Jim Pattison Toyota Downtown

Reviews 3

KI

Kirsten McAllister

I highly recommend Jimmy Pattison Toyota Downtown on Burrard Street for anyone looking for an extremely reliable, knowledgeable and helpful dealership with years of experience and expertise. Arlene Elspen was my Product Advisor. She is fantastic. On the one hand, she is professional. It was a relief to work with someone with so much knowledgeabout and experience (1) with cars, (2) the process of finding a car that fits a customer’s needs and (3) all the details about what her company offers its customers in terms of warrantees, service and the financing. On the other hand, it was great to work with Arlene because she was so personable, thoughtful and considerate. As a female, I was dubious about how I would be treated by cars salesmen – but immediately, as soon as I met Arlene, I felt relaxed and confident I wouldn’t have to muster the extra energy that can be required for women to get the information and service necessary to make purchases for big ticket items that were previously were the domain of men (this isnt to deny that men also can get bad service from car dealerships!). In fact I really enjoyed working with Arlene to find the right car that suited my needs. She helped me find the perfect vehicle: a RAV 2009. Unlike a number of other sales people at other dealerships, she was always open to questions (and now that I have purchased my vehicle she has continued to be helpful and informative – I feel like I haven’t just bought a car – rather I now also have a support system for my car) and made sure she always provided precise informative answers, making sure she addressed any lingering concerns or queries. Also, at Toyota Burrard, there seemed to be good positive relations amongst the staff and managers, which gave me even more confidence in the dealership and its reliability. At other dealerships, sales people either started applying pressure as soon as I showed interest in a vehicle or seemed bored and uninterested. In contrast Arlene worked incredibly hard to investigate all the options Toyota could offer in terms of both used and new cars, going over their differences, their performance and was very attentive to what I identified as my practical needs and my taste. She immediately followed up on my emails and phone calls and given my very hectic schedule travelling in and out of town, it was amazing how she made the process feel so effortless – making everything easy and efficient. In fact I visited Toyota Burrard a number of times with different friends and family members, doing numerous test drives and Arlene always welcomed more questions and more test drives. She kept me updated on changing inventory and when it came to the process of purchasing the vehicle she really went out of her way to make sure everything went smoothly and efficiently despite my hectic schedule. As I indicated above, her support has continued after purchasing my RAV…if I have questions, or need to drop by to ask questions about the simplest details about the operation of the car to queries about other items. So to end…I visited a number of dealerships (Honda, Toyota and Lexus) and Toyota Burrard stood out because of Arlene Esplen.

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Adam Rawski

This is a great place to go and test drive vehicles as the atmosphere is free from any sales pressure, however if you’re looking to actually buy a vehicle, there are plenty of better dealership that offer a smoother sales process without wasting your time. Also do not bother asking any technical questions to the sales associate as they will either make up an answer or not know the correct answer (This was for about 90% of our questions). After test driving a vehicle and speaking to the sales manager and sales associate, we decided to put in an offer (which was quite fair considering we were looking at a new vehicle, albeit it was a prior year model). Once we told them our offer, rather than ‘getting down to business,’ we were asked to leave our phone number and the sales manager would call us back in a few hours to see whether they would accept it. The sales associated called us back 2 hours after we left with a counter offer and that they had more information for us. We went back to the dealership and they showed us the Toyota.ca website MSRP. The counter offer was the MSRP. Keep in mind this was March of 2017, and the sales associate was trying to sell us a 2016 model vehicle for almost the same price as a 2017 (they offered a $300 discount because it was the prior year model). We quickly realized that their ‘competitive pricing’ is a gimmick. After about 30 minutes, we had enough of the typical sales tactics and decided to move on to another dealership. To put some perspective on our offer, the next dealership we went to had a 2017 model vehicle and when we put in our offer (which was the exact same offer as we made for the 2016 at Jim Pattison), they immediately took the offer without hesitation. We were able to pick up the vehicle the next day. In the end, we received a 2017 vehicle at a lower price than Jim Pattison tried selling us a 2016. Overall, it’s a great place to go and buy cars at MSRP (although for anyone that has bought a car…they know you never pay MSRP). Otherwise, it’s also a great place to browse for cars and ‘kick the tires’ but move onto nearby dealerships for the actual purchase so that you don’t waste your time. FOLLOW UP TO POST: Chris, thanks for responding from your busy schedule although quite disappointing that this was the only way we could get in touch. Its quite unfortunate that even after asking to speak to you, we had to wait several hours but you still didnt seem to warrant a quick discussion with us. I am not sure if those are the sales tactics used by your dealership however that is the reason you lost our business.There also seems to be some miscommunication between you and your sales associates since we made it clear that we wouldnt be trading in our vehicle and would be selling it privately so that was not an issue. Moreover, the offer we made on the 2016 which was sitting on the lot for a few months was more than fair after discussing with other dealerships since we were still able to get a 2017 model for less without any haggling. As you have, and have always had my contact information, feel free to contact me if you want to discuss further.

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LA

Larry Larsen

In June, I spent a few weeks looking for a Tacoma at other dealers closer to home and was amazed by how difficult it was to have people return calls within a reasonable amount of time. I contacted Jim Pattison Downtown and within minutes had the answers to my questions, once I picked out my vehicle, I had my pricing worked out and gentlemens agreement done all without having to enter the dealership. A week later, as soon as I had an afternoon unexpectedly clear up in my schedule, I immediately called JPDT and said I was coming in to buy the truck in 30 minutes, Andrew had the paperwork ready and I was driving out the same afternoon in my new Tacoma. Last week, now September, my wife was looking at a Prius V and a Camry at another dealership, the sales guy was personable and answered all her questions, she was happy but had to decide what to get. She decided on the Prius V, called the sales guy numerous times over the following week with no reply, I handed her Andrews card, he was at home and said let me call the office and check for you. 5 minutes later, Andrew called back saying he located the car she wanted at another lot and offered to bring it in. Done! There is absolutely no reason to shop for a Toyota anywhere else, Andrew and the whole crew downtown are awesome, very professional and dont leave you hanging. Most importantly, they are friendly and seem like they actually want to earn your business, they kicked every other dealers ass that I have dealt with, totally worth the drive downtown.

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