General

In general car shopping is not our favorite thing.   Root canals aren’t far behind.   Sue and I set out and our car shopping day didn’t start out so well.  Our travels took us to Karl Malone Toyota where we were helped by a nice salesman who was obviously uninformed.  Everything he told us about the car warranties seemed odd.  When we questioned him, he just dug a bigger hole for himself.  I don’t think he was intentionally misleading us, just didn’t really understand what was going on.

Eventually we decided to have him work up some numbers on one of the Toyota Corollas that we drove.  He had been telling us all along that Karl Malone was at the dealership that day and we could go in and have our picture taken with him.  Sue wasn’t interested in a picture, but I jokingly asked if he really wanted us to do that, because we’d need to tell him about the warranty confusion.  He said that was fine.  So we went inside and were introduced to Karl.

First off, I should say that he’s tall.  But you were expecting that.  He’s also still in good shape.  We didn’t really intend to lay our concerns on the table, but then Karl asked us if we had a good experience shopping for cars that day.  Wrong thing to ask!  Sue has no qualms about telling lots of important people what she thinks, usually in a kind manner, so she told Karl that she was frustrated about the information we were getting about the warranty.  Karl tried to help us, but it was quickly clear that he was in over his head and asked our salesman to get the manager.

When we started questioning the manager it became painfully obvious that our salesman was completely wrong about all the warranty details he was telling us (no, Toyotas don’t come with a 5 year, 60,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty; that warranty is 3 year, 36,000 miles).  I finally asked to speak with the manager privately and went off to express my frustration at the incorrect information we had been given.   The manager corrected everything and about that time Karl wandered over to see what was going on.

I told him he could get the details from the manager, but Karl insisted on hearing the issue in person.  After hearing everything, Karl apologized and said that he wanted people to have a good experience buying cars at his place.  If we weren’t having a good experience, he suggested that we not buy a car from him.  He didn’t want us walking away from the experience frustrated; that wasn’t what they were all about.  I thanked him, said we would finish getting numbers on the car and our trade-in, and then we would leave and look at some other cars, and if we decided we liked the Toyota, we would come back.

That was surprising to us.  So often we are pressured to buy at car dealers and to have the owner of the dealership tell us his first concern was a positive car buying experience was a fresh view of things.  To then have him back it up by telling us to walk away was completely unexpected.   He could easily have blown everything off or just let his manager handle it.  But he was personally involved to ensure we were happy and we really appreciated that.  He’s “The Mailman” and he wanted to deliver.

So did we eventually buy the car?  No.  That might have been a nice end to the story, but we weren’t in love with the Corolla, and eventually bought another car later that day.  But we appreciated Karl’s attitude and involvement.  When I told a salesman at another dealership that we had met Karl Malone, they were surprised that he was actually there.  “You mean, he actually goes to his dealership?” was one reaction.  Not only was he there, but he was interested in what was happening.  Karl’s manager told me that Karl expects things to go a certain way and for the customer’s experience to be a certain way and when it isn’t, the results are not pretty.

I know some of you are wondering why he didn’t just give us a screaming deal.  I mean, he can afford it, right?  I’ve thought about that and concluded that although maybe he personally can afford it, his dealership still needs to make money to support the employees and he can’t just go around taking thousands off for everyone who complains.  Otherwise, everybody would be in there griping.  Instead, he gave us a reason to return.

Karl, it was nice to meet you and thanks for your involvement and suggestion.  While we didn’t buy from you this time, we feel like we could return there for our next car and know what you expect.