AutoNation Ford St. Petersburg

In August of 2015 I stopped in to inquire about a 2016 Mustang GT350 at Autonation Ford St. Petersburg and was told by the Sales Manager Kenneth Bruning that they had 3 cars allocated to their dealership when they are released from Ford, and only ONE person was on the list. I asked how I could be number 2 so Kenneth had me fill out my info and said when they are available I’d be called in to move forward. I called in several times over the next 2 months only to find out on my last call in Nov that they BUMPED me from the list and said they lost my information! He further stated that the second car when it came in was going to be a lot car for showcase and not sold for some time. Wait, isn’t that my car? Wasn’t I number 2? Long story short, I can not get on a list anywhere without being number 30 or more and thus I will not be able to buy this car, as they are all sold out and not sure if they will be made for 17. I BET, if this were a regular car Ford would be beating down my door to buy it, but since they have much more demand over supply they are treating me like this. IMO, I think Kenneth bumped me for a friend, favor, or perhaps a person willing to pay more. This is bad business Autoway Ford of St. Petersburg, and I hope anyone reading this doesn’t buy from you and let’s you know about it. I’ve purchased 4 new automobiles, three over 45k each since 2011, and was looking to add the GT350 and a few fleet trucks to my list this year. I will also be contacting corporate to let them know how you treat your customers, as well as posting on every possible social media and news outlet I can find. Had you not strung me along, perhaps I could have been placed on another list from a different dealership and been driving my GT350, thus avoiding the negative feelings I am having towards your business.

This review is for the Colission Center.
I recently took my 2013 Chevy Cruze in for a repair on 6/​30, a few minutes after the accident. The estimate was quick, but they could not get my car in for repair until Monday, ⁷⁄₆. Dennis Rolland was the estimators name. I was told it would take roughly 40 – 45 hrs to complete the repairs to my car and that I should expect to get the car back in about a week. This included having the rear passenger quarter panel cut out, a new one welded in, fill and paint. I dropped the car off on ⁷⁄₆ and I was told that it should be ready around ⁷⁄₁₃.
I received a call on ⁷⁄₁₅ that they had an issue and there was a delay. They ordered a quarter panel from a junk yard, but the piece that came in was incorrect so they had to order a whole side of the car from Chevy and cut the piece out that they needed. I think this was due to being a RS model, but either way, the time estimate and parts estimate were not correct. I was informed at that point that they were just then welding the section in and it would likely be another week. So now it went from 1 week to 2.
I waited another week and was called on ⁷⁄₂₃ or 24 and I was told my car was ready for pick up. I drove there only to find multiple issues with the repair. After inspecting the work, there were 3 issues. The first issue was there was silver paint over spray on my trunk carpet. The second issue was the bumper had torn paint right where the tail light mounts on the bumper. There was nothing wrong with the bumper and it should not have been repainted. The third issue was the rear seat belt was twisted up and reattached. I had one other small issue, that the fuel door seemed loose where it was attached, but I was dismissed and was told it is made of plastic and there was nothing they could do about it. This was aggravating as the material construction has nothing to do with how rigidly mounted the fuel door is. They could have simply responded with, we can take a look at it, but it was dismissed. Not the best feeling. I told Dennis this was not acceptable and these things needed to be fixed. He agreed they were pretty bad oversights on the shops part. I asked if he could get this fixed quickly, but was told it would like be another 3 – 4 days. This delay would put it into the next week, a full 3 weeks after I dropped the car off for a 1 week repair.
I was called on Monday, 7/​27, to pick up my car. This would be 3 weeks since they had it and I was hoping it would be right. I drove there after work and it was raining that day. I called ahead and asked if they would have the car in a dry spot and dried off so I could inspect the repair when I arrived. I pulled in the parking lot and my car was sitting out in the open, wet and not dried off. I walked in and spoke with Dennis. He said sorry we couldn’t dry it off, but grabbed a towel and handed it to me to dry the car off. Pretty poor customer service if you ask me. I inspected the repairs and they looked acceptable. Then I noticed scratches all over my tail light lens. I pointed these out to him and he said he would take them back to be buffed out. It was obvious they did not take care of the lens when it was removed and scratched up the lens surface. For a shop that does this all the time, this should not have been overlooked. Dennis brought the car back out and the scratch was buffed out. The paste wax was still partially on the lenses, so I wiped it down. They couldn’t even clean up after themselves after making the repair. I was informed that they were not supposed to paint the bumper originally, but they went ahead and repainted it after they screwed it up the first time. I was aggravating and tired of dealing with them, so I took my car after 21 days of it being in their shop.
Once I got home, I was looking at the inside of the car and noticed dust all over the interior. It was on the rear view mirror as well as the grab handles. There were also a bunch of threads from the welding blanket stuck to the headliner. There were fingerprints all over the rear window as well. It was obvious they did a lousy job cleaning up after doing the repair. I would have thought the car would have been detailed after the repair, but I guess they leave the clean up to the customer after they are done making a mess. I also found that they manged to puncture a hole in my custom fit sun shade. It was left in the car during the repair and they apparently did not take good care of it when they removed it. It was fairly new and wasn’t cheap. As you can see, there were constant issues and oversights with this repair.
In the end, I gave them two stars instead of 1 simply for the fact that they completed the job and it looked decent, but required way too much babysitting. The time and cost estimate were wrong and the constant issues with the repair would lead me to suggest others to find a different body shop for repairs. It should not have to be this difficult if you are their customer.

Wanted to purchase a 2016 Ford Mustang GT350 and was told they would be charging an outrageous $ 5,000 over the M.S.R.P! Due to this unfair price gouging, I under no circumstances would recommend this dealership to any of my friends, family or co-​workers. We can only theorize that this practice of overcharging is carried throughout all of their products and services and is obvious they care more about outlandish profits than fair deals for the consumer.

Made an appointment and had previously spoken to the manager and salesmen, when I showed up they did not remember me having an appointment. Then I was pawned off on the new guy who did not have any knowledge of the cars or the current deals on the cars. Horribly unprofessional dealership, will never go back.

I loved my experience here. They were so easy to work with. Ben Cope is the friendliest guy and he made everything hassle free. I’m definitely recommending this dealership to others and I will be coming back.

The Autonation service staff is friendly and fixed my vehicle the same day. However, the prices are very inflated! Cost $ 825 for alternator & battery. They also neglected to ask about my Ford rewards card which would have given me 5% service rebate. Quoted $ 131.95 for brake flush, same service at Gator Ford (off I-​4 east of Tampa) is only $ 99.95. My car died in St Pete & insurance would only cover tow to nearest Ford dealer… but I’ll drive the extra 7 miles to save money with friendly staff at Gator Ford.
Also discovered wiper blades $ 5 less & battery $ 40 less at Gator than amount quoted/​charged at Autonation. The savings add up!

Purchased a used truck a couple months ago. Iggy was the salesman great guy recommend him. So having my first service done appt was at 9am was told hour and a half. Not bad for memorial weekend.

Had a very good experience here on an Explorer Sport with their sales person Donyelle Williams. This is in stark contrast to the folks at Bill Currie Ford in Tampa where their sales people mostly have no knowledge of the products they’re supposed to be selling and basically lose interest in even carrying a conversation if you’re not buying «today».
I came in without an appointment, Donyelle spent a lot of time going over Explorer features with me and although they didn’t have the specific model I was looking for on the lot, he showed me the different features I was interested in on other vehicles that had them so I’d know how they’d work when they were all together in one vehicle. We did a test drive and he gave me his cell phone number to get updates on an inbound model like what I wanted.
I did not end up purchasing a Ford in the end but he was knowledgeable, quick to respond to texts asking further questions after my visit and polite when I let him know I had decided to purchase something else. Would not hesitate to visit again in the future next time I’m looking for a vehicle.

I highly doubt we’ll ever go back here for service. Everyone was friendly enough but parts were around $ 462 and service was $ 588 for what they had to do to the car. My service rep said he «gave us the lowest labor rate to save us money.» I’ve never heard of different labor rates before so make sure you ask for the «lowest» if that’s actually a thing. It took two days for them to repair my vehicle, which is understandable for what they had to do but I was in the waiting area for over an hour waiting to get a ride to work. They only had one courtesy van driver on hand and it was right after Thanksgiving, so I’ll cut them some slack there but it’s a very good thing I have an understanding boss. No military discount, no discount for paying in cash. We’ll be keeping it local from now on.
***EDIT: The sales manager called me today, I assume he saw this review. They do have a military discount and they are sending me a refund for the discount we didn’t receive originally. I really appreciate that they reached out like that.