My Great Experience at Scion of Glendora *LONG, BUT AN EASY READ*

[wanger]

Hi All,

I just wanted to summarize the past events leading up to my recent purchase of a Scion FR-S. I just bought it today (6/1/12) in Ultramarine from the very helpful Ernie @ Scion of Glendora. But we'll dive into that later.

My interest in an FR-S/BRZ started about 3 weeks ago. I was in need of a car and came to the conclusion that the FR-S/BRZ was the best option in terms of performance, space, and (of course) gas consumption.

I first started looking at a BRZ, as I thought the Subaru looked a bit more grown up. I called a dealership up in northern California that I originally bought a WRX from a few years back. They told me one customer canceled their preorder, and that I could buy it in his place. But the mark up was $1000. With the options on the car and the mark up I was just shy of shedding out $30k (prior to tax, title, and financing).

So I began my search for an FR-S. I figure it'd be less AND I'll get two years of free oil changes and inspections. I was actually going to go through a friend who worked at a Toyota/Scion dealership, but they weren't very open to the idea of me leaving a deposit and said I had to wait til June 1st. Didn't understand why, but didn't think much of it at the time.

So during Memorial Day weekend, I started to take my FR-S search a bit more seriously just to secure a plan B. I called multiple dealers asking if they had an Ultramarine FR-S in stock. A few existed (I believe a silver one was at Scion of Costa Mesa) but I just couldn't settle on anything but blue with a manual transmission. So after work Wednesday, I decided to call dealerships outside of the Orange County area. I called Penske Scion in Downey and they had one in stock! I was excited and ready to pick up the car I've been searching for.

However, things took a huge downward turn. They installed lo jack on the car which up'd the sticker price AND would not sell me the car unless I A) purchased the 7 year extended warranty and B) used their financing options (even though they couldn't beat the rate of my credit union). After conversing for another 10 minutes and refusing the extended warranty and their financing options, I got up and left. I couldn't take it. I was starting to second guess the Scion no hassle price policy.

Come this past Thursday, I decided to swing by a few more dealerships to find my car. I swung by Elmore Toyota and was greeted by a very nice salesman who assured me they would sell me the car at sticker if they had one in stock. They didn't enforce a mark up NOR did they haggle customers into purchasing optional equipment or warranty packages. If the car I wanted was there, the story would have ended here.

Since I was in the area, I decided to go to Huntington Beach Scion. I explained my situation with Penske Scion and to my disbelief, they partially agreed with the tactics used as they stated the car was a "hot item." They even told me they marked up the cars $2000 because they knew they would still sell. At the end of the day, they pretty much hinted that they were in the business of making money and the no hassle price policy was really up to the discretion of the dealerships.

Losing about 90% of the hope that I had in finding an Ultramarine FR-S, I swung by South Coast Subaru to see if (maybe) they had a BRZ. They did! But it had faux carbon vinyl on the roof (think e92 M3, just fake) and they wanted ~$34,500 for the car. The sticker price was about $26,600 but with tint and the hideous vinyl wrap PLUS a $5000 mark up, they justified their high price for the vehicle. I left there to only to have a salesman ask (on my drive out none the less) if I would purchase the car with a smaller markup ($1000 over sticker plus cost of extras to be exact, they were matching the Subaru dealership in Nor Cal). I declined due to the tacky extras "glued" to the car.

Come Friday morning (6/1), I was angry and hopeless, even contemplating other cars that would partially meet my criteria. On my lunch break I contacted Scion of Glendora (on a whim because I'm a fan of the Donut Man which is extremely close by). I was instantly connected to Ernie V. From the get go he asked what I was looking for. I replied an FR-S. He had two in stock, an automatic orange and (wait for it) an Ultramarine with a manual gearbox. I was ecstatic. I asked him for an out the door price to be emailed to me (with the VIN, color, and transmission type) and he promptly did. AND THERE WAS NO MARK UP. NO RANDOM ACCESSORIES/OPTIONS. I got a price for what was on the window sticker + tax + licensing. Got in touch with my credit union and I was good to go.

After a traffic filled commute from Orange County, a salesman came out to welcome me and ask if I needed help with anything. I told him I was looking for Ernie and he quickly located him for me. Off the bat he knew I was serious, so he showed me the car, let me start her up, put a "no touching" sign on the vehicle, and had the paperwork ready at his desk. The guy is also a hardcore Scion fanatic; he drives an Xb with 260k miles (yes, 260,000) and is just down to earth. After all the paper work was complete, he introduced me to Hector and Fernando. Two great guys both with a good sense of humor and committed to offering their customers the easiest buying experience possible. Fernando walked me through all the papers to sign and we were done in a matter of minutes. And yes, he did cover the additional warranty and GAP options, but after I refused, he didn't push for me to reconsider. And the cool thing was they even asked about my previous experience with other dealerships, which they replied "do they not know of SCION PURE PRICING, what you see on the sticker is what you're going to pay???" Wow, there is a God, and these guys up hold the Scion values! And lets just say this is by far the shortest amount of time I've spent at a dealership, one and a half hours to be exact.

And before I left, Ernie keyed me in on all the features of the car. Radio controls, trunk opening options, traction control systems, wheel lock key location, window adjustments, etc. He wanted to make sure I didn't leave there clueless on how to adjust my brand new car.

My experience with Scion of Glendora is bar none the BEST EXPERIENCE I've had with any dealership. They are a no frills type of business that's committed to making the customer happy. And let's not forgot the fact that they don't ream you with mark ups and options you don't want. I know I got lucky that they had the car I was looking for was in stock, but if you're in the market for an FR-S, give Ernie a call. He'll immediately tell you what's in stock. He'll take care of you and will make your buying experience "a shorter, simpler process with less pressure" (yes, that's a quote from the official Scion website).

To not leave any ends open, my friend did get back to me and said that all the FR-Ss at his dealership had optional wheels fitted on them hiking the price up another $3k. Wowzers.

-wanger

[Guff]

Glad you finally got your car! I guess a lot us will have to wait for the hype to die down though before we pick one up!

[xclusive_brett]

Ernie is awesome, I drove well over an hour just to work with him.

[wanger]

Yea brett, definitely worth the nearly 2 hour drive. Also, Penske never showed me nor gave me a print out of my credit score which I guess is against the law.

[Turbowned]

Nice story! Glad you found the right one at the right place. Seems like a lot of dealers are really screwing the pooch with this car...

[Lonewolf]

Yay for Glendora and Ernie! Boo for the other guys mentioned!