I am in the market for a new vehicle. Although not immediate, somewhere within the next 2-6 months I’ll most likely want to buy a new one. I’ve narrowed it down to either a Subaru Legacy GT or a 4×4 Toyota Tacoma Access Cab. Both cars are recently new generation cars with new parts. The Tacoma uses a 4.0L v6 engine that has been in the Prado in Japan for 4-5 years and is well tested and proven. The Legacy GT uses the same Boxer engine as the STI (I believe) and is 2.5L 260hp. It also has been tested in Japan and has been used for quite some time before coming to the states. With that said, both are sound purchases.

Which brings me to my car shopping last night. First stop was Champion Toyota. MJ and I stopped there and looked around for the Tacoma access Cabs and could not find one. So we sucked it up and walked in to 3 sales men just standing around. We asked where their Tacoma’s were and were informed there were 3 in the back we could look at but all of the salesmen were waiting on customers or had someone in finance etc. So they called over another sales person who was on his cell phone talking to his gay lover. His name was David Basham (512-804-7018 - Direct) and was the most unhelpful sales person I have ever met. Not only did give a disgruntled look when he was asked to help us find the tacomas, he also was very profane in his language. He was more interested in getting back inside and getting back on his cell phone call than he was to helping us look up and find a truck. Within 2 minutes we had circled the entire place in a little golf cart so quick that you hardly had a chance to see anything, and came back to the front where he said, “well we don’t have any, here’s my card, call me and I’ll see if we have something later.” Did he bother to look in the computer system to verify? No. Did he ask any of the other sales people who had stated we had them? No. Did he offer to show us anything else? No.

Next Stop was Gillman Subaru, which I’ll admit are pretty shady, but almost always have the bigger selection - and because of it are able to deal more if you argue with them - Me I got my WRX there 3 years ago after 2 hours of bickering on price. This time we found the cars right away. And a sales person who was showing someone else a car said he or someone else would be right out as he went back inside with the customer he was with. 10 minutes later another sales person, whom I’m guessing weighed around 450 lbs walked out towards a vehicle and then turned around and walked back asking if we’d been helped. “No.”

“Ok I’ll have a sales person come right out.”

10 Minutes later no sales person, we gave up and went home. Needless to say, they have made their quotas for the month at this time of year and don’t give a damn about selling any more cars. Personally I should have known better, Austin Subaru always is helpful and Brent has been a great treasure trove of knowledge there. Also Pam at Champion Toyota Service department is great, but aside from that WTF!?! At least there are some more dealerships in the area I’m sure will get my business.

Tags: Christmas
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