Downtown Toyota of Oakland
This Subaru dealership was extremely unprofessional. We bought a new car despite the complete lack of service, the lack of product knowledge, the unwillingness to communicate, and the terrible feeling we got from this dealership and its associates. We like the car, but every time we think of the brand now, we think of shady practices and we get a pit in our stomachs from the feeling that we've been had. There were absolutely no good feelings when we bought the car, and months later, there has been zero follow up. Also, they had sold it with an obvious problem (brand new), and when we asked them to resolve it, we received three different stories from three different employees, and then were berated on the phone by a sales employee for daring to ask to fix it. If we went back in time, although we really like how the car drives, we probably would either buy a Honda (great test-drive experience) or go to a different Subaru dealership altogether. It's really worth the drive.
Wow! Talk about a 'text book' buying experience. Because my credit was A+ and I had purchased several cars in my lifetime, these guys could not take me for a ride. Unfortunately, Downtown Oakland Toyota held the keys to the car I had been searching for and at a decent price. They made promises that were either done with the least amount of effort (repairing scratches on my bumper with clumped on paint) or changed their agreements (promising to find my car's second key fob ($400)but when it didn't turn up they remembered, legally, they only have to give the buyer one key fob. Gets better. Two months after purchasing my car I received a fine from DMV. The car I traded into Downtown Oakland was still in my name and because it was without insurance I now owed a huge fine. AND to polish it off, my new car was still under the previous owners name. Classic.
I saw a terrific deal for a used car the same day this dealer posted it. I called the next day to double check that the mileage posted wasn't a typo error. They went to the car and double checked. Then I arranged a ride from So. San Jose to Oakland to check out the car. I prayed that all would go well because that's a long drive to buy a used car. My salesman, Tim, was as nice and accommodating as could be. I bought the car and everyone I dealt with was polite and competent. Me and my new, old car were out of there two hours later.
I found a car for sale on Car.com, contacted the dealer and they made the sell happen! Was very happy with the level of service I received from Rocky. Everything was seamless and the transaction was speedy and honest.
Not sure why this place got bad reviews but my husband and I saw a car on cars.com, emailed about it, the salesperson called back--we went down to the dealership, test drove the vehicle and viola in about 2 hours later we drove off with our new (used) car! The sales person was very nice...honestly I didn't try to bargain as the car was within the blue book value range. Our finance Manager David was the very nice although I honestly think that he could have gotten me a better interest rate. Joe Testa was our salesperson and he was friendly cool and honest. Probably the smoothest car buying experience I've ever had.
This place was just terrible. I can't believe I actually went through with the sale! The owner/manager was extremely pushy and rude. After I bought my used car (because I found one decent salesperson), I found a lot of things wrong with it. They were mostly covered by the extended warranty, but it took a lot of time and trouble to get them fixed, and it's stuff that should have been done before the car was sold. I was almost relieved when the warranty expired and I didn't have to go there ever again. I tried to contact them to ask about a particular service and whether it was done, and despite 3-4 phone calls, was never called back. I just got back online searching for a used Prius, and even though this place has them all, I will NEVER go back there!
If you value customer service when purchasing a car, I would highly recommend NOT buying a car from Downtown Oakland Subaru. We recently purchased a Subaru Outback from them and are extremely unhappy with the customer service. We added 2 options to our base Outback- Bluetooth and the Media Hub. They installed the Media Hub but did not install the Bluetooth for phone calls. We did not realize this until after we had driven the car home (we did not receive a proper walk through on the car) and when we explained the situation, the salesman, Jan James, did not want to accept any responsibility. Instead, he said he would do us the favor and install it for a great price: $395 (it retails for $399 on the Subaru website). We told him that we had already purchased this option, but he said he gave us the Media Hub w/ Bluetooth streaming (which only allows music, not phone calls). After arguing back and forth we were told the manager would call us. We never heard from the manager and when we called the next day, we were told he would call us back in 5 minutes. Of course that never happened. Subaru makes a great car. And the Outback is pretty impressive. But there are many other places to buy a Subaru. Downtown Oakland Subaru does not have exceptional prices and if you are looking for any semblance of customer service, and not just an aggressive salesman, then you should look elsewhere. I will say that everyone else there, John in sales and Rylan in service, were very helpful. My family has owned 3 Subarus in the past, so clearly we like the cars. But, my wife and I will never shop at Downtown Oakland Subaru again and we hope you can learn from our frustrating experience.
Find your way in this messy establishment- search for someone to attend you and they might think about explaining about a vehicle you are interested in
