Wed 23 Aug 2006
I am so impressed by all the customer service I’d been receiving. Capital One Auto Financing, which gave me the lower interest rate through Costco, was prompt and professional and I received my blank check this morning at work through FedEx. After work, I drove the check down to Longo Lexus, waited awhile for a finance manager to free up so that I could change the financing from Lexus to Capital One. Everyone was busy so we sat there awhile, until my salesguy Martin happened to walk by and see us. He offered to take care of us so we went to his desk and he did the running around and took care of everything for me. Then I told him about 2 light scratches that I discovered on my car after I’d taken the car home and he said he’d bring it to the Lexus service department and see what they can do for me. Meanwhile Mr. W and I walked over to the Longo Toyota dealership right next door to meet up with Brian, the fleet manager that got us the great connection with Martin to begin with. As we waited for Brian to finish up with some customers, Martin came into the Toyota showroom we were in and handed me my car key. He’d gotten the scratch taken care of, driven my car over to me at the Toyota lot, and walked my key in. “It’s a different type of customer that would buy a Lexus, they’re more demanding,” Brian the Toyota guy said. Spoiled is more like it, I thought. Wow.
Mr. W looked at the Prius, 4Runner, and Solara. Brian recommended that we come back the beginning of next month for deals that would better suit what Mr. W was looking to do. I like people that are no-nonsense and are genuinely interested in getting you a good deal as opposed to just pushing sales ASAP. And the numbers computed floored me. Mr. W is gonna get one hell of a deal when he comes back to that place.
At work, I surfed the internet and found a State Farm agent whose office is located .8 miles from my house, and called him out of a list of 10 other State Farm agents within a mile of my home, just cuz Mr. W liked the sound of his name. The agent I had since I first drove had retired, I got transferred to this new agent and a month later, the new guy stopped working for State Farm. I called his office and he was on vacation until mid-September. Crap, I gotta find someone who can take care of the new car’s insurance. The one I randomly picked was wonderful. I didn’t speak to the agent himself, but the staff person who picked up the phone was great. She was nice, professional, informative, and already had gone out of the way for me in running some rough numbers without sufficient information. I’m definitely gonna switch to that office. She invited me down to their office (which is right next to bellydancing) to meet everyone.
I’m just so happy with how I’ve been treated lately. Ooh, and Martin gave me a nice Lexus pen today, too. Haha.
I had / am having, a HORRIBLE experience with my dealership. I’ve never had treatment like this before with a new car dealership.. I should blog what these idiots are doing.
Yes you should. Or MAYBE you should fly over to LA, get a Lexus, and drive it back to FL. =)
I’m stuck with this for awhile but I think I will blog about it… SO not the experience you had. I love my car, but the dealership people suck.
I’ll fly out to LA but I’ll drive YOUR Lexus back. ahahahaha
Whoa, ok
I dont check in here for awhile and you get your car and dont tell me about it!!! 🙂 Congratulations! The IS is a great car.
Isn’t the whole luxury car thing a different experience? Told ya that it would be totally different from owning a honda. From the way the car is built, the bonus features inside, to the super service you get (Especially lexus service around here).
As for not being annoyed in traffic — I have the same effect when I drive my new car. There’s tons of traffic but it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes I end up taking longer to get to work than I otherwise would since the drive is so enjoyable.
All these things add up and make it all worth it, and you cant really quantify it all. I drive like an hr each way to work so thats why I spend so much on my cars. I spend a good chunk of my day in there so might as well make it enjoyable!
Oh and — When do I get to check it out????!!
As I was reading your comments and getting ready to respond re the dealership experience and great service stuff, Lexus Dealership just called me at work (a few mins ago) and asked if everything went well with Martin and customer service when I bought my car last weekend. So I raved about it and she said oh good, I’d be receiving a survey in a few weeks in the mail re my Lexus buying experience.
I just received my survey. It’s not pretty.
Meaning the way you filled out the survey wasn’t pretty?
Yes… I was completely negative. But I’ll tell my story soon… next post probably. I’m taking you with me next time.
Sure, just let me know. I’ll fly out there to spend a hour with you at a dealership. =)