Worst Test Drive Experience at Charlesglen Toyota
This was by far the worst test drive experience we have ever had. From filling out the online form and requesting a test drive, to actually going to the test drive itself, the entire experience was completely unprofessional and embarrassing. How is it possible that the Internet Lead Specialist paired us up on the test drive with somebody who knew so little about the car we were interested it. Also, if he had bothered to ask more important questions than 'are you going to finance the car or buy it with cash', he would have discovered that we were looking at a family sized vehicle that was loaded with tech features. I have owned 3 Toyotas in the last 10 years, and have bought 2 cars from Charlesglen Toyota. I can honestly say that after this experience I will never patronize with your dealership ever again.
Firstly, we visited the show room looking at a couple of cars and narrowed it down to the Highlander and 4Runner. No one bothered to come by and asked us if we had any questions or needed assistance. Nonetheless, we liked the look of the Highlander so we decide to book a test drive using the website. Blake calls back and asks us the same details that we have provided using the online form. When we ask him if he even bothered to look at the input information, he says he hasn't and then proceeds to ask us if we were going to pay cash or finance the car. A completely irrelevant and stupid question given the fact that we had not talked to any one yet about the car or even test drove it. Anyways, we confirm the date/time of the test drive with Blake thinking that it was scheduled and ready to go. A few days before the scheduled date, someone calls us back to 'remind' us of our upcoming test drive. The problem was that he got the date/time completely wrong.
So after working out the logistics of the test drive, we finally get confirmation of the date/time, and we show up to the showroom 5-10 min before our appointment. The receptionist asks us who was the salesperson we were dealing with, but since we booked the test drive through the website, we were not provided with that information so we just tell her that we were corresponding with Blake and he was going to set us up with someone. The receptionist informs us that we would be going with John on our test drive, and soon John appears and greets us. We were just about to head off towards the Highlander in the showroom, when Blake then appears 5 minutes later and interrupts us to introduce himself and then introduce us to John whom we had already met.
Knowing that we were interested in the Highlander, which has quite an impressive Nav / Tech package, I cannot understand how and why Blake would choose a Salesperson to service us who was not familiar or not comfortable with the system. And if he was going to ask us the same questions as the internet form, then would it not have been easier to omit filling out all the information in the first place?
Now onto the test drive.
John directs us not towards the test drive vehicle but to the car inside the showroom. We were fine with that as we expected him to run down some features for us that we were not aware of in the car. Instead, we were treated to a show and tell of buttons and their functionality. John pointed out the volume buttons for the car audio and told us that the up arrow would increase the volume and down arrow would decrease the volume. While I'm sure that demonstration would be useful for some, we were in our early 30's and were comfortable with technology that we could probably deduce a few of the features he was pointing out. Keeping an open mind, we disregarded the awkward introduction and the elementary demonstration as we proceeded outside with the test drive.
We sat in the front and John sat in the back. We were familiar with the area around the dealership so we did not necessarily need instructions, but some guidance or recommendations on routes would have been appreciated. So as we drove, I started to fiddle around with some of the buttons on the dash. I tried the radio, the vents/air/AC etc, and finally we pull into a parking lot to really start playing with the backup camera and the Nav.
When we tried to back up the car, we asked if the backup camera had guidance lines to help gauge distance and angle of the car. John said there was a line to help us see far we had left to go. He pointed out a jagged, curved, white line on the display and told us we had lots more room to go. The 'line' John pointed out was the outline of the rear bumper. The Highlander we test drove in fact did not have guidance lines on the back up camera.
Next, I asked if we could try the Navigation using voice. John said that voice commands were available in the car, but then does not proceed to tell us how to us it or activate it. Looking past that, we manually try to enter a POI into the Nav. Struggling with the interface, we actually accidentally exited the feature a few times by hitting the wrong button. John at no time provided any guidance to help us out. He was silent in the back. Finally we enter a route, and we ask him a few more questions about the Nav. John finally confesses that he does not know how to work the Nav system at all. He actually tells us that he is afraid of using it, after that he tries to convince us that the Nav and Tech of the car is only a small part of the car, and the driving/ride is what is most important. He then tells us that once we buy the car, a highly specialized team of experts will come and help get the Nav / Tech all set up for us.
Clearly, this was not going well and all this was only 20 minutes since we stepped foot into the dealership. We decided to give this one last shot and ask John if there was anything about the car we should know about. He then tells us that he pretty much knows everything about the car, and if we ask him he can answer it. He then tells us that the back row has air vents that can be controlled up front. Finally, we were going back to the car lot, but did not see the building. So we ask John, where the Toyota dealership was. He then informs us that we missed a turn, so we comically drive across a neighbouring Honda dealership back to the Toyota lot.
While I concede that cars have a lot of features and functionalities that can be complex and complicated, I would have expected at least to be helped by a salesperson who know the fundamental basics about the car we were dealing with. But more importantly, I would have expected someone to reach out to us before the test drive and ask us what key features we were interested in, and more importantly what enticed us to be interested in the Highlander.
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