West County Volvo

My fiancé and I just purchased our first Volvo together as an «almost» married couple. Tom Calkins helped us find the perfect black 2015 XC60 for us! We LOVE our new ride! Tom was patient, understanding, energetic, and fun the entire process. My fiancé and I travel often and therefor, required a little extra patience from Tom – and he was just that, if not more, throughout the entire process. My family has purchased Volvos from Tom since I was a little girl. Tom has exceptional customer service and makes the entire experience enjoyable and fun! He is quick to answer my phone calls/​has outstanding communication skills and will take the time to work with you to ensure that you are happy with your purchase! I also love that Tom knows all the bells and whistles of Volvos! I feel confident when I leave Volvo with my new car, knowing that I know all of the features from what Tom taught me. Even my future mother in law asked me the other night, «How do you know how to work all these buttons in your new car?!» I said, «Tom Calkins» and a little help from my fiancé too! :-) Look no further than Tom! He is simply the best there is!!!

I had more oil service there also had my brake service there on Saturday October 10^th. They did a very good job they always have treated me fairly. Only problem was this time they just forgot to reset the oil light not a big deal they made every effort to make sure that I was taken care of when I get back from surgery and reset the oil light! Nice group of guys and gals.
Cheers

Warning: LONG Review: I took my vehicle in for service and in the AM my boyfriend took the time to call and confirm the appointment and VERIFY that I would have a loaner car. Guess what? I got to the service department and they didn’t have any loaner cars so they called Hertz (rental car company) and they picked me up — took me to their office — made me give them a credit card to put a hold on it in case of damages and let me know I would be responsible for refilling the tank. I explained the Volvo should take care of all of this and they said no. OKAY whatever.. .. I had to have a car with electronic seat adjusters since I“m 4’10 and they only had 1 car available and it had JUST arrived. I was in a hurry to get to a dr’s appointment so I told them not to worry about cleaning it and I’d just drive off. I wasn’t in a Volvo — I was in a Chevrolet Malibu (not a big deal except I was expecting a Volvo) and the company lied to my boyfriend. THEN when I went to pickup my car they just handed me a sheet and then pulled my vehicle up. I was expecting them to go over everything they did, what I’ll need in the future and answer my questions regarding tires and the water flying out of my hood. NOPE — heres your car.. .. What? HELLO — It’s called customer service! I then had to ask the cashier to answer my question and they brought me to my service advisor. I shouldn’t have to ask to get answers to my questions like that, ya know? ******I am on a quest for a good Volvo dealership in St. Louis!*****08/24/15 BEFORE: After moving here from Texas I was looking for the same A+ service I was used to receiving. The receptionist was accommodating and I wasn’t put on hold for very long which was nice but then I talked to service and learned something. I had asked for a reminder call or something and they said «we don’t do that here.» –Weird! — So I set up my appointment but they didn’t ask for my name, my phone number, my email or even my VIN. My last dealership would call, text and email me to remind me and it wasn’t overwhelming, just informative. I always felt important and that they *needed* my business. I guess since I only have 2 options dealerships here don’t feel the need to go above and beyond for their customers. Since I don’t really have any other options I“m going to service here but I miss my TX dealership already.

My husband and I were in the market for a Honda Pilot. West County Volvo had one that we were interested in. Before even looking at the vehicle we met with Tom in Sales and explained our situation in detail (credit challenges). We even provided him our credit scores, the fact that we were trying to stay around $ 1,000 down to start out and asked if it was possible to make the deal work or if we were just wasting our time. We were assured that he would be able to make it work. We looked at the vehicle, test drove it, filled out the application and gave them a deposit. It was closing time so they were allegedly unable to run our credit that day (my credit report states otherwise). We left with the promise that Tom would run everything first thing in the morning and give us a call.
The next day (Friday), after numerous follow up calls to Tom, he said that he was not able to make the deal work. We then went and found our own financing that night. Saturday morning we called Tom and let him know that we had secured our own financing and that we would be providing a down payment of $ 2400 between cash and trade in. We emailed him the loan documents (he confirmed he received them) and asked that he have everything ready for me to come pick the car up on Monday evening.
Monday at 4:50 pm I received a call from Tom asking about the loan that we had secured. It was obvious that he hadn’t bothered to do anything with it until then. I was on my way to the dealership so he stated that he was going to call the loan company. When I arrived at the dealership, again it was obvious he had done nothing. After making me sit and wait he ran around helping other customers and finally got the loan company on the phone. He went back to someone’s office to speak with them. When he came back, he stated that they were not able to give me the vehicle until they sent the paperwork to the loan company and they sent a check back. I mentioned that when we bought my husband’s car at Bommarito we had the same type of draft check with Capital One and did not have any issues using it. He stated that Capital One is a larger, reputable lender but that I was using one they hadn’t dealt with often. He promised they would overnight everything the following day (again, being too late in the day to be able to complete it that day) and that as soon as the check was received and cashed they would release the Pilot to me.
The following afternoon (Tuesday), I called to make sure the documents were being over-​nighted. Tom was out of the office of course. I spoke with Ken instead. He promised to check and call me back. When he called back an hour later he stated they were not going to accept the loan. I asked for an explanation and he stated that because the loan company charged the dealer a fee and required them to do paperwork with them and become a (gasp) provider for them, they didn’t want to do that. He stated the lender was predatory and they didn’t want to do business with them and did not want the business they would bring. In other words, they don’t want low class people in their dealership. Ken offered to work some numbers since we were able to put more down and said that he would call us back. Of course, he did not.
We continued on our search and on Wednesday were able to secure a loan with Capital One. My husband called and spoke with Tom and let him know we had financing through Capital One. He provided the loan amount, the down payment amount and the interest rate (9.4% on a 48 month loan). Tom told him that was great and to come in the next day (Thursday).
After arriving at the dealership, again got the run around and they stated they wouldn’t accept the Capital One loan either because they also charged fees and were also a «predatory» lender. They told my husband that they had a friend that worked at a bank and ran my husband’s credit AGAIN and came up with a «great offer» with 22.95% interest on a 54 month term. When asked why anybody in their right mind would take that deal when they had a much better offer in their hands, he was told that they wouldn’t be told who they had to use for financing. Funny how days ago they were unable to finance the deal and then suddenly their «friend» comes up with a «great offer». Wonder how much the friend’s bank and they were making on the back end of that deal! Needless to say, we did not buy a car from them.
RUN DO NO WALK FROM THIS SHADY DEALERSHIP!!!

I took my vehicle because of a recall on my vehicle. The staff is very friendly and was very helpful. The show room was clean and the receptionist was very nice.
There is also a small kids room with some toys to keep the kids occupied. While here, I began price shopping on some of the preowned vehicles and found that they were reasonably priced.
Overall I had a good experience here and would take my vehicle back for regular maintenance all the prices are high on maintenance but at a high-​end car I think it is worth the extra few bucks to make sure it’s done the right way by the guys who do it every day on these type of vehicles.

My immediate family or I have now purchased 4 different Volvos from Tom Calkins (2 for me and 1 for my sister and 1 for my parents). My first experience, I was walking around the Volvo lot around 10:00pm before going out. I had always liked the look of the new Volvo and was curious. A tall man approached me in the dark lot and chatted with me as if he were a fellow car guy. We «nerded-​out» on a few specs and narrowed in on a car; then he was like, wanna drive it? At this point, I realized this is either the best salesman in history or I am about to be an accessory to a crime and steal a Volvo. Luckily, it was a salesman!
The next day, I came back and bought a car. There were obvious times when I needed to bring the car for service (computer update, warranty repair, etc.); every time I brought it in, the service department was absolutely fantastic and easy. At no point have I ever felt «dirty» coming out of this dealership like I have at almost any other dealership with which I have done business (this includes BMW, Honda, Nissan, and the americans).
My parents were so impressed with my car, the service department, and my story of Tom… they bought a car from him. Later on, because of my parents and I, my sister bought a car from Tom. I just recently bought my second vehicle, a Volvo XC60. Once again, I had a wonderful experience and never ever felt pressured, but felt like family. Tom genuinely wants to take care of YOU and make sure YOU are happy. He works tirelessly and literally runs around the lot in order to help folks. The day I bought my recent Volvo, he was helping 3 – 4 other customers, I never felt slighted and they appeared to be extremely pleased, too! I am proud to say, it looks like my mother-​in-​law will be coming to sit down with Tom in the very near future to get her own XC60.
Do yourself, your family, or your friends a favor. Don’t waste time at other dealers or with other brands. Come buy a Volvo from Tom.

I leased an S-​60 back in 2011 from Tom Caulkins the superstar salesman at this dealership. Tom was great during the transaction and I absolutely loved the car.
My issue with West County Volvo was the service department. My lease included regular service on the vehicle for the 36 months it was leased and I took it in every 7,500 miles as per the service schedule. The first several times I brought the vehicle in the same guy did the intake. He seemed far more interested in what I was wearing in my drivers license photo than what the service needs of my car might be, not once suggesting optional service for the car. My assumption was that the Volvo service department knew what types of service the car needed and would advise as such. This guy didn’t once suggest rotating the tires on the car or anything else for that matter. The third time I brought the car in for service a different guy did the intake and his first comment was «Wow! When was the last time your tires were rotated?» My immediate reaction was, «I don’t know. When did YOU last rotate them because this is the only place I bring the car for service?» A very stressful power struggle ensued including the rest of the time I was there dropping it off, the phone conversation when the car was ready to be picked up and ending in my picking up my car after work at the service department. This phase of this rigamarole included me getting into a verbal confrontation with a guy who may have been the manager here who had the IQ of a gnat. He said many really ignorant things to me including that tires didn’t necessarily need to be rotated because they all touched the road evenly (what?) and that it wasn’t necessarily their responsibility to suggest tire rotation. The implication of this conversation was that I was a crazy angry female and he could say any stupid thing to me about cars and I wouldn’t know the difference. Fortunately, I saw through this good old boy game of his. Bottom line for me, the two rear tires (not the 2 in the front) needed to be replaced to the tune of $ 800 which they were happy to sell me. I said «no thanks» and went to Dobbs the following week. Interesting to note, my husband called Tom (the salesman who sold us the car) to let him know what happened and they talked briefly. Tom was to call my husband back to let him know about a possible resolution for this problem with the service department but he never did.
After this experience I refused to go back to the service department so my husband had to drop the car off for the last service appointment before the lease was up.
I returned the car and am not leasing or purchasing from West County Volvo again because of how poorly this situation was handled.

I did what I said I would. We bought a new Volvo from them a few months ago. That is now 3 cars in the past 5 years from West County Volvo.

We just bought a new S60 from Tom. He was great, he ran his but off for us, we were there on that Saturday when it was snowing like crazy in April! He scraped off cars and brought them up for us to drive, he was super. They gave us a good deal, and we will go back! We are looking for cars for others in the family and I will start there.

FANTASTIC experience, only reason for 4 stars is that the service center isn’t amazing and kinda pricey.
After a horrendous experience at Suntrup Pre Owned center (see review), these guys made it right, and got me into a quality car for a great price. From the initial call about the car to the final drive away, I was extremely impressed. This process did take a little while but it was mostly due to financing issues that were caused by the other dealership. They took in the lemon of the vehicle I bought from the other location and didn’t extend the price negotiation. My wife and I will buy all of our future cars from there (I wish all dealerships realized this when young people buy cars), and I would suggest if you’re looking for a Volvo, check them out.
FYI, they may be listed as Suntrup on some sites, but that is only due to sharing advertising revenue. These guys hate the other non volvo Suntrup dealerships as that family is apparently pretty screwed up. I love my 2007 S60, and can attribute a lot of my satisfaction to the process through which I got it.