Dana Automotive

Avoid Dana Automotive!!! My husband and I were looking around for a new car at several dealerships and met who we thought was a trustworthy sales person at Dana. After looking around we decided to get a Toyota, but thanked him for being so helpful and not pushy, like some others we had met. He said he'd be glad to look around for what we wanted. We really liked him, so we decided to give him a chance. He found a new used, in what we were looking for, at a dealership in NH, and we were really excited. The photos of the car looked great. Then the horrible experience began. After weeks of waiting for them to work out the financing and waiting on their final word, they refused to let us see the car until we bought it! Every step of the way the sales person kept reassuring us that we'd get to see it soon, get to take a test drive. However, the finance person asked me, how could we expect Dana to pay for a car and transport it down from NH to MA? Um, because that's what you do, and that's your job? Why bother offering the car to us in the first place? It's not our problem that you'd then have it in your inventory if we didn't want it. You offered it to us! You're a car dealership, that's what you do! We were absolutely shocked, as were our family and friends, that they would call us about a car and then expect us to buy it outright without seeing it in person. That's like buying a house without setting foot inside it. It's ridiculous! Furthermore, the finance person pressured me so much about what an inconvenience it would be for them to bring the car to Dana's lot, how hard she had worked on our deal, the pressure from the lender to make the deal happen in the next day or two, and now we wanted to see the car? She said that was impossible! I then broke down in tears at work after being berated by her on the phone to close the deal. A car buying experience should never be like this. Aren't they supposed to be making a customer? And when we went to get our deposit back they kept putting us off and telling us they already put it in the mail when they hadn't. This was an extremely unethical business situation, for which they never apologized for. Even after calling and airing our concerns about their conduct they never once apologized, not even the manager. We felt deceived, scammed, and mistreated. We took our business elsewhere. The other dealership we went to was much more pleasant. We got a beautiful new car in two days, no problems with financing, and it was such a better experience. This never had to happen if Dana had been honest and upfront with us.

Posted 07/05/09 | Report Abuse

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I had a really great car buying experience at Dana. The saleswoman was very knowledgable, talking to me about all aspects of the car in a way that I found helpful and informative. She spent a lot of time telling me about safety features as well as how well the car was made. Not just sales talk but real single mom to single mom stuff. "The pockets in the doors have removable bottoms so you can wipe out the stuff that gets spilled in there." Maybe not big selling points for car afficionados but it showed she paid attention to who I am. Not a lot of pressure there, in fact, she encouraged me to go home and sleep on it. Pretty rare in my experience. And she was available to me after the sale, when I called and asked questions. Very rare.

Posted 12/09/07 | Report Abuse

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