Why not to buy from Southtown Dodge, AKA Southtown Dodge Sucks

Well lets begin the story with a little background.

I was in the mood for a new ride. I’ve been driving a 2003 Nissan 350Z for 3+ years now, and wanted something up off the ground, a bit more visible and much larger. So he began by searching for used Chevrolet Tahoes. Why a Tahoe? Why not, I can afford gas, even as prices rise, so why bother with trying to be “green”, I am not PC. (old me)

It didn’t take melong to find what I was looking for. A 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe Z71, 4x4, every option on it except for a third row seat, and navigation. I have no kids, need not a third row seat, I’m also a man, I can find his way out of a pitchdark room with no doors, navigation is not a necessity.

I found my new ride at Southtown Dodge on Lindbergh Blvd in south St. Louis County. Now it was time to deal. The Tahoe had been sitting on the lot for over 90 days when I found it, so this meant he should be able to get a good deal. Priced out on KBB.com TMB found it to have a value of roughly $34k, asking price on it was $26,903. First offer to the dealer, Southtown Dodge, salesman was Mike Wall, was 25,500. The dealer wouldn’t budge, they said they were at their clearance price and wouldn’t come down. $26903, plus a BS fee of $97 dollars for paperwork.

I would have none of this, he came back with another offer of $26,500 a day later, the dealer still wouldn’t budge. They did know what the truck was worth, and weren’t going to move on it. Fine, I know when to jump on a good deal. So I call the dealer up this morning to tell them I’ll be there at 4:30pm to give them his pre-approved loan information, and pick up the vehicle. Good ole Mike Wall comes back and says, sorry, we can’t clean it up for delivery till we have a deposit or have started on the paperwork. So I agree to go down there over his lunch break and get the paperwork started. I really don’t care if they clean the Tahoe, it’s going to rain today, all I wanted was them to put the Brush Bar back on the front which they had removed between the first time TMB looked at it and the second time he went back.

I arrive at the dealer shortly after 11:30am this morning, good ole Mike Wall is there with the paperwork already started. Mike looks over my preapproved loan information and tells him that he won’t be able to turn the Tahoe over to TMB for 7-10 days. WTF? Excuse me, did you just tell me I can’t pickup this truck today? I come in with a loan check that he’s been told is as good as cash and Southtown Dodge won’t let him take the vehicle for 7-10 days? I don’t think so.

After 15-20 minutes of no progress I decides it’s time to leave. The first thing I do is call up his lender to verify that the check should be good as gold with a dealer. They confirm this and say that they don’t have problems with dealers accepting their checks, they did offer to talk to the dealer and have them a check mailed next day to arrive on Saturday. I decline, I am done dealing with Southtown Dodge. I decides he’ll check for myself and jumps off the highway to stop at another dealer, Sunset Ford. The sales guy at Sunset Ford (sorry I didn’t get his name to give him props) said they would have no problem accepting the preapproved loan check and selling him a vehicle on the spot. Unfortunately for me they didn’t have a used Tahoe on the lot.

So, what’s the moral of my story? Don’t let a dealer like Southtown Dodge jack you around. If the sales guy, Mike Wall, or whomever your sales person is, EVER acts like a *** to you, walk out of there. I took a little crap from Mike hoping he’d still get a good deal on this truck. Got nothing but a weeks worth of wasted time when he could have found another vehicle.

Southtown Dodge Sucks!