Toyota of Des Moines — Attraction in Grimes

It was 10 years ago this week that we purchased our Toyota Sequoia and it just turned over 200,000 miles. Toyota of Des Moines was at their location on Merle Hay Rd in Des Moines when we first purchased. Since then we’ve brought it back to them for every single oil change, every warranty repair and maintenance item. Apart from 2 incidents out of state, they have been the only ones to open the hood.

We’ve purchased a lot of new vehicles through these years. None of them are infallible. No dealer is perfect and mistakes can and will happen. So, what differentiates the good from the bad? When something goes wrong dealers will 9 times out of 10 deny any wrongdoing, any fault of their own and systematically blame everything on the customers.

What we’ve experienced in 10 years has been the complete opposite of what you could expect when things go truly wrong with a dealership. Early on we had a recurring issue which just could not be pinpointed. When it finally was discovered (by engineers at Toyota who came up from Kansas City no less) they full-heartedly admitted that this one bolt was the cause of all the problems. They showed us what it had done, damage it had caused and specifically why it had failed. Toyota then followed other Sequoias built around the same time to see if this issue with faulty bolts would happen to others. Luckily, it was not a “recall-type” problem for them. But amazingly, they told us the truth never lied to us. The manufacturer – Toyota Motor Company – handled everything with honor and respect. Never were we demeaned in any way. They assumed the costs of repairing the vehicle without argument. As for Toyota of Des Moines, they stood with the manufacturer and also treated us with the utmost honesty and sincerity. Another event happened 800 miles away on a trip. It was something silly which had been overlooked during service the day before and caused us to get stranded. We know the issue ended up involving not only the service department but the owners of the dealership. They arranged for us to continue our trip uninterrupted in a rented Sequoia and pickup our own Sequoia up a week later. It would have been easy to leave us to our own devices on those 2 counts, but this was never the case.

What we have found in 10 years and 200,000 miles is that Toyota is an incredible product with very few issues (we can’t kill the thing and it still regularly takes cross country trips without missing a heartbeat); But also we have been fortunate to deal with people at Toyota of Des Moines who do care, who make sure we are safe, take the time to look into every concern and treat our 10 year old “old gal” with the same respect as the new 1 year old Sequoia. Yes, we bought another new one when the need came up…after all we KNOW they are amazing vehicles!

Thank you, Travis & Shane for 10 wonderful years. Thank you for tolerating us. Thank you for the respect you’ve continually shown us. Thank you for taking care of all our friends and family we have brought to you over this past decade and treating them just as well as you have treated us.

The very best product in the world means nothing if the manufacturer won’t stand behind it. And above all, the best manufacturer in the world means truly little if the dealer has no integrity and can’t be trusted. Boy…did we strike gold with you guys! Thank you, we look forward to the...

I really wish I didn’t have to share this but I need to warn anyone who is thinking about buying a vehicle from this dealership to think twice - BUYER BEWARE!!! I bought a 2010 Ford F-150 from these guys 3 months ago and it has been nothing but problems since I bought it. It started the second I drove off the lot with having to put air in one tire. No big deal but the next morning I had to do it again. I texted the salesperson to ask if these tires were safe and as you will see in screenshot (I keep all texts and take lots of pictures) he assured me the vehicle had been inspected and tires were safe. After putting air in my tires every day for a week or so I had a blowout on the interstate which left me stranded during morning rush hour traffic and made me miss a day of work. I looked past it and bought new tires. Then electrical problems started, with lights not shutting off so then I had to start jumping the battery all the time. Then the transmission started slipping and leaking fluid so I take it in to a mechanic I trust and he tells me the transmission is garbage. I go back to Toyota and they say “go to our sister store Gabus Ford on Merle Hay, they will take care you”. So I take more time off work, show up to my appt at the Ford dealership and they told me it was going to be close to $300 just for the diagnostic!!! I take it back to mechanic to get fixed and spend more money. Then, about 2 weeks later I notice these spots in my garage and drive. The engine is leaking oil!!! Take it back to same mechanic shop and they suggest just trading it because it’s in such bad shape mechanically. At this point I am panicking because as I told the salesperson upfront, I bought this truck for work and NEED it to make money. I called Toyota service department and eventually spoke to the service manager Brock and he said it’s going to be $135/hour just for them to look at it. I’m at wits end here. I reached out to my salesperson again who put the used car manager in touch with me. He told me he was going to review my options and get back to me within a couple of hours. At this point I still have some hope that they will do the right thing since they are a big dealership with Toyota and Gabus name behind it. WRONG. I never hear back. I reach back out to salesperson and he suggests that I spend a “touch” more and sends me a link to a truck that is literally twice as much as I paid for mine!!! I let them know this entire time that it goes without saying I am going to share my experience with every single person I come across, social media, the BBB, etc. and could still be a positive review but that I needed them to do the right thing. It is very clear that based on their response their reputation means nothing to them, just as their customers matter nothing to them. STAY FAR, FAR AWAY FROM THIS USED CAR LOT. WORST...

Toyota of Des Moines keeps deleting my post. No worries. I’ll keep posting.

Please do not take your cars here. If I could rate this a 0, I would. Never have I been more disrespected as a young women before.

I showed up two days before to get an estimate of how much it would be to fix the broken hatch on the back of my car. This is the 2nd time it has broke now on my 2007 Prius. I did my research and found that this was a very common issue. I got a flat price of $250. Just to make sure they didn’t go back on their price, I checked again with another worker. Again, $250. I had two employees check the car and reassure me that would be the price. Later in the day I called again and made sure...again $250.

I drop off the car today, asking one last time what the price would be, as I’m going over the price one last time, the man nods his head at $250. So I think, great! 4 people just told me $250 and 2 employees looked at the car and verified it!

Get a call later that day. They couldn’t do it for $250...it’ll be close to $600. Keep in mind this is a 35 minute drive for me so I have already spent 2 hours of my time trying to get this car fixed. Now I get to drive another 35 minutes and back making it 3 hours. I’m a young college student, 21 years old, I can’t afford an almost $600 dollar fix. I never would have dropped the car off if I would have known that. I was told $250...multiple times! I pulled up google and showed that there were multiple issues on the trunk, knowing this was going to be a reoccurring issue, but they failed to acknowledge my concerns. As for my headlight on the right side, I pulled up the L.A. Times that stated Toyota had a lawsuit against them for this issue and I was still told that they couldn’t help me.

To make matters worse, I was extremely disrespected by Justin. He told me I was being rude and that he wouldn’t help me. He said I was never told a price of $250 and that there was nothing he could do for me. The words weren’t nice, yet the tone was said in such a disrespectful manner and demeaning way. Almost like ‘I can talk to you however I want because you’re just a 21 year old kid. What are you gonna do?’ I would have LOVED to see him talk to a 50 year old, 6 foot tall man the same way he talked to me. But no, because I’m a young woman, he knows he can talk to me like that.

Honestly, so disappointed and disrespected. I left so angry and hurt by the way this man and all the men inside treated me. Just because I’m in my 20’s and a woman does not mean I will just pay what you tell me.

I pray that a manager sees this and has a talk with Justin. I wish I would have recorded it. He and most of the other workers are leaving me with a bad attitude towards Toyota of Des Moines.

Moms, dads, young adults. Don’t take your car there. I cannot stress the amount of...