Northtown Volkswagen

Leased my 3^rd Jetta from them 2 years ago. Took my car in for inspection a few days ago, only 11,000 miles on the car. They told me the tires that are on the car are crap and although they pass inspection, I should get new ones before snow falls. And no, there’s nothing wrong with my driving. I shouldn’t need new tires at 11,000 miles. I also want to say, I never got floor mats either. I am so disappointed with this last lease, I won’t go back.

Where to start? I’ve purchased two different cars from this dealership, both VWs, about 10 or so years apart. Most recently, and against better judgement, I got the second car from them only after speaking with the other two big VW dealerships in our area (which are also much further away from my house). The gave me the most for my trade in, and that is the ONLY reason I purchased a car from them again.
With the first vehicle, their service department was a nightmare. They kept the car for days at a time, tried to tell me there wasn’t a problem when there clearly was. They even replaced a part with some aftermarket, non OEM model, which caused a horrid road noise — and then wouldn’t do anything to take care of that until I pushed and screamed over the course of AN ENTIRE MONTH. In the end, they finally said «oh we used an aftermarket part that seems to have been the cause of the noise, so we swapped it out with an OEM part and now it’s gone. Also, that saved you $ 200.» So wait, you went with a more expensive part without even asking me, which also caused a problem that you then refused to acknowledge… whatever, moving on. I had nothing but problems with that service department back in 2003+, so I have no idea why I thought it would be any different now. It’s not.
Most recently I brought my 2015 in for an oil change, a detail, and to fix one tire that has a slow leak. Every three days, like clockwork, the pressure alarm goes off, and I go check it manually, and it’s about 5 – 10 psi too low. So I make an appointment for noon, several days out. I bring the car in at 11:55am. I am then told for these three simple things, which I’d scheduled days prior mind you, they’d be keeping my car overnight. When I asked why, I was told «well we won’t even be able to get it to it until 7 or 8 tonight.» So why the hell did I make an appointment for noon?! I asked, and was told «that’s just the drop off time.» An appointment to drop off my car?! Are you serious?! When I took it a step further and said why wouldn’t the person on the phone know all of this and maybe tell me to schedule another time, I was told «she handles all calls for all of our dealerships… I have [such and such number] of cars to deal with right now…» The guy actually got shitty with ME, the customer, because of his workload. And this guy’s been shitty and given me an attitude before, this is not the first time. I was just amazed, and the dude standing there from detail looked a little uncomfortable about this guy too.
So, I leave the car with them saying screw it, I need the tire fixed and this is nothing new with them so whatever. Last time I come here is all. I leave, and a few hours later I get called that the car is ready. I get in to the shop, and the same idiot tells me they have no idea what happened to the tire, nothing is wrong with it, they put it in the tank and didn’t see any air escaping… «but I didn’t charge you for it.» You didn’t charge me for what? You did nothing. At best, you looked and could not determine an issue where there is most definitely one, but more likely you didn’t even look. And that’s probably why my car wasn’t held overnight. On top of that, no sticker on the window about when to come back in for service. On top of that, they didn’t reset the service reminders in their own computer system or in the computer of my car. So now I get emails from them saying I need to schedule a service appointment, AND my car tells me it’s time for service every time I start it up.
Or how about the fun with Sirius XM and the lies Northtown told me on that issue? I called in several times about them notifying Sirius every time I come in for service, and say I want that to stop. I am first told «we don’t notify Sirius XM when you come in» — to which I say, «Sirius just told me you do.» I get placed on hold several more times, and then I’m told «Sure, we’ll take care of that for you, did you need anything else?» — to which I responded «Ok, don’t you maybe need to know who I am to even be able to do so?» «Oh… yea, what’s your name…»
This is seriously the worst dealership I’ve ever dealt with. I’ve got even more horror stories about them, but I think I’ve made my point.

Good people. Got a pretty good deal and treated me very well.

Recently got a ticket in my VW for one of their standard license plate frames obscuring the view of my plate. The dealership couldn’t have been less helpful.
The sales person I spoke with claimed that «nothing we put on our cars is illegal». He clearly lacked basic logic because you cannot be ticketed for legal things. They did not offer to remove the frame, compensate me for my ticket, or even apologize!
I would strongly recommend not buying a car from a dealership that cannot rectify even simple problems such as this. Can you imagine if it was something worse? Go to Schmitts Audi VW instead.

Dishonest service dept. and/​or un-​trained techs. I took my car to the dealer for my windshield wipers not working. They replaced a fuse. After leaving the dealer I had multiple warning lights go off and my fuel gauge, odometer and speedometer stopped working as well as my cruise control. I suspect they messed up the fuses so I took the car back to the dealer. They stood by their repair and then quoted me $ 2500 for a new ABS control module. I did not repair the vehicle with them and took it to a private mechanic. Turns out the issues were due to a blown fuse only. Thank God I did not go through with the costly repair with Northtown.
Also, at their sister dealer Northtown Kia where I purchased my vehicle I noticed my radio did not work. They replaced it at no charge but then my AM radio did not work. They quoted me over $ 600 for an antenna. Strange b/​c my AM radio was working before their repair.
They clearly cannot be trusted and seem to have issues with the techs. working on their vehicles.

Initially went in to check out the $ 147/​mo VW Passat lease deal that was advertised. None of the qualifying vehicles were in any longer and so that deal was immediately off the table. Took many questions to come to this conclusion, however, as you will learn that Northtown does not like to give straight answers.
Ended up test driving a similar vehicle and was very impressed with the car. I intended on trading in my current vehicle and they took my keys but apparently never appraised it that night. Came back a few days later to try and talk prices but once again hit a wall. All we wanted to know was HOW MUCH IS THIS CAR? The phrase that kept on being repeated to us in a rather disrespectful way, was «how much do YOU want to pay for this car?» So long story short, we encountered some very unnecessary, very archaic «haggling», which was a major turn off. Cars nowadays can easily be bought without even stepping foot into a dealership. Sales people at NT need to understand that they need OUR business, not the other way around.
The manager stepped over, and proceeded to fill in a «worksheet», naming a price $ 200 below MSRP, as well as marking my vehicle down at an absolutely shameful trade in value (~$ 3,000 below KBB), which tells me they DID appraise my vehicle the other night after all (???). Obviously we weren’t happy with these numbers. Thus began their game. It grew quite heated until we finally decided to leave, since we still had another hour until VW of OP closed.
Off we went. And we shall never come back here again. This goes down in history as one of the most unpleasant car buying experiences we’ve ever gone through.
**I should also mention that we bought a Subaru recently from Northtown Subaru and that experience was entirely different. We have nothing but rave things to say about Northtown Subaru.

Went for service, 2÷4÷14 very dissatisfied, they could not fix my car, then tried to turn the tables on me I wonder if not buying initially from Northtown set me up for second rate service down the road, I didn’t even get the curtesy wash prominently advertised all over the service department, until after I raised a stink…

I went to Northtown looking for a Jeep listed on the website but it was no longer there. They located another type of Jeep which I purchased. My salesman Jeff was nice and all of the people I’ve worked with were very professional and pleasant. I will work with them again. They even sent a thank you gift of (my fav) cookies and a balloon.

After a horrible experience at Transitowne we headed straight for Northtown VW, Dan (funny enough) had exactly what we were looking for right within our price range. Went through the paperwork and drove home my new wheels that night. The facility was nice with plenty of accommodations to make the wait as painless as possible. The thank you gift was a nice surprise too.