So, after years of insisting that American cars were way better and way cooler than foreign ones, I started changing my mind. Instead of looking for speed and power and pure American muscle, I started looking for reliability and quality. Convinced by my aunts and uncles and mother and friends that a Toyota or a Honda was the way to go, I headed over to Darcars in Silver Spring to test drive a vehicle. When my uncle and I arrived, we met up with the salesman who had sold my family many cars in the past (at one point, my aunts/uncles bought 3 Toyota Sequoias in one month from the same man).
The first thing I told the salesman was that I wanted a manual Corolla in black or white. The first car he took me to was an automatic Corolla in some champagne color. I had to repeat the specifications about 3 times before he got it almost right. This time, he took me over to a “super white” Toyota Camry with a manual transmission. When I told him I wanted a Corolla, he looked at me, frustrated and said that for ever 300 cars they get in that is an automatic, one is a manual. At that point, I should have walked out of the dealership, but my uncle insisted that I test drive.
After 4 painstaking hours, I drove home in my brand new, Super White Toyota Camry. I finally had the coveted Toyota – this car was going to last me years, if I took care of it. The salesman was excited, my uncle was excited, the financier was excited. Everyone was excited but me.
My family and friends loved the car, upon seeing it. I started warming up to it. I need to explain that one of the main reasons I was apprehensive was because I had just signed on to a $17,000 loan!! I’m not one who spends feely so it was quite hard to sign on the dotted line (s).
“At least nothing will go wrong with this car” I told myself. Boy, did I speak too soon. After just 5 days of owning that BRAND NEW CAMRY, I noticed a crack in the windshield. Nothing had hit it – it just cracked. The crack started all the way at the end of the windshield on the driver’s side. I was crushed.
Through all my fears and apprehensions, I thought I was getting Toyota quality and craftsmanship. Upon seeing the crack, I called the dealership and spoke to someone in their repair shop. The woman was extremely unhelpful and told me that my warranty doesn’t cover glass and that they didn’t even fix glass and windshields in the shop.
A few days later, I drove the car to the dealership and spoke to the salesman who sold me the car – the same salesman who sent me pre-written “thank you” letters for choosing Darcars for my automotive needs, the same salesman who told me that if I needed anything, to just call. I told him about the crack and he didn’t even offer to look at it. Instead, he told me it would probably cost me a little over $100 to fix and offered to have their glass company call me.
I just signed up to spend $1700 on a car and wrote out a check for $2,000 as a deposit. Why would I want to spend another buck fifty on a new windshield!?!?! Alas, I awaited the phone call and it never came.
I’m going back to the dealership today to see if they will do anything for me but my high hopes have been dashed. I can’t say for sure but I feel like if I had stuck with American, the windshield would have at least held out for a couple years before cracking.
