Good experience with Rountree Scion in Lake City, FL

[LuckyFlorida]

Monday: went to see Scion's at local dealer - test drove xA. Wednesday: went back to check out the xB and test drove one of those. Wednesday night: did a lot of research on the web and purchased the Consumer Reports pricing report at www.consumerreports.com Thursday afternoon: Called dealer, presented the figures I had (invoice price) and asked for the best deal the dealer could give me. Just got the same answer: True Pricing, no dicking around with prices... I said ok, I'll check out my other options at other dealerships. Called two other Scion dealers - one had a 499 dealer fee and the other a 599 dealer fee (also called Documentation Fee). My local dealer has ZERO documentation/dealer fee! I waited a day to see if dealer would call me back with a price below MSRP. Friday: Can't wait any longer - I call up dealer. Say I'll come in to sign buyer's order at MSRP as long as there are no other hidden fees at delivery. Arrive 10 minutes later at dealer. There is ONE Blue xB there, the one I want. I tell them I'm financing on my own and only want Cruise Control and Floor mats as options installed. Dealer goes and talks with Sales Manager. Comes back and says they want me to pay for the car right then and there before they go and install the Cruise Control. I say no way. I'm not paying over 16 grand without the car ready to be driven off the lot. Says I have to speak with the Sales Manager. He says someone else wants the blue xB and will buy tomorrow. I say fine, sell it to him then. I'm in no rush, I'll wait until you get another blue xB. I called his bluff. He says ok, fine, but I want a deposit. I said of course, makes sense. How much? He says $400. I say no way, that's way too much, I'll give you $100, or I'm walking. He takes my offer and I write check for $100. Car supposed to ready on Monday with cruise installed and ready to drive away. Monday: Call dealership - car is ready. Spend time with customer service manager, go over maintence schedule. Then meet Business Manager, deny extended waranty coverage, fill out and sign my bank check, sign stuff to get title and tag (plate) and that's it! MSRP 14530 Cruise 350 Mats 66 Del,Pro,Handlg 585 Fuel surcharge 20 -------------------------------------------- $15550 plus 6% sales tax (FL) = $933 $201 to get title and tag $50 county tax $7 FL used tire tax (???) -------------------------------------------- $16740 to drive away a happy Scion customer

[jeffrgunn23]

Dude, you made that WAY harder than it had to be, and here is why...

First of all you paid the fee at consumer reports to get the invoice price which you could have got for free at edmunds or kbb.com. Then 3 places told you about pure priceing and you still waited an extra day to see if the dealership would discount the car. The thing that gets me though is that you said that you did a lot of research on the internet and yet you still did not believe in pure pricing. Of all the customers that I have sold scions to that had done research they all knew about it. Did you come to this site? There are comments on pure pricing all over the place. I can definitley understand calling around for the lowest document fee though. As far as installing the options before you pay for the car you have to see it from the dealers prospevtive. The dealerships (the ones who do it right anyways) do not add accessories the vehicles unless the customer tells them to. This way the customer does not have to pay for anything that he or she doesn't want to. How mad would you be if you saw the one blue xB on the lot and it had a rear spoiler on it. Because of pure pricing you would have to pay $395 for that spoiler or wait for another blue xB. If they install all of these features on your car and you decide that you don't want it, they are stuck with it, and possibly end up with the reputation of adding unwanted accessories to vehicles on the lot. When they saw that you were pretty serious about it, they figured that you were serious, but this does happen sometimes. The part about the deposit being $400 and you willing to give $100 just seems like you fighting just to fight, its a deposit, its not like you were really out of the money. And in the end you paid exactly the same price as everyone else who has bought from that dealership. The way I see it you got pretty damn good service from this dealership and I believe you should give them a great review on here. They bent over backwords to make you completly satisfied and gave you everything you have asked for. And I absolutley would have done the same as they did for you. Scion has created a very easy customer friendly way to buy cars. I wish people would stop making the process harder on themselves as it has to be.

[LuckyFlorida]

I think you took my message as being negative towards the dealer when it wasn't really my intention to come off that way. Everything you say is easy to say from your position as a dealer or with hindsight. I have never bought a new car in my life and everything out there indicates that you have to be very careful with car dealers. So I was careful but I don't think I was absurdly **** about it or rude to the dealer. It all went pretty smoothly (no yelling or anything like that). I think I did the right thing given my inexperience. I did try researching "Pure Pricing" and found lots of discussion in favor of it. I guess I just felt like testing it by waiting a day.
Anyways, thanks for your comments. I just posted my experience for the benefit of other potential buyers (that is the point of this particular forum I thought).