If I could give 0 stars, I would. What a terrible experience my mother and I shared yesterday. We arrived at AutoNation Ford in Arlington around noon with the intent to test drive 4 vehicles. We were greeted and approached by a new employee, Ivan. He was so new, he didn’t even have his Ford polo or business cards yet. However, Ivan was the ONLY employee who seemed to care about servicing us. Ivan asked the typical series of questions when considering a new car. He was very thorough and personable. He informed us that we’d only be able to test 2/4 of the vehicles I wanted, due to one recent sale and the other being in Fort Worth. That’s fine. Ivan’s trainer, Mark Castillo, then involved himself in the process. I already shared my wants- one of them being a newer used vehicle (2019-2020), “the newer the better” to Ivan. However, Mark tells him to show us a 2018 Edge, because it’s “super clean” and ironically Mark informs us that he was the previous owner. Not what I wanted, but sure I’ll drive it. Mark asks me if he can make me the deal of a lifetime, would I be willing to buy it. And I said it would have to be one hell of a deal and one hell of a car. It takes forever for Ivan to get the keys, but that’s fine, we were patient. Upon initial inspection of the car, my mother and I knew this wasn’t the “car of a lifetime”. The exterior paint was damaged on the tail rear and right front. One of the tires (also on the right) was significantly duller than the others…in other words, we could tell it had been in some kind of accident. Nonetheless, I gave it a local spin. Unfortunately, due to his inexperience, Ivan really couldn’t answer many of our questions as it related to different features. I won’t fault him for that, because I already knew enough about the vehicle and he is new. But even the CarFax provided in the vehicle wasn’t current. For example, there was a 12k difference in the reported mileage on CarFax and the odometer. We return to Ivan’s cubicle and Mark inquires our thoughts on the vehicle. I guess he was surprised that we…didn’t like it. So he tells Ivan which Explorer to pull for us next. It took Ivan twice as long to bring up this car than the first. I’m talking close to a 30min. wait. So I just knew THIS would be the vehicle I’d have to take home with me! WRONG. 1st red flag- Ivan warned us that the interior “needed some work”. 2nd red flag- There wasn’t a pricing sticker in the window of the car. 3rd red flag- The interior contained Cheesecake Factory food containers and half eaten FOOD was out on the floors and seats, front AND 2nd row!! It was sticky. It smelled. My mom literally had to warn Ivan not to sit in one of the seats because the food would stain his shorts. It was absolutely disgusting and unsanitary! I didn’t even want to test drive it. But for as long as we waited, I also didn’t want to refuse this one. Because who knows what the next one would look like. We’d gone from bad to worse. This Explorer was over driven and the ride was terrible. When we came back inside, they had us wait again to draft up a sales pitch, as if nothing was wrong with either vehicle! When we shared our horrifying experience with Mark and Ivan, they had nothing to say. We were there for THREE hours. Those were the best vehicles you all could show us? Is that what you show potential customers?! AND during Covid-19?! Maybe they didn’t want our service? As a Black female, coming from a family of sole Ford car drivers (70 years+ for my family), and A-plan carrier, my mother and I have NEVER felt more insulted and disrespected by a dealership experience. I feel so bad for poor Ivan being trained by Mark Castillo. He won’t get any sales showing folks cars like those. I was actually a previous customer of AutoNation Ford for services, and now I won’t be returning to Arlington for service OR a sale.
Melanie Alexander
Sep 18, 2021
