Arundel Ford — Local services in Arundel

My experience with Arundel Ford started out excellent. We were out of state and they were very helpful with my new vehicle purchase. They even went as far as picking up my parents from the airport to drive the new vehicle home. Unfortunately, that is where the excellent service ended. When the vehicle arrived home I noticed a large deep scratch in the gauge cluster. My dad said he didn't notice the scratch when he received the vehicle but after reviewing the several screenshots I had taken of the vehicle, I could see the scratch. I had noticed it before but assumed it was just a reflection as it was a brand new vehicle. I thought no problem, I will contact Arundel Ford and make them aware of the situation. I thought we could find a way to deal with it in my home state as driving the vehicle back would have been cost prohibitive. They were very nice and understanding and said that I could certainly bring it to my local Ford dealership for an estimate of the repair and they would take care of it. That is the point in which the runaround began. None of these friendly people were ever available to take a call from me anymore after that. Instead, I was always directed to leave a voicemail. So, I left voicemails...many, many voicemails. I called and called, but with no response. I always remained calm and polite. When I finally did connect with someone, they said that Arundel would take care of it and to go ahead and get an appointment scheduled with my local dealership. This process took over 3 months to get to the point where I was told to schedule the repair. Arundel finally did call my local dealership as well and said they would take care of the bill and my dealership was instructed to call when the work was completed to obtain payment. My local dealership did the work and called the Arundel contact as instructed. When they explained who they were and the purpose of the call the Arundel employee terminated the call. They immediately called back and left a voice message that was not returned. They then got me involved again. After almost another 2 months of mostly failed attempts to reach Arundel by both my local dealer and myself excuses, broken promises and assurances that the bill would be paid they broke me. I had wasted over 4 months, making phone calls and agonizing over trying to line up the repair and payment. So, I ended up paying to replace the gauge cluster on my brand new Super Duty on my own. I hope Arundel is happy with their win and that it was worth it for them. I always try to see the best in people and give them every opportunity to do the right thing, but I have to say these are truly bad people. I read some of their reviews warning of this type of behavior with them before my purchase , but after talking with them, I didn't believe the reviews. I thought it was maybe just a disgruntled customer. Well, I can tell you for sure that the bad reviews are true. I'm not even sure how they get any good reviews. I would warn against doing business with Arundel Ford for any reason, but especially if you are an out of state customer or if you are looking for any service after the sale. Hopefully, this helps just one person make a better decision than I did.

Update to my review 1/25/24: After engaging legal counsel and advising them as to what my next steps of action were to be, one last time on 1/19/24 and hearing no response back, I left this review. After posting this review I only then received a response from Arundel the next day offering to pay the bill yet again, after I had already mailed a check for the repair the day before. I did not respond to them as they were notified the day before I had representation at that point. They then called my local dealership that next Monday morning and paid the bill in full. While I appreciate them finally doing the right thing, it was not a decision they made willingly on their own. They have also since tried to apologize and said that a mistake was made, which I can not accept, as I believe their actions to be very deliberate...

First, I need to preface this review by stating this is the first negative review I have ever written for any company. I normally refrain from sharing a negative experience as I understand everyone has off-days but the level of dishonesty my wife and I experienced at Arundel Ford Sales has finally changed that and if this review dissuades one person from making the same mistake we did then I will consider this time well spent.

In all my years of car shopping I don’t think I have ever been as mislead and deceived by a sales department as I have with Arundel. Don’t get me wrong, Arundel Ford service is excellent and comes highly recommended in our area. The sales department, however, is a completely different story. We had been warned about them but being newer to the area decided that it was best to form our own opinions. Big mistake!

Our experience with Arundel began when they were one of 10 dealerships that we solicited quotes on new vehicles from. Arundel responded to the quote with a very competitive price that caused us to consider them as one of the top three bidders. The salesperson, Samir, was very pleasant, responsive and easy to deal with. He, as we unfortunately found out, is the exception to the rule when it comes to Arundel sales.

As we talked further with Arundel we discovered that they may not have properly quoted us (we provided a spreadsheet with every option we wanted and asked for an “out the door price”). Funny enough, they couldn’t even find the price on a simple locking fuel cap and stated they were confused by which options were factory and which were dealer installed. That should have been a huge red flag. A new car dealer who doesn’t know how to price items, seriously? But that, alas, is not the crux of the concern.

In questioning the provided quote, and actually asking to have some options removed, Arundel Ford came back with a new quote (again options removed) that increased their price by $3,580.66. They went from being our #2 bidder to not even being close to our least competitive bidder. We understand dealerships need to make a profit to stay in business and that sometimes pricing mistakes are made but this was a pretty blatant bait and switch.

Last I checked, removing an option does not actually increase the cost. When we questioned our salesperson, Samir, on this he needed to check with his sales manager Rod. The response we got was simply they are not competitive. No explanation for how the cost increased dramatically. Samir was apologetic and I quote “I am deeply sorry to have wasted you nice folk’s time. It has been a great pleasure to have tried to earn your business, and I’m sorry to hear that we cannot earn your business at this time.”

So, we wasted several days with Arundel and eliminated a competitive bidder based on the misinformation provided. Again, Samir, is the one saving grace for their sales department at Arundel. We still have not received an explanation as to why they had a dramatic price increase so I can only assume they are either grossly incompetent or dishonest.

If you are car shopping, I would strongly recommend that anyone shopping for a car check any other Ford dealer in New England. All dealers we checked with within 100 miles of Arundel Ford were more competitive in price. If you want to experience why car dealers get a bad reputation first-hand then by all means stop by Arundel sales, just make sure you deal with a sales manager so you can get the dishonesty direct rather than through a...

I purchased a Ford Fusion Hybrid (Platinum trim) from Arundel Ford. I could not be more happy with this car. I've now driven about 5500 miles (3 months) with an average mileage of 42.8 mpg on a mixture of suburban and rural roads. It is really comfortable. I'm so glad that I did not get an SUV -- I did look at several models from Ford and Jeep, but in the end the sedan won. There is no comparison when you do a long drive -- the sedan is a much more comfortable choice. The Fusion"s platinum trim level is very well equipped with all of the electronic safety systems (blind spot monitoring, lane centering, adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance braking and automated steering for parallel and perpendicular parking). They work extremely well. This is the second car that I have had with these features and I am particularly impressed with the improvements in the automated parking -- it finds the spot much more quickly than before and will park in a spot that is tighter than I would try manually. Great on a downtown street. The system will also "unpark" for you when you are in a tight space which is a nice bonus. The car is very quiet and much more responsive than I expected with plenty of "umph" for passing and getting on the freeway.

The only compromise is with the trunk. I did not choose the plug in version because the battery pack takes up too much of the trunk. My traditional hybrid has an odd shaped trunk but still has room enough to take a folded walker or wheel chair. It would be nice if Ford had designed the battery to give a flat floor to the trunk - that would have made loading easier.

The buying experience with Arundel Ford was very smooth -- John (my salesman) was easy to deal with and made the whole experience less stressful than previous car purchases have been. I would recommend this car to anyone who is looking for a comfortable, quiet ride with really superior fuel economy. As gas prices rise, I am going to be even more delighted with...