Complaint Review: Phil Long Suzuki Chapel Hills

We have two complaints against Phil Long and we now do our best to warn everyone we come in contact with NOT to deal with these scoundrels!

My first complaint is with their sales department. We visited their showroom twice to look at and drive a 2001 Suzuki XL-7. Once we decided to purchase, we called and talked at length with the salesman (don't remember his name now) about the deal we were looking for. We told them we hated the car buying "game," had done our research, and were ready to buy.

We used information from car buying guides to arrive at a fair price of $23,500 (retail was $25,000 for a loaded model), and we expected to receive blue book trade-in price for our loaded/leather 1997 Subaru Outback, which was in excellent condition. The salesman assured us there should be no problem in meeting our expectations.

We drove the 30+ miles to the dealership for an appointment to purchase the car, our completed credit application in hand. We waited as our Subaru was taken in for inspection. When they were finished, we sat down to go over the necessary paper work. Without blinking an eye, the salesman presented the papers for us to sign, explaining all the numbers.

But they were so far off from the deal we discussed, it was laughable! They priced the car at retail and wanted to give us $6K for our Subaru (trade-in value was about $9-10K). When we reminded him of our discussions, I swear, he acted like he was scizophrenic! He said, "Where do you come up with $23,500? The sticker says $25,000." We told him we had never paid retail price for a car, and we weren't about to start now. Then he took us in to the used car manager, who gave us all the reasons why we should give them our trade-in for next to nothing. Needless to say, we left disappointed, but knowing we'd never look at another Phil Long car again! What a bunch of fat-cat jerks!

We proceeded to make a fair deal with a dealer in Denver and are enjoying our Suzuki. A few months after purchasing the car, we noticed the odometer was rolling up miles faster than it should. We took the car to a speedometer calibration shop who found that the speedometer/odometer was off by 8%, meaning it was racking up miles 8% faster than it should, and the speedometer was incorrect, as well.

I took the car into Phil Long to have this repaired, and when I dropped the car off, the Service Writer (again, it was awhile ago and I don't recall his name) told me they would probably just replace it, as the allowable variance (or "tolerance" I think he said) was 3%...anything more than that was considered defective. When I picked up the car, however, the service writer informed me that the tolerance was 10% and they would not repair the speedometer... I was just going to have to live with it!

I told him if everything on a car was made with a 10% deviation, it wouldn't even run or hold together! I protested and asked how I could contact Suzuki, and he told me it wouldn't do any good, as he had used the dealership's computerized system to get this information, and it came directly from Suzuki. I had fully intended to carry it further with Suzuki, but other more important issues (my wife's cancer) came up and I never found the time.

I'm sick of paying a LOT of hard-earned money for a vehicle (the 2nd biggest purchase most of us ever make), only to be treated like DIRT! And Phil Long dealerships are the masters of the art of deception. Never, I repeat, NEVER do business with these FAT CATS!!!!

Robert
Colorado Springs, Colorado