City World Toyota — Attraction in New York

TLDR: Try another dealership if you must drive a Toyota. I presented to CityWorld Toyota on May 9th 2025 to trade in my former lease on a 2022 RAV 4 and lease a new vehicle. I worked with Daniel Boakye who did not give me the MSRP sticker of the 2025 RAV 4 Hybrid I intended to lease (which is illegal in NYS). He worked with the sales manager Leo Bonetti. They both did not disclose that the car would be several thousands of dollars above the MSRP sticker price. I was rushed to sign agreements without being told the numbers. There was never an agreed upon value for the car on the first page of the lease agreement I received. Upon later inspection of the lease agreement the agreed upon value was listed as $46,501 which is well above the suggested retail price of $38,444 which was a value not previously disclosed to me (the issue is not that they added $8,000 to the suggested retail price, the issue is that they did not disclose this to me, which is illegal). I was told I HAD to put money down (which is not true) so I put $5000 down for the car but did amount ended up not applying to taxes, fees and did not bring down the value of the car so they essentially just took an additional $5000 from me. I said I wanted to pay no more than $500 a month initially which Daniel Boakye said was impossible due to the tarrifs (another lie) and he said the lowest I could do was $650. Leo Bonetti and Daniel Boakye assured me that I would pay no more than maximum $650 a month before taking my card for the down-payment. I then went to meet Julio Escobar the finance manager who said that the front and back of the store had different functions and there was no way I could pay $650 a month unless I paid taxes and other fees upfront which was AGAIN not disclosed to me. The monthly payment ended up being $759. I returned to the establishment later that same day saying that I felt I had been defrauded and coerced. I wanted to return the car because I did not have the original MSRP sticker for the car, did not know the MSRP sticker price, the lease agreement had "non-applicable" written everywhere and did not show how they went from the suggested retail price of $38,444 to the agreed upon value of over $46,000, they did not disclose that they were leasing the car above MSRP sticker price, I was never told the agreed upon value until after the lease had been signed and at every moment I was rushed to sign documents on the ipad without being given time to review them and without receiving any print out of them. Upon returning to the establishment another sales manager named Atahualpa Garcia said there was nothing to be done despite acknowledging that the sale of this car above sticker price was not disclosed. He also said that the lease had already been funded by Toyota Financial Services which was yet another lie. We pointed out that usually in these situations you have 3 days to return the vehicle which Garcia said was not true (this is a lie, I called Toyota Financial Services several times and was told the best solution was to return the car to the dealership several times). Garcia then berated my family and said that if the lease was predatory it was their fault for not stopping me from signing and not CityWorld Toyota's fault for their predatory practices. I had a family friend on the phone who works in the car industry but Garcia refused to talk to him stating "I don't know who that is." My family friend called Robert Tineo who then called Garcia. Garcia reported that his boss Robert Tineo said that they can give me a better lease with a lower monthly payment on a different car. I asked to know the monthly payments for a RAV 4 LE Hybrid and he said they do not have the car on the lot currently but if I return in the morning they will reach out to other dealerships and get me the car. I returned at 9am the following morning and Mr. Garcia refused to address me and my family as he was eating breakfast. Leo Bonetti came to "help" with situation but was using delay tactics and refusing to negotiate. Worst experience ever....

Total scam! Avoid at all cost! I took my car in for service and was told that I would have to pay close to 7,000 dollars in repair. One of the many items that was listed for repair was a 400 dollar transmission fluid . Now, this made absolutely no sense to me since I had just brought my car in 2 months earlier for a recall where they put in a brand new transmission. The list also stated that needed new brakes,however, I purchased the breaks from Toyota and had a local mechanic install them 2 months prior. Mind you It's a 2015 Toyota Corolla with 30,000 miles. I did have the Toyota tech Nate "fix" this whistle sound that my car was making. Almost 800 dollars. In addition to this, My car was also making this rattling noise that was coming from under the car...Nate said it was the axel and a bunch of other things that totaled to 7,000 in repairs. Literally a couple of days later, driving my car I was hearing the same noise that I paid to get fixed. I called the dealership for 5 days straight to get in contact with Julissa who was my service advisor. Everytime I called she was either at lunch or helping another costumer out. In those five days, she never returned my call. I felt like she was avoiding me. I ask to speak to a manager, but of course he was too busy to speak. I ended up having bring in my car on a Friday morning. When I reached, the manager was there and when I explained the issue. This man was totally oblivious and clearly does not have a clue. His response was that I needed the transmition fluid and when I told him that I just got that transmitting, he insisted that I needed the transmission fluid because whoever installed the new transmission didn't do a good job and gave me a used transmission. When I told him that I had the job done there and that it was a new transmission, he just stood there quiet. I proceeded to tell him that I felt like they were trying to take advantage because I am woman and have little knowledge of the mechanics behind fixing a car...but I do have common sence!!! Fast forward to later that afternoon when I go pick up my car. Julissa tells me that Nate was not able to hear any of the noises that I was complaining about and that he was out of the shop. I asked to go on a test drive w a tech. We drove around for about 30 minutes and the rattling sound that my car was making consistently for about a month had suddenly stopped. It was very shocking!!!! When I asked the new tech that was with me what would cause my car to make such noise, he recommendedbthat I cleaned my throttle body. (I only asked him to see if he and Nate were on the same page. Clearly these people just say the first thing that comes to mind to rip people off.) after over 30 minutes of test driving, we reached the shop and Nate was there. When I explained that my car was not making ANY of the noises that it was initially making, his response was, "maybe a miracle happened." Now my gut tells me that my car didn't really require 7,000 dollars in repair and my car wasn't so damaged to the point of trade in(julissa insisted that I should trade in my car when I initially brought my car in. She said that I could get 3,000 dollars towards a new car and that it was my best option since it was in really bad conditions.---I literally only have 30,000 miles on my car and use it to get to work....I think they were just trying to SCAM me and make money!!! Worst place ever! This was about 2 months ago and my car since then hasn't...

This is the first time in the 13 years that I have been doing business with Toyota dealer with (7 brand news car purchases and 5 cars trade- in) That I have been forced to give a bad review to a Toyota Car dealer. City world Toyota to my knowledge is the worst and most dishonest dealer I have ever dealt with. Even to my enemy I do not recommend this dealer because the lack of transparency on the contract column, fraud and the falsification of sales price were the methods used by tis dealer to inflate the total cost of my car loan. The facts: I went at the service department with my 2019 Toyota Highlander XLE and during the service I was approached by Alfred Tavarez regarding the new 2023 Toyota Highlander my son and I was thinking about to trade-in at Hackensack Toyota because that's where I bought the car in March. 2020. The sale person starts the process and then brough me to the sale department which located 1 and half mile from the service department. The dealer offers me $21,500 for my 2019 Highlander the balance I owe was $21,632. I accept the deal, and this mean it is only $132 they will report to my new loan balance. I co-sign the contract with my son who has an excellent credit. Alfred Tavarez introduces us to Miss Yameline the finance manager. I spend almost 4 hours in this dealership and the contract was submit to me to sign trough the phone screen just to hidden me the details of the contract, we sign the contract and the next day one of my friend who use to work at the Toyota dealer came to my house and review the details of my contract and told me that I was scammed by the dealer and that it was it like I just give for free my Toyota highlander 2019 to the city world dealer and I am still have to paid the full balance because they reported the remaining balance of my 2019 Highlander to the new loan balance. I was very shocked and immediately I went back to the dealer speak to the Finance manager to point out the issue on the contract without being convinced by their contradiction explanation. This new car will cost me a total of 82.697 which goes beyond the real price for Toyota Highlander XSE 2023. I bring the matter first to NYS department of consumer affairs and then to NYS attorney general office consumer fraud protection without success because the dealer refuses to assume. Now I will fill a complaint to Civil court and at the same time I will alert the press in local news to draw attention to people to be careful when they are dealing with this kind of dealer who just think about their profit. It is sad that New York Law let those kind of auto dealer scammed peoples. I am determined to fight hard to restore this injustice. I am African and not fluently English speaker that why this dealer took advantage of to abuse on me in a contract by manipulating the amount. I would never recommend this dealer to anyone stay away and don't never try to trade in your car with...