Hello everyone. I was sitting around earlier and was wondering, which is the best dealership to go to and which is the worst dealership to go to? And this goes for sales, parts, service, etc. Have any of you had any GREAT experiences with any one place or any real bad ones? Let's list all of the places to give great recognition to and list the places to stay as far away from possible so we can help each other out. Plus, most of the time, all we hear about from other people is about bad experiences so this helps out the good dealerships by being recognized.

One great dealership that I have had no problems from is Vandergriff Chevrolet in Arlington. I bought my car there and never ran into any problems. Not only that but I was in and out in a matter of under 2 hours which I thought was pretty quick. I have also been there for an oil change before and I was in and out in a matter of 15 minutes. I went in, they had all of my information, did the oil change, and there weren't any complications at all. And when it comes to parts, I recently had to get an air filter for my car(9200 miles on my car since July 27th, I drive alot) and they didn't have it in stock so they had to order it but I got it the very next day which I thought was pretty quick. And I know, I know, I should have changed the oil but NO ONE had a 32 mm socket in stock and I wasn't going to spend $30 for a socket off the Snap On truck. I later found an OReilly Auto Parts that had one. Not only that, this dealership is huge! And no, I don't work for them nor are they sponsoring me in any way. LOL.

As for average dealers, Powell Chevrolet in Duncanville is one. It's local so I go there sometimes but not often. I've gone there to get an oil filter and a few small parts before. They had to order a part once(for the parents Malibu) and it took a few days to get in. And I took my car there for the first oil change at 1000 miles(I work for a Motorcycle dealer and see the metal particles in first oil changes, I didn't want to wait 3000 miles) and the first thing the service advisor says is "Do you know you have 1000 miles on your car?" Hmm.... Thanks for clearing that up Einstien. So they take my car and say that it would be a few minutes for the oil change. I get there first thing in the morning so Im thinking it wouldnt be long. So I go in and wait a few minutes and Im watching TV and before I realize it, it's been an hour. Hmm... That shouldn't be right. And there was one other person there besides me. Well, a minutes later they call up the other guy and I wait patiently for my car to be done. After an hour and a half from the time I get there, I get called up. Apparently only a few tech's show up when the dealership opens up in the morning and not the full crew. It would have been great to know that so I could have come back later.

And I haven't seen, nor heard of a bad one in the area but let's hear from everyone else. HTH!

 

Well, for me it was Frank Parra Chevrolet in Irving. Thats where I bought mine from. My bosses brother is/was a sales associate there. So, naturally, I figured I go there since I have a connection. Well, everything went over smoothly until the paperwork came up. At first they wanted 500/month. Haha. Right, for a 24,000 car, BS I thought. I talked them down to 399/month, 0 down, and they paid off my trade in. Pretty sweet deal, right? Wrong. They had me on a lease and didnt even tell me. I went through the whole process and was never told it was a lease, nor did I think I was signing for one. With all that said... here is the other crap they put me through.

Like 3 weeks ago, I was pulling into my garage to park my car. Did everything as normal, till I pulled the e-brake. I pulled up the e-brake like always, then "POP". The damn cable had snapped that holds the front brakes when parked. So, I drove it up to the dealership the next day to get it fixed. I drove into service, and they looked at it, and said... "There is nothing wrong, nothing with the e-brake. The pop you heard was one of the "locks" popping off... no big deal... happens on alot of cars." So, I got upset and told them to fix it, because I know its broken. Well, they refused to do anything... lol.

What a wonderful dealership, right? No way... if your going to but a Cobalt or any Chevy for that matter, DO NOT go to FPC in Irving... go to Vandergriff... they will treat you so much nicer.

 

Got my car at Vans Chevy in Carrolton but the sales people and management is the worst ever

I go to Huffins Chevy in Lewisville cuz i do a lot of biz with those guys and never any probs except with the body shop staff

**** Vans and James Wood
i Like Huffins, they is cool

 

also 32mm is an 1 1/4" socket FYI
I use that socket on pretty much only the ecotec

 

stay away from James Wood in Denton, they always wanna keep your damn car overnight! WTF? even when they are dead they say that they have to keep it.

i have had really good service from Chuck Fairbanks in DeSoto. they help you out really quickly and they are nice as hell. if youre in this area then this is the place you need to be going to.

 

well for me whenever i bought my cobalt i went to bruce lowrie in fort worth, they seemed like they cared and they had the exact car i wanted.

if you are in the chevy department, NEVER go to lynn smith in south fort worth. every model they have is going to be overpriced by $5K to $10K. whenever i went to trade in my GTO and get a vette, they tried to sell me a base coupe corvette for $55K and told me you couldnt get employee pricing on it, im not talking about the commercials " employee pricing for everyone", i'm talking about being an actual employee and getting a discount. which at the time the vette was still on the list, including the H2 and the GTO which now are not. you can get a base coupe from the mid to high $40's without a discount. and after putting $15K down on my GTO a year before they still wouldn't even give me what i owed on my GTO, which was only like $14K, can you believe that. they wouldn't give me even $14K for a 6.0 GTO that was a year old and had only 5,000 miles on it.

so then, a few weeks later i sold my GTO to an individual and said screw it i want a cobalt ss, just cuz the gas mileage was so good and the car was so bad ass for a 4 banger, i went back to lynn smith and told them i wanted a yellow ss, with a sunroof, xm radio, and the yellow leather inserts and the guy told me that he had none available like that and i would have to order one from the factory cuz the computer told him that there was none available at any other nearby dealership. i decided to go 10 miles up the road to bruce lowrie and guess what?? a yellow ss with the inserts, sunroof and xm radio was sitting in the showroom floor, and it was listed on the computer, lying bastards. i bought it and went to lynn smith and did a burn out in their lot, hahaha.

and if you want a sweet deal on any other gm model, go to frank kent, those guys are the most professional dudes ive ever dealt with.

crow88

 

I wonder if any of these Chevy dealerships would service my Ion. I don't have any horror stories from the dealerships. In the same sense none of the three area Saturn dealerships I went to have done anything to stand out. I have gone to Arlington, where I bought it, Fort Worth, and the one in Plano.

 

I bought a PEP (Pre-owend Employee Priced) 97 Chevy Silverado from VandeGRIEF chevrolet back in 97. I figured I'd go back to look at the 00s when it was time to get a new truck. Salesman there tried to show me the "new features" on the 00s. He actually popped the hood of the truck, showed me these "special plastic bolts that melt when the engine gets too hot to prevent engine fires". In the back of my mind I thought, "that feature has been around since the mid 70s I thought?!?!"

One dealership I'd steer clear of as well is Friendly Chevrolet. They got me into a 00 Silverado paying $500 a month and it wasn't even purchase, it was a "smart-buy/lease". They financed me through some 3rd rate finance company which I later found out their reason for that is that some Dealerships have special deals with banks where they bring customers to their banks and the bank offers the dealer a couple of percentage points from the finance back to the dealer, quite the little scheme.

Speaking of Schemes (for Saturn buyers) stay clear of Saturn of Hurst as well. They tried to call me back after I took delivery of my Redline and signed the paperwork a week later to tell me that they made a mistake with the finance rate and I needed to resign the contract and that I'd be paying an extra $15 a month. After a week, I finally told them that they'd have to speak with my lawyer or return my trade-in and my down payment and cancel the contract they initially drafted all together they backed down. Its sad that some dealers practice Spot-Financing still. I'm still waiting to see if there's a "good" dealership out there. I mainly know which ones to "steer clear of" if that should tell you anything.

 

When I was rear ended, I had to take my RL to a Chevrolet body shop. I tried to see if they could check my CEL there. They told me they didn't have the same diagnostic tools to service it. You might be able to get basic service at a Chevy Dealership, but I kind of doubt you'd be able to get anything major done at a Chevy house.

 

Regarding Chevy dealers. I have only dealt with Reliable in Richardson. My salesman, Richard Johnson, is about the best around but the service department is just so-so.

The best dealerships to go to for service is a Sewell dealer. Too bad they dont have a chevrolet dealership in dfw though.

 

mine came from lynn smith. My dealer was mike temple, which is a fleet dealer. He showed me the paper work on deals he does for multi million dollar to various law agnecies. I was checking out the cobalts and he was the first to talk to me while everyone else ignored me. And mines not an SS. Its a base cobalt that I paid 13000 for with 20% tent and factory spoiler. Had zero down and he also helped me find a total of 3100 in rebates. And this was before the employee pricing sale. Went back during the sale and found out i woulda paid more.

 

just dont go to lynn smith collision center

 

you must of got a honest guy at lynn smith, the guys that i dealt with were total d**kheads. and my stepdad used to be the bodyshop manager for lynn smith back in the late 90's, ever since he left, the collision center and body shop sucks ass. he works for autonation now.

crow88