Lithia Volkswagen of Des Moines

Reviews 3

ME

Melissa Landon

I am incredibly impressed at the honesty, professionalism and customer care I found at Lithia of Des Moines. My husband and I have been looking in preparation for buying for the last few months. I have been to dozens of dealerships in the past. None of them compare to Lithia. These guys are my heroes! Superman! - Jeremy Crosser. He starts out kind of like Clark Kent. Unassuming, calm, friendly, but in the end he showed us the cape! He compared cars for us. We test drove a couple of cars, sat in, or looked at a few other models. He made it about us. What we wanted/needed for our family. Not about price or options. No ridiculous dickering, no "Ill go talk to the boss", no "special deals schmooze". Professionalism. Polite, friendly, professional. Then he walked us through EVERYTHING. Options, features, even a tour of the dealership. He kept his appointments and commitments to other customers without us ever feeling like he was abandoning us or forgetting about us. There was a great deal going on with Jeremy and he made us feel as if we were equally important and he made it look easy. We spent the time talking with Jeremy as a friend, not a salesman. Not only did I take years of Jeremys life in my initial test drive a few months ago, but I gave him a bit of a bad time about the colors of the cars and other misc. stuff as we talked. He was an incredibly good sport. He and the staff went above and beyond to find us the best financing and that was no easy task since my husband is self employed. This was the smoothest agreement we ever made. Comfortable all the way through. Mr. Incredible - Chris Cameron. All superheroes are not alike. We had a great time with Chris as he prepared our paperwork, explained warranties, and all the details that are needed to dot is and cross ts. It could have been dry and boring but it wasnt. It was like coming to visit and old friend. He even went the extra mile to stop by after the sale and explain some facts we had muddled in our discussion. Superman doesnt have a sidekick in the comics but Jeremy has a great co-worker and sidekick in the office. Walt is a smiling face, a friendly greeting, good company and an all around nice guy! His manner added to the atmosphere that we were visiting friends not "selling cars". We werent his customers and to his credit...you would not have known it. Thanks Walt! You are the sidekick to beat all sidekicks and a superhero in your own right. I will recommend each of you and your staff to anyone I talk to. Keep exceeding my expectations!

NU

Nurse Butterball

They have been servicing my VW Jetta SW for the past year now and I am not impressed. I was silly enough to purchase a detail the first time I went in I paid $137 to have the entire interior done. They just wiped down the dash and vacuumed the front foot space. They didnt even put my foot mats back, nor did they put paper foot mats down. Wouldnt have been a big deal but it was winter and I had to walk through dirty slush to get to my car. Luckily I noticed the floor was bare before I made a mess of my "clean" car. I walked to the back area to look for my floor mats and found they hadnt even vacuumed the back cargo area! I was irritated, to say the least, because that was the one thing I specifically wanted done, and also why I paid that ridiculous price! I complained and they gave me a card with a complementary cleaning. I made the mistake of assuming it would be what I asked for. So at my next service I handed them the card and (total shocker here) it still wasnt done. I asked the service associate why they refuse to clean the cargo area. He told me they dont do that. It takes a special soapstone to get in there to clean all that dog hair. So I asked what I was paying $137 for. Its been a year and they still owe me for that. I will just chalk it up to incompetence, poor management, and the big SUCKER thats written across my forehead. On another occasion I had called to see if I could schedule a service since I live over an hour away and the associate said I would need to be in when the doors open, but that he could "possibly" make an exception for me by accepting me at 0930. Oh geeze thank you. Sorry to put you out and all. The day he made that generous exception for me to come in at 0930 they didnt finish my car until 1530. I guess I was being punished or something. At one of my services I had asked if they would take a look at the rear defrost, since it had never worked. Nope. Needed to make an appointment. Did I mention I live an hour away? Also Id like to add that since my last service, my tires have a strange wobble and are very loud. I have inspected it and can see nothing wrong. The car isnt even 2 years old and only has 30K miles. Ridiculous. Seriously thinking of selling it just so I dont have to deal with this anymore. I am contemplating driving 2 hours to Omaha just to NOT deal with their attitudes. This will be my last VW.

BE

Bethany Yocum

Several months back when I was in the beginning stages of starting to look for a new car, I came to Lithia to test drive a car I had seen online and I really liked the car, but I did not come back to purchase because everything else about the experience left a lot to be desired. I understand car salesmen are put under a lot of pressure with commission to pressure people into a sale, but this was beyond ridiculous. This was one of the very first dealerships I visited, so I told the salesman upfront as soon as I first spoke to him that I would not be making a purchase that day. That was a fact, not a challenge. I needed time to survey my options and and compare and contrast before I made a big financial decision. As soon as I returned from my test drive, he brought my friend and I inside to return the keys to him and he sat us down to start talking prices. I told him it was a great car and it was an awesome driving experience, but I was not making a purchase today and may be back after I give it some thought. He kept pushing me, trying to negotiate the price. When it became clear I was not swayed by his BS smooth talking, he turned to the male friend I brought along with me to try to talk me into buying the car. He was buttering up my friend, complementing him about how important his job title sounded, how reasonable he seemed, how cute of a couple we would be. We were not and are not a couple, the buying decision was mine to make, and I did not appreciate the sexist, "cmon, convice the lady" angle the salesman tried to take. After many more pointless attempts to guilt me into buying the car, trying to worry me about possibly purchasing a lemon somewhere else, and trying to convince me that this was the only good car I could get at my price point, we left, and I felt very flustered and disrespected. If you want to earn the trust and respect of buyers who have more of an analytical approach and dont drink the sales tactic kool-aid, Id suggest showing more respect to a single woman who is simply surveying her options in order to make the best choice. If they had listened to anything I said and respected my decision not to make a same-day purchase, I would have possibly returned to buy after comparing their car to cars at other dealerships that I test drove.