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| - Yesterday, I stopped by Arrowhead Honda with my mom to check out the Pilots since her's was recently totaled in an accident. My mom is a lifetime Honda driver, making this her 5th in 35 years. Money in hand and totally ready to buy, we stopped in to see what the new Pilot looked like in person. I had just recently purchased my own vehicle, so my mom wanted me to do the talking. First of all, my mom inquired about a specific color Pilot and the internet sales guy responded that they didn't have that color in stock, but there was a white one in the model she was looking for. Since this location is the same one that her previous Pilot has been faithfully serviced at for the last 10+ years (she even buys tires there - something I would never do at a dealer), we still went to check it out. Turns out, he read his inventory wrong, there wasn't a white one in that model. In fact, there wasn't any color in the model she wanted... wait.... no he found one in grey to check out. Hmmmm he certainly wasn't the smartest guy on the block, so okay, that's fine, no harm no foul that he doesn't know how to read an inventory report. The color was still not her first choice, but we looked at it and took it for a test drive. The salesman showed us the features, everything okay so far. At the end of the drive, we say that we want to see what the pricing and financing options were to buy it. The salesman was nice enough, albeit really rough around the edges. His presentation of the numbers was not concise or sharp, but it was okay. Then a small, fast-talking, arrogant, loud Asian guy walks up and talks about how we lucked out, how this car was promised to someone else (he shows me their name on his inventory sheet), taps my shoulder like I'm his buddy, laughing to himself, etc. We then continued to talk numbers with the Salesperson who was not clear on where all his figures (accessories, tax, base price, etc) were coming from (again, not the smartest person, really really rough around the edges, and kind of a muffled talker). When we saw the finance options, my mom remembers that she had an offer at her credit union that was better than the numbers this guy was talking, so he showed us that monthly payments at that reflected that rate. Then this manager guy comes over again, and asks about the rate we said that was offered at the credit union. He proceeds to show print outs from that bank that are no where near that rate my mom remembered. His attitude was so aggressive and forceful and essentially made us sound like deliberate liars. I've never seen someone who wants to sell something act so dismissive and loud - he was talking so loud that everyone in the showroom could hear how he thought we were idiots. He then walked away. In the meantime the salesman passed a credit/sales form to my mom to fill out - I looked at it as asked what that was because we didn't settle on a price at all. The salesman said that he showed the price, so he thought we had a deal. I turned to my mom and said to get out of there and I told the salesman that there's no way we are doing business there because of that manager. Turns out, my mom was mistaken and when we got home and double checked, the rate was the same as the Honda offered rate. However, the experience there was bullish and demeaning. Not to mention that the Asian manager ran out to our car while we were leaving, leaned inside and harassed me about what was wrong and what he could do. This is the exact behavior that exemplifies why we needed to leave at that moment. It felt like he was practically coming at me with a bat with his tone and pushy behavior.
A few hours later we went to Earnhardt in Avondale and was helped by a gracious, honest, straightforward salesperson (Johnny) and purchased the exact vehicle we test drove at Arrowhead.
Don't worry, my mom won't be servicing her new Pilot at Arrowhead either.
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