Toyota Universe — Attraction in Little Falls

BEWARE of this Deceptive & Unethical Dealership!! Sharing my horrible experience with Toyota Universe in Little Falls NJ. This review is more to bring awareness to potential vulnerable customers that may be subject to falling victim to their deceptive practices. This will by far go down as the worst car experience of my life (this being my 3rd Toyota purchase) and first time doing business with this corrupt dealership. If anything good comes out of my nightmare with doing bad business with this dealer, I am hoping my reviews and multiple outlets will at least bring awareness to hard working people from potentially falling victim their corrupt practices. I highly recommend steering away from this dishonest company! I have already started to share my negative experience with coworkers, friends, family, etc and I will continue to share my experience.

In my case, I desired a specific Corolla for quite sometime that I could not find with my ideal preferred color, model, and trim. I had procrastinated and delayed the purchase of a new vehicle for quite sometime because I lost my young Sister and within a short few years, most recently, I lost my Mother, both to Cancer. Sincerely, I am not stating this expecting any sympathy, however, I want to make it very clear that even at your most vulnerable, you are no exception to being a victim. My personal and painful experience with this dealership in a nutshell: A non-geniune team of hungry sharks that does not prioritize the consumer and does anything at all cost, even if its unethical standards, to make their number. That is all you are at the end of the day and I promise you, that is the feeling once you walk out of there! Bait and Switching of unrealistic numbers and deals to confuse the consumer. i.e. Put your initials here, let me talk to the higher ups above me to help you (In actuality, you are helping this coerced team justify that you fully understood the continous numbers they are manipulating and playing around with at your expense, however, the numbers are really not adding up or making sense).

10Sep25: (Correction to prices): I paid $49,000 because I put down $10,000. I was misled and now I overpaid for a car by $12,000 that is worth $35,000. 11Sep25: Edits made to correct prices and time using parentheses () and asterisks *

19Sep25: I did not read everything correctly and my friends had to help find out why the cost is so high. They realized that I signed up for extended warranty so including taxes, interest rate, and extended warranty which comes around $49,500. I increased the star to 3-star but I am still dissatisfied on how I did not receive a second key, did not get a hitch installed, and waited 5 hours for this process. The previous profile in the car was deleted so I have full access to my car.

I went in to get a RAV4 SE Hybrid but the dealership did not have that trim/model. I was told that XLE is very similar to SE so I drove the car with a salesperson and liked the car. I noticed that the car was driven 266 miles so I thought I could get a discount. I decided to buy an XLE and the first offer that was given to me was $41,499 with $500 off due to mileage (minus $10,000 down so total $51,499). I was told by the manager that this price is below MSRP. A few minutes after the manager walked away, I realized that Toyota's website listed the SE Hybrid around $35,000 so the XLE had to be below. I told the salesperson to check with the manager and the salesperson got back to me after talking to the manager. I was told that there was an error due to incorrect VIN number typed into the system- so the XLE is at $37,499 with $500 off ($47,499 total). I wanted to get a hitch installed in XLE so I told the salesperson at least 10 times that I need that installed. I was told that they could do it at first and then the salesperson started to dodge my request by saying that the manager will talk to me and the manager will explain. I was told that I will get Zero percent APR in the messages I got. When the offer was given to me, it was 6.99% at 72 months or 5.99% at 60 months. Zero percent APR only applies to people who have a credit score of 850 and I need to put 50% downpayment. After the offer, I told them that I need to trade in my car {Camry SE 2014} or else I am not going to buy the new car. I was told that they might not be able to trade it in. After talking to the manager, I was told my car is worth $1,800. Kelley Blue Book stated that my car was worth around $4,000. I decided to proceed with the car purchase. Once I was done with paperwork, I again asked if they installed a hitch. I was told that the service department was already closed, granted it was around 6:30pm (7:30pm since they close at 8pm)*. I also realized that I was only given one set of keys. So, I asked for the other set because a new car usually comes with 2 keys. I was told that they did not have it and will give it to me via mail which never arrived.

When I got home, I realized that the previous person who drove the car had created an account in the car which meant that I was not able to access most of the car features. I am unable to delete the previous account because the primary profile can only be deleted by the person who used this vehicle. I was very disappointed with my experience at this dealership. I got ripped off because XLE is $34,110 but I paid $34,499 ($44,499 total)* and my car was worth $4,000 but I only got $1,800. So, I lost about $5,000 ($12,000)*, I am missing a key, did not get a hitch installed, and locked out of car functionalities because someone else is logged in.

I hope my experience helps people to never go to this dealership. The manager should be either fired or I should get $5,000 ($12,000)* back from the dealership. I learned my lesson to never trust dealerships and always come prepared with pre-approved loans because start to finish, it was all about loans and payment plan. Never about the total cost of the car or how much money I will save based on APR and/or...

TL;DR: they tried to scam me twice, and they didn't even have the decency to have better customer service as they were trying to scam me. Go to Glen Toyota in Fair Lawn instead!

Background: I turned on my car and approximately 5-6 warning lights and messages popped up (including, the Check Engine, the following malfunctions, Pre & Secondary Collisions Systems, AWD System, and the Parking Brake). I took it to my mechanic, who tried to reset the system, then after connecting the scanner (which said the problem was on Cylinder 4), he changed the spark plugs and coils. Unfortunately, that did nothing. He said my two options are to either take it to a dealership to get it diagnosed (which he suggested). Or, he can call in a specialist to diagnose the problem, which would cost $500.

I took it to a Toyota Universe and had the service department check the issue. When I dropped the it off, I explained what was happening, and clearly told them what steps my mechanic already did to try to diagnose the problem. They called me back and said that they have to switch out all the spark plugs and coils, before they could even continue diagnosing the problem. They told me that it would only be $895. (To clarify, it wouldn't be $895 to fix or even diagnose the problem. Rather, I would have to pay them $895, to just continue with the diagnostic). I reiterated that my mechanic tried this already and we know that this is not the issue. However, they refused to go further unless I agreed to pay them the $895. So, I had to pay the $172 diagnostic fee, and drive it back to my mechanic, who made the appointment with his expert. The technician was able to find the issue (without changing out all the spark plugs and coils, and without doing a full engine teardown). He discovered that the #4 cylinder head was either cracked or warped, and leaking coolant into the engine. He documented the problem, including taking pictures of the leak. My mechanic then showed me that the NHTSA has a recall from 2/6/2020 on the 2019 Rav4 for this issue However, When I brought it back to the dealer on, they said they don't see any recalls in their system, and that they would only comply with Toyota recalls, not with NHTSA recalls. They also refused to accept my mechanic's examination and discovery of the problem. They said, per their policy, they have to do it themselves. (While I don't agree, I do understand that they are trying to protect themselves.) However, even though I was able to show them EXACTLY where and what the problem is due to the pictures my mechanic gave me. They said that they can't trust it, and in order to diagnose the problem, they have to do a complete engine tear down. They said that it would take a MINIMUM of approx 15 hours. I would have to pay the hourly fee while they took apart my engine, and however much it would cost to fix it.

While I understand the basis of not relying on a non Toyota mechanic. However, in this case, we knew exactly where and what the problem was, and they could have just double-checked that, instead of claiming that they have to fully take apart the engine.

I obviously did not have them fix my car. I called Toyota’s main number, the corporate reps I spoke with were helpful. However, when they got through to the dealership, the service department gave them a new time estimate to check my engine (they still refused to just look at the problem), they told the reps that it would only take approx 4 hours. I understand if the est they gave the corporate reps was 1, or 2 hours different than what they gave me. However, unless the company made them go to an amazing time management seminar, there is no way there should be an ELEVEN hour difference in the estimates. This means that they tried to scam me a second time

I went to Glen Toyota Service department in Fair Lawn, and got it fixed...