In January of this year I went into Keyes Toyota (after days earlier helping a friend buy a car at Keyes Lexus) and was checking out the cars when my wife and I decided to get an 07' Matrix. Our good freind that I had just helped buy a Lexus came with us and when I found out that I had fraud on my credit report she offered to Co-sign and after much discussion between she and my wife they encouraged me to get the Camry Hybrid 07' that I really wanted.
After we found out that I could not be on the loan at all and my wife did not ahve a social number yet - our friend bought the car for me and I am making the monthly payments.
The salespeople were very nice but a couple were too aggressive and the sales manager was very nice and I enjoyed the experience at the time. We were told that Camry Hybrids were going for $3,000 MSRP and I told them that I had sold cars before and know that some models are indeed "HOT" and in short supply but that we would not pay that much though I know that they deserve to make a profit and had never paid more than $500 over factory invoice on any new car.
They told me that the best that they could do would be $2,000 over invoice. It was getting late and my friend was getting tired so I agreed and then let her do the paper work while the car was cleaned and "delivered" (sales lingo for showing and explaining features, service warranties, etc). My friend was told that she would get an interest rate of 9.5% because this was a second car and she has just started a new job that month. I went in to help finalize the paperwork and picked out a Lojak and extended warranty (With a Hybrid I did not want to take any chances).
Later we found out that no other Dealerships were charging over sticker price and instead of calling the managers which I know have limited authority, I called the Director of the Keyes Automotive Group, Larry Abramson and left him a message on his voicemail.in short, Larry contacted the general sales manager and they have me a 5 year platinum maintenence plan and have been very polilte, porfessional and while I may not recommend buying there, the service department is fantastic and my Service Advisor Manny is excellent and he has won numerous awards and I can see why.
I worked for Keyes Lexus very briefly a few years ago and left due to their agressive sales style which just does not fit into the 21st Century of buying a car and they do indeed need a serious change in their sales managment style but it appears that they might be on the right road. I would recommend that anyone having problems at any Keyes Automotive Group store contact Larry Abramson. You can call any of their dealerships and ask for him and they will transfer you to his office.
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