Red Tag Center

From the moment that I walked in the dealership to the moment that I saw the van I selected, I had a great experience! The sales guy was very polite and patient, answered all of my many questions. The owner was very very nice and made me feel welcome. The lady in the office is very knowledgeable when it comes to financing and was able to help me greatly! They are very straightforward. no surprises, hidden charges or unexpected additions to my purchase.
Plus, I love the extended warranty for 48 months on any major problems! I will be definitely coming back when I’m ready to purchase my next business van!

Short:
Hans and his staff are professional and honest. It was an honor doing business with them and I would not hesitate to purchase a vehicle from him again or recommend them as a first stop to family or friends. Their prices are far below the value they offer.
Long:
I, like most people, regularly read consumer reviews before making a purchase decision or selecting a company to patronize. However, I rarely feel inclined to write a review unless the service was exceptionally good or poor and empirical evidence suggests more people are motivated to write a negative review than positive (perhaps as a final means of retribution). Fortunately, I have the pleasure of writing this positive review for Red Tag Center and their entire staff.
I recently purchased a 2007 Ford Explorer and I could not be more please with the purchase experience. The location is certainly not prime, hidden deep in a commercial district with limited parking and less space than idea. However, this bodes well for customers in the form of better pricing. My wife and I test drove 3 vehicles which required the staff to move a handful of vehicles out of the way to get the vehicles out. My wife and I felt bad asking to test drive the different vehicles knowing the orchestration required, however the staff gave no justification for our feelings and expressed nothing but eagerness to ease our concerns.
When we settle on the 2007 Explorer we spoke with Hans who was extremely honest and open about the history of the vehicle and his profit margins. He clearly explained the pricing and, compared to other dealers, we felt the price was more than reasonable for the condition of the vehicle and warranty.
UPDATE:
Took the vehicle to the shop after noticing a humming noise from the front end. Needed new wheel bearings. I ordered the parts and reached out to Hans to let him know. I spoke to Shaun (Service Manager I think), and he offered to reimburse for the parts and install them for free. I declined the offer of reimbursement since I got the parts cheap enough however it is reassuring to know they stand behind their vehicles.

I did not have a good experience with this dealership and do not recommend it to other buyers

I’m a car guy through and through, and generally hate the idea of buying from a dealership. But, when you decide on what you want and realize it’s a somewhat rare combination of vehicle/​color/​options/​model year, you buy the nicest example within your budget.
I was looking for a 2003 – 2006 GMC Yukon Denali, short wheelbase, in Blue-​Green Crystal Metallic. A friend and I found two blue Denalis within 10 miles of each other, both at «small time dealerships» in Maryland. The first truck was completely thrashed, and did not reflect the «only 91k miles» listed in the ad.
The second truck was located at Red Tag Center. We were nearby and figured it was worth checking out after the first was such a disappointment. I was skeptical as we pulled up — RTC is definitely not a place that spends money on looking flashy.
The truck had been freshly-​washed and vacuumed, and a lady that was outside moving some vehicles around asked if I wanted to test-​drive it. My friend and I took it out and save for a few small issues, it was really in great shape for the age and miles (125k).
I sat down and discussed pricing with the owner/​manager (not sure which?) who was pretty direct and open about numbers. I appreciated him telling me that the financing he could offer me was only worth discussing if I had really bad credit. So, no thanks, I’ll use my own financing.
Red Tag Center ended up fixing the few problems with the Denali (needed a new pump for the rear air ride, washer fluid, and a light bulb) and I picked it up a couple days later.
I paid $ 4k under KBB value for it and have been very happy with the truck so far. Turns out it was a one-​owner vehicle that spent its life in Falls Church, always serviced at the local GMC dealer.
A few things that I felt detracted from my experience with RTC:
The process of getting license plates was ridiculous. RTC submitted my info to the Virginia DMV, the DMV sent *them* the plates, and RTC mailed them to me. RTC did not send my information to the DMV for several weeks, so this process took quite some time.
I was not told that I had to take the vehicle for an emissions inspection upon my purchase, so the plates I did get from the DMV only had one month’s registration on them. I had to then get the emissions test performed, fax the proof to RTC, and have RTC send along to the DMV.
I don’t see why the dealership had to be involved as a middle-​man in getting plates. It’s more a complaint on the DMV’s processes than anything else, but it was frustrating. Melissa at Red Tag Center was generally friendly but I would have really appreciated more communication as far as «we’ve sent your stuff to the DMV» and so on. It was a communication black hole unless I called and nagged.
Also — the Denali developed a pretty substantial power steering leak, alongside a shimmy in the front end. No big deal, I’ll get it fixed, it’s a 9-​year-​old truck. Not Red Tag Center’s fault. However, when I called to ask what work they had done right before I bought the truck (for the sake of narrowing down my diagnosis), the manager said they didn’t keep records of their work and he couldn’t help me.
Seriously, guys? How do you not know what you do to each vehicle? I’d have to think this information is kept for the sake of bookkeeping, realizing profit vs. loss on each vehicle, and so on.
Thankfully, the mechanic had a vague recollection of what he had done and helped me out.
If I were looking for another car or truck and Red Tag Center had what I wanted, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and shop there again. The process was generally low-​stress and low-​hassle. The vehicles on their lot all appeared to be in good condition. Definitely worth checking out at the least. I would hope they could improve the few points made above, but they’re running a pretty good business as it is.

The actual purchasing of the vehicle was okay. The only odd thing that happened was when the owner told us that our salesman had to take a time-​out because he was feeling sick because he had partied too much the night before.
The part that really got to me was the after-​sales events. We had an issue with the registration and plates (we had been told that we could keep the plate from our previous vehicle but were sent new tags). We were told that the woman who takes care of that would call us back the next day to sort it out. She never called.
We were having hesitation in the vehicle so we brought it in to our mechanic just to have a look at it. We were told it was transmission-​related. We called Red Tag Center back to ask them about it. We were about 7 days after our warranty expired but were hoping for a gesture of good will. We were told that the service manager would call us back. He never did.
About a week later I was telling a friend about it. She suggested we try one more time. I left a detailed message for the owner, asking if he would honor the warranty, despite the fact that we were technically past the date. I was told he would contact me. Guess what? I never heard back from him.
All in all, I felt like the common courtesy of returning our phone calls was greatly lacking. The only reason we used this dealership in the first place was because they had a lot of trucks/SUV’s capable of hauling a camper.
Buyer beware.