My husband and I went to Stokes to browse for a new van for myself. It was later in the evening, so we wanted to just look around and compare pricing. One salesman came out and asked if I wanted to test drive. I choose a van I wanted to try, and he gave me the keys, while I gave him my keys for "collateral". No sooner had I gotten out of the lot (without the salesman driving with me), then the car started rapidly dinging away and the gas light flashing. The car was below empty on gas. The salesman never looked in the van, he just gave me the keys and pointed which way to drive. Upon returning, he laughed and said "you could have driven for miles, but I'm glad you didn't run out of gas, we would have had to charge you 150$ for that". That was the 1st straw. The 2nd straw was after I drove another van, he took us inside and kept hounding my husband about what a great deal this van was. My husband replied that it had too many miles for the price and we wanted to keep looking. He then seperated my husband and I, by taking my husband to a back room. My husband was beyond livid at this point, and asked for my car keys back so he could leave. The salesman would not give him my keys back. It took my husband (a Marine) raising a "DI like voice" rather loudly to get the manager to come over. The manager started in on what a great deal the van was and we should do the paperwork right away. After about 15 minutes, I saw the keys sitting on a counter - walked and picked them up - brought them over to my husband and we left. The entire time the salesman and the manager followed us to the car telling us what a great deal we were passing up.
If this is the way that Stokes does business, I think it's ridiulus. Car buying is a huge decision, and people should not be hounded or refused their own keys back - just because the salesperson is desperate to sell them something. I rate this place at a D-. I would never recommend them to friends because of their actions.
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