Lake Elmo Chrysler - Lake Elmo, MN

Visit Geno's Garage for Truck accessories.

The most recent reports are at the top of the list; the oldest are at the bottom.

Sales=Poor, Service=Don't Know, Parts=Don't Know, bought there=No, scv_there=No, Buy_DaimlerChrysler_again=Maybe,
I went there the first time a few days ago and met the sales-guy, Tom. He was nice ... but didn't seem to know nearly enough about the Charger (he thought they still offered '06 w/2.7 and referred to mpg as mph ... and otherwise was just generally not real helpful). But that was
nothing compared to the finance-guy and the manager (Matt, I believe). I wanted to agree on a lease price before they moved a car from another dealer. First time the finance guy printed out the "lease worksheet", it printed out the price we were batting around ($26,500) and the residual value ($14,800) ... which was fine. But then it ADDED the two to get over $41,000 ... which it printed on the worksheet. Then, it multiplied the "money factor" times THAT to get a lease payment about $100/mo higher than what my simple handheld Excel formula for calculating payments determined (later verified by the manager by comparing a simple 60mo loan to buy the car outright). The SECOND time he printed the worksheet, the $41,000 was gone ... but after showing the depreciation (the amount I'd be financing on the lease), it printed another $4,000 to add ... labeled only as "rent charge". The finance guy simply shrugged his shoulders when I pointed out both questions. He simply WOULDN'T tell me where those numbers were coming from or why. I stated, at that point, that I couldn't sign anything like that. The sales-guy suggested that the manager, supposedly having been a former banker, might better explain the numbers and I met him. He aborted the "worksheet" entirely and showed me some web-based lease-calculation software that was supposedly what they actually used for all their leases. He talked fast and clicked fast. But I caught, and pointed out, a couple things. First off, the sales-tax they added was $1700 instead of $700 ... they were calculating it against the entire price of the car ... not just the part I was actually gonna buy. Beyond that, while attempting to match my Excel calculations, he told me three different APR's for the same 36mo lease. And something about "capitalizing" the sales tax. Sometime during all this, the invoice price ended up being over $1000 more than two other resources on the web (CarsDirect and AutoByTel) indicated (and both of those were an exact match with each other). Matt seemed readily willing to take $1000 off ... just for me. In the end, after bumping up my price considerably, he still couldn't account for at least a $40/mo discrepancy. Regardless, these guys were clearly more interested in double-talking and confusing the customer rather than dealing straight ... I left feeling like I had just been the customer of a street shell game. They'll readily agree to the best price in town ... but then add it all back ... and then some ... as you "go thru the paperwork" ... all kinds of fees and what-not ... that "everybody pays". It's sad to think of all the people who must've thought they'd got "great" deals there when, in fact, they probably pa! id much higher than MSRP.
Submitted by: =Not nearly as dumb as I look
Number of dealership visits=1, Last visit date=12/1/2005, Date report submitted: Dec 3 09:57:56 EST 2005

Sales=Good, Service=Poor, Bought a used 2500 diesel from them. Parts Department just about always has the parts I need (at DC huge prices). Service department admits they really don't know the diesels very well. They also do not know how to repair brakes properly. Had to redo all their warranty work over myself to get functioning properly.
Number of dealership visits=NA, Last visit date=NA, Date report submitted: 13 Jun 2002

Sales=Excellent, Service=Excellent, Over the years I have had many difficult problems fixed by them that other dealers couldn't or wouldn't fix.
Number of dealership visits=NA, Last visit date=NA, Date report submitted: NA

Dealership Rating:
	Good sales department, good service
	Fair sales, fair service
	Conflicting or not enough information
	Poor Service or Poor Sales Department
	Avoid like the plague!!
	Don't Know or No Experience

This page was edited on: February 16, 2007