Jenkins Northside Automotive

I went in to buy a car and was ready to pay CASH. They said the price would be 500 bucks more for paying cash. If I fiancé it, they would sell it to me for the advertised price.

I have purchased 3 vehicles from this dealership in the past year, 1 each for myself, wife, and daughter. The salesman, James Dodds, was honest and straightforward. The general manager, Keith Sundey, went above and beyond to be helpful. I highly recommend this dealership.

If you have kids and are worried about safety, reliability, and honesty, this is probably not the best place to purchase your next car; however, if you love living on the edge, have a death wish, or want to commit early suicide, I highly recommend this dealership. Read more for details…
This is a sales focused dealership that does a great job at selling, and a poor job at support and following through on its promises. They sold us a slightly preowned Altima with 30k miles. We were told the car went through its preowned checklist to ensure the car was in good shape prior to its sale; however, they did not repair any of the safety recalls prior to the the day we were going to buy the car. I am not sure how any car can pass any checklist when they forget to actually do the work to fix dangerous recalls. The day we came to finish the sale and pick up the car, they showed us paperwork that had details showing the completion of the recall work; however, this work had to be done all over again at another dealership because they didn’t actually document the recall work. When I contacted the dealership and sales team I dealt with, the only response from them was that they stood by their cars and all the work was done. That’s only the beginning.
The reason we had to to take the car to another dealership for repair was because the brakes were squealing; we were told buy the sales manager that the brakes were serviced prior to the sale of the car so it was probably only minor. So, we were really surprised to hear from Wesley Chapel Nissan that the rear brakes were neither functional, nor operational. So they sold us a car with no working rear brakes. Wesley Chapel Nissan made the repairs at no charge even though they were not part of the warranty; however, they forgot to actually fix the brake squealing issue and since Jenkins Northside promised to fix it as part of the sales agreement, we took it back to them to have them complete the work. Again I contact the dealership to get some help, they stood behind their car and refused to respond.
As part of the sales agreement, they promised to fix the brake squealing issue and provide us with an additional key which typically costs $ 400. The morning my wife went to bring the car to repair the brake squealing, they were also supposed to provide us with a second key; the people who were supposed to be there to help, didn’t show up that day. Again, great job of selling, bur poor support. Neither the sales person or sales manager where there to assist. Ultimately, they did follow through with fixing the brakes, but didn’t give us the extra key as promised. Apparently once they have your money, they don’t really care anymore.
If you are the type of person that is looking for a reliable car, from a company that cares about your safety, and believes that purchasing a car means great sales, empathetic support and excellent service, than you may want to choose another location to purchase a car.
If you are the type of person that is stacked in cash, has lots of time on your hands, and are not interested in good customer service, Jenkins Northside Automotive in Lakeland is the perfect place to purchase your next car.

I found a car at Jenkins on the internet, and drove there in my clunker, title in hand. Staff was attentive, and the test drive went well. The car was nicer than advertised, and priced on the high end of fair.
Long story short, they brought the price of their car down enough, gave me more than my car was worth on trade-​in, and beat my bank’s financing. I drove home in a new (to me) car for a good price.
The experience wasn’t stress-​free, but was at least low-​stress. I think a key is to be honest and straight-​up with the sales staff — I came to look at a specific car, didn’t waffle about trading in my old car, had printouts from four different price-​guide sites in hand, and was honest about what I could spend, and what was wrong with my trade-​in.