the broken motor mount. They day I was suppose to pick up my car, they told me my fan wasn't working and that I couldn't drive for longer than a mile before my engine would heat up. Well I drove it 7 miles to another mechanic and by the time I got there the fan was turned on. They are that dumb/rip off that they didn't wait for the car temperature to reach 190 in order for the fan to turn on. I also asked them to fix the window that was under warranty, which they didn't do...OOPS, they forgot....I read older reviews on them and I should have followed others advice. They're nice to you while you get a service from them, even though I got a tuneup from them!!! but they run up your bill....I know their shop is empty due to bad economy, but this doesn't give them right to rip off and lie to people....STAY AWAY, I went in driving my car, and they told me that I have to either tow it out of there or give them $950 to fix it! If you have to drive far to another dealership, do it, it's worth it!

Posted 02/28/09 | Report Abuse

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I have bought parts from these guys for years now. They know their parts and what they don't know they are able to find really fast. I have always been pleased with the quality and the prices they gave me. I totally recommend them.

Posted 01/22/09 | Report Abuse

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