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21st Century Auto Group - Dishonest

Complaint
Review by h_babak on 2012-07-17
Rating: StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty Star
SPRINGFEILD, NEW JERSEY -- I have been buying cars for the past 25 years and going to 21st Century Auto Group was the worst experience I've ever had. I had seen a BMW X5 advertised at a reasonable price online on their website. So I contacted them and after a few days of talking and negotiating we agreed on a price. I told them I'm 3 hours away so If I take the train up can you pick me up and take me to the dealer which was about only 15 minutes ride from the train station, the sales man agreed to pick me up. So I called again the day I was coming to make sure the car is still there, and he said it was come on up. So I bought my ticket and took the train up, first it took the sales guy 1 hour to pick me up (he said it was traffic!) then when we get to the dealer I sat at his desk for a while till the manager showed up a west African guy with a very thick accent and said the car was sold while I was on my way here!!! and then he tried to sell me a differ and more expensive car.... I was really angry, at this time, he said well you didn't put a deposit down, I said your sales man never asked me too, if he did I would be willing to do it..... so I don't know if he was telling the truth about selling the car that morning..... because its been a week and the add is still up on the website..... so I said Ok fine give me a ride back to the train station and suddenly everyone desappiered. After arguing with them for an hour the same guy that told me to come over gave me a ride back to the train station..... so they pulled a "bait and Switch" and when I didn't want to buy anything else they just ignored me....so don't ever go to these guys.......
Comments:
Posted by trmn8r on 2012-07-17:
This is a typical car dealer story. It is quite possible that the car was sold earlier, and in fact they just baited you to come so they could sell something else to you.

The moral of the story though is, most any dealer WILL sell a car if there is no agreement to sell it to someone else. You can't rely on gentleman's agreements or claims that a car will be held for you.

I closing, buying a car remotely is very difficult. First and foremost, you haven't seen the car. I would never agree to buy a used car w/o seeing it. Someone bought my car that way, essentially, agreeing over the phone on a price and they came and picked it up. However, they could have balked or I could have sold the car to someone else before they got here with their certified check. I'm sorry it didn't work out - I once took a bus 200 miles to pick up a car and it was not as advertised. Long trip home, including a layover on New Years in Port Authority and being made to leave the building in the freezing cold from 1am to 5am.
Posted by KevinTX on 2012-07-17:
Yep, they took money over your word... I hate to think they were doing bait and switch.. that stinks, but not hard to believe.
Posted by KevinTX on 2012-07-17:
BTW, their google reviews are pretty good.. perhaps they will make it up to you with another car?

https://plus.google.com/113825672098547861055/about?hl=en
Posted by SteveWiginowski on 2012-07-17:
I would recommend calling them (pretending to be someone else) interested in that same car to see if it is available. If they say that it is, have them double/triple check to make sure it's available and you can buy it. If they say yes, then explain what happened.
Posted by trmn8r on 2012-07-17:
If you go by some of the reviews that are posted in various places online, you might think that 21st Century would BRING an X5 of a similar description to the OP's home.

Unfortunately, I personally am sceptical and would never use this dealer for anything.
Posted by Gupta3523 on 2012-08-02:
I had an experience such at this one with DCH dealership. I know what that feels like but I think this dealership doesnt do that.

I called in last month in regards to a car I saw online. The secretary was really polite and set up an appointment for me with a sales rep. When my wife and I got there, the man was really nice and very polite. When I saw the car on the website, it was posted for 29,546.00 and in the end I got the exact car for 28,000.

Bait and switch is usually either they set you up with a different car or they change the price, we didint get either and we are really happy with our purchase. Maybe contact the manager and have him help. Sometimes the salesmen make mistakes.

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21st Century Auto Group:
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