Walser Mazda

Reviews 3

GL

Glenn Terpstra

Stephen Flemal made my buying experience. TLDR; When it is busy, you need to seek out a sales person as they might not respond to you based on your profile. Stephen is a great representation of what Walser staff should strive for, and provided me with confidence in my first new-vehicle purchase. As someone in the arts, I tend to not have the suit and tie look that could be associated with buying a new car. I understand the ease of profiling me as someone who would be there to "joyride"... that would be wrong. I am a person who researches and investigates for months as to not waste another persons time. I came in to the dealership on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so needless to say it was busy. Knowing the CX5 was the vehicle for me, after months of looking at a variety of cars online, it was time to test drive one. I walk in, as you would expect salespeople and customers everywhere, and initially I appreciated the lack of pounce associated a potential sale. I stroll around the various makes on the show floor, without a single person acknowledging me. Again I get it, busy. Receptionist ignored me with work, eyes down--thats fine. I make it to the CX5 on the showroom floor and precede to walk around it a couple times. I sit in the drivers seat and skim the material in the glove box and not one person has talked with me. I put it back, and precede to press all the buttons inside (as any good customer of a dealership should do), still no one. I get it. Im sitting in the car, who could see me? I then get into the back seat, make sure my larger frame fits comfortably. I slide over to the passenger side and exit the vehicle. I get into the front passenger seat and give that a try, still no assistance from anyone--at this point Im feeling the repeated "I dont want to deal with that" glances from the staff. I get out and, you know, shut a car door inside of a building, so obviously people looked in my direction. Another five minutes goes by, as I am opening and closing the rear hatch, folding up and down the rear seats, with multiple doors of the vehicle open. I get around to the driver side and am messing seat so it folds down completely, when Stephen walks with a casual greeting of "Hows it going?" I respond with "Well, I would really like to talk with someone." (I guess that is why this post is so long....). Stephen responds with "No one has talked with you!?!? Let me finish up what Im doing and I will be over in two minutes." Two minutes later I am talking with someone! Soooo after 25-30 minutes of not having any help from anyone, I am glad Stephen was the person I got to work with. This is where all the negativity I have with Walser Mazda ends. As mentioned before I know the ins and outs of this vehicle as I have been reviewing it for over 6 months. Stephen doesnt skip a beat and knew all answers to all questions I had. We got in one and went for a test drive. As conversations unfold it becomes evident that I know this is the car I want, I am at a time where buying a new car makes sense, and it is Stephen who gave me confidence with the potential of the Mazda brand and the Walser employee training program. The car was sold before I entered the dealership... I left it to how I was treated as a customer to decide where I would buy. Walser, You are lucky to have an employee like Stephen Flemal, as you would not have this sale if I had to wait any longer to be acknowledged. Stephen not only went the extra mile in getting me the vehicle I wanted, but made the transaction of that new vehicle incredibly fluid and easy to do away from the dealership. This allowed me to walk in, sign some papers and drive away in under an hour. I cant express how grateful I am to have worked with Stephen, He truly made my buying experience. I made him a thank you card that I wanted to share with you. Sorry for my rambling but I hope this review addresses the issue of stereotypes associated with new-car buyers. The 9-5 is dying and so is the look associated with it--be ready for younger buyers in jeans and hats.

AN

Andrew Engstrom

PRO: Helpful staff, Up-front discounts CON: No negotiating (also a Pro if youre not a slick car salesman yourself), Not as much free service/maintenance offers as other dealers BOTTOM LINE: Recommend purchasing here if they have your car at the right price. I came into the Walser Mazda dealership knowing that I wanted a Mazda 3; it was only a question of finding one at the right price. The sticker prices on the cars are cut by some standard discounts that apply across the board, and after including the dealer discount the prices were actually at or below some of the online price calculators I had run for this region. The sales staff were enthusiastic without being overbearing, reasonably knowledgeable about their product, and respectful of my decision-making process. If youre above-average in car knowledge, you might find you have detailed questions the staff cant answer, though. My salesman was Aaron Birkeland; good guy, and he answered all the questions I personally had about the car. The extra services offered at this dealer tend to be "add-on" packages or service plans with an extra cost. They do have a free car wash card theyll mail you after the purchase of a vehicle. If you are really hard on your vehicles it may pay to buy the "lifetime" warranty extension. I do like having the option of taking my car here for specialized service, since theyve got a full garage in back. Walser Mazda is also a no-negotiation dealer, and theyre really serious when they say that. I suppose I was a bit of a difficult customer because the car I decided on was slightly above the amount I wanted to spend, and I tried to get them to come down just a little to make the sale. If youre into haggling, take note: the management respectfully held to their "non-negotiator" position, and I ended up leaving the dealership to see if I could find my vehicle for a bit cheaper. Within 15 minutes of leaving, I had three voicemail messages, including from the general manager, saying that theyd found another car in their inventory--same model, same everything--at a better discount, but had simply overlooked it earlier. Yeah, you can say they just wanted to make a sale, but they made an effort to find my car in the price range I needed, not just write me off as too difficult and move on to the next guy. I actually respect that. The other car was the right price, so I ended up going in to do the paperwork that afternoon. Definitely worth your time to check out Walser Mazda. Five stars for making me a satisfied customer.

A

A Private User

We chose to go to Walser Mazda after a not-so-good car shopping experience at a dealer closer to home. Were SO glad we did! We called ahead and talked with Jason, but when we arrived he was busy and so were all the other sales people. The gal at the desk told the sales manager that as soon as a sales person was available to please send them our way. We began looking at the Mazda CX-9, which is what we came to purchase. In less than a few minutes, Andrew Goetzke, the sales manager, came over and greeted us and began asking us a few questions. We explained that we had had an experience that was not so pleasant at another dealership closer to home. We were honest and told him that we were ready to buy a car today and there were only two ways they could lose the sale: one, by being high pressure sales people and two, by not giving us enough for our trade-in. He took our information, we went out for a test drive and while we were doing that they drove our trade-in. When we came back Andrew went through all the information with us for our trade-in. We had done research and had come to a number that we thought was fair. They hit it straight on. We were so pleased that Andrew didnt just hand us a number, but he had data from many different sites that indicated how they came to the value of our car. We appreciated that very much. He then showed us which CX-9s were available, and was patient with us as we decided which color, navigation or no navigation, DVD or sunroof, etc. Sal V. Le then walked us through all the paperwork and extra options available. He was kind, efficient, and smiled throughout the whole process. Jason then took over, finished up a few things, put our plates on and bid us farewell. Honestly, my husband enjoys car shopping, but for me, shopping for and purchasing a vehicle ranks right up there with having a root canal. I dislike it very much. However, the experience we had at Walser Mazda has forever changed that for me. Every person we met was kind and sincere, smiley and patient. There were no high pressure sales and it truly felt like it didnt matter what we bought, they just wanted us to be happy with our purchase. Thanks for a great experience and an amazing car (which I have yet to drive because my husband loves it so much!)! We highly recommend Walser Mazda!