Longo Toyota may be the "world's largest dealer," but they are definitely not the best. In fact, they are pretty far from it.
Granted, part of the reason for my disgust may be that I had a bad experience with the actual vehicle itself, but that does not excuse their poor customer service.
I purchased a 2003 Toyota Corolla LE from Longo in April 2003. Everything went smoothly at the time and the dealer was very nice and friendly (we did an Internet quote so we were able to get in and out without negotiating).
EVENT #1
Then, a few months later, I went to get my first oil change. That is when the oil change guys (an independent vendor) noticed that the transmission was leaking and suggested we head back to the dealer to check it out. We took it back to Longo, where it turned out that my transmission had a POROUS TRANSMISSION CASE. There were all of these little holes in the transmission case and they were going to have to ship a brand new transmission from Japan. They gave us a rental car (which was a downgrade; they put us in an Echo w/o power steering) and told us they would keep us in touch and let us know the status. I had specifically asked the service manager to contact me every day to let me know if the transmission came in, if they were installing it, etc. etc. Surprise surprise, NO CALLS, not ONCE. A few days later, I called and it turned out that my vehicle was already ready. So frustrations aside, we took the rental back and came back with my car with a new transmission (at 4 months old).
EVENT #2
A couple of months later, my dad (who had been borrowing my car) noticed that the car was making this "engine knocking" sound and suggested I go check it out. I did, where I met the WORST SERVICE MANAGER EVER. When I pulled in, he had me explain the situation and then claimed he couldn't hear anything wrong with my car. Finally, because I kept insisting that there was something wrong, he suggested I pull out (from under the drive-in awning where all of these other cars were... I don't even understand how he could even THINK he could hear with all of the other cars driving in and out and echoing) and that's when "he noticed that there was a sound as I was pulling out." He didn't know what it was, so he called over some technician guy (who you can tell was not a technician because he was wearing a dress shirt and tie, not coveralls). The guy turns to me and says "oh, I know exactly what the problem is but I don't know why you came to us when it's something your oil change guys did." He then said that the problem was in the part where the oil is filled, that the oil change guys bent part of the pipe going in and it was hitting it as the part inside spun around. He then proceeded to pull out a POCKET TOOL and "fix it." After a few minutes, he was like "hmm... maybe that's not the problem." UGH, so irritating. This was (of all of my experiences) probably the most frustrating... as a female, they didn't think I knew anything about cars so they assumed they could do anything and dismiss anything I said, they blamed other perfectly innocent people (who knew what they were doing a lot more than these guys did), and they tried to send me away without doing anything about it. I ended up having to get another rental car because they needed to keep my car to figure out what was wrong with it. BUT because I was under 21, the rental car office was wanting me to pay for the "Under 21" charge (Longo was covering the rest of the rental charge). HECK NO, it's their problem/fault, not mine. So I went back out, couldn't find the service manager that helped me but found another one who went with me to tell the rental car office that Longo will cover the charges. I left and the next couple of days were TORTURE... I had told the service manager that I wanted to know everything, even if it was a call just to say they don't know what's going on yet. NO CALLS WHATSOEVER. After 1 especially frustrating day of trying to call HIM (I spent 40 minutes [no lie] on hold, listening to a stupid Longo hold message that said "we appreciate your service. thank you for holding and we'll be with you shortly." because I refused to leave a message [I had already left him 10 messages or so which he refused to call me back about]), he finally told me that it was the RUBBER FLEX PLATE that had cracked. I ended up picking up my car a few days later after they fixed it.
EVENT #3
A few months after that, my radio starting going bezerk. It would "skip" almost as though it were a messed up/scratched CD. It kept doing it more and more frequently and as I would watch, the frequency would jump up or down (i.e. it would be on 92.3 then jump up to 92.5, then back, then down to 91.8, etc.). I tried scheduling an appointment online but got an email back saying that they don't take warranty service on Saturdays. WHAT?!? So all of those other times I scheduled warranty service on Saturdays was a fluke? I promptly emailed the guy back asking if this was a new policy or what, and told him that I was coming on Saturday and expect my car to be serviced. He then proceeded to send me back a nasty e-mail saying "LIKE I SAID, we don't do warranty service..." I ended up going on Saturday, and the service manager said there was nothing they could do about it unless they saw the radio actually changed. I wanted them to just go in and make sure all the wires were connected in the radio but they didn't want to do this unless they saw it. So they said they would take a look at it and left me with a wait time for over 4 hours (which was fine because Longo policy is that if your service is expected to take over 4 hours or so, you can take the shuttle to the mall or watch a movie at the nearby theater which was what I did). We came back after our movie and turned out they didn't do anything. But strangely enough, my radio was no longer doing that.... strange, but true.
EVENT #4
A few months later, I noticed that my car was making that knocking sound again, except this time, MUCH WORSE. I decided that it was yet another time for a trip to Longo (by this point, I really hated going to Longo but figured it's probably best to take it there because they have so much of my car's history already). Driving on the freeway to Longo, I noticed that there was a sharp cracking/tapping sound on my back glass window. When I parked, I looked at the glass (I had thought there would be a branch or something stuck there scraping the window), and there was nothing. So I ended up reporting both problems: the engine knock sound and the cracking sound in the back of the car. And I got the same service manager as Event #2 who had treated me the WORST of all service managers so far. So, it didn't look too good. Turns out that it was the flex plate that had cracked AGAIN, and that cracking sound in the back of my car? That was because the WELDING in the back of the car was COMING APART. So another couple of days in a rental car (where the rental car guys recognized me. Funny isn't it, that the rental car guy who I spend 10 minutes doing paperwork with remembers me but the service manager who I spend at least an hour with each time and call everyday and who should be working on MY CAR doesn't remember me), and I came back to pick up my car. They had put this ugly orange sticker in the corner of my front window that they didn't peel off, and guess what. It STUCK there... I couldn't peel it off. What kind of place puts STICKERS on your CAR that you can't peel off?
During that visit wen I dropped off the car, I met with one of the more senior service managers because I was determined to get either a new car (cause this one HAD to be a lemon) or an extended warranty for the car. Lemon law states that I need 3 of the same repairs to fail for me to get a new car, and I was sure that I would get it but I was coming up fast on the warranty (because of my mileage; I drive a lot). So I wanted to make sure. The guy promised he would look into it for me, and contact the Toyota Rep when he came for his weekly visit, but the guy never called me back. At this time, I also spoke with a Guest Relations manager who didn't want to give me the time of day and said she had a few minutes for me. When I sat down and started explaining all of the nonsense that Longo and Toyota was pulling me through, she looked bored until I burst into tears from anger and frustration and then we ended up talking. She pulled up my car's history/work repairs and that's when I noticed that the flex plate is METAL, not rubber. and there were other things on that repair sheet that I weren't aware of at all. So that got me even more upset because no one was properly explaining to me about what repairs were being done and were lying to me about the parts they were fixing.
EVENT #5
About a month later, my car was in an accident. We needed to get the car examined for insurance purposes and repairs so we went to Longo (again, I wanted to go to Longo because I wanted to make sure about that they were working on getting me that extended warranty since they weren't going to give me a new car until that 3rd repair happened). They had convinently forgotten about the extended warranty but the guest relations lady promised me that she would look into it. She called a few days later saying that she apologizes (but good for her, she knew that an apology would do nothing at this point for me, and that no apology, no matter how good the reason would make me feel better) and that they are able to get me that extended warranty. Good news, right? But then...
THE END
Because of a flub up on the part of Longo body repair (the original estimate was about $5k, but then they magically bumped it up to about $11k), the insurance people decided to total my car. So bye bye all of my hard work and frustration and (potentially) new car. To this day, I am still very sad and upset about it because I think with the Corolla being my first car, and me spending so much time thinking about it and being concerned about it, I was VERY attached to the car. :( Poor Rollo (my corolla).
Sorry for the long review/rant, but I really despise Longo Toyota. They have the resources available to truly be a great dealer but they aren't. Before this experience, I would have recommended going to Longo because with their inventory size, you are sure to be able to get the car of your dreams. But Longo is bad. VERY BAD. Driving past it now makes me angry. I still have bad feelings towards the lack of customer service there.
Don't go to this dealer unless you want to walk away with resentment, frustration, and a file folder of work orders and business cards. ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep a file with Longo. But better yet, NEVER NEVER go there. They would have -1,000,000 stars if there were such a rating possible.
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