Billion Auto – Honda in Iowa City

We started leasing a Honda CR-​V 2013 from Billion Honda back in January 2013. That was our first encounter with Billion. We’ve returned numerous times for regular maintenance and cleaning. I’ve found their sales, service, parts, and finance team to be knowledgeable and friendly. The shuttle service is very helpful. I was originally hesitant to go to Billion because I’d seen a 1-​star review that made the dealership sound pretty bad. I’ve learned not to judge a business based on the actions of one or two employees.
UPDATE: It’s December 2015 and we made it through our three-​year lease. I originally gave Billion a four-​star review. As of December 2015, I’m upgrading the rating to 5-​stars. The past three years have gone well. We decided to continue with Billion.

Along with my man Austin B, this is one of the few one star reviews. Our experience started out just fine as the salewoman — Jill — helped us find a few cars that were what we were looking for, but as soon as we sat down, that ended.
One of the sales managers — Tom Lampe — came out and started talking numbers. They did the standard come in and then leave to run the numbers bit and we had no problem with that. Totally get how the game works and even the fact that they didn’t move on the price didn’t bother me. It was when we discovered they were putting additional items into the loan numbers and not telling us that we decided we’ll never be back here.
Here’s how things went down. They wouldn’t budge on the price and kept increasing the down payment and extending the loan. Standard procedure, we’re fine with it. Below is what was written out.
$ 29,999+ tax/​fees
-$ 5000 down
60 months @ 2.9% = $ 500/​month
+ honda care package
I asked about the honda care package and how much it was. Answer = $ 2K. I asked if we could take that out and said $ 27,999 was a closer price to what we were looking for, to which I was told, «The honda care is in the monthly payment». Translated, Tom Lampe was adding to my total loan amount in a totally round about way, without telling us he was doing so. When I called him on it, he informed me I must have misunderstood and retreated to his cave to run more numbers. They do the honda care work in house as well so I’m sure he gets a cut of everything they do. In the end, we obviously didn’t reach a deal, but he told me they wanted to earn my business. They will not be.
I expect car salesman to have a certain persona, but this was over the top even for someone in the business. I just wonder how many people haven’t really broken the numbers down and been swindled out of the money (Note that $ 2K @ 5.5% over 6 years is about $ 2350 you get to pay back).
We’ll be taking all of our business elsewhere as the last thing I want, even from a car salesman, is someone who won’t tell me the truth about what I’m paying for when they’re selling me something. Double stamp!

Ahh, my first 1-​start review. I’ve waited for this day.
See, auto dealers are a lot like cable companies. People hate them. Hate hate hate them. See the last guy, who went to the trouble of writing reviews for as many Billion Auto addresses as he could find. I wish I could say he was wrong.
My first straw was the last straw with Billion a couple years ago. I took my car to them for an OIL CHANGE a couple days before Thanksgiving. Made an appointment and everything. I believe I was at the dealer for TWO GODDAMN HOURS as they went over the car with a fine tooth comb to find everything wrong with. Along with the oil change, they also gave an estimate of close to $ 1000 for everything that was wrong with it.
Well, I fixed the critical stuff myself with $ 150 in parts from Autozone and also decided to start doing my own oil changes too. Billion Honda is pretty despicable, don’t take your car there for any work, as your cornhole is the only thing they will really service.

Ever since Billion bought this dealership, their service has been appalling. I tried to contact the service department, and twice no one answered the phone and I got disconnected. It used to be pretty easy to get a service appointment and now it’s a matter of a couple weeks. They are rude, unaccommodating and it seems that they must not have enough people working there anymore. I will not buy another car from them.