Complaint Review: Elliott Bay Auto Brokers - Seattle Washington

To start with you have to understand what you are dealing with before you buy a car here. EBA buys off lease cars, shines them up, and places a non negotiable price like carmax on them.

This place is your nickle and dime corner used car dealership disguised by the fancy building and luxury cars. If you look at the cars they sell, most of them are off lease and have "something wrong with them." THey either had a minor accident, or the interior has some minor cosmetic damages. If there was exterior damage, EBA will call in a back alley repair guy, fix the car up off the record, throw a quick new coast of paint and clear coat on it and sell it like nothing was ever wrong. In addition, they refuse to negotiate on price, so if you see some minor damage, ensure you consider all of your option before you fall in love with dings scratches and tears that the dealer wont drop the price for.

With my experience, I saw a few cars I liked online, and stopped over at the lot. I spent 20 minutes walking around the lot before I decided to go inside and see if a sales person would actually help me. I did get a really nice sales guy but the sales manager is a total sleaze. This guy is super fake nice until you try and actually negotiate and then super jerk mode kick in and his real personality starts to shine. This really put me off from ever wanting anything to do with EBA again.

And then there is Rob the finance guy. He has the pushy charisma of the worst salesman of the year. He tries to push you into everything with a shmuck, boy can I do great things for you, attitude but when it coems time to deliver or dela with him after you sign on the paper the guy truely has no idea what he is doing. Be caution with any promises he makes over warranties or additional protections. He will tell you things that aren not true and try and sign you into things you can't easily back out of.

But the warranty, get the warranty (make sure you don't settle for anything less than a zero deductible). He can offer this, so if he doesn't offer it tell him you want it. Since there cars are in a mixed state of fully functional, you will need to warranty to protect you from high repair costs on a vehicle that the actual wear and tear have been "cleaned away" from you to see.

My problem was that by the time I got to the point that they weren't going to move on the vehicle price, even after I found a bunch of flaws with it, I fell in love with the vehicle and really wanted to buy it anyway. That is what I get for wanting to buy a specific luxury car in a specific color, at that exact moment (and not shop around). I just dropped $2500 into the interior to get the damage fixed because I wanted that car, but I wont ever do that again. I hope to keep this car for a while anyway. However, I have a buddy whom has an engine trash out on him under 2 month after he purchased his vehicle. I've had another friend that showed me his EBA clear coat job (again they use this to cover their back alley repairs) and it got painted over dirt on the front bumper. Now there is a spot that can never be cleaned without stripping the clear coat. He also has a couple crap side touch ups that got clear coat over, so he can't fix them properly either.

If you shop here, really look the vehicle over good, note all cosmetic issues (and the carfax report), and then really decide if you want to accept a less than fair share car for the price of an excellent car (and deal with all the high pressure sales process).