Lease only with eyes wide open... I don't like giving negative reviews. In fact, I almost never do it. I know that sometimes people make mistakes and that doesn't necessarily reflect on the business as a whole. I'm doing it this time only because my experience does reflect on the way an aspect of the business functions and I am told will continue to function, and so this might just help some of you reading this avoid some losses. \r
First the good news: Like the other reviews here say, their service department is great. My wife and I have both leased Priuses there and our experience with the service department was beyond any reproach.\r
Now, why I'm writing this. My wife and I both leased Priuses. When our 3-year term was up, we turned in our cars, our salesman in the leasing department looked them over, did not mention anything about the nicks in the bumpers on my car or the high miles on my wife's, and began selling us on another lease, which we both went for. We thought since we were such good customers they were giving us a break, and so we were willingly led into another lease. Several months later we were each contacted by Toyota financial and told we owed big bucks for the nicks and miles. I realize this is not unfair on Toyota's part--that's part of the deal when it comes to a lease--but why did our salesman at Michael's not say a word about any of it when we turned in our cars and he looked them over and took the mileage? Only one reason: he wanted to sell us again.\r
This was our mistake. We should have known that Toyota would collect its due. Nonetheless, I would have expected our salesman to be straight with us when we turned in our cars. Had our salesman forewarned us that Toyota would be contacting us about the miles and nicks and how much they would charge us for them, then we could have acted with full information. I would have probably bought my car instead of turning it in and my wife would have gotten a Leaf instead of another Prius. So indeed, that information would have made a difference that would have been a loss to Michael's. So really they are smart. It is more important to get us into another lease than to let us know what we need to know to make an informed decision. \r
When I called salesman and told him all this, he just repeated over and over that the dealership has nothing to do with any charges on a car when the lease is done. It's all Toyota Financial. After listening to him ignore my point half a dozen times, I finally gave up. He's not dumb. This is the way they want to do business, and will continue to do business. Maybe this isn't a revelation to anyone else, but it was a wake-up call for us. Hope this helps someone out there.
more