Germain Toyota of Columbus

I arrived at this place in my old Ranger after a horrible experience at Ricart (you can see my review on their Unilocal page). It was laid back and calm… no swarming of sales people. A very nice young lady asked if she could help… I told her I was looking for a truck, price point, ect. She says she has a few, and as we are walking out we introduce each other, shake hands… her mane was Veronica A., and we start looking at a couple trucks. I find one I really like, another few year old Tacoma with low miles. She asks if I would like to drive it, I said yes, and she hustles in and gets the keys and hands them to me. I ask if she needed any ID, or to copy my license, and she saws naw, just go ahead. Outstanding.
It test drives fine, I look it up on the innerweb, and they are a little bit on the high side at $ 18,299. I tell het that, and she says this one is already discounted, and they (finance) usually dont come down on discounted sales, but she says she will do her best as I give her my offer of $ 17.5k. She comes back within minutes, and said if I buy today, they will do it! I said, but the last thing I need to know, is how much for my Ranger. She says its in the back getting looked at, and just a few minutes later, she come back…$ 1500. I was elated! I mean, the full retail on that old truck was probably $ 1200, so the knock another $ 1500 off! Outstanding!
I tell her Im paying cash, and she politely asked if there was anyway I could get a bank check instead. I said sure, but (of course) Id have to over to the bank. She said great… why dont you go ahead and take your new truck! Outstanding!
20 minutes later, and Im on my way! I cant tell you how nice Veronica was, and how smooth and fast everything went. Even the facility was nice… large screen TVs, and free drink station, a children room, and comfy seating.
5 stars, I would most certainly return.

I take my 2011 Toyota Camry here for service. They do a great job and always have a coupon available. My only issue is with the varied wait times. There are times when I am in and out in less than an hour and other times when I have to wait for over an hour. Less than an hour should be standard for an oil change. Other than that, I am a loyal customer.

They were super helpful and patient with me after the horrible experience I had at Toyota West (they tried to sell me the same car I got here for $ 2000 more for some reason). The guy that dealt with us was very patient, showed me like 10 cars before I made my decision, didn’t harass us like the other dealer and let us sleep before making any decisions. He even texted after we got the car to see if we needed anything else. If was a good experience overall.

I was in the market for a new car but am «credit challenged» and am working on rebuilding my credit. I went to a couple of dealerships including the «worlds largest» here in the Columbus area and nobody could get me financed. at least without a huge down payment. I decided to make a drive to Germain and met with Austin in new car sales, I expressed my desire to trade in my current car, not go much over what I was currently paying and to have a zero down payment.
I filled out their credit app and he came back a few minutes later and said I was approved and we went out and looked at some Corollas. We test drove a Corolla LE, which was fine but I was not sure and had an appointment at another dealership and told him I would get back to him. While waiting for my appointment at the other dealership I downloaded the Truecar app and it quoted me the Corolla S plus for the same or a bit less than the LE at Germain, I called him and he called me back in a couple minutes and said they could do it.
I arrived back, we found the color I wanted in the S plus model and I drove it, I agreed to the terms and into the finance office I went. We did the paperwork and I was on my way.
All in all it was a good deal, I do have a couple concerns that I will mention and this is why I could not give it a five star review.
1. I felt pressured to buy the GAP, I said a couple of times that I did not want it but felt pressured and ended up buying it.
1A. To add to the pressure, the survey I felt pressured to give all perfect ratings regardless of my true thoughts.
2. I expressed very strong that I was not interested in a spot delivery deal, iv had a bad experience with one in the past. I was not told until I was in the office that it was a spot delivery with a 21 day right to rescind the deal on their part if they could not get the financing finalized.
3. After the sale, I had a hard time getting anyone to return my phone calls with questions about the financing which made for a very stressful period for me, but to their credit it was the weekend after New Years day.
To add a huge positive. I was called today to come in and sign more paperwork, I won’t lie, that concerned me after what I read online and my experience with spot delivery. Due to the bank terms, the terms of the loan were reduced 15 months from 75 months to 60 months and the payments are a bit less, so it worked out and I am paying less over all for the car.
I will use Germain again and would recommend them to anyone in need of a new car, I just hope that they will work on their communications in returning calls and not pressure people into buying the GAP or to give perfect surveys.

Short and sweet: I trust Toyota brand cars. My previous car was an Echo. I had all my maintenance done here. Bought a new Scion in June. Happy with the service and explanation. Don’t feel like they are trying to up-​sell me. Customer loyalty is great here!

Great service at Germain — made an appointment online (so easy to do) and got taken care of right away. They estimated it would take 1.5 hours to do a 5K maintenance on my Prius, which was fine because their WiFi kept me occupied. They have a good waiting room with TV and coffee. They did keep to their estimated time and they washed my car inside and out as comp service (thank goodness because my car was so dirty). I was lazy about putting my front license plate on and they went ahead and helped me with that for basically no charge. Everyone I talked to was very friendly. Price is a little high I think, but they are knowledgable about my car. I used to go to Jiffy Lube which was faster and cheaper, but I didn’t really trust them to know what was going on with my Prius. I can’t speak for the car shopping side for Germain, but I like their auto service.

I took my toyota here for a little check up. After a disappointing visit to tansky when I had to take my car in for active recalls, I decided to try this location. My dad helped me look up credible car shops, and even though tansky is way closer to me, I drove the extra 20 minutes out here to germain.
When I first got there, I kind of just stood around confused. There were a few gentlemen with name tags just talking to each other and no one asked me if I needed help. So I literally just kept standing and looking around for someone at a counter to help me. Finally a man asked me what I needed and I said I had an appointment to have someone to look at my car since it had just recently started making funny noises seemingly from the front right passenger side wheel. They registered me quickly, and I left it there for about an hour. I was picked up and out while they looked at it, which was nice, since they offered to just call me with any questions or if they found any problems. Sure enough, there were tons of problems. A nice man named Mark spoke with me, and broke everything down for me over the phone. Overall I needed 8 things done to my car and it would cost ~$ 1,400. I immediately started panicking and asked if I could just call him back after I’ve had a chance to go over my finances and what I really wanted done. They closed in less than half an hour, but he didn’t rush me and said to just call back whenever I needed. I spoke to my boyfriend and my dad (I am NOT car savvy at all) about what the critical repairs were, and what other maintenance procedures could wait a little longer.
Finally I called him back with what I wanted done, with it totaling just under $ 900. When I was done, Mark encouraged me to really get one of the other repairs that I had nixed, even in place of one that I had approved. Even though the one he was pushing was cheaper — it was because he really thought it was in the best interest of my car. I trusted him and ended up just getting both done. I think he could tell I was a little stressed out, and since it was my first visit, he gave me 10% off the entire total, saving me about $ 90. The estimated time for my car to be done was the next day in the evening, which was fine with me. But Mark himself actually called me the following MORNING to tell me it was done and that one of the technicians had stayed late that night working on my car. I thought that was really nice, but still couldn’t pick it up until later that afternoon. No big deal at all, and they said it would just be there all day whenever I was ready.
Overall a nice experience with this company and their employees. Picking up my car and paying was quick and easy (easier than when I had first arrived and waited for someone to even acknowledge me.). And I will be returning here if I ever have any other car issues!

A great experience turned somewhat sour.
Germain Toyota was my last hope before heading home; it was my third Saturday trying to find a used car. I had my car-​inclined brother go with me each time. As most people know, shopping for a car is almost as bad as looking for a new job, only the roles are reversed and you can bring support. My brother mentioned he had purchased from Germain Toyota multiple times and knows one of the salesmen pretty well. It was August 2, so I had high hopes of getting a beginning-​of-​the-​month deal on a used car.
When we arrived at Germain Toyota’s used car office, we saw a salesman standing outside the entrance. We parked and greeted him. His name was Johnny, and he was friendly and easy-​going. After discussing what I was looking for, we followed him back to the used cars to start browsing. My brother mentioned that he knew one of the salesman, which Johnny said was now the General Manager. Sweet!
Johnny showed us two cars that met my criteria. The first car had barely enough gas to drive up to the office entrance, where we parked and waited for Johnny to fetch a worker to ride with us to a nearby gas station, fleet card in-​hand.
The second car was beyond my budget, but I wanted to test it because, well, I have a Y chromosome. This one had gas, so we drove off the lot and zipped around the freeway. I liked it, though I couldn’t afford it, but our salesman wanted to see what he could do for me. He brought us to his desk to wait while he worked something out with Financial. The General Manager, who knows my brother, came in during this time, and Johnny must have mentioned my brother, because he came back with a great deal. So great, in fact, that I jumped on it, and while we waited for a financial manager to become available, the General Manager came out and chatted with us.
My financial manager was nice and informative, but he went through the process quickly. I could tell he was very «good» at his job. It was my first time buying a car, and I was a bit intimidated. He told us about their GAP Coverage for $ 500, and I agreed to it because it raised my payments only a few dollars.
When everything was signed and settled, I headed outside with keys to my new car. While Johnny was removing my old license plates, I went to my new car and got inside. I noticed the gas tank was full. Johnny is awesome.
A week after my purchase, my financial manager called to tell me the lender did not approve my loan because I didn’t have a long enough credit history. The good news, he said, was that he called in a favor with another lender with an even better interest rate. I asked him what my new payment was with a lower rate, and he said it was the same. «Huh!?» I thought. He told me I needed to come in to sign the new papers, but Germain Toyota is about 20 miles from where I live, so I asked if he could mail them, and he did.
Upon receiving the new papers, I discovered that my new lender was US Bank, which I despise, and the reason for the same monthly payment was because US Bank has substantial fees added into the cost, so they had to lower the interest rate to meet my initial payment. I told myself, «No way.» I spoke with my bank to work something out; after all, I knew I’d be most comfortable with my own bank, especially since their GAP Coverage is only $ 279.
My bank gave me good terms, so I agreed. I called Germain Toyota to have the PO faxed to my loan officer. My original financial manager was not in the office, so I spoke to a different one. He brought up my information and faxed the PO right away. By the following Saturday I was at my bank signing the papers. Unfortunately the troubles weren’t over.
It had been two weeks so far, so I had two weeks to get the memo title to get my plates. I knew it would be longer since it took two weeks to work out the financing, but I called the dealership numerous times to inquire about the status of the title. When I called for my financial manager, he wasn’t in the office, so the receptionist would transfer me to someone who was. I left multiple voicemail messages regarding my title, but no one ever called me back. My bank even told me they hadn’t received it either.
When the month ended, I had no choice but to get a second 30-​day plate. It cost me $ 10.50 that I never should’ve had to spend, and I continued calling the dealership. I left a message for one of the Title officers and she called me back. She was very friendly and apologetic, claiming she was never told that I needed the memo title; she thought I had transferred my old license plates. She told me when she mailed the memo title, and, when I asked about being reimbursed for my 30-​day plate, she said I would be getting a check in the mail as well.
My experience with Germain Toyota would’ve been smoother had I purchased a car before, but I would do business with them again if they happened to have a car I was interested in.