Hello everyone,
I recently purchased my first new car: a 2009 crystal white peal Mazada3 Sport GT. I am a recent graduate in civil engineering and a female and I had never done any serious negotiating or research into cars. To make the long story short, I started at Burlington Mazda as I live in Burlington. The sales man was helpful and not too pushy but was quick to rush to the monthly payments without laying everything out. They were offering the standard Mazda discounts ($500 off and various financing deals) but not much else. I test drove one. I feel in love. I told him I would be shopping around with my Dad on the weekend and would get back to him.
Met up with my Dad in Kitchener and test drove various cars all day. The final stop was the Mazda dealership. Sat down with a sales rep and he priced the GX and the GS laying everything out. Right away, the additional fees (wheel locks, etching etc) were either way lower, or not charged when compared to Burlington. Told the sales rep gives us your bottom line as we are going to a car broker after. He said "well I have done what I can do for you, let me get the owner". Sat down with the owner (Rob Kieswetter) for about 1/2 hour and ended up with a price. The deal was so good we asked for a price on the GT. Rob was a no BS guy. He matched Mazda's discount and then some and gave me all accessories at cost.
Called the car broker, his price was higher. Went back to Burlington, when asked if they could match it they said "no sorry we cannot sell you the car for that much, it is below cost" after much deliberation. Sales man asked for one more day to talk to the owner, whom my father actually knew. Day goes by, no word from Burlington. Stopped in on way home from work. They say I will not find a white GT without a sun roof and they have one with a sunroof sitting on their lot. I tell him well I have a price on the car I want, it is this, please do what you can with it if you want to earn my business. After a while he comes back and says "we have matched your price, but we cannot include the window tinting, that will be an extra $400 and you will have to pay for the moon roof at $800" and he showed me the numbers and I said thank you and walked away as they were trying to sell me a car I didn't want.
Visited Rob at Kieswetter the next day and singed the papers. He gave me $500 for my 2000 dodge caravan which I was very happy with and he did not try to up sell the paint protection, clear bra or anything else. It was a pleasure dealing with him and his staff and it made my first car buying experience wonderful.
On the day of delivery I was given a tour of the shop and was thoroughly impressed with the car prep and feature explanations. After driving off the lot for a test drive, I came back and Rob gave me a deal on snow tires and had them installed in 15 minutes. I am one happy driver. I intend to bring the car there for service and the dealer is in the planning phases of a huge expansion to their dealership and service center.
I was very unhappy with the run around that Burlington Mazda gave me. They were unwilling to budge for a new young customer. Their correspondence was lousy and tactics were sneaky. I have heard good things about the dealership and do not want to discourage anyone. I just wanted to recount my experience.
Thanks to Rob and Kieswetter Morotos for thir excellent customer service and fantastic pricing!