Premier Toyota of Newport

The Nikolaus K. who submitted the third Unilocal Review here is a person who works at this dealership, really poor form for him to give 5 stars where he works. if he does not get perfect service here it would not be surprising.
Bought a 2010 Nissan Frontier in Dec. of 2015, they charged me for a $ 700.00 5 year tire warranty on this vehicle. they said they told me, I would never have bought this. They sold me an extended warranty, the first Saturday I had it the ignition locked in a parking lot, called Langway and they told me to call AAA. Why did I purchase this policy? I was a mile away from the West Warwick Nissan Dealer, why did I go to Newport?
I paid for them to register the truck, they never called I went the day before the plates expired and was told the plates did not come downstairs yet?
The truck came with a fiberglass tonneau cover, never got a key for it and the pistons were the wrong size, had to replace them for $ 74.00. The aftermarket radio that is installed in the truck is not wired correctly, works like crap, useless garbage.
The tailgate does not open and close properly, it never sounded right and now that the warmer weather is upon us noticed it was bent in one corner and the paint was rubbing off.
Spoke to Nik (the third person who reviewed this dealer on Unilocal). and he told me he would take off the $ 700.00 from the tire warranty, but the attitude seems to have been that if it was a 2013 or newer car they would have inspected it more closely, but as it as only a 2010 they did not check everything. Buyer beware, shame on me for not doing my homework, shame of them for not doing their job.
Buyer beware here. proceed slowly and carefully.

The vehicle is wonderful, but the work ethic, accountability and responsibility of the employee’s at this dealership from the owner, to general manager to sales rep’s is extremely poor. Once you have bought a vehicle they truly do not care about you at all. I paid $ 348 dollars to have a vehicle registered out of state. Something that I could have done on my own and for SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper. And trusted that it would get done right, as I am in the military and was moving coast to coast I chose to let the dealership take care of it. What a HUGE mistake, they chose to do a registration transfer from my trade in, which is of course the CHEAPEST option available. And when they realized they screwed up, when they admitted that they had made a mistake I was actually told that it would be better if I just took care of it myself. So you basically told me you don’t care and go away. When I called corporate to try and work something out and make a report, SUDDENLY you want to try to reimburse me for the cost of registering my Truck ONE TIME, even though the NEW VEHICLE tags from my home state lasts 4 yrs and I will have to register the vehicle and pay for DEQ twice now… SO BASICALLY this dealership screwed me out of $ 348 dollars for THEM to register and another $ 172 that I WILL have to pay to register the vehicle. PLUS the time off work, PLUS having to MAIL IT IN since I am out of state cause I am in the US Navy. All this while moving my household and family the 3300 miles cross country and DEPLOYING overseas’s in the next week… Great Job Premier, GOOD JOB taking money from a regular hard working person. This has been an ongoing issue since I bought the truck in OCTOBER of 2015. This LITERALLY has ruined me for Toyota’s and I will NEVER buy another one EVER again. If you are looking to buy a vehicle while in RI, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!

I normally don’t leave reviews, but I thought I would share my experience. My husband and I were in the process of finding and purchasing a used Toyota FJ Cruiser. We found exactly what we wanted at Premier Toyota of Newport. Unfortunately the customer service is what drove us to purchase it elsewhere. We are in a unique situation because we are both members of the military. My husband is currently serving on an overseas tour so my daughter and I moved to Maine to be closer to my family while he is away. Although the vehicle was located in RI, its exactly what we had been looking for — a Trail Teams Special Edition, etc. We immediately contacted the dealer and was promptly helped by the representative Mark. He was very polite and had a willingness to help meet our unique needs. We asked if they would take lower than the asking price and they said no. Okay, we thought about it for a while and determined that’s fair. We decided that we wanted to purchase it anyway. We already had complete outside financing and 2k that we were willing to put down to hold the vehicle until we could make arrangements to ship it to Maine, or come get it. As I was talking to Mark on the phone, I asked him some questions, for example, if they had any shipping means (as some dealers do) and if they were willing to hold the vehicle for us. Mark assured me that they would be able to hold it and work something out as far as shipping, etc. I asked if he would talk to the sales manager, just to be sure there were no hiccups. He kept me on the phone as he went to ask the GM these questions for me. What I overheard was what ended the sale. The GM was not willing to hold the vehicle for me for any amount of time and for any amount of money. He told the sales rep that if I wanted the vehicle I had to come get it (talking about shipping — it was just a question I had of whether they have that service or not!) and he was just generally rude to the sales representative for trying to help us out. All in all, that did not leave us with a good feeling about making this purchase with this dealership. I understand that dealerships have certain things they can and cannot do, but the rudeness and unwillingness to help in any way two very interested and serious buyers (with financing already in place) was very surprising to me. Luckily we found another FJ Cruiser, Trail Teams Special Edition, same color, less mileage, 1k less asking price, and a dealership that knows how to work with their customers. Good luck.

My transmission went out on my Prius. The service advisor overseeing my paperwork was extremely nice from start to finish. I was given a rental, almost daily updates on the process and the car was finished in under four days. I really can’t thank them enough for the quality service and timely manner in which this was taken care of. Best Toyota dealership we have encountered.

Terrible service. Had my car for 3 weeks servicing a tire issue and returned my car with 3 service lights still on. Continuously told me that I would be kept updated and was not.

I’m thoroughly impressed. In 30+ years of driving (in aggregate) well over 1 million miles, I can only recall one prior (inevitable) «body shop experience» I was actually happy with – the fix of my BMW completed today now joins that VERY short list.
Net, net: Earl’s team nailed it – a fully detailed car, impeccable paint work, and «on point» communication along the way made for an exceptional transaction.

They used to be good when they were located at the smaller location at West Main Road in Middletown, RI until they relocated to East Main Road’s larger area prior to 2007. Now, they’re nothing but worms disguised as a good dealership that do not honor warranty. Avoid at all costs.

My husband and I have purchased a brand new Tacoma back in Nov 2014. All the lies this one particular sales person told us and rude!
We needed a car so we had to buy it from here with very limited time. Stay away if you can.

Do not trust this dealer! I purchased an extended warranty on my new Camry with a guaranteed refund if I did not use it. When the time was up, their response was «Unfortunately…» Song and a dance, blamed former owner. I bought my car from Toyota dealer at this address. If they sold to another individual, that person purchased both assets and liabilities — including the $ 900 I am owed and have lost to them. Please, for your sake, drive to some other Toyota dealer and buy where you can trust. Toyota’s are fantastic cars, but this dealer is a bad apple in the barrel.

I had much better luck with these guys than most of the reviewers. I was always treated well by all of the service advisors; the service on a year-​old used car I had purchased there was always delivered problem-​free, though occasionally past the promised time; my only reservation was the drabness of the waiting area.

They quoted me $ 2000 for repairs another shop did for less than $ 400!!! Oh, and apparently they don’t keep break line in stock– what kind of repair shop doesn’t have break line?

This is the greatest dealership I’ve ever dealt with. There customer service REALLY gets it done!
Through an internal miscommunication, they did not do one of the promised service items on an overnite job. When this was pointed out, they sent a driver to pick up my car, do the service and return it to my home, with no inconvenience to me.
Being in the customer service industry for 35 years myself, I was very impressed.

I owned a Toyota Highlander Hybrid for close to 120,000 miles and wanted to replace it with a newer model. Lew Goldstein, the GM of Premier Toyota, said he could help me find a good used Highlander Hybrid, and boy did he come through. He found me a 2010 Highlander Hybrid with less than 33,000 miles on it. The car was in such perfect shape that when I first saw it, I honestly thought Lew was trying to interest me in a new car even though he knew I was looking for a used one. Lew and the Premier dealership were really a pleasure to deal with — knowledgeable, responsive, attentive to my needs. I recommend them highly.

By far the worst car purchase/​lease experience I have ever had. If you are in the market for a toyota, do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. In my experience, Valenti Toyota in Westerly is far superior.
If you value your hard-​earned money and customer service, PREMIER TOYOTA OF NEWPORT is the WORST. STAY AWAY FROM THIS DEALERSHIP!
UNETHICAL. UNPROFESSIONAL. UNCONSCIONABLE salesmanship and service.

Premier Toyota of Newport is an objectionably bad dealership whose incompetence, neglect and unethical behavior I would not recommend soil the vehicle of any human being.
We brought our vehicle which had suffered mechanical problem and would not run. While the dealership did change the defective part under warranty, they were not forthcoming at all about the nature of the problem. We called and called and called to ask for a status report without any callbacks whatsoever. When we finally managed to reach someone, no one seemed to know what was going on, and two different people on the same day at the same time within 30 minutes of each other gave us wildly different estimates.
When the vehicle was finally repaired, we took it home only to be greeted with all the warning lights on the dashboard on. No, this was not just when turning the ignition, the vehicle just up and decided to turn on all its lights about 2 miles down the road from the dealership. So we brought it back and after much ado, they finally told us that the car’s electronic brain had died. How is this possible to kill an electronic brain? From what car knowledge I have I know that when you start changing out electrical connections grounding at times becomes critical and I strongly suspect that given their neglect and incompetence (read on) they were lackadasical in terms of trying to stay grounded.
When the car was repaired the second time, despite very few miles having been driven, the gas gauge was on empty despite the reserve light being on. This blows my mind how in a few dozen miles of driving they could have gone from half a tank, to half a tank the second time, all of a sudden to an empty tank, and my imagination can only speculate as to what happened.
On top of all this asinine behavior, the car had a distinct smell of tobacco inside which I am absolutely sure came from this dealership because no one in my family, actually no one that I know or frequent smokes, and the car did not have that smell before we brought it! Lastly, the dashboard and door handles were full of oil stains that were not there before we had given the car. And other Toyota dealerships in RI with which we have had good experiences have always detailed the car; the very least they could have done is give the car back in equivalent condition, and not left it as they did.
To add insult to injury, just a few days after we got our car back, we noticed a small but growing puddle of oil in our garage that was never there before. Yes, I stuck my finger in it and it looked, felt and smelled like oil, it was not air conditioning run off.
Dealerships have a bad reputation; often with good cause, but even given what can be expected of a car dealer, this is the worst singular experience that I have ever experienced. I would be terrified to leave a vehicle in their service and would advise the public at large to avoid this dealership for any transaction. Not only is their service bad, but the way they treat their vehicles while in possession of them (such as smoke inside of a car that is not theirs!) speaks volumes about how incompetent, neglectful, inconsiderate and simply dangerous they are. Stay away!

My husband and I bought a used car from Toyota of Newport the Summer of 2008. Initially we were really happy with our purchase and would have recommended Toyota of Newport to anybody. Shortly after, however, we had to change all four tires for safety reasons. Later when we had to get the cars’ sticker, our car wouldn’t pass the exam because of emissions.
To make things worse, we went through a great ordeal to figure out why our engine light was going on. Our mechanic referred us to the dealership, who checked the car, said «we don’t know what’s wrong with it,» and reset the light. Three days later, the light comes back on. Hundred bucks.
We’d love to have our car checked at the dealership because of the «lemon law,» but they are recommending replacing ALL the possible parts. $ 750.00. Our local mechanic in Boston has checked the car multiple times and thinks something may be messed up in the computer. Point being, if Toyota of Newport can charge us a lot of money doing everything over again and replacing every part, then they might scare us away and don’t have to face a computer problem or the liability of having sold us a lemon.
It’s always possible that Toyota of Newport could redeem their reputation, but our local mechanic has been a thousand times more helpful and more knowledgeable when it comes to our car. If it’s your local dealership and you can keep a close eye on them, okay, but don’t travel great lengths in case a problem comes up.

Not interested in customer service, particularly if your vehicle was purchased elsewhere.